My Quickie Q-200

2011 SARL Wrap-up Video

2011-12-02T17:21:00.001-08:00

A Great Little Machine - Another Day at the Races

2011-11-21T07:49:00.000-08:00

I just came back from Taylor, TX where I ran the Rocket 100, the last race of the 2011 Sport Air Racing League season.

The plane ran great and this race was a blast. Click here for the official race results.

It was very windy, 17 kts, gusting to 25+, but fortunately, it was right down the runway and I didn't have any trouble there.

There is so much to describe what an air race is like, so many parts - it's impossible for to describe. But, I would encourage any pilots to give it a shot. Anyone with a plane - any plane, can and do run a race. It's challenging, it makes you a better pilot, and it's a terrific bunch of people who speak the same language.

One big highlight was getting a ride in a Twin Beech, with Mark Frederick. (That's Canadian Rocket pilot Wayne Hadley in the right seat).

Mark is THE Rocket F1 guru and owns the Macho Grande homestead, F1 factory and airstrip, about 2.5 miles from the Taylor airport. He was relocating the Beech from Taylor to Macho Grande and I was fortunate enough to bum the ride.

Macho Grande served as both the race starting and finish lines. Here is the SX300 setting the pace for the starting line.

For me, the first big challenge was just finding Macho Grande. As a result, I was a little higher at the start, so I didn't get one of those great head-on photos that Glen took.

In between the start and finish lines was 140 miles of hard bumps, headwinds and a too short leg of excellent tail winds. The really fun part for me was passing two other aircraft, an RV-7 and an O-290 powered VariEze.

When I downloaded my GPS today, it said the highest ground speed for the race was 251 mph! Wow, I sure like those numbers!

That evening, Mark and Cheryl hosted a survivors party at Macho Grande where all sorts beverages were consumed and lies told. A special thanks goes to Mike "Iceman" Thompson the guy crazy enough to organize this whole air race thing.

The ride home was interesting (that's a code word, of course). Had great tail winds and the ride at 7,500 was smooth. The EC3 engine controller is settling down and the resulting performance is great. As you can see in the photo, at 7,600 ft. I had a true airspeed of 170 mph, with a fuel burn of only 4.5 gph. I think with a little more tuning, I should be able to get the fuel burn down a little more. Click to see it better.

I had to land at Walnut Ridge, AR for a while to sort out the weather ahead. An odd thing I haven't seen before, there were a bunch of prisoners running around the FBO. Yes, I mean wearing striped pajamas type prisoners - both male & female. Apparently, there is a correctional facility nearby and the airport uses them to help maintain the airport. Good use of resources, actually.

Be sure and click on the next photo. This needs a caption of some sort.

So, I believe I did five races this year. Maybe next year I'll see some of you out there. I sure hope so.

A good day at the races.

2011-10-30T06:07:00.000-07:00

After too much time, I finally got in another SARL race. This one was the Aircraft Spruce sponsored Tennessee Valley Air Race IV. We had a field of 18 aircraft, with three in the Sprint class.

I had only completed my annual inspection test-flight the day before, so it was another episode of wondering how my work was all coming together.

During my annual, I had sent my EFI engine controller back to the factory for a starting modifications. This wiped out the EC3's memory of the fuel air mixture map, requiring another long process of flying and observing an O2 sensor and programming the unit. Blah, blah, complain, complain.

So, whenever I do all this stuff, it's back to being a test pilot again. Well, I was really itching for another race, so I headed down to Courtland, AL. Very much fun.

On the way down, I continued to program the EC3 in both the primary and backup modes.

The race course was shaped like a bow tie, with the start/finish line at the knot. One very cool thing, one of the turns is a Saturn 3 rocket that is standing near a highway. Click on the map to see it better.

My start was terrible, I messed up my GPS and started heading off in the wrong direction! I was a mile or two off course before I got that squared away, all the while I was focusing on the engine, but it was strong, and turned around 3,150 RPM for most of it.

Flying the plane presents all sorts of different challenges during a race. First, the engine naturally sounds different, and the aircraft handles and trims out differently. You have to pay stricter attention to the engine gauges, and keep it exactly on-course, and pay strict attention to altitude.

When I got down, I was sure Dave Adams in his Long EZE had beaten me, due to my extremely poor start. I was really surprised to learn I beat him out by one mile an hour. The icing on the cake, I also won the Aircraft Spruce Diamond Prize - Fastest aircraft with an O-320 or smaller engine. $200 gift certificate - sweet!

Here are the official results: http://www.sportairrace.org/id450.html

When I get on the ground after these things, I am really spent - especially if it's been a while since the last one. But then I was wandering around the ramp thinking to myself, "That was REALLY fun". And it is.

So, go ahead and plan on making a race near you next year. It'll make you a better pilot and you'll have a total blast.

Happy Anniversary Honey.

2011-10-18T13:37:00.000-07:00

At the Tandem Wing builders banquet, in Sullivan, MO, October 4, 2003. We got married 14 days later on the 18th.

Performance during the AVC race

2011-08-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

If you are interested, I thought I would explain a few things about what is going on here. To see the photo better, click on it and hit Ctrl + a few times and the screen will enlarge.

First off, note the oil temp is 15 deg. That is due to the faulty sensor.

Altitude: 2,860' and a very slight climb. The density altitude is 4,940' with an OAT of 82F.

3,130 RPM WOT, with a fuel flow of 8.0 GPH.

IAS is 194 and TAS is 208 mph.

Look at the cylinder head temps:

#1 409

#2 395

#3 330

#4 366

Cylinder#3 is 79 degrees cooler than#1. Admittedly, #3 is right in the breeze and #1 is furthest back but I think there is something going on here.

One of the racers heard somewhere, from a Lycoming rep, that if your cylinder head temps were lower than 230 degrees, you were loosing speed due to excessive cooling. Kind of makes sense. Maybe I should look into some kind of a cowl flap arrangement to possibly pick up a few extra mph.

What do you think?

2011 Air Venture Cup Race

2011-08-06T06:42:00.000-07:00

This year's race wasn't exactly smooth as silk, but at least the plane performed well.

This year there were only three planes registered in the Sprint class, but one had to cancel his entry because his wife was ill. That left me and Dave Adams in his Long-Eze. No Klaus this year.

Sunday, the day of the race, a nasty storm system was pushing down through Wisconsin and Illinois and would probably be in Dayton later in the afternoon. The decision was to made to split the race into two legs, Dayton to Mattoon, IL, then after the storm passed, make it Mattoon to West Bend, WI (near Oshkosh).

We finally got in the air later than we should have and headed west-southwest for Mattoon. One of the fastest planes, Kevin Eldridge in his beautiful NXT racer aborted his takeoff when his canopy flew off. That was the first scratch of the day.

Usually, the fastest planes are off first, but this years starting order was basically a free-for all and I wound up near the end of the pack.

In the air things seemed okay and guys chatted on the race frequency about the upcoming weather. I heard one of the racers announce a return to Dayton for ignition problems.

We started hearing the advance guys talking about the approaching storm. There were black clouds and building turbulence. One of the racers, Mark Quinn said he was encountering moderate turbulence near Mattoon. A minute later his voice raised about two octaves and he announced "Severe turbulence!!".

Well, it was obvious we weren't going to make it to Mattoon and Terra Haute, IN was a convenient place to land. Imagine how it was for the tower and FBO personnel. A quiet Sunday is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of 16 or so race aircraft.

Some racers actually made it into Mattoon. Other aircraft diverted to Effingham, IL, French Lick, IN and some went back to Dayton. After the storm passed, some of the racers elected to just fly on up to Oshkosh, including Dave Adams. What a mess.

The next day, and after the fog and low ceiling lifted, the remaining 16 aircraft flew the race from Terra Haute and we eventually made it into AirVenture at Oshkosh.

There are several side stories to all this, but I am electing to protect the innocent.

So, how did I do? Since I was the only on in the class, I took first place in Sprint at a rather slow speed of 201 mph. We had headwinds and everyone posted slower speeds.

Here are the official results: http://www.airventure.org/news/2011/110727_avcup.html

This was my 21st trip to Oshkosh in my little Quickie.

Dagnabit

2011-07-22T19:31:00.000-07:00

The new sensor failed 20 minutes into the flight, when it hit about 200 degrees.

#!@$%&*(!*!*#(!

Plodding Through It All

2011-07-21T17:33:00.000-07:00

This morning I passed the time waiting for FedEx by mowing the lawn. I don't get how it grows so much in this flippin heat.

At 11:30 the FedEx van pulled up. Whoo hoo! I sent a text to Steve and told him I was on the way to the hangar. Thanks to Sandy at GRT for getting the replacement out to me ASAP.

We got right at it. If it wasn't for having to pull the engine, replacing this sensor should take all of 15 or 20 minutes. As the engine hung on the hoist, it took us four tries and 30 minutes to just get the damn thing safety wired.

Steve Clarke, the A&P student was a big help. I just had to show him what I needed done and he ran with it. Steve it taking his summer Powerplant Inspections class, so he was on loan for the afternoon.

After chatting a bit it turns out that Steve is the son of Rich Clarke, a fellow jumper in my skydiving club back in East Troy, WI in the late '70s and early '80s. Us aviators are in a small world, aren't we?

After I wired it into the Dynon connector, I turned the D180 on. The oil temp read 102 degrees, which just happened to be the ambient temperature in the hangar.

By 3:45 we were able to shove it out the hangar and run it. Everything seemed to check out okay. Wasn't that all fun?

I put the plane back and will do another inspection tomorrow, then a test flight, then it's time to start counting pairs of underwear for the big trip.

I hope to rendezvous with Dave Adams somewhere over southern Illinois for the trip to Dayton.

And that my friends, is how I keep plodding along.

What I Go Through to Get in the Big Race.

2011-07-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

Right now it's Wednesday evening and I am scheduled to fly to Dayton on Saturday morning to enter the 2011 AirVenture Cup Race. The only problem is, the plane's not quite ready. It never is.

This happens ever year, it seems. Right down to the wire I am screwing around with stuff to make it right. This year's issue is the oil temperature (again). Ever since the major rehab of the Quickie, the oil temp reading have been unreliable. They are "jittery" and bounce around a lot. The Dynon company reps said I had a bad ground for the single wire temp sensor and that was causing the problem. Well, I chased bad grounds until the cows came home and no joy.

They also said I could go to a two wire sensor, made by GRT, and that would eliminate the problem. The problem with the GRT sensor is that I would have to remove the engine to install it.

Well, I finally got tired of screwing around and ordered the GRT sensor. Last week I took a couple of days, pulled the engine off its mounts and installed the part. At the end of day one, the engine was still hanging from the hoist and I figured I would start the re-installation in the morning. Oh, did I mention that we were also having the house painted?

I got lazy and figured I could let the engine hang overnight. I braced the lift's hydraulic cylinder with a block of wood and fastened with cable ties. Good enough.

The next day at the hangar, after promising my wife I would come right back home as soon as the engine was back on, I was dismayed to find the cable ties failed, allowing the block of wood to fall out, and the lift sagged. Take a look at the following sad photos. Click on the photo to see how ugly it really was.

There was some damage, but only a few wires pulled out. Shit. Business as usual for Sammy Boy.

Anyway, I got it back together, engine reinstalled and the new sensor wired into the Dynon D180.

The next day I made the test flight (Honey, I promise I won't be gone long) and flew over to Marion for the pancake breakfast. Pulling the engine involves lots of fuel, electric, and electronic systems , so there is a lot to disturb. Everything seemed to work fine, but to tell the truth I didn't pay much attention to the actual oil temp, but I did know that it seemed very steady.

Yesterday I worked on some elevator trim issues and decided to make another test flight today. Everything seemed great. I knew I was a bit rusty and figured I would make landings at several local airports. I flew over to Perryville, MO, landed, then took off for Sparta.

Looked at the oil temp and it said 210. Not unusual for a 90 degree day. Nice and steady, no jitter.

Two minutes later I looked at it and it now read 15 degrees! Hells bells. Now what? I re-booted the Dynon but that didn't help a bit. So, now what? Guess I'll head back to the barn and see what's up. Sure can't fly a race without knowing what the oil temperature is doing.

Basic troubleshooting determined the problem is in the sensor itself. I put a meter on it and it read dead open.

Three days till the race. What do I do now?

I called GRT and they promised to overnight a new sensor. She also said it was the second call she had that same day about the same failure. I was able to grab a A&P student from AvTech and we pulled the engine and the sensor. This time we temporarily installed it back on the mounts.

FedEx should get here around 11:00 tomorrow morning. When the part gets here, I will call Steve and we'll reinstall the damned thing.

The problem is, I seem to go through this every year. Did I mention that it was 102 deg. in the hangar? I wonder how many other aviators are in the same boat? A lot, I'll bet.

Big Muddy Finish Line

2011-06-20T16:43:00.000-07:00

Just had to post this video.

Cozy Girrrls Oil Miser

2011-06-09T12:09:00.000-07:00

With all my engine compartment mods, I had to ditch my old bulky oil separator that I installed about a hundred years ago. Somewhat predictably, through all the new test flying without separator, I was shocked, yes shocked, at the amount of oil streaming down the belly of my new paint job. I resolved to find a new one that fit.

Somewhere along the line I purchased an Oil Miser, from the Cozy Girrrls. It was much more compact than my old Aircraft Spruce separator and the price wasn't all that bad. I had the thing for six months and I finally got around to installing it a couple of weeks ago, just before our Big Muddy Air Race.

Unfortunately, the drain nipple was opposite the intake tube, so I had to use some hardware parts to make the U-turn, but as usual, I somehow made it fit.

I have about four hours on it and it seems just dandy. For the Big Muddy race, I topped off the oil and normally the belly would now be full of oil, with some even dripping off the tail wheel. I haven't really scrutinized it, but things seem to be very clean, and there is no oil dripping from the crankcase vent tube.

I give the Oil Miser two thumbs up.

After the Sawsall - Snorkels and Oil Coolers

2011-06-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd throw out a few photos so you can see what I'm up to.

I dug out the Sawsall again, this time to chop off my beloved intake snorkels. I put in a lot of hours on those things - oh well. I have been having trouble with oil cooling and I bought a couple of coolers to try and install. But, I thought, the oil cooler will have to divert some air from cooling the cylinders and my #1 cylinder gets hot enough as it is. So, I thought, if I install the oil cooler and the cylinder temps get higher - then what? I 'll tell you what - I would next remove the snorkels.

So going around the whole process, I decided I may as well perform the snorkel circumcision, as it were.

I'll let the photos do most of the talking.

Here is what it looked like - pre-Sawsall.

Used some two-part foam to glue a block in place to the intake.

Shaped the block so it looks like something.

Close to finishing carving.

Glass the form, let it cure, then dig out the foam.

Trim to approximate the cowl.

Cut a hole in the cowling.

There was some more trimming and fitting, which I don't have photos of. I also took the Sawsall to the two snorkels in the inlet.

Did it help? I believe it helped a lot.

Whoa! Hold on there Partner

2011-03-13T08:45:00.001-07:00

Time to fire up the Sawsall -I have decided to go another route.

Before I made all my mods, the oil temperature was decent. Now, I have a hot #2 cylinder on climb out and high oil temps.

So, why the difference?

New wing? No.
New Dynon EFIS? No.
New paint? No.
Fuel injection? Probably not
New oil tank? Maybe, but probably not.
Longer intake snouts? Maybe, but probably not.
Inlet snorkels? Most likely candidate.

Why? Well, they can obstruct the amount of air reaching the cylinders, especially on climb out. On the other hand, I did a differential pressure check across the upper and lower deck of the engine compartment, and it seemed to be in line with recommendations.

If I install the coil cooler I will have to divert cowling air for it which would probably make the hot cylinders even worse.

So, I am going to backtrack and remove the snorkels and install a standard type of induction inlet in the lower cowl. Yes, that will mess up the paint job, but so be it.

After I have done this work, I may have to install the cooler, but at least I should have more air available.

Just call me Mr. Glutton F. Punishment

Trying to Cram In An Oil Cooler

2011-03-12T06:32:00.000-08:00

Winter is over, the crocuses are blooming, and it's time for me to get my oil temperature under control. In the past race it was somewhat north of 245 deg, which is way too hot.

I found a nifty auto performance part called an "oil cooler sandwich adapter". This is pretty nifty because it includes the 180 degree bypass valve. Here are a couple of photos.

It mounts right on the El Reno style spin-on filter adapter, easy as pie.

That was the easy part, now I have to find a spot for the cooler itself. I got a cooler which is sized for the O-300D engine, which may be overkill, but since it was only 1/2" taller than the O-200 version I figured I may as well go for the extra cooling.
I guess I'll just order some hoses and fittings and plumb it in. The next hard part will be making some kind of ducting to feed it.

I Committed Aviation Yesterday

2011-02-07T10:54:00.001-08:00

And it was about time!

How to Decrease Drag

2010-12-21T05:49:00.000-08:00

This Year's Field of Dreams

2010-09-29T04:26:00.000-07:00

I was happy to be able to attend this years Tandem Wing Field of Dreams, in Beatrice, Nebraska this year. The plane's systems seem to have pretty much stabilized and I just went through the annual condition inspection with no major issues. The weather looked fairly good, with the exception of a 25 kt headwind at 4,000 ft.

The flight was pleasant and uneventful. I invented my own personal SPOT tracker on the way. I just hit the "nearest airport button" on my GPS then texted it to my wife. She could then Google the identifier and see where I was - kind of.

I got to Beatrice about 1:30 local time and I was the first plane there and was greeted by Alan Thayer sporting his traditional green shorts and video camera. I wonder what he does with all that tape.

I had decided it was about time I gave a few rides and there are a few guys who are approaching time to make their first flights. I always worry about this, so I feel it is my obligation to demonstrate my birdie and give them a feel (respect) for what they are getting into.

Rides went to Joseph Snow (2nd ride), and Jerry Brinkerhuff, Sanjay Dhall, Dan Yeager (webmaster for Quickheads.com and the new QBA newsletter editor) and Alan Thayer.

I messed up the last application of my race numbers so this time I enlisted the help of a professional.

It was definitely a low-key event and I'm sure the fewer number of planes and people is the reason. We had a nice dinner at the local American Legion and that was fun. Then came the inevitable group shot.

Doug didn't have a High Time award this year, but I somehow managed to pick up the furthest distance traveled award.

There was talk of moving the venue for next year and I agree. A different place could freshen things up a bit.

Here is Doug Humble carting the Brothers Johnson and Honey Lamb.

The ride home was fun, I was fairly low much of the way due to ceilings, but the visibility was better than 10 miles, so no problem.

Glad I went.

AirVenture Cup Race 2010 - Very long post

2010-08-03T17:33:00.001-07:00

I finally got the plane ready enough for the Big Race, or so I hoped. There are so many parts of it all, it's hard to relate. Even though the plane might not be 100% race ready, I thought it should be close enough. I guess I had three main goals; participate in the race, finish it safely, and get my Q-200 to Oshkosh for the 20th time. It had missed the last two years and I sorely missed its presence there.

Amongst all the other troubleshooting and preparations, I finally decided to go with my old Catto prop. It's a 60x70 and has served well. C-Rod helped me dynamically balance it, so at least that part was good to go. Don Bartlett had welded up the cracks in the oil sump and added a bit of a brace. Just to be sure, I wrapped a nylon strap around the sump, to make sure it couldn't depart the engine. My plan was to fly each leg, then pull the cowl to inspect for cracks; and, just for good measure, I brought along my old composite sump. I'm pretty sure I was the only racer carrying a spare oil sump. I wish I had been able to figure out how to fit an oil cooler in my particular installation.

Got to Mitchell, SD and made an arrival pass down the runway, which was pretty fun. The townspeople were very interested in the race and we had over 2,000 spectators come out. Kids carried the event programs around and had the pilots sign autographs. Fun stuff.

I had gotten a hangar reservation ($25.) for Friday night and had the Quickie safely tucked away to guard against the forecasted storms. Man, did it hit hard. 70 mph winds! Hail was forecast, but fortunately it avoided us. Only about 5 planes were stranded outside and by all reports they did just fine.

Had a dinner and race briefing on Saturday night, then I settled into the hotel.

Race day is always different. The racers are all focused and a bit more subdued as we gather our thoughts and mentally prepare. Several handshakes are exchanged with the wish "good luck, be safe." Here is a morning-of photo.

They always launch the fastest planes first, and I was in the third group to go. The procedure is to take off and hold it down till you hit the departure end of the runway, that way we can build up speed a bit before they start the clock. I followed Bob Vasey in his RV-3 and I was off. My big concern has been the oil temperature. I figured if the ambient air temp stayed below 60 degrees or so that I would be able to fly WOT. Above 60 and I would probably have to throttle back.

The engine was smooth and I climbed to 7,500' msl. High pressure dominated the area and it seemed that there wasn't any help with tail winds, so 7,500' seemed as good a place as any. I climbed rather quickly, for a race profile, at 500' per minute.

Once leveled off, the engine wound up to 3,100 RPM and I accelerated to around 208 mph indicated true air speed. So far, so good.

The outside air was about 62F and after a half hour or so, the oil temp steadily crept up to my red line. I have my Dynon D180 connected to my radio, so the Dynon gives a visual alert and there is a loud beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppp through my headset. You have to hit a button on the Dynon to silence it, but it keeps coming back. I was really sorry and pissed to hear that first alert. The ambient air had dropped to 60F and I was hoping that would be enough, but it was not.

Only one solution at this point - raise the red line alarm point on the Dynon. I forget what it was originally set at, but I raised it to 255F and most of the racket and screen alarms went away.

It's kind of funny. I was at 7,500; and didn't see anyone. We have a common race frequency and state our position, something like "Race 22 at 7,500' 322 miles out (from the finish line)." There were guys below me that I knew I was passing, but I never saw them. Never saw anyone until the finish line.

Things seemed to be going okay, but I hated the oil temps. Passed over Rochester, MN, and most of Minnesota, but when I got to Lacrosse, WI the price of poker went up.

I smelled something funny and not funny haha. I looked at the carbon monoxide indicator pasted to the instrument panel and it had almost turned black. Hmm, never did that before. Not a good sign. Crapola. What to do now? Land at Lacrosse? Press on? Pass out from CO poisoning? Realize the seriousness of the indicator? Don't be such a big baby? This is the stuff that makes air racing interesting.

I looked around the cockpit for something that might help get me some fresh air. I have kind of a gap between the canopy and the fuselage, on the left side where air always enters. I tried to fold my sectional chart to direct some clean air toward my face. That didn't work very well, and a piece of my chart wound up getting sucked out of the plane.

I had a roll of paper shop towels and tried that. I found if I held it just so, I could channel some air through the center of the roll, toward my face. My GPS said I would hit (probably a bad choice of words) the finish line in about 32 minutes so I continued on. Here is a photo re-creation:

Naturally, as I'm screwing around with charts and paper towels, I wound up drifting 30 degrees off course and that doesn't exactly get me to the finish in the fastest time.

About 70 miles from Snow Crest Ranch airport I started descending at 250 feet per minute. Of course I do not back off the throttle.

The little airport came into sight and it was pretty easy to distinguish. You usually hear a lot of position reports getting close to the finish line, but the funny thing was it was quiet. I looked at my radio and I was no longer on freq! Turns out I had bumped the radio when I was messing around with the improvised breathing apparatus. I got the radio set up right and called out "Race 22 - 10 miles" "Race 22 - 5 miles," etc.

When I finally hit the finish line I was indicating about 222 mph TAS.

Once past the finish line, it's time to pull up, cool down and calm down. I throttled back to a leisurely 2,600 RPM and set the GPS for Fon duLac.

Fon du Lac seemed to have more planes than Oshkosh. All the spam cans had been denied landing at OSH because of the extremely wet grounds and they were jammed everywhere. Turns out the race planes weren't going anywhere right now either. The regular race plane parking at Oshkosh was too wet, so they loaded everyone into a bus for transport to Whitman Field.

The next day, there was a sudden rush to get the planes from Fon du Lac to Oshkosh. I was still a little unsure and decided to take a pass for the moment. Later in the day, and after most of the race planes had arrived, my buddy Jeff gave me a ride to Fon du Lac with the intention of coming in after the airshow ended. Once I got there, I took another look at my little wheels and decided agianst it. I didn't want them sinking into the mud. I took the bus back up to OSH.

Here we are, almost all alone, at Fon du Lac.

Tuesday was going to be decision day. I had to head home, so would I either take the bus to Fon du Lac and head south, or would I throw caution to the wind and fly to Oshkosh, even if for just a few hours.

When I woke up in my tent, the decision was made. After all, I have flown my Quickie to the EAA convention for 19 years and damn it, I wasn't going to postpone the 20th visit another dad- gummed year.

The Fisk arrival procedure was messed up as usual. The FAA controllers always seem to forget they have a fast lane set up above the 100 mph C-172s and Cherokees. I can't drive 55 and they expect me to follow Cessnas and the like.

It is just about impossible for me to fly the arrival at 100 mph. Then, to boot, when I got to Fisk a controller called for "the Hiperbipe to continue for the downwind to runway two seven." Click here to see what a Hiperbipe looks like. How should I know she was talking to me?

Then, when I'm on the downwind, she says "Experimental - turn right base now!" Experimental? At Oshkosh? Who the heck does she mean?

Anyway, I took matters into my own hands and got it on the runway safely. After the long taxi in, Race 22 finally got back with the rest of my race plane buddies, back where we both belong.

Finally arrived. 20th visit for the Quickie to Oshkosh and our 8th AirVenture Cup race!

I was only going to be here about four hours, so I had to quickly collect my prop tag, commemorative mug, and my perseverance award for restoring/rebuilding my plane.

I wound up taking 2nd place in the Sprint class, with a speed of 202.15 mph. I was about 40 mph behind Klaus and Jenny in their "Delaminator." You can see the full race results here http://www.airventure.org/news/2010/100726_avcup_timesheet.pdf

and here: http://www.airventure.org/news/2010/100726_avcup.html

Note that a new AirVenture Cup speed record was set in the Turbine Class at over 400 mph! Yow!

Terry Crouch stopped by and we pulled the cowling for a quick oil tank and exhaust gasket leak inspection. All seemed well. After thumping away on my electronic fuel injection sensor bracket, and deeming it inadequate, we re-cowled it.

Now, back to that CO indicator turning black. How did the fumes get in? The engine compartment seemed pretty good, no apparent trouble there and the exhaust gaskets looked fine.

We turned to the tail cone. In previous years, I had sealed the tail cone removal joint with silicone. You can see the joint in the photo at the top of this blog. The split is just aft of the rear wing. Out of laziness, when I rebuilt the plane, I neglected the sealant.

It turns out, when I go fast, or at least when the engine spins fast, the exhaust travels along the belly and up into the fuselage split. We proved this out by filling the joint with RTV, then taping it over. Once I got back up in the air, all I could smell was RTV and no fumes. One more problem solved.

Just as I was getting it ready to push out of the spectator area, I heard a voice with a funny accent cry out "Sam Hoskins!" There was a gent reading the prop tag and he saw my name. It was John Cartledge, an Australian who was kind enough to give me a ride in his Q-200 during our visit down under, about 10 years ago. I had received an e-mail from John saying he was coming, but I had pretty much dismissed getting hold of him. Now that he was here, I barely had time to say hi and take a photo or two, then it was time to be off before they closed the airport for the airshow.

So all in all, it was a very successful event. I ran the race safely with an overall speed of 202.15 mph and came in second place in my class. I was just happy to finish the damn thing.

Now it's time to take a deep breath and make things a little more permanent. I need to reexamine the oil tank, oil cooling and those related matters. I would also really like to fly it more and work on it less.

But, it's all fun - kind of.

Waiting for things to start

2010-07-25T05:41:00.001-07:00

It's Sunday morning at Mitchell (KMHE). If the oil temps were not a factor, I should be able to true around 205 - 209. Problem is, it's warming up already and i'm bound to be frustrated. Some tail winds, but the center of the high pressure pretty well covers the route.

I think it will be a slow run. We'll see.

Maybe tomorrow

2010-07-23T05:06:00.001-07:00

Tonight's weather for Mitchell, SD - the starting line:

"Rain and thunderstorms likely, mainly before 10pm. Some storms could be severe, with large hail, damaging winds, and heavy rain. Chance of precipitation is 70%."

I don't want to subject my Quickie to all that. Looks like I'll postpone and leave for Mitchell tomorrow.

The Quickie in her race colors

Off to the Races

2010-07-22T04:24:00.000-07:00

Oil temp problems still are there, but I'm going anyway. Even if I have to throttle back, I'll still be in it. I leave tomorrow, for Mitchell, SD. You can read all about the race here: http://airventurecup.com

The list just came out of who is in the race, so I thought I'd publish it here. The description of each class is listed at the bottom.

Race# Pilot Name, Crew Member, Aircraft, N#, Hometown

Turbine Class
007 Rene Dugas & Vernon Rogers, Turbine Legend - N95007, Monroe, LA
11 Walter Bestgen, Lancair IV-P Turbine N900WB, Grass Valley, CA
104 Marty Abbott, Turbine Legend, C-GUTT, Calgary, AB, Canada

Unlimited Class
"T" Paul and Pam Tackabury, Lancair IV-P N94PT, Laguna Beach, CA
23 Mark Patey, Lancair Legacy, N913MP, Orem, UT
32 Mike Patey, Lancair Legacy, N36XX, Orem, UT

Sport Class
9 Tony Crawford, Questair Venture, N94Y, Port Orange, FL
10 Keith & Tim Phillips, SX-300, N53SX, Port Orange, FL
24 Rich & Ricardo Guerra, Velocity, N724X, Plano, TX
30 Harry Hinkley, SX-300, N301E, Iowa City, IA
51 Mike Reibling, Seawind 3000, C-FVEL, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
60 Jim & Gwenn Cianci, SX-300, N6L Port Orange, FL
75 Sarah & Bob Bean, Glasair III, N75Y, Port Orange, FL
80 Keith Walljasper, Seawind 3000, N80CC, Normal, IL

Sport LX Class (Lancair Legacy Aircraft)
2 Alan Crawford, Lancair Legacy, N550AC, Buchanan Dam, TX
002 Vince Walker, Lancair Legacy, N41VR, Boulder, CO
5 Lee & Jay Behel, Lancair Legacy, N138A, San Jose, CA
50 Charles Bracken & Colin Hogan, Lancair Legacy, N550BL, Detroit, MI
52 Jim & David Thomas, Lancair Legacy, N252JT, Groveland, CA
77 Scott Alair, Lancair Legacy, N495SL, Pleansanton, CA

Sport FX
4 Paul Siegel, F-1 Rocket Evo, N4XU, Cincinnati, OH
14 Wayne Hadath, F-1 Rocket, C-FAUH, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
42 Kevin Eldredge, Sbach 342, N142WP, San Luis Obsipo, CA
#43 Bob & Cory Mills, RV-6 Rocket N600SS, Reno, NV
109 Tom Martin, F-1 Rocket EVO, C-GEVO, St Thomas, Ontario, Canada

Formula RG Blue
13 James & Sandy Redmon, Berkut, N97TX, McKinney, TX
35 Ernie Chauvin & Ron Holden, Lancair 360, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
38 Mark Quinn & William Benjamin, Lancair 360, Port Orange, FL
44 Rick Argente, Lancair 360, N360ZR, Piscataway, NJ

Formula RG Red
45 Bill Rossman & Mathias Klittich, Lancair 320, Denville, NJ
777 Craig & Jordan Schulze, Lancair 320, Grants Pass, OR

Formula FX Blue
91 Bruce & Steve Hammer, Glasair 1 TD N91LH, Lafayette, LA

Formula FX Red
37 Red Hamilton & Marilyn Boese, Tailwind, NX374WT, Fort Bragg, CA
46 Jeff Mallia & Vern Kokosa, Cozy Mk III, N46WM, Schenectady, NY
61 Tim Bovee, Mustang II, N1861D, Wenatchee, WA
86 Dave Biesemeier, Sidewinder, N3786A, Loveland, CO
93 Rich & Heather Lamb, Long-EZ N893LT, Hobe Sound, FL
99 Kerry Fritz, Long-EZ, N25KF, Lancaster, PA

Formula RV Gold
18 John Huft, RV-8, N184JH, Pagosa Springs, CO
33 Dick Martin, RV-8 N233M, Green Bay, WI
41 Dave & Diane Anders, RV-4, N230A, Cottonwood, CA

Formula RV Blue
8 John Mullaney & Dave Henning, RV-7, N808TB, Port Orange, FL
12 Alan Carroll, RV-8, N12AC, Madison, WI
21 Tom Moore, RV-7A, N621TM, Frisco, TX
27 Jon Ross, RV-8, N207RV, Northport, NY
39 Jean-Pierre Verdier, RV-7A, N37KV Conifer, CO
71 Bob & Jeanine Axsom, RV-6A, N710BJ, Farmington, AR
96 Doug Shoup, RV-4, N596DK, Ludington, MI
97 Perry Burford & Jim Wilson, RV-7, Windsor, Ontario, CA

Formula RV Red
34 Chris Murphy, RV-4, N117CM, Fort Collins, CO
63 Bob Vasey, RV-3, N13BV, Sylvia, KS

Sprint
22 Sam Hoskins, Q-200, N202SH, Murphysboro, IL
83 Dave Adams, Long-EZ, N83DT, Villa Ridge, MO
90 Dennis Collins, Lancair 235, Fountain Hills, AZ
98 John Keich, Midget Mustang, N825J, St Louis, MO
111 Klaus Savier & Jenny Tackabury, Vari-EZ N57LG, Santa Paula, CA

Sprint-LSA
3 Lynn Matteson, Kitfox IV, N369LM, Grass Lake, MI

Sportsman
64 Jeff Lange, Sonerai, N1463J, Waupaca, WI

Sportsman KR
156 Mark Langford, KR-2S, N56ML, Harvest, AL

RACE CLASSES:

The racers will be divided into categories based on engine size and landing gear configuration.

UNLIMITED:

Any Experimental Category aircraft with a Turbo Charged engine with a displacement of 1400 cubic inches or less. Class winners in both Fixed and Retractable gear.

SPORT CLASS:

Any Experimental Category aircraft with a normally aspirated engine with a displacement of 1000 cubic inches or less.

SPORT FX:

Any Experimental Category aircraft with 550 cubic inch displacement normally aspirated with Fixed Landing Gear for RV-10s, F-1 Rocket, Harmon Rocket II etc.

FORMULA RGT:

Any Experimental Category aircraft with an engine displacement of 360 cubic inches or less, with retractable landing gear That is Turbo-Charged.

FORMULA RG:

Any Experimental Category aircraft with an engine displacement of 360 cubic inches or less, with retractable landing gear. Will be divided into a blue (360 cubic inch) and Red (320 cubic inch) classes.

FORMULA FX:

Any Experimental Category aircraft with an engine displacement of 360 cubic inches or less, with at least two fixed landing gear. Will be divided into a Blue (360 cubic inch) and Red (320 Cubic inch) classes.

FORMULA SW (STEVE WITTMAN TAILWIND CLASS):

For Whittman Tailwind Aircraft with an engine displacement of 360 cubic inches or less, with at least two fixed landing gear.

FORMULA RV:

Open to Van's aircraft RV-3, RV-4, RV-6, RV-6A, RV-7, RV-7A, RV-8, RV-8A, RV-9, and RV-9A airplanes powered with an engine of 360 cubic inches or less.

Will be split into a Blue (360 cubic inch) and Red (320 Cubic inch) classes.

SPRINT CLASS

Any experimental having an engine displacement of 240 cubic inches or less.

Sportsman Class :

Any Experimental Category aircraft powered by a Volkswagen or Corvair engine converted for aircraft use.

Sportsman Light Class: Any Experimental Category aircraft meeting the rules of the Light Sport Category.

* NOTE: Formula classes are split into RED or BLUE. The Blue Division is for aircraft with 360 Cubic inch engines and the RED Division is for 320 Cubic Inch engines.

Beating the Heat

2010-07-15T04:45:00.000-07:00

The temperature in the hangar has been in the high 90s for quite a while and I'm getting tired of it.

I was trying to fit an oil cooler somewhere into the mix a, but I really didn't have much luck. Maybe I didn't try hard enough. I know it's doable, since others have made it happen.

I always thought that a properly set up and baffled O-200 does not need an oil cooler. Once the ignition started working right, I think the oil temps got a little better.

I found a nifty adapter that will add a couple of oil cooler ports onto a spin-on filter adapter but when I tried it, one port pointed straight up and would interfere with the cooler itself.

For a cooler, I got hold of an Earls Performance, but again, not too much room.

At some point, I just decided "screw it". Fly with what you've got. I am getting tired of all the messing around. I'm just going to fly the race and if I have to throttle back to keep the oil temps below 240F, so be it. Right now I just want to be in it.

I do believe there are a lot of design improvements that could be made with the oil tank. For one, a more aerodynamic shape would help cooling air flow around it. I could also add heat sinks or cooling fins, but all that will be in sump design #2.

Right now, I am doing all the things I can to make the current system as efficient as possible, such as closing gaps in the plenum. Yesterday, I did a little streamlining on the snorkels and today I'm going to add a cooling hose and point it at the sump.

And for a special treat, my new Craig Catto prop will arrive today!

The Missing Miss

2010-07-07T14:45:00.003-07:00

Where to begin?

Today started at Bob Carter's day job at Wildlife Materials. I had purchased a bag of diodes from our local Radio Shack and Bob said he could install them in the EC3. I figured I would drop off the unit and he would install them in a day or two. I was happy to see Bob put them in them right off the bat and I was out of there in 15 minutes!

You know on Sesame Street where they play "One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other"? Let's see if you can spot the two diodes. You can click on the photos to make them larger. Here is the before photo of the EC3.

And here is the after:

I'll give you a hint. R69 & R72.

The idea behind the switching diode is to condition the signal so it can be better read by the ECU. This is a fix if the signal coming from the sensors isn't behaving. Mine was certainly not behaving. In fact, it was downright rude.

For some reason, which I don't understand, as the RPMs increase, the amplitude of the waveform varies all over the place and that confuses the EC3. We have tried everything we could think of to flatten it out, but no luck. That includes stiffening up the brackets, fooling with the gaps, etc. ad nauseam.

For one final test today, I completely disconnected the backup sensor from all the ship's wiring, just to see how it looked on it's own. Here is the result. Notice how well behaved the wave is in the idle ranges, but it seems to go crazy as the engine speeds up.

While we were fooling around, I stuck another AN3 bolt joining the trigger bracket and the angle iron brace, attempting again to reduce vibration.

Perfect conditions for a flight test. Today is was 98 F in the hangar and the official temp on the ramp was 94 F. Even though it was a long taxi in the heat, I took no chances with the mods to the ECU and used our 5,500' runway. By the time I got to the departure end, the oil was already up to 135 F.

Takeoff is always strong, since the trouble doesn't happen at lower RPMs. Takeoff normal and I shallowed the climb to 800 FPM to keep the cylinder temps down. Because of clouds I only climbed to about 4,000', but the OAT was still 79 F and my density altitude was about 6,500'.

Leveled out, put the pedal to the metal and here we go. The RPMs climbed to about 2,800 and I turned off the mag, electronic ignition only. The engine remained smooth.

Went faster and tried it again. The engine remained smooth. Holy s**t, this might work.

Went faster yet and saw the tach bounce off 3,100 RPM. Haven't see the engine go that fast in a month of Sundays. Switched off the mag. The engine was still smooth!

Talk about elated... I kept flipping the ignition selection switch, trying to get a failure and there was none. We finally got it beat! Unbelievable!

Well actually, the root cause is still there, the misbehaving waveform. Tracy Crook's mod is a fix for a deeper problem and I still want to fix it, but at least I know I can race.

I let Sandy know right away and my second call was to Craig Catto who informed me that he was going to start making my new prop today! Certainly icing on the cake.

And best yet, when I got home, my grandaughter made fish tacos for dinner.

Four Tries, Four Strikes

2010-07-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

And I was so optimistic...

Had all intentions of killing the miss today. Started by verifying the spark plug gap was set to .027", which is the range that Klaus recommends for high compression engines.

Wasn't the best day for all this. The outside air temp was about 94F and the winds were gusting to 20 kts.

Flight test #1 - Removed the back up sensor from the bracket and tied it back, to ensure that it was not interfering with the primary, in any way. We theorized there may be some mutual inductance between the two sensors, which are 18 degrees apart, through the trigger wheel and for any inductance in the wires sending the signal to the ECU. Theory and test failed.

Flight test #2 - Set the primary sensor to a very reduced air gap of only .014". We did this since we seemed to have improved results on the ground by tightening up the gap. Test failed.

Flight test #3 - Swapped both sensors. Maybe we just had a bad sensor. Test failed.

Flight test #4 - Did a dynamic propeller balance. Theory being that if the prop were out of balance, it might be messing up the sensors. I know my prop is about of balance right now, so I was willing to give it a try. C-Rod just bought a very professional system and bent over backwards to help. We started with an imbalance of about .47 IPS (inches per second) and when finished we got down to a very respectable .13 IPS. The engine is now nice and smooth, but the Test Failed.

Oh yeah, still have high oil temps.

On the plus side, my lovely wife had a nice dinner waiting for me.

Happy 4th of July but No Joy in Mudville

2010-07-04T10:49:00.000-07:00

Over the last few days I have been trying several things and thought I'd catch it up, before going out for a 4th of July picnic.

Air gap - I had the scope out the other day and a couple of people much smarter than me. We were getting the miss, on the ground, at WOT. The Electromotive manual says to have the sensor air gap set to .030 to .060, depending on the trigger wheel style. At various times, I had been running it in the .030 to .040 range. Just for grins we tried setting it to .060 and it ran worse.

Then we went the other way and set it to .020". (Remember, I have a run out of .003" for the mounted trigger wheel.) Unbelievably, the miss disappeared (on the ground). Then we tried setting it to .017" and it was still fine.

Unfortunately, the subsequent test flight failed. Got to altitude and running on the ignition only and the miss was still bad.

Terry Crouch urged me to go the extra mile and "make the sensor support strong enough that you can hang the airplane on it, without it flexing". So, I trundled down to the lumbar yard and bought some 1/8" angle iron. I fashioned a stiffener to the sensor plate and mounted it on the two nose bolts. No lightening holes. This tractor quality part does not flex. (I still have yet to try rebar reinforced concrete, but that may have to be next).

Today's flight test - failure. No change in the miss characteristics. Rats. The engine actually backfired when I was switching from BOTH to IGN.

Talking to Terry some more, we wondered if somehow the backup sensor might be interfering with the primary. The plan is to make a single flight with the backup sensor removed from the system and see if that has any effect.

A couple of you have inquired about variations in the air gap due to wobble in the crank or prop extension. I haven't checked this relationship yet, and promise I will on the next visit.

Happy 4th of July

Sam

2010-06-30T10:23:00.001-07:00

I am still getting this frustrating miss, which seems to be emanating from the Electronic Ignition (EI). The miss only seems to happen above 2,500 RPM, which is why I never experience it on the ground. One more time, here is the setup.

I have one Slick mag set to 25 degrees and the EC3 timing was previously set to 25 degrees with the engine running at WOT, on the ground. I have 9:1 pistons, LS1 coils and Magnecor racing plug wires. Electromotive 1/2" sensors.

Yesterday, I replaced all the automotive plugs with NGK 3035 (was Denso Iridium IK27, but no local sources) and cleaned the aviation plugs - no help.

I braced the sensor support bracket - no help.

I checked and adjusted the runout of the trigger wheel to .003" - no help. I have .030" air gap between the sensor and the trigger wheel.

Today's symptoms, in flight. 5,500' msl, 6,500' D.A. OAT 62F

At WOT and ignition set to BOTH, I only get about 2,950 RPM (should be 3,100 with this prop). The engine is fairly smooth but I have seen it smoother.

On MAG only the RPMs drop about 100 RPM, but remains relatively smooth - for running on a single mag.

On EI only, I get a BAD miss. Adjusting the mixture from full rich to lean seems to have no effect.

I think that's about it. How do I fix this?

Calibrating the Oil Temp Sensor

2010-06-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

I was hoping beyond hope that the Dynon oil temp sensor might be reading incorrectly. I was hoping that I might have a bad connection which might cause it to read high.

No such luck.

With the assistance of Prof. Charley Rodriguez I ran the engine and got it up to almost 220F. We took several comparative readings in the oil sump and found that the Dynon sensor and the lab quality thermometer agreed within a degree or two.

Today I will work on stabilizing the EFI sensor mount to eliminate the miss, then will figure how to cool the oil. I have a couple of ideas there and do have an oil cooler waiting in the wings if I decide I will go that route.

It's Hot Today - long post

2010-06-22T04:50:00.000-07:00

So now, I have two issues - a miss in the engine at certain engine speeds and hot oil temperature. For right now, I'm just going to talk about the oil temp.

My oil temps are high, even after the addition of the aluminium sump. Let's look at what I have changed since I started on this huge rebuild.

Old *** New

Carburetor *** Electronic fuel injection

Straight inlet to carb *** Snorkels to throttle body

1 Mag & LSE ignition *** 1 mag & RWS ignition

WOT 3,050 RPM *** WOT 3,150 RPM

Steel sump *** Aluminium sump

5" prop extension *** 7" prop extension

4" inlet rings *** 4" inlet rings

Plenum baffling *** Plenum baffling

Cowling with big exit *** Cowling different, but same area

Steam gauges *** Dynon FlightDeK D180

Wing out of alignment *** New wing properly faired in.

Crappy paint *** Beautiful paint

I called Harry Hinckley, up in Iowa City, and asked if he might take a look . Harry has a highly modified Swearingen SX300 and he really knows his business and he said to come on up.

It was really hot out. Just leaving the pattern at Carbondale the OAT was 84 deg. At just 1,000' the temps started coming up so I throttled back. I had to hold it down to 2,450 RPM, then even lower just to hold the oil temp down to 230! My cylinder head temps were:

#1 - 346

#2 - 383 (#2 is consistently 50 deg hotter than the rest.)

#3 - 330

#4 - 364

When I got close to Iowa City, the ambient air suddenly dropped to 74 and my temps dropped too.

Harry looked it all over and gave more compliments than I thought I deserved. He identified three things (actually four) that I should address. He said I should have exit ramps where the exhaust exits below the firewall, I should plug all the baffle leaks to force more air around the cylinders and I should add a better ramp to smooth the air exiting the cowl. (The fourth item was to fix the miss).

We shot off to the hardware store and picked up a tube of silicone and got to work. Harry magically fabricated a couple of ramps - something I had been meaning to do for several years.

After I got the plenum off, we started caulking everything. We probably closed up 5 square inches of leaks.

The whole day, there was a sense of urgency with threatening weather to the west, and Flight Service was calling for big boomers in the P.M., but they never materialized. About 4:00 I was ready to head home and see how it helped. Harry pulled out the SX and Greg Zimmerman rode shotgun to form up and see what they could see. Harry said all the control surfaces were in alignment - so that is good, one of those things that you can't really see while in flight. He also said that it was pretty.

The air above was still in the 72 deg area, o I decided I could climb to 5,500' and maybe things would be cooler there. It was fun seeing the SX300 in formation, and naturally Harry blew the doors off of me.

But was was the result? Sadly, not much of a change. I still had to throttle way back to keep the oil temps down. My cylinder head temps were:

#1 - 316

#2 - 368

#3 - 310

#4 - 343

It appears that the cylinder head temps were better, but these were recorded with an OAT of 77 deg. Not quite sure. The oil was just as bad as ever.

I think we improved the cylinder cooling. and my Delta P (differential pressure between the top of the engine and the bottom) was higher.

This is all quite discouraging. On the two hour trip home I resolved to bite the bullet and install an oil cooler, which I really didn't want to do. It will add expense, weight, and increase overall cooling drag.

When I got home, I started looking over the Dynon support forums and I saw there was some discussion, a couple of years ago, about calibrating the oil temp sensor. When I installed my new Dynon system, I meant to do this but never did.

The proper method is to immerse the sensor in boiling water and it should be pretty close to 212. Unfortunately, the sensor is at the rear of the engine, and I have to pull the whole engine to get at it.

As I was mulling all this over at 4 A.M. today,it occurred to me that I could do this without pulling the engine. I can fly and get the engine nice and hot. Once on the ground I can have someone drop a very accurate lab thermometer that I just happen to have, into the oil pan. Can even keep the engine running. I can simple compare those temperatures and see where I stand.

If I get no luck there, I have already ordered the oil cooler parts and can start on it this weekend.

Working on the Miss

2010-06-10T09:42:00.001-07:00

Still have the persistent miss in the Electronic Fuel Injection/Ignition (EFII) system. The symptoms are very similar to the trouble I had last year and at that time I had positively diagnosed the issue as vibration in the aluminium sensor bracket.

My first thought was to stiffen up the new steel mounting bracket, but I thought I would go after the trigger wheel runout first and see if that yielded any results. Depending which document I am looking at, the allowable runout for a 7 1/2" trigger wheel should be .003" - .006". My initial check seemed to put it at .006.

I got hold of a dial indicator clamped it in the bracket and filed each tooth until now I am about .0025" of a perfect circle.

I test flew it today and the miss was still there, but it seemed to kick in at 2,870, rather than the former 2,820 RPM. Again, I am looking for 3,100.

Now, it's time to see about stiffening up the bracket.

Wish me luck. I am so tired of all this.

Finally Smashed Some Bugs

2010-06-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

Finally got up in the air today after being off more than seven months! Sometimes I can't believe how much I seem to drag my feet.

Overall ,I am pleased with the result. The OAT on the ground was about 85 degrees and at 7,500 feet density altitude, it was about 67. At my normal cruise setting of 2,600 RPM, the temps stayed around 230 (red line is at 240F). It was only when I tried to go WOT the temps licked at 240. Also, my cylinder #2 has higher temps than the others.

This is a lot better than the carbon fiber sump and I think I should be able to get it a little better with some tweaking. I expect be covering that on the Q-200 Engine Group.

Oil Sump

2010-05-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd throw up a couple more photos.

The first shows the atrocious safety wiring job. The second shows the indicator I made, this morning, to check engine timing with an automotive timing light. It will be removed for flight.

The New Oil Sump & An Engine Start

2010-05-28T05:37:00.000-07:00

Overall, I have been messing with the new oil sump. There was some fitting that I had to do, like moving the filler neck, making a dipstick, etc.

Here was the first go-around. You can see the interference problem with the engine mount.
I prevailed on a local welder friend to move the filler neck and to insert a patch. The mounted plate you see is just temporary so I could pressurize it a bit for leak testing.

This thing has a large opening at the bottom so I can gain access to the six mounting studs. The old Continental sump had the mounting screws on the outside, but I had David change them to the inside to make the flange neck wider and more robust. At least that was my theory.

I went with a thinner bottom cover plate than David had provided, in order to gain a little more cowling clearance. I wasn't sure if I would get a good gasket seal, so I doubled the number of mounting screws to 16. Now it looks like something off of a locomotive steam engine. Obviously, I have no idea what I am doing here.

Last Sunday I cobbled enough of it together to actually start the engine. After a little coaxing I managed an actual start and it ran pretty well. This was pretty significant in that it verified the new EFI sensor mounting assembly. I will still have to fine tune the timing adjustment but I am definitely in the ballpark.

I let the whole thing set for a couple of days but when I came back I was dismayed to find about 1/2 cup of oil on the floor. Almost every screw had oil slowly dripping off of it. I drained the oil and tried to figure what to do next. It looked like the sealing gasket was dry and that the oil was migrating through each screw, so I took the approach of sealing the hole. After several trips to town, I found some bonded sealing washers (McMaster P.N. 94709A214) and installed them, and gave the screw threads a swipe with Tite-Seal.

This photo shows how fun it will be to change the oil. Just click on it to make it uglier.

I refilled the oil tank and will go out later today to see how it turns out.

This custom oil sump business has been a royal pain in the arse and given the chance to do it over, I would not have gone this route. Remember, the reason I went with a modified sump was solely to cut down on a bit of drag. The costs do not seen to outweigh the potential gain.

If I can't get this working right, there is always the Sawsall.

Wish me luck.

So, What's the Deal, Sam?

2010-05-09T14:35:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to get e-mails from people, wondering what I'm doing. I know, it's pathetic that I'm not flying.

My big hang-up has been getting my custom oil sump resolved. As you may know, I made a low profile sump from carbon fiber and it seemed to do the trick, except that it didn't dissipate enough heat. David Posey was kind enough to offer to build an aluminium one. I'm still fitting that one and coming up with a satisfactory dipstick.

So should that take 5 months? Actually, no.

I have also made some changes to the ignition sensor mount and I think I should have some success with it.

I am hoping to get the new sump installed this week. I need to get my ass in gear.

Getting Re-Motivated

2010-01-26T20:01:00.000-08:00

This says it all...

01-01-10 Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T11:13:00.000-08:00

Another decade behind us, how about that? I'm glad we survived it, but in many ways it was the decade from Hell, wasn't it?

Sandy and I had a nice dinner and we sampled a nice bottle of wine that she had gotten me for Christmas.

It started out low key and we watched a 1969 Rolling Stones concert DVD, had a few more glasses of wine, but then...

We didn't stay up till midnight.

New Year's Day was bright and sunny here in southern Illinois, but it was 18F when we got up.

One of my favorite things to do in life is to go out and fly on New Year's Day. It just makes a good start to the year. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do this the last couple of years, because I was down for the big overhaul.

After a half hour pre-heat using a hair dryer, I pushed the mighty Q-200 out and flew over to Marion (about eight minutes away) and picked up Don Bartlett. This ride would have three firsts; first flight of the year, Don's first flight in the Quickie, and the first passenger ride I've given on the first of the year.

By then, the ground temp had gotten up to 24F. We didn't do to much really, just flew a few circles, demonstrated a stall, and back in. Don is very experienced so I wasn't making a sight seeing trip - but it was fun. With the current exhaust set-up I don't have any cabin heat and I have a couple of pesky air leaks.

After we flew, Don showed me the sweet little Champ he is annualling and then it was time to get back to Carbondale.

It was good to aviate today and so again, Happy New Year!

A Major Conundrum Solved

2009-11-25T04:46:00.000-08:00

The big question of the day was "Why does the engine badly miss when I go over 2,900 RPM"?

It would be fine during takeoff, climb, cruise, etc., but the engine would badly miss when I went over 2,900. Was it the electronic ignition? A bad coil? Problems with fuel delivery? Since these systems are interwoven I wasn't sure where to start.

I thought I had already conquered the case of the vibrating sensor mounting bracket but in the back of my mind, the miss felt familiar. Since I had already beefed up the assembly, I didn't know what I could to do to make it better and I didn't want to spend a lot of effort there if I didn't know that was the problem.

I decided to shoot Lynn French an e-mail and ask for a gigantic favor. If I flew to Broken Bow Nebraska, would he consent to swapping parts - again? Fortunately, Lynn is very generous and he went along with the plan.

On the way to Broken Bow I stopped in Topeka to see my daughter and grand-kids, so I did get some great non-aviation time, too.

While I was en-route, I tried going to WOT a couple of times and each time the miss was back.

I arrived at the Broken Bow airport about 10:00, Lynn arranged a nice hangar to work in and parts started flying off the planes. We set them up nose-to nose and installed Lynn's bracket bracket and trigger wheel. Rob Martinson brought doughnuts from Colorado in his newly rebuilt Long-Eze, and took a look at our electronic ignition set-ups.

Here is Lynn's current set up:

Fortunately, it was a simple swap. I didn't have to change the timing or anything, and I used my sensors. We just changed the trigger wheel and mounting bracket. After a quick test on the ground, everything seemed well. I told Lynn that I would take it up and see how it was, that if it performed well I would just fly on home. (just kidding).

Here are Lynn's parts mounted in my buggy:

So, I went up for the test hop and what do you know? The engine performed just fine, smooth as a baby's butt. At WOT the engine was perfectly smooth and no hint of a miss. Problem diagnosed. It was somewhere in my trigger wheel mounting bracket setup and I'm pretty sure it was a vibration issue creating electronic noise in the sensors.

Got back on the ground and we put the parts in their proper places, and left the airport just as the sun was setting.

On top of all that, Lynn was nice enough to boot one of his boys out of his room and give me a bed to sleep in. Great guy.

One screwy thing, I tried another in-flight WOT on the way home and the miss was gone. This is not completely surprising, since it had previously behaved on occasion. I think my mounting system is just on the edge of performing/not performing, and when we swapped the parts I may have set it in a more reliable position.

Here is a photo of my view of Nebraska on the way back to Topeka:

Having said all that, I still need to work out a more reliable system. I have several options and I'll mull the whole thing over, before I come up with my final direction.

Thanks again, Lynn.

Okay, Sam. What's the latest?

2009-11-16T06:44:00.000-08:00

Haven't posted my progress in over a month, so I better get in a little update.

I am back in the air, but still having trouble with the EFI. This weekend, I hope to fly to Nebraska to do a parts swap with Lynn French, who has a similar installation.

A recent highlight was making it to the Field of Dreams Fly-in in Beatrice, NE.

The engine works fine, until I hit 2,900 RPM, then I get a serious miss. On one occasion, I managed to get it to 3,100, but only that once. In Nebraska, we are going to swap out the sensor trigger wheel and mounting bracket assembly. I have had trouble with this early on and doing a swap will be able to confirm or discount weather that's the problem.

The plane is definitely different. It's two inches longer, at the nose, and the tail sits lower, so I am getting used to not being able to see as much out the front.

The conversion from the steam gauges to the Dynon D180 has taken some getting used to, but I definitely like it.

Is it faster? I think so, but until I get this high-end miss straightened out, I won't really know for sure. I do have over 30 flights, since the rebuild.

I'll do an update when I have something solid to report.

Good news and More Good News

2009-09-26T05:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a happy accident. I was scrounging some exhaust gaskets at AvTech, when I overheard a conversation that an AvTech alum was bringing his transponder and static check equipment to KMDH. I asked to be put in the queue and as luck would have it, I was in.

John checked at least two C-172, I think a C-182, an LSA, a Cherokee 140, and the mighty Q-200. All in a matter of a few hours.

This was particularly great, since I wasn't really sure how accurate my systems were. In the conversion, I had discarded the altitude encoder and now use the Dynon D180 with the gray-code (whatever that is) converter for altitude encoding. I had no way of knowing if it was even wired correctly until the checks had been done.

We hooked everything up and John fired up his test device and gloriosky! The transponder and altitude reporting were spot on.

Next, he checked altitude calibration. At 10,000 feet, the Dynon was only off by 20 feet (10,020 ft.), which was well within specs.

Finally, we did the airspeed calibration, and this was the happiest news. My airspeed indicator is reading a little low, so when the airspeed indicator reads 196 mph, I am actually going 200 mph! I just got four more miles an hour!

It's the little things in life.

Excellent.

I Actually Flew Somewhere

2009-09-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

Actually, I went somewhere twice this weekend.

Saturday, the local EAA chapters, the SIU Rotor & Wing club, and what's left of the FBO, hosted a little brunch fly-in and Young Eagles day at the Marion airport, KMWA. This is actually all of about 9 miles from Carbondale, so I was pretty sure I could make it.

Coming into Marion, the tower let me do a "low approach" and I got a lot of nice compliments from the guys on the ground. This was my first off-KMDH landing since the rebuild, so I guess that's kind of a milestone.

With that under my belt, I decided to take on a much grander trip, so Sunday I flew all the way to Decatur, KDEC. Whoo-hoo! A whole hour each way!

On the way, I attempted to do some climbing exercises to determine if my Best Rate of Climb had changed, but about half way there I decided my methodology was wrong and abandoned that part of the test card. It's pretty clearly spelled out the the FAA's publication for testing homebuilts and I just need to do what the durn book says.

On the way back I had fun fooling around with the mixture profiles and get that a little more in line.

It ran well, but I can't a maintain high throttle setting for extended periods of time because of the the oil hitting the revised red line, but at least it got me there and back.

I now have about 13 hours and 18 landings (47 if you count all the bounces) since the rebuild and I feel like I'm generally getting most of it sorted out.

Funny, I was thinking (yes - dangerous, I know) that I was so glad to make a 250 mile trip, when 10 years ago I flew all the way across the whole durn country in one day. Maybe that just comes with getting older.

Why Do You Think They Call it a Quickie!

2009-09-01T11:41:00.001-07:00

For a better look, be sure and click on the image.

Now that I have your attention, I wanted to mention that I finally broke the 200 mph, true airspeed, barrier on the 15th flight.

A big hurdle has been the oil temp. The Continental overhaul manual lists redline oil temperature as 225F. Well, just about every time I flew it would get up to 225 pretty quickley, so most of the flights have been around 1/2 hour.

I started looking around at the Continental documents and found there was more to this oil temperature business. First off, remember that those oil temperature limits were established a loooong time ago. Probably in the 1950s. Oil has changed a lot since then.

Long story short, I called tech support at TCM and talked to an engine expert. He said it's official, the red line inlet oil temperature for the O-200 is 240F. So, if your plane doesn't meet the specification - just change the spec! Easy!

So yesterday I decided to go up and fly, fly, fly. First I climbed to to 5,000' or so and did a hearty full throttle run. That's when I achieved about 3,050 RPM and the TAS hit 201 mph. The highest oil temp I saw was 226, one degree above my "old" red line but well within the revised tolerance.

The engine still isn't perfectly smooth and I'm still fooling around with the mixture, EGT sensors, and maybe that darned trigger wheel sensor bracket again. But, I actually flew out past the big Mississippi and did a low approach at Perryville, MO before I came back home. (Kind of funny that I'm excited about making a 30 mile "cross-country", when 10 years ago I made this trip).

I'm still going to do something to bring the oil temps down, but at least I know that I'm not really in the danger zone and that I'm within striking distance of making this plane go faster than ever.

And that my friends, is why you call it a Quickie.

Eleven and Holding

2009-08-22T07:18:00.001-07:00

So, as of yesterday I have 11 flights since rebuild. Yesterday's was only a half hour.

I have several issues to address, but the most pressing is high oil temps. For years, I was a happy camper with oil temps and I strongly felt that a properly cowled and baffled O-200 would not need an oil cooler. Unfortunately, that changed with my new setup and I think the primary issue is with the new composite sump. The old oil tank was a big bulky piece of steel that was a marvelous heat sink.

My new sump doesn't conduct heat for beans and it is more much compact. Now, I get about 20 minutes of flight before the oil is dancing around 225F. (OAT of 57F).

I tried installing one of those finned heat sinks over my oil filter, then built a cooling shroud for it with a 1-1/2" hose leading up to it. Unfortunately, when I flew yesterday, it didn't seem to help a bit.

So now, I guess I'll be exploring the oil cooler option.

Rats.

A Stuffed Engine Compartment

2009-08-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

I was fooling around with the camera and photo editing program to see if I could make some ghost images of the engine compartment. This will help allow me to see where I might have extra room. I found that using Picase Web Albums, I could upload the photos and present slideshows. So here they are. If it seems to bog your computer down, let me know and I'll pull them off. Click of the photos for a larger view.

Looking at the right side of the cowling...

Here is the front view...

And looking at the left...

Baseline Measurements

2009-08-03T05:45:00.000-07:00

Today I talked to my friend Harry Hinckley about my plane. Harry is the chief pilot and engineer for Greg Zimmerman's very fast SX300. In this past AventureCup race Harry turned a blistering 298 mph, so when Harry talks, I listen.

When I was talking about where I was in the project, Harry asked me about my baseline numbers. As a Six Sigma Black Belt, I know all about data collection, I just get lazy and don't practice what I know I should do.

So after talking to Harry, I went out and made a ground static run, short test flight, and gathered a little more data.

Total cowling inlets: 22 sq. in
Total cowling outlet 28 sq. in. (kind of estimated)

Static & ground runup
ATIS Temp/dew: 27/16 C = 80/61F
Baro: 30.03"
Dynon Outside Air Temp (OAT) sensor: 84F = 29C
Static RPM 2,400, MAP 30"

Test Altitude: 5,500'
OAT: 59F = 15C, Dynon Density Altitude: 6,700 ft.

WOT RPM: 2,850 - 2,900 RPM MAP 24.5"
IAS: 170 mph, TAS: 188 MPH
Oil temp: 215F

I found some test data from May 23, 2005, also flown at 5,500 feet. At that time, I was able to get about 3,000 RPM and had a corrected airspeed of 199 mph.

I'll refer back to this post, to see what effect my changes make.

A Few More Flights

2009-08-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

I am now up to six flights since the big rebuild. I had a big one yesterday - up for over an hour, which is a lot for someone who is expecting (fearing) the engine to quite any minute. Actually, I'm getting a little more confidence and think this may work out.

Much of the time has been spent fine tuning the mixture mapping for the EC3 and that is getting better. I also took care of the roll trim issue, by adjusting the length of the elevator push rods.

Here is what the mixture mapping looks like. As you can see, I have more tweaking to do. Click on it for a larger image. Get it?

I bounced the first three landings, but the last three have been better, so I am coming along. C-Rod says, even though any landing you can walk away from is a good one - you get extra points if you can reuse the airplane.

I am generally tooling around at lower throttle settings, around 2,300 RPM, since I'm not in a hurry to get anywhere. The oil temperature seems to be holding around 200-205F and I need to work on that.

Today, at wide open throttle (WOT) I got about 2,800RPM. I flew my last AirVenture Cup race at 3,050 RPM, so I have big work there. I am going to try all other means, but I believe the handwriting is on the wall to change back to a straight in-line induction system. Of course that means more design and more fiberglass and more painting. Yeauch.

As far as speeds go, I think I may not be too bad. Today at 3,100 feet, I briefly held 2,620 RPM with 26" MAP and got 159 mph IAS. The Dynon's displayed TAS was 167. I still need to check airspeed calibration, but I think those figures might be a little better than before.

I really need to get the RPMs over 3,000 to see what I have wrought.

Missing the Big Show

2009-07-30T05:33:00.000-07:00

This is the first year I've completely missed Oshkosh, in I don't know how many years. It's kind of a sour grapes pity party, but that's the way it is.

Last year I flew a friend and his C-182 up there, so it wasn't like I wasn't connected or anything, but I realized one of the best things for me was to just hang around the Quickie and see how many moths are drawn to the light.

So, this year I decided if the Quickie couldn't make it, I wouldn't make it. That's completely okay with me, but nothing beats being at Oshkosh with the plane on the flight line, Sandy nearby, and visiting with all the friends I've made over the years.

Next year, for sure.

Third Flight

2009-07-22T16:43:00.000-07:00

Quick report.

Flew this evening for .6 hrs. That puts me well over an hour now. I just climbed and circled the airport.

Roll trim is still kattywhumpuss, but that's just hardware work. Also I'm not getting enough elevator down, again easily fixable and the two are related.

I started gently fooling around with the mixture mapping in flight. I am using Deem's lamda meter, which is really cool. I didn't go through the whole thing, just making some mixture adjustments when I happened to look at the meter.

I don't have anywhere near the speeds I'm used to, I think the best airspeed I saw was around 160 mph.

I did check out the airspeed/differential pressure. In level flight and throttle at 2,500RPM I was showing about 93 mph. If you look in the table, in the previous post, you will see that is only about 4 inches of water. Not enough, I think. I should probably be getting at least 5 1/2 inches, so that will be something for me to work on.

I'll report back when I know more.

P.S. I apologize to someone. They left a constructive comment and I accidentally hit the reject button and I can't take it back. Sorry. Please post it again and I'll try to not be so clumsy.

Starting the de-bugging

2009-07-22T06:02:00.000-07:00

Now that I proved that it can fly, I need to get after all the squawks. Right now, the main issues are engine heat and power. Yesterday I went out and:

Adjusted elevator push rod for better roll trim.
Significantly opened up the path for cowling discharge air.
Discovered air leak around #2 cylinder. Will repair after next test flight.
Took care of fuel line chafing on cowl.
Plumbed in an airspeed indicator to measure cowling pressure differential.
Hooked up mixture meter so I can observe it in flight. I will continually be checking the fuel/air ration to fine tune the EC3 mixture mapping.

It started raining so I didn't fly.

Regarding item # 5 above. There are a lot of factors about engine cooling and there are several great articles out there if you are willing to search for them.

One of the fundamental things to check for is to make sure that you have an adequate pressure differential between the top of the engine, compared to the bottom of the engine. The engineers like to refer to this as inches of water, as seen in a manometer. Let's say you had no baffling at all. In that case there would be zero pressure differential and zero inches of water.

Lycoming wants to see between 5 1/2 & 6 1/2 inches of water. Since rigging up a manometer can be cumbersome, there is an easier way, using an airspeed indicator. I had an old one laying around so I hooked it up kind of like this (scroll down a bit).

If I don't have enough pressure differential, that should be addressed first. But, if there is enough difference, then I need to go after different things like controlling air flow around a specific component, but first things first.

So looking at the table below, I will be hoping to get about 110 mph on the indicator.

MPH	KNOTS	IN. of H2O	#/IN2
30	26.1	.44	.016
40	34.8	.79	.028
50	43.5	1.23	.044
60	52.2	1.77	.064
70	60.9	2.41	.087
80	69.6	3.15	.114
90	78.3	3.99	.144
100	87.0	4.92	.178
110	95.7	5.95	.215
120	104.3	7.09	.2558

I'll report my results later.

One Small Step for Sam - One Giant Leap for Samkind

2009-07-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

Finally. Finally. I got it back in the air. I told Sandy that I flew and she said something like "Whew! O-boy". She sounded just like Walter Cronkite.

I didn't pick the date, it just happened, but my third first flight in the Quickie happily fell on the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Heady stuff for all.

I always told Sandy, "I'll fly it when it's ready". The to-do list finally got whittled down so there was nothing left to do but fly. I haven't posted my recent struggles, like the primary system going dead for no apparent reason (I blew a critical fuse while tinkering) or the back-up system not working (I somehow had discharged the back-up battery down to 5 volts).

But today, all systems were go for launch and I committed aviation. Twice, in fact.

My good buddy C-Rod brought out his entire A&P inspections class witness the crime, in direct opposition to my general secrecy policy for these events. But It worked out - I just ignored them and went into my secret place. You know, where the Olympians go right before that big track or swimming event.

A parachute was offered, but it turned out there just wasn't room, so I didn't wear it.

It started just fine and I ran it up and down an inactive runway a few times and everything seemed strong. With my straightened tailspring and lengthened cowling, I have lost a fair amount of forward visibility while taxiing, but I'll get used to it.

So I went out to 18L and flew. Must have gotten all of three tenths before the oil really started getting hot and I told the tower I wanted back down.

I bounced the landing a bit, but cut me a break, it has been a year and a half since I flew this critter and all's well that ends well.

My residual adrenalin must have stayed with me for a couple of hours. There are lots of things to work on, trim and cooling, etc, etc., but they will sort out in time and I hope to be going fast again.

I have to make a mention here. On the way back from the airport I got a phone call from my good friend Jim Patillo, who was calling to tell me a Quickie builder, Ron Weiss, had been killed while flying another type of homebuilt (Lancair) out in California. I never met Ron but he did post messages often on the Quickie Builders e-mail list, and we sure hate it when we get those calls. I guess you could say it made today's event somewhat bittersweet.

But anyway, after I calmed down a few hours I went out and committed aviation a second time - I wanted to get a better handle on what my new Dynon instrumentation was telling me.

This time, the engine wasn't quite so hot and I was able to stay up for about four tenths of an hour.

That's enough for now, just remember, there is no higher education than aviation. And hey - Let's be safe out there.

There is No Joy in Mudville

2009-07-10T07:25:00.000-07:00

Rats!

I thought I had it licked. Last night I was getting roughness in the backup system and also the primary was acting up. This morning I went out early and replaced the electronic ignition spark plugs and the engine ran great in all functions! I have been doing a lot of ground running and I have seen this plug fouling before.

I put the cowling on and called the tower and told them I would like some high speed taxis, then possibly a takeoff. Everything seemed fine until I did my run-up at the end of the runway. The primary system was strong, but when I switched to the backup the engine just sputtered and died.

I ran up and down the runway a few times, then tried it again. Same thing. I tried leaning the back-up system, then richening it. Tried all sorts of throttle settings. No joy, so I taxied back to the hangar with my tail hanging between my legs.

Rats! Did I already say that?

So now, I am officially scratching my entrance in the AirVenture Cup race. We're taking the granddaughters on a little vacation today and maybe I can figure it out when I get back.

I'm dumfluxed. I need an expert to come and help me out.

See you in a week or so.

Sam

Isn't She Lovely?

2009-07-08T20:17:00.001-07:00

Not So Fast, Buddy Boy

2009-07-05T16:55:00.000-07:00

Or, should I say "It's not ready, till I say it's ready".

The weight & balance is done, and I was glad to see that it came in at 696 pounds, even with all the stuff I added, including extra batteries, heavier paint job, and TWO paint jobs.

I thought I just needed to get the vinyl lettering applied and a few more little items, when go taxi. But, why should it be that easy?

I thought I'd celebrate having the canopy on by running the engine a little. I got it up to 2,400 RPM, then it started getting rough again. What's the deal with that?

Rats.

Maybe that sensor bracket is still vibrating a little. I have a plan for that. Maybe the mixture still needs tweaking. I dunno.

We'll see tomorrow.

Anyway, here's some photos of the mostly complete engine installation.

Mixture look a little rich?

So Close I Can Taste It

2009-07-03T04:43:00.000-07:00

I am 90% though my annual condition checklist and the thing is close to being ready.

Yesterday, I hauled it over to AvTech for weight & balance. I had the help of the instructor, Karen and two A&P students, Tom & Colin. I forgot to use my camera, but Colin grabbed these with his cell phone. Thanks folks!

I was happily surprised to see it come in under 700 pounds, 696 pounds, to be exact. I was afraid I would be in the 725 range, so 696 is good, considering all the stuff I've added. We weighed all possible combinations; empty, main tank, header tank, aux tank, pilot installed, etc. I'll figure all the arms & moments later.

Just to remind me that nothing should happen too easily, I intended to taxi the Q-200 over to AvTech for the weigh-in. Unfortunately, there was interference between my air induction tube and the cowling, which resulted in causing the lower cowl to bind against the spinner. So, today I'll have to modify the tube to better fit the cowl, blah, blah, blah.

Happy Anniversary

2009-06-22T11:52:00.000-07:00

Today, June 22, 2009, is the 10th anniversary of my one-day trip across the U.S.A. in my Q-200. I guess it doesn't seem like ten years, then again, a lot has transpired since then (the best of which, was marrying Sandy).

Here is the link to the whole story Trip Across USA It's a pretty long read, so I suggest making yourself comfortable and pouring a cup of coffee first.

Here is the radar capture for June 22, 1999 - about mid-day. As you can see I had a bit of a time picking through Oklahoma.

It really is a shame that I can't celebrate properly and go fly today, but alas, I am still trying to hash out engine problems. (I think the engine now has more power than with the old system, I just can't get my back-up fuel injection to work yet). I guess I'll commemorate it by going to the hangar and giving the old girl a pat on the vertical fin.

This little plane has been one of the most rewarding, satisfying, challenging, expensive, hair pulling, bleeding, frustrating, and funnest things that I have ever been involved with.

Here's to my little Quickie!

I Got It ! - I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

2009-06-11T16:04:00.000-07:00

Finally... I know what was causing my woes (besides dain bramage). How long have I been working on this rough engine problem? Two months? Three months? Four?

The problem was finally traced to vibration of the bracket that holds the pickup sensors.

Now, how did I come to that conclusion?

Several of my advisers suggested getting my hands on an oscilloscope (see the previous post). After I sent out the results of that test, two experts said that my problem was the variation in amplitude in the signal - not a phase shift, and was most likely caused by vibration.

I got hold of Don Bartlett (who doesn't like me very much) and he welded a couple of gussets onto the new bracket made by Phil Lankford and Jeff Doddridge, in California.

When I first fired it up, I could tell that things were better, but still not 100%. It ran well on the mag, but not on the electronic ignition, but the fuel injection seemed fine. Fortunately, I had experience with this and figured it was just dirty spark plugs.

I let the thing cool off for an hour, pulled and cleaned the automotive plugs, then stuck them back in.

When I fired it up it ran just great! Wow!!! Did I say great? I really meant fantastic! I brought it up all the way to 2,370 RPM, which I hadn't seen in a long, long time! There was still a slight roughness when running on the electronic ignition, but nothing like before. I think I need some bracing of the sensor bracket, but at least I know what to do!

I want to thank all you guys who were helping me on this frustrating, teeth gnashing, hair pulling episode. I'm going to take a couple of days off for a Hoskins family reunion, but I'll be back at it on Tuesday.

Thanks again, all!

More chasing

2009-06-11T08:06:00.001-07:00

Please take a look at these two sorrowful pages of sketches of today's oscilloscope output.

The engine always starts easily and idles very smoothly. Roughness starts around 1,800 RPM. Misfiring is very pronounced, really shakes the engine, and the exhaust is momentarily black.

Page 1.

First wave is pretty much what it looks like with both the 6" and 7 1/2" wheel, at idle. With the 7 1/2" wheel there is a little more of a hump in the middle of the trigger wave. The peak-to-peak amplitude is pretty even and is about 4 volts p-p.

2nd wave. This is what it looks around 2,000 RPM. Notice that the amplitude varies greatly, from about 3 V to 7.5 V p-p. We tried adjusting the air gap from .015 to .060 and didn't see a change here. We thought maybe the variations in amplitude might be from the prop bolts and flange lugs. Just speculation.
3rd wave. Another sketch at high throttle. Here, I tried to include the trigger wave. The trigger wave, at higher RPMs, always had a greater p-p voltage than any other part of the wave, while at idle, the trigger wave was the same.

Page 2.

There always is a consistent phase shift (skipping a tooth?) at any speed. In the sketch, I am attempting to show how it would bounce back and forth. We feel this is a key issue, but have no idea why it is occurring.

We also saw that the amplitude of the wave is pretty even at low RPMs, but at higher revs the amplitude varies a lot. Click on the sketches to better read the voltage ranges.

Other things we tried and noticed:

Changed from 1 1/2" to 6" wheel. no change seen on scope.
Removed the prop bolt closest to the trigger gap. - no change
Tried a smaller diameter sensor. - a little smoother.
Degaussed the crankshaft flange. - no change.
Ran on the single magneto only. - a little smoother.
An automotive timing light flashes consistently at low RPMs, but becomes intermittent, in sync with misfiring, at higher speeds.
Installed the 6" wheel and used the 7-1/2" sensor mount bracket. This caused the sensor to kind of be extended way out from the aluminum bracket. No effect.

I sent these sketches to Tracy Crook, at RWS and he thinks that the change in amplitude is the source of the problem and what I perceived as a "phase shift" is not an issue. Given that, I will be concentrating on eliminating all vibration in the sensor mount bracket.

Sam

Chasing the Noise

2009-06-09T04:34:00.000-07:00

I have been corresponding with several of you and thought I'd put a week-end summary into one post. First off, I'd like to thank all of you for your help and patience while I'm going at this problem.

These things had a positive effect:

Temporarily replacing the 1/2" VRS sensor with an old 3/8" sensor. Ran a little better.
Centering the sensor over the trigger teeth. Got another 200 RPM and noticeably smoother.

These things had no observable effect:

Changing from a 6" trigger wheel to a 7-1/2" trigger wheel (photo attached), and sensor mounting brackets.

Adjusting air gap from .030" to .055"

These things had a negative effect:

Swapping the position of the primary and backup VRS sensors

This had an unknown effect:

"Dressing up" the two tooth gap in the 7 1/2" trigger wheel. Actually, this was a bonehead move. I'm going to attempt repair it by having a pal fill it in with weld, then reduce it, so it pretty well matches the gap on the 6" wheel. The original configuration may help alleviate the phenomenon known as "phantom tooth".

This was a positive fix:

Swapping my standard trigger wheel with Lynn French's aluminum bowl and trigger wheel setup.

This is what I know.

When the engine is set at 6 deg. ATC, the primary sensor is directly over the first tooth in the gap. (photo attached shows the engine set exactly at TDC.).
The air gap remains consistent all around the wheel, within a couple of thousandths.
The engine starts easily and idles smoothly.
When at about 700 RPM, the measured timing is around 38 deg. BTDC
When running at full throttle (2,100 for now) the timing is about 25 deg. BTDC
At high RPMs, the automotive style timing light flashes quite intermittently at the same time the engine starts missing, indicating, to me, that the signal is getting interference.
Engine now runs pretty will up to about 1,900 - 2,000 RPM

This is next:

Borrow an oscilloscope to view the VRS sensor signal.
Repair the trigger wheel.
Inquire into getting a duplicate bowl, trigger wheel and mounting bracket ala Lynn French.

Again, I invite suggestions and I thank you for the help.

Still Not Right

2009-06-05T14:53:00.000-07:00

I am so frustrated. I just can't get the engine to run right. I started with a 6" trigger wheel and after much gnashing of teeth, I borrowed Lynn Frenches setup. I installed his parts, using my sensors, and the engine ran great. That much I know.

I figured my sensors were picking up noise from the rotating prop bolts and I hoped that a larger trigger wheel would help. (Please see the photos in earlier posts). I got a 7-1/2" wheel and had it modified by Phil Lankford and his buddy Jeff.

I didn't want to copy exactly what Lynn did, since he has a V-belt on his prop hub to drive an alternator. My alternator is on the pad on the accessory case.

Here's a couple pf photos of Phil & Jeff's parts.

I do have a couple of smaller diameter, and very used, electromotive sensors and I'll try rigging them up tomorrow, just to see if that makes any difference.

This sucks. Any comments, please?

Plane Progress - Slowed to a Crawl

2009-05-24T05:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, Sam... What's the latest? Are you close to flying again?

Well, I am closer than before. Phil Lankford, in the San Diego area is working hard to get me a new trigger wheel and mounting bracket worked up. That should show up within a couple of days.

The new Bob Archer com antenna is installed, as is the remote compass for the Dynon D180.

Since I have gotten my system back-up battery installed, I should be able to permanently install the tail cone today or tomorrow.

My back-up fuel injection system is still buggy, but I have to get the engine running again before I can try that out.

So yes, I am getting close. When I get all the pieces back on and working I'll go through my entire Annual Condition Inspection checklist and make sure that I haven't left anything out.

One Reason Why Progress Has Slowed Down

2009-05-24T04:58:00.000-07:00

On May 8th, a huge storm blew through southern Illinois. It wasn't just a thunderstorm, it wasn't an inland hurricane, it wasn't a tornado. It was a derecho, a term I don't recall hearing before. Read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derecho

I drove through the first wave as I left Murphysboro. I was half way to an airshow in Branson when Sandy called and told me they were getting blasted by the second wave, which the local weather guy called "the head of the comma". There were sustained winds of 90 mph and gusts over 100 mph.

Here is a technical description of the storm. Scroll down to May 10. http://www.weather.com/blog/weather/?from=blogredirect%3f

Here are a bunch of photos showing the impact. http://www.flickr.com/photos/thesouthern sets/72157618012419861/show/

We were without power for 6 days. Well technically, Sandy was without power for 6 days. I only was unconvinced for three nights because the first four I was staying in the Hilton in Branson.

Thousands of trees down, perhaps 2,000 utility poles broken and hundreds of utility workers from as far as Florida and Pennsylvania came in to clean up the mess.

We lucked out. Just a little damage to the gutter on the garage and a few tree limbs.

The big question is; How can we live in southern Illinois without a basement or storm shelter? How crazy is that?

Our house sits in what was the path of the 1925 Tri State Tornado, the worst tornado the nation has ever seen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Tornado Take a look at the photo of Longfellow School on the Wikipedia page. They never rebuilt the school but converted the land. Longfellow Park is about three blocks from our home.

While there was damage to some buildings at the Southern Illinois Airport, MDH, the T-hangars and the planes within them were unscathed.

I Finally Figured It Out

2009-04-21T05:17:00.000-07:00

That's what my dad always used to say, "I finally figured it out". He was always talking about the meaning of life. In my case, I just want to figure out how to make the damn engine run.

Thanks to Lynn French, I definitely know the ignition problem is due to my trigger wheel and sensor assembly. Lynn was kind enough to lend me his parts, while his engine is down, and I bolted it on this afternoon. Lynn has the 7" trigger wheel, while I have the 6". I used my existing sensor and wiring.

The engine fired up just fine, as always. After it warmed up I ran it all the way to 2,320 RPM. I haven't seen the engine turn that fast and smooth in a year and a half. While I was at WOT I switched off the mag and the engine didn't miss a beat.

Here are some photos of Lynn's trigger assembly mounted on my plane. Compare them with my installation in my previous post, dated April 19.

So, without a doubt, the smaller wheel must be causing me to pick up noise from the crank flange and prop bolts.

That's the good news.

Now, I have to figure out what to do about it. My first inclination is to see if I can find a different sensor and use the existing wheel. I have a lot of $$$ in that trigger wheel, and looking at Lynn's parts, I'm sure he even has far more machining than mine. I know a rep for an industrial sensor company and I'll give him a call tomorrow.

Maybe I could use an aluminum plate, with the embedded magnets, like Klaus uses. I would have to know if that type of Hall Effect device would work with the EC3.

Any other ideas?

Figuring out the Electronic Ignition

2009-04-19T05:36:00.001-07:00

Gee, no posts for a month. You'd think I wasn't doing anything. Actually, I've been stymied by the engine. The general symptom has been that I can't get full RPM. Before I started this conversion, I was getting 2,300 static RPM - now I can only get around 2,100, and it's rough.

Yesterday, I finally narrowed it down. The problem is definitely with my electronic ignition, and most likely my installation portion of it.

Yesterday, I ran the engine again, but this time I hooked up an automotive timing light to the #1 spark plug lead and kept the light in the cockpit to closely watch the flash and see what it was telling me. At low RPMs, idle through about 1,500, the flashes were nice and steady - just like when I did the Mode 8 check with the engine off.

However, as I started to raise the throttle, the flashes became intermittent.? It's as plain as day and I don't' know why it took me this long to see it. The faster the engine ran, the worse it got.

When I retarded the throttle, as I came back down to the 1,500 range the flashes on the timing light became nice and smooth again. So, now all I have to figure out, is why this is happening.

I still think there may be trouble in my 6" trigger wheel/sensor installation - possibly picking up noise from the crankshaft flange and prop bolt lugs. Lynn French's engine is down right now and he is kindly lending me his 7" trigger wheel and mount, and they should be here soon. Swapping those parts should quickly confirm or disprove that installation issue.

Air Intake mods - More Sawsall Art

2009-03-22T05:28:00.000-07:00

I continue to plug away at programming the EC3 and things are getting better. The mixture plot is getting smoother and the engine is running better.

I have a fifth fuel injector, which is used as a back-up, but it barely ran. I found that it was over-sized, capable of delivering 87 lbs. of fuel/hour and the mixture was extremely rich. This seems to be out of the adjustment range of the EC3 so I ordered a 55 lb./hr. injector. It will be here next week, so in the meantime I am holding off on tuning the engine and will tend to a few other items on the list.

All along, I have been planning a radical change to my combustion air intake. This was successfully accomplished by Harry Hinckley and Greg Zimmerman in Greg's FAST Swearingen SX300. There will be a little scoop in each plenum snout. This air will be directed, through two hard tubes, to the throttle body. Here is a photo of the mock-up I made last year. I have since made the pipes, now I just need to get the scoops placed in the plenum.

As usual, I start with pouring in 2-part foam, held in place with paper dams & tape.

Then I get out my favorite shop tool; Mr. Sawsall:

I use the 14" saw blade to gently remove some of the foam I didn't want.

After rough trimming, I attached a couple of pieces of hard foam, using 2-part foam as glue. The hard foam will make a better foundation for the lip of the scoop. Some wire pins hold the hard foam in place while the 2-part expands.

Since it's cool in the hangar, I'll wait a day before I get into the detail carving.

This may all seem hare-brained, but what the heck. That's what experimental aviation is all about.

More forwards and backwards

2009-03-14T05:59:00.000-07:00

The closer I get to the goal, the farther away it gets - at least, sometimes it seems that way.

My current challenge is getting the electronic timing correct, then to program in the mixture "map". To map the mixture settings with the RWS EC3 Electronic Control Unit (ECU), you will input a setting for each 1/2" step of manifold pressure; from idle, all the way to full throttle. You use the fuel/air gauge to determine what the mixture is, at that throttle setting.

This ultimately provides a look-up table for the ECU for any given throttle input.

Before I do that mapping process, I need to get the base ignition timing right. This consists of making a sole timing setting, the "base" timing. In my case, since I am using 9:1 pistons, it will be 25 degrees BTDC, with the engine at full throttle. By simply pushing a button, you use the ECU programming panel to advance or retard the timing.

So that's the theory. The reality of it all becomes more difficult, at least, for me.

First thing is the working conditions. While southern Illinois is hardly the coldest place in the nation, I am getting tired of winter.

I first tie the tail down to a front wheel of my car to keep it from going anywhere. In order to perform the timing, I have to beg a volunteer to come out and run the throttle for me.

In the above photo, (click to see it bigger) you can just see the toothed timing wheel, just aft of the propeller spinner flange. I mark some of the teeth for timing reference. Then I have to hook up a timing light and have the volunteer run it up to full throttle. I lean over the engine and hold the timing light within two inches of the spinning buzz saw. Since it's pretty bright outside I even have to shade the timing marks with my other hand so I can see the strobe flash. I actually kind of rest the side of my hand on the aft end of the spinning prop extension. I'm not sure that OSHA would approve.

I have to wear two jackets, goggles, hearing muffs and a hoodie to keep myself together. I calculated that at 35 degrees and 100 mph of prop blast, the windchill is 14 degrees. But that is really only half the fun. The other, is the sensory kick I get from the combination of the prop blast, the major engine vibration and noise, the snot blowing out of my nose fogging the goggles, and the inherent danger of working around those spinning parts.

So, after repeatedly (10 times?) doing all that, we found a few discrepancies. One, I made the sensor mounting bracket wrong and will have to re-do it. Two, for some unknown reason the engine runs worse when the timing is in the right place. Three, my digital tach bounces around so much I'm not really sure what it is telling me.

So whine, bitch and groan.

But, at least I keep working on it, and I guess that's progress.

Thanks, today, to John Eynon for patiently running the throttle for me.

Closer to the Goal

2009-03-08T06:35:00.000-07:00

The recent effort has been directed towards getting the engine to run properly, with the RWS EC3 system. There are all sorts of variables to work through; new throttle body, injectors, homemade induction pipes, the list is long.

Right now, I'm working through getting the mixture and ignition timing properly adjusted. This is a pretty big deal and will take a while.

To complicate things, the readings from the mixture meter have been unreliable. Here is the one I'm using.

It turns out, I mounted the sensor too close to the end of the exhaust pipe. The O2 sensor is very sensitive and I guess that ambient air is getting sucked back into the exhaust pipe, between pulses, particularly at lower RPMs. This winds up showing the mixture to be too lean. As suggested, I clamped on a piece of pipe I had laying around and the mixture meter reading instantly got better.

Again, the use of this meter and sensor is only temporary, until I get everything calibrated.

Right now, I'm running the engine without the canopy installed, which is giving me a real wind-blown hairstyle. The best I have seen, at full throttle is about 2,200 RPM and 29" hg. I have old data that I had attained 2,340 RPM and 29", so I have little way to go.

I'm getting some of the wiring tidied up and pretty soon it will be time to, hook up the rudder cables, install the back-up battery and install the canopy.

On another successful note, my custom designed and built fuel flow circuit board works just great. The Dynon D180 allows you to connect a flow transducer. These transducers typically have a little fan in it, that rotates as fuel flows. A sensor picks up the pulse count and sends it to the D180 and indicates flow in gph. The problem with my system is that fuel passes through an open loop, starting at the header tank, running through pumps and filters, past the fuel injectors, and then back to the header tank. Because of this, any fuel flow transducer will sense ALL the fuel flowing and not just the fuel consumed.

Note: the flow out of the injectors is controlled by the duration of time that the injectors open. More fuel demand - the injector pulse width increases. Less demand - narrower pulse width. The number of pulses per engine revoultion is fixed.

Mike Dwyer to the rescue. Mike is a Dynon dealer and an electronics whiz. Mike designed a circuit that takes a signal from an injector. It converts an increase in pulse width to an increase in pulse frequency. It's all black magic, to me.
I got with Dennis Hannon, the avionics instructor at SIU, and an avionics student, and they fabricated and bench-tested the converter. I named the piece the Dwyer-Hannon Frequency Converter.
And what do you know? I works! Fantastic!

Mike designed in a calibration potentiometer, but the Dynon also has an adjustment multiplier. There is a little formula to dial in the calibration, so in a short while my fuel flow indicator will be correct.

Sweet!

Fowards and Backwards

2009-02-14T09:16:00.000-08:00

Good news, bad news, good attitude.

The good news is the engine runs! Having said that, this is all extremely uncharted territory, and if it wasn't for Lynn French, I would be completely in the dark. Lynn is the character that first installed an electronic fuel injection and ignition, in his Tri-Q-200.

I used Bosch 24 lh/hr. fuel injectors, sometimes referred to as "blue tops". These are the same size that Lynn uses and it seemed like a good starting point. The ECU is programmable and you can adjust the fuel flow to your own particular application and injectors. When we first got it started, it was extremely rich. I mean rich, to the point where there was black smoke plainly coming out of the exhaust and now there are two major soot streaks running down the belly.

The first few times I ran it, it was kind of a sensory overload; all these new dials, buttons, and the like, to learn. And, it seemed like some features worked and some didn't. It was, and still is, a lot to sort out.

There is a fair amount of programming of the controller to do. The idea is to first match the basic flow of the injectors to the engine, then to map out the mixture tables.

Adjusting the mixture is interesting. First, instead of a mixture knob that you pull out, there is a mixture dial on the Programming Control Module (PCM). You use the dial for tweaking, but you use the Program Variable, Mode and Store controls to make your adjustments permanent. (Over simplification, really).

To adjust the mixture, you really can't use the conventional EGT. We welded a bung into one of the exhaust stacks and have installed a Bosch automotive oxygen sensor. This is connected to a gauge in the cockpit and it provides a digital presentation if the mixture is rich or lean. This gauge reacts much faster than a regular EGT and is easy to interpret. The first sensor I bought didn't work very well, so I bought a better one which has it's own heater.

The O2 sensor is temporary. They are designed for unleaded fuel and after a while 100LL is said to clog them up. I only need it though, for the initial mixture mapping.

All of this is so new to me and there is so much to learn. Sheesh!

After a while we (C-Rod and I), came to the conclusion that the programming button wasn't working. Now, we may be mistaken, but we think we have it right. Anyway, after lots of diagnostic e-mails, back and forth, with the controller designer/manufacturer, I pulled the unit and am returning it for evaluation.

I will say that the engine starts easily, and seems to run fairly well, considering. There are lots of unknowns here, I have an automotive racing throttle body, homemade induction system and lots of seat-of-the-pants engineering, so I am taking everything in stride.

I guess I'll work on my taxes while I wait the outcome of the controller.

My Red Letter Day

2009-02-08T14:02:00.000-08:00

The engine started.

Yes, and I think it's starting to set in. It has been one year, two months, and 15 days since I last flew it, and the engine ran. But, who's counting?

The ice and snow is finally gone, so today C-Rod came out to help and try to fire it up. Hardly anything is safetied or tied down, I just wanted to see if the darned thing would run.

We tied it to my car, looked it all over and hit the button. The prop spun but no start. The EC3 controls both spark and fuel, so after a while I suggested that Charley spray in a little starting ether and see what that did.

I tried it again, and the engine lit and spun up! So, that must have meant the ignition part was working but there was something wrong with the fuel injector part.

We looked and looked, tore some wires fuel injector apart, checked pins, connectors, cables, wiring, all sorts of stuff. Still couldn't get the injectors to fire.

Then I said, "Let's see if maybe it's just the remaining magneto that is working and not the electronic ignition. Charley, spray some more ether and I'll try it with the mag off". It briefly roared and spun over fast as the ether fired up and tried to start.

But, I wondered if the magneto was really turned off. Maybe the mag was working and the ignition was not. "Charley, lets remove the plug wires and try it". So we pulled the Slick's wires, but the engine still tried to start on the ether.

"Charley, just for grins, pull the ALL the plug wires". So he did. To our astonishment, the engine STILL tried to fire up when boosted with the ether! Apparently, the high compression (9:1) pistons caused the either to diesel and ignite.

So, our initial supposition that the ignition must be working, was invalid. We decided to go back to the basics and make sure that the EC3 ECU was getting all the input it needed, and whattya know?

We found two wires reversed. It turns out the main power, from the "A" switch was being sent to the "B" side of the ECU, and vice-versa. Because of this the ECU, wasn't getting fed 12 volts.

I think we would have figured this out four hours earlier, if we weren't led astray by that goofy starting ether. After that was corrected it fired right up!

We ran it for about 15 minutes and seemed to be good. There is still a lot to be done, to be learned, and bugs to be ironed out, but it was a Red Letter Day!

Winter

2009-02-05T13:16:00.001-08:00

Went to the hangar today, first time in a week. Too cold to work and enthusiasm was low. There is a ridge of solid ice, about 8" thick, all along the hangar door. If I hit the "OPEN" button, I would destroy the hangar door.

But hooray, tomorrow it's going to be in the 50s and the forecast is way above freezing for at least a week!

Maybe I can get the engine started next week. At least the oil in my new sump hasn't leaked out.

Updated Progress Report

2009-01-29T20:02:00.000-08:00

No Engine Start This Month

2009-01-28T09:33:00.000-08:00

Winter has dealt an unfortunate blow. Until two days ago, we had a total winter accumulated snowfall of 3/8" and I was gloating about it. However, for the past two days, everything is shut down. The Southern Illinois Airport has been closed for two days. Even the Dairy Queen is closed. M'boro has about two plows and a they are overloaded. We are still waiting for a plow on our street.

I helped the neighbors get free two mornings in a row. Naturally, I got them out with my years of experience living up north. (beats hands on chest).

I doubt I will get to the hangar today, and tomorrow I have to drive to Chicago, to give a presentation on Friday.

Right now, it looks more like an engine on a test stand, than an airframe. I just want to get the thing running, then come the refinements.

So, maybe Tuesday or Wednesday, provided I can get the plane out of the hangar. So here we sit...

The Drum Roll ... Please

2009-01-26T17:12:00.000-08:00

My goal was to have an engine start by the end of January.

The fuel injection lines are all hooked up and I checked for leaks. There is now six quarts of oil in the home made oil sump. Spark plugs and wires are installed. There is a propeller on the plane. There is 10 gallons of fresh gas in the plane. All I need to do hook up the wires for the five fuel intectors, and we're ready.

They are predicting, for tomorrow, one of the worst winter storms we've had in years.

Tonight...Snow...sleet and a chance of freezing rain. Snow may be heavy at times. Snow and sleet accumulation of 4 to 6 inches. Ice accumulation of up to one quarter of an inch. Lows in the lower 20s. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.

Tuesday...Freezing rain and sleet. Sleet accumulation of 1 to 2 inches. Ice accumulation of up to one quarter of an inch. Highs in the mid 20s. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.

Tuesday Night...Snow likely with possible sleet and freezing rain in the evening...then snow likely after midnight. Snow and sleet accumulation of 2 to 4 inches. Total snow accumulation 7 to 10 inches. Total ice accumulation one quarter to one half inch. Lows around 17. North winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation 80 percent.

Other than that, it's all good.

Starting to look like an Engine again

2009-01-24T08:34:00.000-08:00

I've got the exhaust mounted, ignition coils, the spark plugs, EGT/CHT, and a bunch of other stuff. The wires look bad, but it's really not that bad. UPS brings the last of the fuel fittings on Monday.

A Wife Can Cut to the Chase

2009-01-24T07:01:00.000-08:00

At breakfast, I remarked to Sandy that she hadn't produced a painting, suitable for hanging on the wall, since she started taking formal art classes at SIU. She responded, "You haven't flown your plane in a year, either".

It's 18 degrees, here in Murphysboro, and the winds are 16 gusting to 26. Windchill is 3 F.

I hope to have an engine start next week.

Sam the Plumber

2009-01-20T05:51:00.000-08:00

Cold weather continues to hamper progress. Last week it was 19 degrees F and the hangar was probably 23F.

To me, this electronic fuel injection is a big deal to install, but very interesting. Right now, I still don't have have all the plumping fittings that I need.

It seems like I always have the wrong ones. I recently sat down and ordered everything I thought I'd need. I used a couple of sources, Summit Racing and Ebay. When everything arrived I found a major screw-up. I ordered -6 fittings, instead of -4. Rats! You ever try and return anything through Ebay?

Yesterday, I found that even the different brands aren't always compatible. I had accumulated Earls's fittings, Summit Racing's own brand and Aeroquip. I find that the Earl's fittings don't like the Aeroquip braided hose. From here on out I will try to use the Aeroquip, but man, they are proud of their stuff! Expensive!

The fuel system is a closed loop. Here is the path:

From the header tank
through the shutoff valve
through the 40 micron gascolator
through the fuel pump
through the 10 micron filter
through the left firewall
past five fuel injectors
returned through the right firewall
through the fuel pressure regulator and
back into the header tank.

There are probably 30 joints where fuel can leak, this part is a challenge.

Speaking of fuel injection, through a rotary engine news group, I came across a link on rolling your own fuel injection controller, from Paul Lamar. While it may look promising, it apparently hasn't been built yet. There is also some information about Klaus Savier's fuel injection system.

Throttle connections

2009-01-11T16:44:00.001-08:00

It's kind of hard to see in these photos (click on'em to see them bigger) , but more progress is happening. A new throttle cable is installed and attached to a sideways mounted, Jenvey racing throttle body. Each intake tube gets a fuel injector and the throttle body has a fifth one for an emergency get-home device.

The end of the throttle cable housing has to be securely secured, which was yet another problem for this installation. I wound up embedding a couple of Clickbond studs on the side of the carbon fiber oil sump and attached a bracket to hold the throttle. The photos aren't the greatest, but I'll get more when things move on a little.

You can see the fittings for the fuel injectors, along with the obligatory duct tape. Since the fuel will be pressurized at 42 psi, it's imperative that nothing leaks - so I'm spending a lot of time cogitating on the matter and searching for fuel proof duct tape.

Photo of the right side of the oil sump, showing the attached throttle and sump support brackets.

The goal is to fire up the engine started by the end of the month on January 2009.

Year-end Update

2008-12-31T05:20:00.000-08:00

Off topic, from the '70s. Here's an old photo of me and my buddies making a practice jump at East Troy, Wisconsin. We were getting ready for regional 10-man speed star competition.

It was a good year, but I do regret not getting to fly and race this thing.

Having said that, I am really getting close. I'm working on firewall forward and things aren't too bad. I just had two days of working with the hangar door open and it is really a morale booster. So much better than trying to think and fabricate in a dungeon.

My most recent success (meaning overcome obstacle) is mounting my ignition coils. With the RWS EC3 injection/ignition system, each plug gets it's own LS1 coil. I understand these coils are used on Corvette engines. I took a cue from Lynn French's creative installation and mounted two of them directly on the engine mount. I think this will work pretty well.

My short-term goal is to fire up the engine by the end of January.

I don't work in a total vacuum and certainly don't have the skills to do it all myself. Here are just some of the people that helped me this past year. I know I don't have everyone and if you don't see yourself here, please don't be offended. I probably lost those brain cells connected with your name.

Billy Cheek
Bob Knuckolls and the AeroElectric Connection e-mail list
Bruce Dallas
Charley "C-Rod" Rodriguez
Cory Steinkoneig
David Posey
Dennis Hannon
Don Bartlett
Grither's Auto Body
Harry Hinckley
Jerry Marstall
John Cotter
John Eynon
Ken Robinson
Larry Dauer
Keven Mitchell
Lynn French
Mike Bergen
Mike Burgener
Mike Dwyer
Mike Most
Rob Hoskins
Various SIU Aviation Technology students

And the award for the most help and patient understanding goes to:

My beautiful wife, Sandy

My original target date, for project completion, was May 1, 2008. I still think that was realistic for the original project list, but I kept adding things and it grew and grew and grew. Not on the original list were; replacement of the rear wing, new canopy, and TWO PAINT JOBS.

I just need to stay at it.

Composite Oil Sump is 99.4% Complete

2008-12-24T05:43:00.000-08:00

Don't try this at home!

There were just a few things to attend to for the oil sump; like installing a filler cap and post curing the thing. You can refer back to this post to see how I got it this far. http://samhoskins.blogspot.com/2008/06/carbon-fiber-oil-sump.html

I was able to get into the composites lab at SIU AvTech to make the final parts. I used an AN825-20D cap and an AN824-20D nut as the final fitting. I intend to insert a 1/8" welding rod as the dipstick. Thanks to Justin Mace for that idea.

After the thing was complete, I used an oven at SIU to post cure it. This particular epoxy remains quite brittle until the crosslink reaction is complete. I kept it at 140 degrees for 10 hours, then ramped it up to 300 degrees for about 20 minutes. This oven has a precise thermostat and a circulating fan. As you can see, it just barely fit!

After I fabricate the dipstick I'll have to shorten the oil sump suction tube. Then it'll be time to bolt it up and add oil!

I sure hope it doesn't leak.

Today's report

2008-12-13T05:18:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update. I'm working on the firewall forward stuff now. The bigger challenges here are to install the trigger sensor, the four LS1 ignition coils, complete earlier work on the carbon fiber oil sump, and install the new Jenvy throttle body and linkage.

As usual, the biggest hurdle is just starting. I had been fretting about it a lot, but I found once I got started on the trigger sensors bracket that it was no big deal. Using a free CAD program, I laid out the drawing. Then it was just a lot of cutting, drilling and fitting.

My main tools are a band saw, drill press and a vice. No mill or lathe, unfortunately. Here's a couple of photos of the trigger sensor. Click on the photos to see 'em bigger.

NOW we're making progress!!!

2008-12-03T16:30:00.000-08:00

Here's couple of photos of both behind the scenes and the new panel. I still have another day of hooking up some of the Dynon and ICOM wires, but we're pretty much good to go.

This first photo shows the pilot's rudder pedals, the finned voltage regulator, and the blue thing is the filter capacitor. You can also see the high pressure fuel tubing and the blue return hose.

After setting the instrument panel in place and crimping on about a hundred wires (well, maybe 25) I hooked up a battery and connected power. At first nothing worked. Couldn't get the master switch to operate.

Oh yea. I have to hook up the instrument panel ground plug. Still nothing worked.

Oh yea. I have to hook up the fat engine ground wire. Still nothing worked.

Oh yea. I have to hook up those five other grounds. (I'll have to get a photo of the forest of ground tabs).

Still...

Found a broken wire on the switch that goes to the master solenoid.

NOW SOMETHING WORKS!!!!

I was able to switch on the master and run some fuel pumps and the strobe lights. But, I couldn't get the main distribution bus to run on it's own. No nav lights either.

But, the nav lights are on the same bus as the strobe. Damn. I hope I wired up that bridge diode correctly. Checked it out and it seems okay, but maybe I drew the diode in backwards and wired it according to the drawing . Let's take the meter and work backwards to see where power is feeding from.

Oops! I forgot to install the fuse for both the bus and for the nav lights.

Now EVERYTHING works! Well, everything meaning everything that's hooked up. So, in a couple of days I should be able to start working on the installation in earnest.

Thank God I didn't let any smoke out of the wires.

The Instrument Panel is In

2008-12-03T05:35:00.000-08:00

It's been almost exactly one year since I pulled the instrument panel and yesterday I set the new one back in place. Still working in a 43 degree hangar, but with the halogen lights, I actually feel like I might be getting a sun burn.

I recorded a couple of weights before it went in. The .050" aluminum panel, switches, wire, and brackets comes in at 7 pounds. Adding the Dynon, the hand held GPS, transponder, and com radios brought it up to 15 pounds.

Like I said, I have better than a hundred wires in this set-up. It's relatively easy to work behind the panel area, before it's installed, but becomes much more limited now that it's in place. This was so much easier 22 years ago.

I'll sit on my haunches for quite a few minutes at a time and when I have to get out of the plane to get something, it takes a while to unfold myself. Toward the end of the exercise, as I was crawling over the side rail, I got a sudden damned charlie horse. Ouch!

After a few adjustments, I stuck the panel in place and started hooking up some wires. Each wire is tagged with a number; Axx - general airframe, Exx - EC3 Engine Control Unit related, and Dxx - part of the Dynon D180 FlightDEK. Everything is pretty well identified on my drawings and, in theory, it's just a matter of crimping on a terminal and sticking it on the proper switch.

About two hours into it I did find I had forgotten to run a critical wire - the wire that feeds +12V to the ignition coils. Rats. Well, it won't be bad to run the new one.

I keep imagining the fun I'll have as I actually apply power and start flipping a few switches. With a little luck, things will operate and I won't let the smoke out of the wires.

No photos today.

A Year Ago, Today

2008-11-24T15:49:00.000-08:00

A year ago today was the last time I flew the Quickie. The target date for getting back in the air was May 1, 2008. I guess I missed that one a little.

On this anniversary, I was planning on making a list of all the things I have changed, but that would be boring and time consuming, so maybe I'll do that after the plane is once again airborne.

The latest update; lots more wires going in, still working on the final electrical system design, and getting ready to install the panel.

It looks rough, but it will all clean up.

More From the Dungeon

2008-11-20T04:45:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I feeling like I am working in a dungeon. I have two light stands, a lighted magnifier at the work bench, a portable trouble light, a light bulb in my drill press and my pedestal grinder, and a 150 watt bulb waaay at the top of the hangar. I do arrange it to illuminate my particular task, but overall it's pretty dim.

The temperatures aren't too bad - yet. However, today we are supposed to have a high of 37 degrees and I may get five degrees more than that after the lights have been on for an hour or so.

But enough whining...

The wiring is coming along well. I am dangerously close to being able to permanently install the instrument panel. Yesterday, I decided to change where the fuel injection fuel re-enters the cockpit and had to order a few more AN fittings from Summit Racing.

This photo shows the main battery and the two always hot battery busses in the passenger's baggage compartment. (You are seeing the shelves through the tailcone opening.) This wiring scheme is based on Bob Nuckolls' drawing Z-19RB, electronic fuel injection w/dual rear batteries, page A & page B. The always hot busses feed the electronic control unit, the ignition coils, the fuel injectors, and the fuel injection pumps. (click on photo for more detail.)

With the help of a fellow EAAer I installed the new starter contactor and ran the starter's fat wires. I am using 4AWG welding cable which is very flexible and tough. I'm soldering the terminals and it's working out pretty well. Here is Bob's article on soldering fat wires.

BTW, if you haven't already gotten familiar with Bob Knuckolls and his AeroElectric Connection you are missing the boat. This man has provided a wealth of information for aircraft electrical systems, and has made it available for a song. Buy his book!

It was also time to get the engine off the stand and back where it belongs, to see how everything seems to be fitting. It's not on permanently, but it is heartening to see it back where it belongs, even if it is temporary.

The Darkest Night is Just Before Dawn

2008-11-13T04:33:00.001-08:00

Now that the days are getting shorter and it's getting colder, I'm having to hunker down a little. Right now, anyway, the hangar is still tolerable. This week the indoor temperature ranges from 50 to 60 degrees and I'm still comfortable. Unfortunately, I have to keep the door closed and it makes it a little like working in a dungeon. I have a couple of halogen trouble light stands which kick out a good amount of light.

Here's a photo of the executive office:

The wiring is coming along well, but the wire count is quite high. I would say I will be having to identify, cut, add terminals, and mark over a hundred wires, before it's all done. But, like I tell my wife, this is the fun part. I should be able to permanently install the instrument panel by the end of the week.

One wire at a time, every thing is falling neatly into place. There are three major systems involved. First the aircraft electrical system, which I have made redundant because the plane is now all electric. Then, I have the Dynon FlightDek D180 EFIS/EMS system. And finally, I have the RWS EC3 electronic ignition and fuel injection system.

Yikes! The Stripes!

2008-11-04T04:02:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of photos to show the paint stripe, courtesy of Sandy. She gave me the stripes for my upcoming 38th birthday. Or is it my 48th? Or....?

As always, click on the photo to see it bigger. Questions and comments are always welcome.

All Things Electrical

2008-10-25T16:13:00.001-07:00

I've been trying to concentrate on all of the electrical items from the firewall aft. This is cool, since I am actually bolting parts on the airframe, and the piles of parts in boxes are getting smaller.

With the exception of the wiring, I have the instrument panel largely complete. The Biggies are; handheld GPS dock for my old Garmin GPSMap196, Dynon D180, ICOM A210 Com., Transponder, and RWS ECU programming panel. You will also notice about 20 pounds of switches, used to control the ignition/injection/fuel pumps. As always, click on the photo for more detail.
On the backside of the panel, you can see two fuse blocks, a couple of diode sets and a couple of switching relays.

Throughout the airframe, I've also installed the engine and battery busses and contactors, the voltage regulator and filter capacitor and the big ammeter shunt device.

Soon, I'll get some preliminary wiring done on the panel, then get it permanently installed.

The biggest challenge, right now, is sizing the batteries. My load analysis shows that I'll need about 13 amps to keep this thing in the air. To make my system redundant, I'll need a backup battery capable of delivering 13 amps for a half hour. Yeauch!

I figured out how and where they should go, I just hate adding all that weight.

Sandy said I should just eat less and get some exercise and not worry about the battery.

Now - Where was I?

2008-10-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

Time to get back to the fun stuff. While I was waiting for the paint to dry I did get some other work in on the aft side of the firewall. Specifically, I'm working on the instrument panel, location of the batteries, and getting the fuel system in.

Because I'm using fuel injection, I will need a fuel pump to boost the fuel to about 45 psi. It is a closed loop system, meaning, the fuel is in constant circulation as it's filtered, boosted and regulated. The pump and filter package is mounted to the fuselage wall, just aft of the pilot.

I chose Walbro pumps and I have a second as a backup. Fuel leaves the header tank via the black fuel line and goes to an aft mounted 70 micron gascolator. Then through the fuel pump, through a 10 micron filter, then through the aluminium tubing to the firewall. After making the circuit around the engine, it returns back through the firewall and is delivered to the fuel pressure regulator. After the regulator, the excess fuel is dumped back into the header tank.

One of the biggest challenges was bending the aluminum tubing, especially the 1/2" stuff. It was tough even finding the right bender. Fortunately, I was again able to tap into SIU AvTech and got hold of Professor Billy Cheek. Billy used to bend tin for the Air Force and pulled me out of the deep hole I'd gotten myself into.

The photos are showing the work in progress. Click on 'em to see 'em bigger. Please excuse the dust.

Today I actually applied power to the fuel pumps and pressurized the system. For testing purposes I took it to 80 psi, but I think I will normally run it at 45 psi. The test was a great morale boost!

Painted at last, Painted at last, Thank God it's painted at Last!

2008-10-21T17:42:00.000-07:00

I finally got all the parts back from the paint shop.

How long has it been? I think Rob came down just before the Fourth of July and that was the start. You can see it here: http://samhoskins.blogspot.com/2008/07/cascades-of-dust.html

I've already put the elevators and ailerons back on, and I'm fitting the rudder into place. I hope to get the stripes applied soon.

The paint really looks nice and the color is consistant. I guess I'm glad I stuck with it.

Free CAD drafting program

2008-10-18T05:41:00.000-07:00

Not that this has much to do with anything, but I wanted to let you know that there is a nifty free Computer Aided Drafting program out there I have come to use and like. It's called SolidEdge2D. It has been great for me and it's free.

Why free? Their idea is to get you hooked on their 2D program, then hopefully, you will upgrade to 3D.

I use it mostly for my electrical drawings
Following Bob Nuckolls, AeroElectric Connection, I have a large page for the main power distribution, than an individual page for each component. BTW, if you don't have a copy, get one. I consider it a must-have.

A long time ago I used AutoCad. The company I used to work for used CoCreate's ME10, which was completely different and I grew accustomed to it. After I retired, I would have preferred to stay with ME10 but it was avilable for corporate use only.

I tried some versions of AutoCad but didn't really get along with them, then I came across SolidEdge2D.

They just released a new version, so I'm getting used to it now.

Paint not yet resolved.

2008-10-14T05:02:00.000-07:00

I'm still waiting to get the rest of the parts back from the paint shop. I really need the elevators since I will be routing things around the bellcranks.

Jon Finley suggested I choose some contrasting colors.

Now what?

2008-10-08T15:23:00.000-07:00

Quick update here. It's definitely a good news/bad news situation.

After sanding off about $700 worth of new paint, I sent my plane to a local body shop. The interesting thing was getting a plane with a 17 foot gear width onto a 16 foot trailer. It went well and we didn't have too far to go.

They mixed a single gallon of paint and used the base coat/clear coat method - standard for automotive paint shops. We brought it home and everything seemed great - until...

Until I put the cowling on. Lo and behold, the cowling was darker than the rest of the fuselage! A closer look revealed that the flight controls, spinner, wheel cover pants were also off color.

I brought Sandy out to the airport to look at it. I thought maybe she might suggest that I live with it, but she was disappointed, too.

I had the guys come out and look at it but they couldn't figure out what happened, since it was all painted from a single gallon. They called the DuPont specialist to take a look and even he couldn't figure it out.

So, how to make it right? The DuPont guy brought a nifty scanner which he placed on the fuselage, just aft of the firewall. This device calibrates the color of the existing paint. They took it back to the body shop and plugged it into the paint mixing computer. Just like that, the computer mixes the paint to match the scan.

Today I dropped off the flight controls and some other odds & ends, to be repainted. If they look right, we'll do the cowling. The good news is that the tail cone and canopy match. I know it will be fine when we're done.

On another note, I'm starting to plumb the high pressure fuel system for the electronic fuel injection.

Progress is happening

2008-09-25T05:22:00.000-07:00

Even though I haven't posted lately, progress is in the works. I sanded a lot of the paint off and made arrangements to have a local body shop shoot it. So far, they have shot the upper and lower cowl, the flight controls, canopy and tailcone. Today, we are supposed to trailer the fuselage over and paint it over the weekend.

No photos, with this post, instead, take a look at the photos, at Sandy's blog www.sanleeott.blogspot.com , from last week's mini-vacation in Arizona. I gave a Mistake-Proofing presentation at the National Association for Healthcare Quality on Monday, so we fooled around in Arizona for the rest of the week.

A Paint Job Gone Bad - Rats!!!

2008-09-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

After the paint job was done, and much to my total dismay, I discovered there were significant problems with the color match on different parts of the plane. The forward fuselage/wing/canard is one shade and the tail cone, control surfaces, cowling and canopy are another.

Blame is easily dispensed, but in truth, it is shared.

Maybe I should just make a list of the issues, rather than elaborating on each one.

The paint booth did not have a clean regulated air supply. This meant that the pressure delivered to the air gun ranged from 70 - 110 psi. Rob could adjust the pressure at his gun, but that was a band-aid.
We did not have the proper range of tips for his expensive HVLP spray gun. Having the correct tip size is critical to accomodate the viscosity of the paint. My brother forgot to bring the other tips and was forced to use his "retired" HVHP gun, which resulted in wasting a lot of paint.
We used two different gallons of custom mixed paint, purchased with a one month interval. The paint shop did not properly mix the second gallon, so it didn't exactly match the first. It should have been a lot closer. However, it would have been better to purchase the two gallons at the same time, then mix them together before shooting. Bouncing up to steps #1&2 above, if we had the right gun and a regulated air supply we would have used a lot less paint and the second gallon may not have been an issue. Everything is connected.
Due to having the wrong gun, we ran out of the second gallon and were unable to paint the canopy. We purchased a single quart and it turned out that it was mixed way off and was very light. The paint shop remixed another quart, but it is not enough compensation for the extra work involved.
We shot the fuselage at the end of a long day. It would have been much better to wait until the next day when we were fresher and thinking straighter.
The cup used to proportion the paint, hardener, and reducer was confusing to use and not really suited to the paint we used.

Of course, my first thought was to see if I could just live with it. I brought Sandy out to look at the plane and get her opinion. She didn't like it either and said something to the effect that "you'll never be happy with this".

I brought out a father/son team from a local body shop and asked them how to make it right. Chris said the words I really didn't want to hear; "If it was mine, I'd just re-shoot the whole thing. You're not going to be able to blend this properly".

So now, almost a month after the first shoot, I have a lot of the paint sanded off and I will be hauling it off to the body shop this afternoon.

The "lessons learned" post will come later. Have a nice day.

Q-2 canopy for sale

2008-09-01T12:31:00.000-07:00

I have a new clear canopy for sale, on Ebay.
Here is the URL http://tinyurl.com/62j6gd

All proceeds will be donated to the Plastic Explosive "Sander's Elbow" fund.

"There is No Such Thing as a Simple and Cheap Paint Job"

2008-08-24T07:42:00.000-07:00

That quote was from the counter man at my local paint supply shop, as I returned to buy yet another $100 quart of paint to fix yet another of my screw-ups.

The week of prepping, primer and painting was an exhausting marathon. As I write this, Rob is on the train on his way back to house and family.

Some of the good things were: getting to spend time with my brother, getting the benefit of his years of experience, getting to use the SIU Aviation Technology paint booth, getting help from some of the SIU students, getting rid of all of all that old cracked paint and filler, having Sandy provide critically needed logistics support, and finally, getting paint on the bird.

Some of the not-so-good things were; having the wrong tip on his new HVLP gun for the DuPont Centari and getting runs on the vertical stab, sticker shock at the paint store, and me mis-mixing the paint used on the main fuselage resulting in excessive orange peel which will require extra wet sanding after everything cures.

I really didn't want to repaint the thing, but now that I have, I'm sure I will be happy with it. But, oh man! What a job!

Getting the Primer On It

2008-08-21T05:46:00.000-07:00

Moving day! I was able to get my main man, Robbie Hoskins down to direct the painting operation for this little beast. Again, I am grateful to SIU's Aviation Technology department for allowing me to use the facilities. In this case, it is there brand new paint booth.

After a week of sanding the epoxy wipe, I was ready for Rob and his magic paint gun. First, we had to tow it over to the AvTech hangar. Rob couldn't really believe it when I told him how were going to do this.

A little last minute sanding was in order.

We warmed up by prepping and shooting primer on the tail cone and the upper and lower cowl.

Now we had to figure out how to handle the fuselage. With the assistance of several AvTech students we lifted the plane and placed it on a large wooden dolly they had laying around. A few screws fixed it into place.

It was really great having Rob help and he really knows what he is doing. We finished the second day with two coats of primer on the cowling and tali cone, and one on the fuselage!

Doing the Epoxy Wipe

2008-08-11T04:44:00.000-07:00

This is a great technique. I first became aware of it when reading an article about Cory Bird and his most perfect Symmetry.

In "the old days" we would apply filler, then use progressive grits of sand paper until we had a very smooth finish. Then we would apply primer, or maybe more micro, to fill all the pinholes. Then we would sand it off, only to find that the pinholes where still there. Over and over and over.

Using the epoxy wipe method I sanded with 36 Grit, then a quick once-over with 80 grit. The epoxy wipe fills pinholes, pot holes, scratches, gouges and all sorts of other sins. It also does a great job of hardening the soon-to-be-painted surface.

Today, we filled the forward fuselage, the tail cone, upper cowling, lower cowl and the upper surface of the canopy. I used West 105/206 epoxy and applied four skim coats.

The idea is to apply it, then squeegee off as much epoxy as you possibly can. When it gets tacky, repeat. With all the components I was working on, I just kept rotating through. It took us about 4 1/2 hours. It really helped having Sandy mix while I was working. It was warm in the hangar - 88 F degrees.

I also wanted to keep track of the weight I was adding. We kept track of every cup mixed and I figure we added 2.2 lbs.

Now, I'll sand it all with 180 Grit and it's ready for paint.

Sanding

2008-08-09T05:28:00.000-07:00

Over the years, we have learned better sanding techniques than were called out in the original plans. I'd thought I'd cover some of the main sanding tools that I now use. (As always, click on the photo the the full size image).

Again, the main idea is to lay your filler material on THICK, then sand down the high spots until you just reach the fiberglass. There are two excellent on-line descriptions that describe best practices.

Chapter 25: The Contouring Process

and

Finishing a Composite Airplane

1. Sand Paper The first strong recommendation is to buy only automotive body shop quality paper. I think that the 3M paper is the best and longest lasting and is my preference, by far. I get my paper at a local automotive paint shop supply store.

Almost all of the work will be done with 36 grit paper and I keep a good supply on hand. I really like the stuff that comes with the adhesive backing. It's 2" wide by 16" long.

2. Small Sanding Blocks Try and avoid doing any sanding, at all, with just your fingers - always use a sanding block. If you use solely your hands, the paper will follow the contour of the thing you are trying to sand down and you will not get a smooth surface.

I make extensive use of the rubber sanding blocks - there are both 6" and 8" available. I stick the paper to both the curved and straight sides.

For fillets and the like, I simple stick some 36G on a piece of cardboard tube.

I have also used this single stick board for many years.

3. Long block I used some shelf board I had laying around and cut it to 32" and mounted a section of aluminum angle for a better grip. This length allows me to use two 16" sticky back strips. With fresh paper, this is a great tool and really cuts into the micro.

I strictly use 36 grit on the whole plane until I get the contours that I want. When I have that desired shape I switch over to 80 grit. All the 80 grit does is to knock off the highest cuts left by the 36G.

All sanding should be done at 45 degree angles.

Don't worry about deep scratches, pin holes, deep holes or black holes. The next step will take care of it all,

Next, comes the epoxy wipe!

Good to Be Home

2008-08-05T06:53:00.000-07:00

I did Oshkosh for the whole week. Saw lots of folks and did lots of stuff.

Paul Fisher and his boy, Roy came out and helped with pyro. Yes - those are real sticks of dynamite!

When we shot the wall of fire, Doc and I peered over our standard issue cardboard blast protection. Roy ducked a little.

The minor irritation of the week came from some Vari-Eze driver who showed up with the Plastic Explosive label on his plane. He must not know who he's messing with.

Now, back to sanding.

Off to Oshkosh

2008-07-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

I have flown my little Quickie into Oshkosh 19 times and this year was to be the 20th. Oh well.

Sandy will be missing the big event. Since I wasn't planning on going, she made other plans.

I was pretty much resigned to skipping it all together this year, when Ken Robinson came along and asked me if I would like to fly his 1955 C-182 up to Wisconsin. Ken has been the benefactor of the SIU aerobatic team. Just to sweeten the pot, he is throwing in an armband.

So, how could I say no? I'll be tenting under the wing of the C-182 for a couple nights, then I'll transition to a hotel room with Rich Gibson and the Pyro crew.

One of the best things about having Race 22 at Oshkosh is just hanging around my plane and see who shows up. I get to see old friends, remote Quickie builders, former students and others - I'll miss that this year.

But, like the Chicago Cubs - Wait till next year!

The Sands of Southern Illinois

2008-07-26T06:22:00.000-07:00

The coating of gray primer really helps you to see what needs to be sanded next.

Small Update

2008-07-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

Just another photo or two of the filler.

I went around with my sanding grinder and knocked off most of the high spots and clumps. (Making lots of dust!). I went to Wal-Mart and got a couple cans of cheap gray primer and sprayed the fuselage. I found this is a big help to find the low spots while sanding. I would have preferred a darker primer, but I didn't want to chase around for it.

I think I'm beginning to develop "sander's elbow".