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sorry my friend. you have been badly misinformed, and it is suprising to hear such OWT coming from a A&P

 

 

the rotax 912 has indeed been certified and can be purchased with or without FAR certification, being the difference the price and a few minor details.

the 912 has never been on a snowmobile. is an engine designed on purpose for airplanes, and those who say it is a snowmobile engine are talking from the proverbial orifice.

 

for sure, betweeen an adapted rotary and a rotax, id choose the latter any time, without hesitation.

 

 

Rotax and VW are Okay?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I didn't think either had been certified.

 

Rorary is bad?

Is this ALL rotary applications?

Would a Mistral engine be less reliable than a Rotax?

Have you alerted all the RWS & RV guys to this potentially deadly situation?

 

I think your argument may have more holes in it than say ............. Swiss Cheese! :D

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i am starting to have a different view on some of the aviation "totems" ;-) preflight check being one of those.

 

do you "preride" your car every morning before going to work? and i bet in many cases it was parked in the street, where anyone can sabotage your brakes or unbolt a wheel. i bet i could paint a cross on the right side of your car and you wouldnt notice it until someone told you :-D.

 

 

i do a walkaround before flying, but mostly to check if there is any new hole in the a/c fabric; our hangar is small anc crowded so we had many cases of hangar rash. but for the rest, they have invented self-locking nuts long time ago, and they work. the critical one are even wired.

 

every now and then i open the cowls and give a look at the oily bits, but rarely touch anything. i have 2 friends who inflicted themselves an off-field landing and a fried engine due to excessive tampering with things. the rotax usually doesnt require a oil top up between changes so i check the level only before long trips.

 

 

take, as example, the pitot cover. everybody uses it, and i bet there are a lot more occurrences of people taking off with the pitot cover on, than pilots taking off with a bee in it. so whats safer, to regularly use the pitot cover, and for sure end up taking off without air data, or give it up and eventually have no air data once in a lifetime? i use the pitot cover and already did 3 attempted takeoffs with it on...

 

preflight checks and those huge checklists are just things that peole take for granted and never question their validity. a long preflight check is good if you are flying an airplane you dont know, that was maybe 4 weeks parked outside, but for your own airplane, which you even have built yourself?

 

my small airplane checklist has 6 items, i could go down to 5. doors, belts, trim, flap, fuel, free controls. i could get rid of trim, my airplane can be flown at any trim setting.

last time i flew an old, poorly instrumented PA28 i was handed over a checklist the size of a dictionary. first item was "check money to buy fuel", i got so disgusted i threw it in the back and never touched it again :-D

 

for the criminal liability, we luckily have no such thing where i mostly fly, italy. if you crash, well too bad. and having done a preflight or not is no factor if someone is willing to go to court.

 

at any rate, there should be more pilots and less lawyers in aviation.

 

Hi Gianmarco, thanks for sharing your experiences on flying with avionationized auto engines. I feel your concerns for my safety are sincere. But I wonder how safe you are flying an airplane with an aviationized snowmobile engine.

 

I would also like to encourage you to develop the habit of preflighting your plane before every flight, as is the custom here. Part of that preflight for both certificated and experimental planes is to check for loose bolts and oil leaks. Here, it is not legal to simply gas up the plane and fly away,as you describe. A pilot could be held criminally liable for negligence in the event of an accident.

 

 

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at any rate, there should be more pilots and less lawyers in aviation.

Yeah ....... it's too bad we have to have lawyers to weed out the pilots that won't even run a checklist. It seems that that is the means of last resort.

 

And as to your post #51 where you quote me and refer to:

sorry my friend. you have been badly misinformed, and it is suprising to hear such OWT coming from a A&P.

I'm not an A&P ......... I'm a MCSD.

That would be a mistake thet you just made.

 

Did you do your checklist?

T Mann - Loooong-EZ/20B Infinity R/G Chpts 18

Velocity/RG N951TM

Mann's Airplane Factory

We add rocket's to everything!

4, 5, 6, 7, 8. 9, 10, 14, 19, 20 Done

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sorry for the misunderstanding, i was not referring to you about the A&P

 

i do check lists, but the ones i found on many popular a/c's have grown to unreasonable levels of detail and paranoia. check if i have money with me? i am sure if i kept reading i would have found an item "go take a leak" :-D

 

recently i went with a friend for a flight with a katana.

despite the fact that the airplane has just been used by someone else,

he spent 20 solid minutes painstakingly executing a huge checklist.

last thing he did was to grab the prop, put a foot on the nosewheel and start pumping.

now, i am pretty sure this >might< have a purpose in case of a/c's with hydraulic nosewheel, to see if the thing leaks oil. but the katana has a steel bar as nosewheel. so i suspect that checklist was copied and pasted from some other airplane, and nobody ever tried to use HIS brain to amend it to fit the specific a/c.

 

on a separate note, why the katana, which is rotax powered, has a RPM counter which indicates prop rpm? i suspect the manufacturer consider pilots so dumb that he was afraid someone would try to take off at 2700rpm...

 

we are here talking about simple 2 or 4 seaters which are vastly simpler than your average car. how many of those dozens of items are going to affect your take-off? i suspect very few.

 

do you run a checklist before driving to work in the morning? no? why not?

 

check lists were mainly introduced during WW2, with a good reason. aircrafts were complex, with many systems, all manually operated, which required a lot of pilot intervention.

 

your average cessna, given there is enough fuel, will take off and fly regardless of anything else.

 

so i ask again everyone: do you run a pre-ride before going to work? do you know the consequences of having a front right tire (which you cant see entering the car from the left door) almost flat if you have to drive a few miles on a motorway?

 

thats why car manufacturer started introducing tire pressure sensor in cars. i wonder why lawyers instead dont start weeding out motorists who omit to run checklists and prerides...

;-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah ....... it's too bad we have to have lawyers to weed out the pilots that won't even run a checklist. It seems that that is the means of last resort.

 

And as to your post #51 where you quote me and refer to:

 

 

I'm not an A&P ......... I'm a MCSD.

That would be a mistake thet you just made.

 

Did you do your checklist?

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"I don't care what you think, as long as you're thinkin' "

 

Hi Gianmarko, please accept my apology for starting the whole war on "snowmobile engines". Rotax has come a long way from those days, but don't think it'll push an EZ. What kind of canard do you have the rotax in?

 

Checklists..I'm 50 years old and still learning from my mistakes. Last week, I took off without latching the canopy on my EZ. It popped up open 2", at 50' above the departure end of the runway. A thrill! It is not possible to pull down hard enough in flight to even budge it towards closing. Fortunately, the little, thin spring safety catch held while I came back around and landed. I wonder what would have happened the backup catch did not hold, and the canopy had opened fully in flight. Bottom line, If I had used the checklist, this never would have happened. There are a bunch of other things on that list that could bite me, too, and the speed brake is one of them. My ability to remember these tasks is not as good as it was when I was 20. But my ability to read and follow directions is as good as it ever was.

 

Please consider adding another item to your preflight check, fuel vent. It is most easily done by keeping an 8" length of rubber hose with your fuel sump cup, and use it to huff into your fuel vent, whatever form that is. PLEASE don't tell me you omit the fuel sumping and physical verification of fuel level. I learned this trick from a high time fellow pilot in Maine who went down in a Cessna in the mountains 2 hours into a trip. The FAA found he had a mud dauber nest 11 inches back in the fuel vent tube under the wing (visual check in preflight didn't help) . Surgeons surgically peeled back his entire face to do reconstruction on his skull and jaw....I have used his tubing trick for years now and 3 times found Cessna fuel vents plugged, and once on my EZ. None of these blockages were visible, and the problem manifests itsself well into the flight. A friend here dented the wings in on a fuel injected Grumman, sucked in by vacuum with plugged vents. No accident, he SAW the wing thing in flight and landed!

 

For what it's worth, I hate the damned checklist too. But it's back in the plane. Sincerely, Robert

I don't care what you think, as long as you're thinkin'

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Robert,

 

for the moment i dont fly a canard. i have a LE stored somewhere in south italy, 50% built. i am hopefully going to get an airworthy LE sometime this year.

 

my current airplane is at the bottom of this post :-)

 

i hear you about the checklist. i in fact have one, but is a very small one, just 6 items. fuel is one multiple item, because it includes televel check, visual check (i can see the level of the tank through a transparent hose) and fuel pressure, even though the fuel pressure is monitored by the EIS.

at any rate, i rarely take off with less that a tank full to the brim. my tank holds around 20 gallons, for over 4 hours of flight.

 

the landing checklist is a sticker on the dash, prop pitch, fuel pump, flaps.

 

i can load check lists on the EFIS.

 

the airplane is an italian built microlight. not as fast as a LE but does a honest 100kts burning 3.5GPH. engine is a 912ULS.

on the left side of the dash there was a trutrak pictorial pilot, at the mo i am fitting a 2 channel dynon AP.

 

 

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Hi Gianmarco, looks like fun. Salmon eggs or red blood cells? What are you running for a prop? I am learning about props, and am having a lot of trouble trying to get enough pitch. I also like the Dynon EFIS and am considering one as I do not have/want a vac system.I don't know how to import photos, but you can see my plane, google Barnstormers long Ez rotary Sincerely, Robert

I don't care what you think, as long as you're thinkin'

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Salmon eggs?

I was thinking measles. That dynon is a wedgie!

Self confessed Wingnut.

Now think about it...wouldn't you rather LIVE your life, rather than watch someone else's, on Reality T.V.?

Get up off that couch!!! =)

 

Progress; Fuselage on all three, with outside and inside nearly complete. 8 inch extended nose. FHC done. Canard finished. ERacer wings done with blended winglets. IO540 starting rebuild. Mounting Spar. Starting strake ribs.

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Hi Robert

polka dots are fuchsia, not red :-) co-owner/copilot is my wife and she chose the color.

picture of her below. notice the matching top :-)

 

i am running a 3 blade variable pitch prop Patriot, by ivoprop (www.ivoprop.com)

 

they are cheap, light, simple, reliable. been using them since ages and love them. not sure they are suitable to fast canards. but you can call them and ask, they are always very helpful.

 

i highly recommend the dynon. works really good and saved my a$$ already, when i accidentally entered a fog bank last november.

 

my future LE will have 2 dynon.

 

is your LE the one for sale? why you sell it?? looks awesome!

 

ciao

gm

 

Posted Image

 

Hi Gianmarco, looks like fun. Salmon eggs or red blood cells? What are you running for a prop? I am learning about props, and am having a lot of trouble trying to get enough pitch. I also like the Dynon EFIS and am considering one as I do not have/want a vac system.I don't know how to import photos, but you can see my plane, google Barnstormers long Ez rotary Sincerely, Robert

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Yes, plane is for sale, Thanks for sayin' that it looks awesome, actually it's quite homely, outside of the engine compartment. Left personal asthetics for the next owner.

 

Am selling because I am working out of the country for a year and can't take it all with me! But I can make my titanium exhaust and small parts for the next plane, and bring them back. Am very impressed with the responses from the Barnstormers ad, got some close offers, and one that I passed because I don't want to be responsible for the new pilot's demise. Plane #2 is the Long Ez turbodiesel, will be done mid 2010.

 

Like you, I am also running an Ivo, 2 blade magnum, ground adjust. But I have it maxed out on pitch, and still overspeed on runup, I need more pitch.:mad: It drags the wheels on dry pavement) :) Also liked my old Performance prop:) , and may simply go back to Lydick for a bigger pitch prop.

 

I was in Berne in 2001, loved those open faced sandwiches with salmon and fish aspic. And the blonde female guards in the airport with machine guns.;) Sincerely, Robert

I don't care what you think, as long as you're thinkin'

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i am starting to have a different view on some of the aviation "totems" ;-) preflight check being one of those.

 

do you "preride" your car every morning before going to work? and i bet in many cases it was parked in the street, where anyone can sabotage your brakes or unbolt a wheel. i bet i could paint a cross on the right side of your car and you wouldnt notice it until someone told you :-D.

I do pre- my pushbike before I ride it. Brakes and tyres. And I have sometimes found problems. I once found a problem with my hang-glider that would almost certainly have resulted in loss of control.

 

Your choice.

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i am starting to have a different view on some of the aviation "totems" ;-) preflight check being one of those.

 

do you "preride" your car every morning before going to work? and i bet in many cases it was parked in the street, where anyone can sabotage your brakes or unbolt a wheel. i bet i could paint a cross on the right side of your car and you wouldnt notice it until someone told you :-D.

Well you preflight your plane as you cannot pull it by the side of the road to check things out... Wait you can ... but its a lot more interesting to get there in one peice :rolleyes:

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Gianmarco, what's the cool headset your wife is wearing? I wonder if it would be good under the close canopy of the EZ. I am worried about scratching plexiglass with my headset. No, I did not notice the similarity between your plane paint scheme and your wife's blouse, never looked. well maybe just for a moment. Robert

I don't care what you think, as long as you're thinkin'

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:-)

 

the headset is a quiet technologies "halo"

 

http://www.quiettechnologies.com/

 

costs around 350 bucks, weights 1 ounce, isolates from noise very well, and is perfect for long flights, really feel like you have nothing on.

very popular in the RV community

 

ciao

 

Gianmarco, what's the cool headset your wife is wearing? I wonder if it would be good under the close canopy of the EZ. I am worried about scratching plexiglass with my headset. No, I did not notice the similarity between your plane paint scheme and your wife's blouse, never looked. well maybe just for a moment. Robert

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  • 11 months later...

I'm curious why no one has mentioned a Corvair engine as an alternative? It doesn't use a PSRU, it runs just like a Lycoming, has good HP numbers,

Interesting Corvair site that you listed. I learned from the website that these Corvair guys try to limit the HP requirements of their airplanes to around 100 hp. Not enough for a Long-EZ. The site states that (in their opinion) the most econimical and reliable engine for 160-180hp is the Lycoming.

Andrew Anunson

I work underground and I play in the sky... no problem

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And... if you look at that site for the corvair... Why do they have to extensively modify the engine parts to make it work for an airplane??? Because, quite simply, IT WAS NEVER DESIGNED FOR AN AIRPLANE!!! What was this thread about? Legroom? Back in 2008? Oh...!

 

Is the 5'10" girlfriend still around? I've been thru two girls since then! One of them came around twice.

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And... if you look at that site for the corvair... Why do they have to extensively modify the engine parts to make it work for an airplane??? Because, quite simply, IT WAS NEVER DESIGNED FOR AN AIRPLANE!!! What was this thread about? Legroom? Back in 2008? Oh...!

 

Is the 5'10" girlfriend still around? I've been thru two girls since then! One of them came around twice.

Yes she is... and we are building a Cozy IV now... The girlfriend won... ;)

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