argoldman

Trying to get the Rotorhead out of my head......

At those extreme range temperatures for your Oregon to Juno flight, what happens to the air cooled Lyconentals.

I addressed the oil cooler blocker before, but -40 degree air hitting the hot cylinder heads and other private parts can't be doing a world of good. Can you keep the aluminum hot enough??

Anybody have an idea of the boiling point of H2o at 13 PSI (with antifreeze in it.)

There is a waterless coolant, EVANS NPG, that is available, which runs without pressure. Does this change the equation?? .

Any rotorheads have experience with it?? (eggenfellner makes it available on his engines.)

Well yes ...... you can control the coolant temperature through either airflow or regulating the flow of coolant. Obviously if the coolant is not circulating through the engine (thermostat closed) then it's warming up.

 

As a young driver, when it got to be sub-zero F (-18 to -20 F) we would cram a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator to restrict airflow. Our thermostats are a lot better now.

 

Even the VW aircooled engines controlled airflow through a thermostat of sorts that would expand and contract thus pushing a rod up or down to change the position of vanes that controlled airflow.

 

Bottom line: Outside airtemp should not be a factor. Altitude could effect the contents of the resevoir but if it did, you would already be dead.

As a matter of fact, the "cold weather kits" that Cessna and others sell are nothing more than an aluminum plate that restricts air floage through the oil cooler.

Large trucks, in the winter, many times, have a fabric cover for the radiator which has a zipper for air control.

The real question is, "under relatively normal flight regimes, is controlling the airflow necessary.

As a side (foot)note, cowl flap arrangements can be designed to create a low pressure area at the air exit and increase airflow when open. This would benefit high power, low airspeed situations such as climb.

T.

One of the things that you will have to deal with is the understanding that to prevent corrosion in the heat exchanger, you must periodically get new anti-freeze (anticorrosion) water to it. Some car heater valves allow a constant small flow to occur even when in the "cold" position. this might be somewhat uncomfortable in a hot cabin for a low level flight, etc.

Since the water is going to be pressurized 13-18PSI you really don't have to worry about high pressure valves. If you select a valve that closes off completely, periodically open it when starting your engine to get fresh h2o to it.

I agree about the fan. In fact one must ask themselves if an extenal air source is necessary, or is it only necessary to use the air in the cabin. Additional air, if needed can be let in through the vents.

With regard to "spam can systems, we are talking about apples vs. sirloin steaks.

The spam heater is usually a muff heater which takes outside air and heats it against an exhaust pipe at perhaps 900 or 1000 degrees. Your liquid coolant will not be higher than 220 or 230. that is a big difference.

Even Twins use a gas-fired flame (contained) to heat a heat exchanger.

Never had a fogging problem with my heater in the D-fly (liquid recirculated air) but if you want, you can get some outside air, for make-up and mix it with inside air. Don't forget these planes are not hermetically sealed and leak air.

An additional factor in heating is that with the bubble-type canopy, the thermal load (on a sunny day) is significant and the heater does not need to be a stellar performer.

Also catch Airventure at OSH, there are usually several e-zs and cozys there, and it is relatively close for you

Hi, from Europe

 

I was keen on canard for a long time.( 15years ). Few months ago I decided to cross the line and I bought a long ez. I needed to overhaul the engine due to cracked cylinders

 

Today, engine is ready to work, cokpit has been repaint but I need to rebuilt the electric circuit.... there is work left!

 

I hope to get a lot of advices from forum.

 

Overtorque

Welcome to the backward flying flock:)

Chic--

Send me a PM and we can arrange a meeting

Chicago

Welcome to the North Shore.

Once you learn to get along with the surly tower controllers:mad: and the cost of fuel:mad: , KPWK is well located. (kept some planes there for many years when it was still Palwaukee) If you got one of the old Quonset T hangers, make sure you have or build a cover for your plane as those hangers rain rust and sometimes keep the rain out. Perhaps they have upgraded them. (I finished my Dragonfly in one, I built a floor insulated and heated it but pulled all of that out when I left.)

I live about 5 miles due east.

I am now based at KENW which houses a flying vari, a flying long and my Aerocanard under construction. If you need some help, just give a shout.

time for me to chime in here, got the fine about a year ago and i was very disappointed in the power, so today I'm at a show and they have the fine demo there and i tell the guy and even have the fine to show him and guess what?

the dam thing in veritable speed (i was at 1/3 power the hole time).

i now take back all the horrible things i said to you Chrissy;)

It takes a very Fein man to admit to such a mistake!!!!

Now enjoy it!!

Quote, back seat passenger, "It's really hot in here, I'll just pull this ventilator knob......oops":( (The relocation of the safety catch mitigates this, however)

Congratulations Chris.

We now have TV star amongst us!!!

I'm finding that Jamestown Distributors is a pretty good source for sandpaper and other finishing tools.

I ran accross them by accident when I was trying to find some accessories for my Fein (the Wicks site was down at the time.)

 

They have a good selection of the 20 yd rolls of pressure sensitive sanding materials.

 

I guess finishing a boat takes a lot of the same techniques.

T,

Good source. Glass finishing techniques are very similar.

I'm not sure about the prices there, I think that you can do better by searching the web.

One thing that I noticed is that they only go down to 80 grit on all of their abrasive products. I have found that 40 grit (or thereabouts) is excellent for shaping micro, which you then finish with finer grits. Doing it this way saves untold hours (months) in finishing. I can't remember where I got mine from (comes in 3' velcro backed strips which attach to a rigid or your option flexible back-- I prefer rigid.. found it on the web. I'll see if I can get the name. From what I remember, they were a good deal on the web.

Also when looking for Fein blades, search the web. Some good deals are available. look at amazon etc. Wicks seems quite high but make sure you are comparing apples to apples

Jeez, guys.

 

1. He said he runs out of full forward, pitch down trim. He does not run out of forward, pitch down stick.

 

2. On my plane and the ones I've flown, trim forward and stick forward move the elevator trailing edges up, not down.

 

3. I personally know of at least 3 Long-EZ drivers who had to change to stronger, stiffer trim springs because they also ran out of forward trim. They are many other cases reported in Cozy archives, CPs, and Central States.

 

4. Yes, I do copy what he said about buffeting at full forward stick. I don't quite know what to say about that because with full forward stick at any speed he should be heading down to Mother Earth at break neck speed. So yeah, check the incidence and yes, check the weight and balance. But I bet the trim authority will be better once he changes to stiffer springs.

Wayne,

1) perhaps I am misreading his post, however the statement that buffeting occurs at full forward stick gives me the impression that it is the forward stick position, not the trim that he needs to do to keep straight and level. If this were not so, why in the case of some imbalance is he trying flight with the full forward stick???

2) I agree with you in terms of what happens to the elevators in a canard, that,s why the (up) was in parentheses. Canards, as you know are different than conventional aircraft, however in both cases when you push the stick the aircraft goes down, even though the elevator goes (up) in canards.

3) If it is simply a matter of the trim not holding then I agree with you completely, if not----NO

4) See rebuttal # 1 Yes. However if you change to a stiffer spring, which if as per #2 it is the correct solution to a weak spring, this will do it. If however changing to a stiffer spring, and he is compensating for a different error, the plane may fly OK, however the original problem still exists and may or may not be important. That would be called a band-aid:mad:

Ya to all of the below.

Did you do a proper W&B?? where was the CG with respect to what is considered "normal?" This is the absolute first thing, and easiest thing that must be checked, not the last!!

All planes are precariously balanced between CG and CL. There is some wiggle room (CG range) but you must know where yours is.

The fact that your problem increases with airspeed indicates that as your airspeed increases the lift of the canard increases much faster than that of the wing and thus gives you an upward rotation which you then counteract with down (up) elevator.

I agree that it is probably canard incidence, however the shape of the canard may also be at fault (way down on the diagnostic list). When you are at high cruise, what is the position that the elevators must be at to get you to go straight and level?? (I am assuming that you are not just complaining about how much strength you need to keep S&L but are referring to actual elevator position.

The buffeting may be blobs of air skipping off of elevators which are greatly deflected hitting the wing. (much like the buffeting one gets in a conventional aircraft just before the stall)--- or not.

First correct the need for elevator and then see if the buffeting stops.

Did you say that with GIB the problem stops???

]Rebel, I haven't recieved the antenna yet. I do have a battery up front in the nose, I tried the foil tape on the gear leg but with problems, my hand held talked further than panel mt. the floor area under my rear there is no metal or wires.will let you know if it works.

 

I installed the same antenna in my VariEZe. I am still in the Re-building phase, so I haven’t flown with it yet.

 

I did however connect it to my hand held ICOM, and it worked fine. The antenna looks like is should work very well in our applications, however it was designed for Ultralights. The instructions are very clear on the fact that you need to avoid all metal and electrical wires.

 

I did my best at minimizing this concern during my installation put I could not avoid the antenna from going behind the battery. I hope that’s not the cause of your problem, because if it is, I am going to have the same problem.

 

Please post something when you figure out the problem.

 

Ghost

Casper the friendly,

While although the foil tape alone on the leg (built as a dipole),sounds like a good idea, and will work well for a while, As the leg flexes and goes through various other contortions with our smooth (?) landings and various surfaces upon which we taxi, the tape will tear/break etc and all of the sudden, performance will be compromised. It will probably be thought that the radio itself is at fault, but bench tests perfectly. A short circuit test of the antenna lead will show no fault and after pulling much hair out (assuming there was some to begin with) finding the antenna at fault, one would tend to duplicate the installation on the remaining leg only to suffer the same problem. The width of the tape is necessary to make more of the frequency spectrum that we use "tuned".

One suggestion is to, using a solid copper wire the appropriate length affix the copper tape on it making solder connections between the wire and tape periodically down the foil. (prebend the wire where you want to glass it to the leg and solder the tape to it (non sticky side, with the tape on the inside curvature ( mounting it on the outside of the leg, or reverse on the inside)-- then stick the tape to the leg and glass) This arrangement will most likely take all the abuse that you can give it. If the tape does happen to tear, the continuity will be maintained by the solder connection to the wire.

Tape by itself, once torn will show itself electrically as an antenna the length only to the first tear and will not be in tune and range will be lost

Not personally, but a Velo buddy of mine is installing a Vesta electric with Beta. I keep trying to talk him out of it, because near as I can tell, there's no good way to tell when it's bottomed out and starting to go into Beta, and it'd be a helluva thing to go into Beta prematurely. The Vesta pitch controller is just a more/less switch, no indication, no RPM control, just more or less. As Neat as Beta seems, I just couldn't do it. I'm going to help him try to find a way to work a limit switch in there or something to stop it before it goes into Beta, and require you to get back on the switch to continue.

 

B

That is problematical and for me-- a no-go situation. Airmaster props (new zealand) uses microswitches to determine limits of pitch, and I think they also have Beta available. Unfortunately, at this time, they only have Warp drive blades. I know that they are working on others, but the progress is slow.

Just out of curiosity, and perhaps with some blasphemy,

Has anybody considered a C/S/ prop with beta pitch possibilities??

That assumes, of course that the TO distance is less than or equal to the landing distance with the Beta.

??????

Yep, it's funny because my wife has gotten so comfortable right-hand stick and left throttle that she flies from the right seat when we rent something any more.

 

Brett

as do many CFIs...

I still have trouble writing with my left hand.

...... which goes back to reliabilty and durability.

Even though John had his turbo go to pieces AND ingest the blades into a rotor chamber, he still flew it home.

Ya, T,

that is true for most of the problems that happen to rotaries and is a huge safety plus. The disastrous situation, to which I alluded, referred to the necessity of a rebuild due to hard parts clanking around in the trochoids as he was able to fly back to his field, under power, although somewhat reduced. If similar things happened in an engine of the piston persuasion, the results would probably have been immediate engine stoppage.

It is also my understanding that with a rotary, in the case of lost coolant fluid and overheating, that because of the difference in metals and the expansion coefficients, between the trochoid and the rotors, that the engine does not seize but allows you to get somewhere and land,(in time for the rebuild:p )

Don't reinvent the turbo-charger mess.

John Slade has done a lot of work toward working successfully with the rotary turbo and talks about it, and his failures, at length, in his website "http://canardaviation.com/cozy"

This is not to say to blindly follow anybody, but to read somebody who is willing to share his failures as well as his successes puts you in the situation of not avoiding history as a teacher (should you be so inclined).

Also, Tracy might be able to help you in this regard, even though he is not using a turbo. Furthermore, contact Bruce Turrentine (rebuilder) for his take.

From what I understand, the stock turbo is a NO-NO for aviation uses (doesn't stand up and has possible disastrous effects when it dismantles itself.)

Yep, but he cured me of the Hangar / Hanger mistake before I started getting caught myself. I try to learn from other peoples mistakes. I'm eggstatic that Marc is willing to share his wisdom here.

I shell agree with you about Marc's willingness to share his knowledge and himself with the group, although sometimes he eggsasserbates some latent hostilities in some of the lurkers. all in all, he is a good egg.

I will take my eggsit now

I find that I have a hard time gripping the yolk - it generally drips out of the shell and into the pan. Now, the yoke, I hold onto with my left hand, for the most part, and manipulate the throttle with my right.

Marc,

it would take someone eggcentric like you to catch that. Glad you are still awake.

Another comment on controls.

1) The Velocity check out plane has a nice set up that I'll likely duplicate at some point.

All in all, I love the center stick. It is easily modified to allow dual control, makes handling a breeze, and problem with right handers (like me) taking notes has simply been a non-issue.

I have no horse to ride in this race, since I have ridden both right and left handed horses and have made my decision based on these ridings.

It is only human nature to be a subscriber to that which you own and use any rationalization to justify that position, be it, in this case either left or right (center) stick.

Now for those of you who occasionally fly a store bought aircraft with a yolk, be honest with yourself--- which hand do you typically grip the yolk with???

If it is a stick driven beast, which hand do you typically put on the Johnson.

Now, if you were designing an aircraft from the ground up, where would you really put the stick???

There is nothing wrong with either left or center stick, the only question is what compromises up with which you are willing to put (either way).

IF stick location is a given in your design, and you don't want to change it, it is really a non-issue, and basically you have to conform to what you are given.

Stick that in your craw:bad:

Brett,

Being a Velo guy, do you find an advantage of the side stick over the center stick or vise/versa? Seems build-wise the center stick is a good way to go.

Not a Velo guy, however that never stopped me from velocitizing my fingers on the keypad.....

If you will be flying IFR or anything that requires writing, you will find that if you have to copy a clearance, or do any writing, the center stick is a pain in the side since you have to either put the plane on A/P or reach over with your left hand to control the stick and jot down your message with your right hand. (assuming that you are not left handed in which case--- NEVER MIND)

I had a center stick in my d-fly, and that was one of the big unchangable mistakes that I made with the airplane.

Hi,

 

I'm thinking about buying an Aerocanard FG kit in the next few years, and I'm wondering what instruments come with the kit. All I can find in the info pak is that it includes an instrument panel. Does that mean you pick and choose your instruments seperately?

 

Also, what instruments are required/recommended for IFR flying?

 

Thanks.

The kit is the airframe only.. no instruments, engines, electronics, etc. You pick your stuff yourself. The instrument panel comes blank with no cutouts Which is good since by the time you will need them, there probably will be a new, new, new generation of the stuff. Postpone making any decisions on this stuff until absolutely necessary ( and then wait about 6 months) .

Do we rally want to hear MOW of this plane:mad: