rpellicciotti

The only problem with the AOPA planner is that it requires software be downloaded to your computer. This makes it hard to use on the computer at the FBO for instance. AOPA has recognized this and they are bringing out a web-based flight planner later this year. If you are a member of EAA, you have access to the Aeroplanner flight planning system which is a web-based system and works great. Like Tmann, I plan my flight online, print out the chart segments, flight plan and comm info on paper and put it on my kneeboard every time I take a trip.

I just posted some of my pictures from Rough River on the Rocket-Boys web site. I was having so much fun looking at airplanes, visiting with friends, meeting new people and watching folks crawl around on the ground under my airplane that I forgot to take pictures when I first arrived. By the time I thought of it, the clouds moved in and made the day look very grey. Later, the sun came out. Debbie and I had a great time and I am looking forward to next year already! Pictures here: http://www.rocket-boys.com/shows/Rough_River_2008/default.htm

Agree completely. My new car has FBW throttle (gee whiz!) but not FBW STEERING. I would not go for that at all.

Don't forget a two-axis autopilot. You just about have to have an autopilot to safely fly single-pilot IFR. At least I do. There are as many opinions about this as most any other subject on these forums. http://www.canardzone.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1841&d=1216927366

Picture of my updated, new panel attached.

My insurance is through Falcon. Make sure to join the EAA as you get a discount through Falcon and some other perks such as $50K of coverage for your hangar and its contents. Valerie at EZJets always has a line or some Longs for sale. When I was up there a couple of weeks ago, they had a nice o-235 powered one that was for sale. There was also a nice O-360 powered one that was rumored to be coming up for sale in the near future. Her number is 901-475-3686

I'll take the transponder antenna. What make/price?

We have received our waiver and the race is a go! Mark your calendars for October 18th 2008. It is going to be fun!

Chrissi, thanks for the comments. To be frank, I am still trying to get used to it. I flew to Nashville last weekend to visit my daughter and that gave me about an hour of "straight and level" each way to fiddle with it and try things out. It does take some getting used to. I looked at all of the different systems out there and I really liked the GRT the best. They have great support too. Perhaps I'll head up your way one day. We are big Cardinals fans. Regards,

Panel project page has been updated through the end of October now: http://www.rocket-boys.com/panel.htm

Actually it is a RV-4. I don't know too much about it. The fellow that owns it now did not build it. I believe that airplane was built by an Air Force pilot up north somewhere. It basically uses the retract system and gear for a homebuilt called a Celerity. I have some video of the airplane somewhere. I'll see if I can find it and post it. Rick

The race is shaping up and we have about 30 entries! The weather looks like it will be good. I think we are going to have a great race! Some of the local racers made a practice run around the course last Saturday. The weather was beautiful and we got some good pictures (attached). Notice the two "rogue" homebuilts with retracts that are not supposed to have them.

I haven't updated the panel project page yet (getting ready for the Memphis 100 Air Race) but I finally got my panel done and got the airplane back into the air. First flight with the new panel was last Friday (my birthday!) and I have flown it about 3 hours since then. Everything seems to be working well with a little tweaking required on engine parameters and so forth. Before and after pictures of the panel attached...

Gary Earnest took a lot of pictures of my airplane while it was apart. Maybe he will share. If you want to see some video of the gear working, it is here: There are several different views. I will have the airplane together in the next week or so. After the Memphis 100 Air Race perhaps I can fly the airplane up to your place. Its not that far.

Actually the "horns" on top of the gear legs are about the same for both aircraft. What is different is the "over center mechanism". The length of it is quite a bit longer for the Velocity.

Pictures of my new panel here: http://www.rocket-boys.com/panel.htm

Hi Richard. Would like to hear more about your project some time. I know that electric actuators have come a long way. The Turbine Legend had electric gear and the 787 is almost and all-electric airplane. The wing folding on the Terrafugia is also using electric actuators, I think. I can see where an electric linear actuator could take the place of the hydraulic ram in this system very easily. It would eliminate the pump and the hydraulic plumbing. I am wondering how to do the emergency gear extension though? I would hate to think that we would have to have some kind of shaft driven, ratcheting mechanism like we use for our electric nose gears. It would be quite complicated to work out. Regards,

Bruce, there is a layup schedule for the gear legs. I will try to get it posted one of these days. The gear was designed after the Velocity system with Scott Swing involved in the design of it. I don't know much about FMEA or root cause analysis. I do know this airplane has about 800 landings on it and a few more gear cycles than that. The bushings in the landing gear attach points, the bolts that mount the gear to the attachments and the hydraulic cylinder have been inspected and maintained regularly. So far, no problems.

John, I am a long time getting to answering your question. Have a lot goin on right now... It is hard for me to think of a failure mode that would keep the gear from extending. I am sure someone else will. The gear is hinged at the fuselage (same exact hardware as the fixed gear). The only thing holding the gear up is the hydraulic pressure in the ram. The emergency extension of the gear is as simple as pulling the pump circuit breaker and then opening a valve that is interconnected between the high and low pressure sides of the system. The gear simply gravity falls down and the link goes over center. I have actually done this on the ground and in flight. It works very well. If the system should lose pressure due to a leak, the gear will come down on its own. The pilot will be tipped to this condition by the pump cyclying on and off to maintain pressure. Let's see, what if one of the cables break? The cables are in tension, holding the gear up. A broken cable will result in that gear leg partially extending. Lowering the gear with the power or manually would result in both gear extending fully.

Glad it worked for you. If anyone knows how to get in touch with Larry Walls, please let me know. I have tried all of the email addresses that I could find for him. I would be happy to put the E-Racer site up on my server if I can get a hold of the files.

Its electro-hydraulic. That whirring noise you hear is the electrically driven hydraulic pump. The pump drives a single, large, hydraulic ram that is mounted longitudinally in the bottom of the airplane (underneath the back seater), where the NACA scoop would normally be. The ram pulls on two cables that run through pulleys up to the top of the gear legs. The top of the gear legs are pulled down and the wheels go up.

I put some video of the Drybread gear on my airplane up on You Tube. I was in the process of cycling the gear for the annual condition inspection.

Perhaps Jack will chime in here as well but I have built a set of E-Racer wings. The wings are the same planform and airfoil. The shear web layups and the spar cap layups are different. The winglet location at the tip of the wing is also different. Most people generally agree that the E-Racer winglet location is not very good and I would suggest to anyone building E-Racer wings today that they should locate the winglet the same as a Long-EZ or build a copy of Jack's blended winglet design.

Panel project web page updated through August 19th now: http://www.rocket-boys.com/panel.htm

The E-Racer site can be found on www.archive.org but it is very slow going. I will see if I can track down Larry Walls and find out what happened to the web site content.