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David Clifford

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Posts posted by David Clifford

  1. The theory is that if the bolt head is "up" or facing "forward", if for some reason the nut comes loose and falls off, the bolt will hopefully remain in place as gravity itself will hold it in. I know of one incident that was reported on the VANS RV forum where this came into play and may have prevented a tragic event. The poster stated that during final assembly of one of the controls, he placed the washer and elastic nut on and finger tightened, then forgot to torque this particular nut when he was doing the final torques. The nut had come loose and fell off during a flight. The missing nut was discovered during a preflight.

  2. When I was at Oskosh last summer for the week, I spent A LOT of time at the EFIS vendor booths. After only a couple minutes just fooling around with the Skyview, I was able to navigate through the screens without any assistance or coaching from the sales rep,,,so EZ was it to use I would have felt comfortable flying it right then and there. When I was at the MGL booth, the sales rep was trying to demonstrate using the Odyssey. He got it into a screen and was unable to complete the demo to the group gathered in front of him and finally gave up after it locked up on the screen. I have never seen an EFIS with more buttons and knobs. I think that the Odyssey was designed by someone who is extreemly computer tech savy and is appealing to that type of consumer.

  3. My C-152 has the Lycoming 0-235-L2C and it is now at a little over 2500 hours. The comps are all in the upper 70's and it uses about a quart of oil every 40 hours. The L2C's have been known to be very durable engines and have been known to go WAY past the 2400 hour TBO. I fly alot which is good for the engine. I change the oil every 40 hours and I got a differential compression tester to monitor the comps. I also have the oil analyzed at oil changes to let me know whats going on inside the motor.

  4.  

     

    I guess I misinterpreted your statement of "Your just asking for early pump failure doing something like that" I was assuming a proper pre pump filter as well as a post pump finer filter. So much for assumptions:(

     

    Now the question comes, since you replaced one screen with one of a finer mesh, is the screen that is proper for protecting the pump, I assume that was what you had originally (which I agree is necessary), of fine enough mesh to protect the fuel injection regulators and injection nozzles? (why the availability of the finer mesh??).

     

    We don't know why the replacement mesh was finer. The original pump/filter came as a package. There was no information that various screen sizes were available when the new one was ordered. We should look into that with Airflow Performance.

  5. HUH????:confused:

     

    How does pulling through a restriction differ than pushing through a restriction in terms of pump longevity????

    QUOTE]

    Let me try to explain this to you .. Did I say anything about pushing vs pulling had anything to do with pump longevity????? No. I know that the finger strainers trap only the biger chunks. What I said was that the replacement filter screen was a much finer mesh than the original that came with the unit. So much so that the screen itself created enough restriction to hamper fuel flow to the point that the mechanical engine driven fuel pump could not produce enough pressure to run the engine at cruise power. Maybe you would rather filter after the electric pump but I think I will follow recommended proceedures and filter before it reaches the pump where debris can trash the $400 + pump. No thanks!;)

  6. Which begs the question, "What size of particle is detrimental to the pump and might a coarser filter before the pump and a finer one after do well? Is that Andair part aviation or other??

    Andair is aviation stuff. The pump/filter we put in the Cozy is Airflow Performance. Yes we put finger strainers in the tanks but we followed directions the installing recommendations by the mfg and placed the filter pre-pump. The point I am trying to make is that for whatever reason, the replacement filter cartridge was finer than the original,,,,,so must finer to the point that it interfered with the fuel flow enough that the engine mounted diaphram pump could not draw enough fuel to generate enough pressure. Under no circumstances would I place the fuel filter after the electric pump. Your just asking for early pump failure doing something like that

  7. Another thought came to me as I was getting ready to leave my office.

     

    On which side of the pump have you placed your filter.

     

    Most pumps push better than they pull. Is your filter, by any chance, between the tank and the pump??

    Filter is pre-pump per mfg directions. Apparently these HP fuel injection pumps can be easily trashed by debris. Same scenario with my Andair set up. The Andair filter screws right into the IN side of the pump.

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  8. Dave,

     

    Shaking the wing while this is going on, I think, is an important part of the equation.

     

    Now, the fact that the new pressure problem happened with the new filter is important in that the job of a filter is to keep stuff out of things that are critical. If your original filter was passing these things, worse things can be plugged. I would certainly check downstream of the filter for grunge. If you use multiple filters of decreasing hole size, ultimately you will get the pluggage problem, although it will be over a longer period of time and give you the opportunity to clean the multiple filters to prevent stoppage.

     

    In the Aerocanard kit strakes, you put the fuel fillers in before assembling the top of the strake on the rest, thus eliminating the problem of introducing cutting dust into the fuel tanks.

     

    If you do have to cut into the strake for the filler, or other reasons, slightly presurize the strake (careful) at the forward drain area so that dust created by cutting will be blown out of the kerf, rather than dropping into the tank. You can also use a vacuum on top where you are cutting, or better yet, Both!

    Yaeh...we shook the wings while flushing. The problem with the new filter screen was the mesh was too fine, or defective . That alone was enough to lower the fuel pressure with the mechanical fuel pump enough to cause a significant loss of power and roughness. There were no obstructions from debris, just the fine screen micron rating caused the restriction. Switching back to the original screen after we cleaned it fixed it. As a test, I disconnected the fuel line at the pump and let the fuel flow by gravity. It was a slow flow with the new screen and a nice steady stream with the old screen. I purchased the "RV Special" package from the Andair booth at Osh that included their valve, pump, filter, and installation package. I hope I don't have any of these problems. :cool:

  9. I like Rich's idea of using pumps to flush the tanks. Wish we had thought of that. We instead did it manualy filtering the gas through a filtered funnel into 5 gallon tanks. We did 20 gallons per side each flush and did each side probably 20 times until we did not capture any more junk in the filter. It was a messy stinky job! I don't think I would want to introduce water for a flush but it probably would work fine provided you did several final flush's with fuel. We did not expect to find any construction debris in the fuel filter, but at the condition inspection, did find some trapped in the screen. But what was in the filter screen did not effect fuel pressure. It was not until the new screen was installed did pressure problems develope.

  10. Imagine this. Your eating cold cereal for breakfast in Troy MI. You take a 5 minute drive to your hanger, hop in the plane that you built, and after a 4.5 hour flight, which includes a pit stop in Rome NY, your with friends on the town wharf sitting in the Weathervane Restaurant overlooking Belfast Harbor in ME eating the $15.95 "Wicked Twins" two lobster special for lunch caught that morning. How cool is that?

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  11. Here's one. I drove to Oshkosh from Howell, MI towing the pop-up. It was a grueling 8 hour drive each way. Thane and Mike LaFleur flew in for a two day visit in Thane's Cozy MKIV from Troy MI, thats 35 miles further than me. It was a 2 hour flight there and a 1.5 hour flight home.

     

    Here is another one. I went up with Thane yesterday to act as safety pilot so he could get in his required instrument approach's in to stay current for his flight to Maine next week. Approach control kept telling us to "slow it up if you are able". They NEVER say that to me in my little Cessna.:o

  12. As to why Nat called for that I guess it doesn't matter. I'm going to follow the plans and build an airplane. :) thanks guys!

    Try to stick to that philosophy and the plane will come together a whole lot faster than if you make mods.

  13. I would think that it adds strength but Nat may have also added that step for the beginning builder to gain experience in flox joints in a non critical area. Whatever the reason, follow the instructions in the plans and sooner, rather than later, you will have a wonderful flying Cozy MKIV.

  14. I didn't like they way the bracket bent just by tightening up the bolts. I solved it by using some 1/2" X 3/8" bar aluminum to fabricate a spacer and drilled it for the bolts to pass through. I also fabricated a 1/4" aluminum plate that goes between the strut and the foot plate also drilled for the bolts. Using longer bolts,,,this formed a solid aluminum pocket for the end of the strut to fit into. I ground out a small amount of material in the pocket in the bottom of the casting to form a pocket for flox,,,,so even if the caster assembly came loose it would not be able to fall off the strut. Waxed up the pocket and put it all together with flox. After cure,,disassembled. shaved .020" off the aluminum spacers,,,cleaned and roughed everything back up, and reassembled with runny flox. The .020 clearance allowed a controlled clamping pressure.

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