Installed my engine recently!!

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Taiser
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Re: Installed my engine recently!!

Post by Taiser »

Sweet! I knew it was something stupid! :D
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Re: Installed my engine recently!!

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Quick update...

Did a quick and dirty W&B... She's nose heavy (expected) with my heavy engine. I've replaced the original Delco starter with a Sky-Tec saving about 8 lbs near the prop. She's at the forward limit with a 170 lbs pilot and no fuel. With me (205 lbs) and unusable fuel she's good, but about 8 lbs of ballast in the tail area will make it perfect.

Empty weight came in at 838 (with the original starter) but I'll redo the W&B soon with the new starter. Will probably change up the alternator too, just not sure when. That will give me 600 + useful load. That gives me full fuel, me + wife and 80lbs of gear!!! ME LIKEY!!!

I'm holding off on the paint. Decided to fly it polished up a bit except for the cowling, that will be painted an "aluminum" color to match. Once I get amphibs done, then I can paint the whole thing, but I do like the look of aluminum on a plane so we'll see.

C of R has been ordered. All my picks for registration were taken :( so I signed up for the next available letters. Not sure how long that usually takes though.

Finishing up the windshield install, prepping the controls and will be doing taxi tests in my yard once the snow is gone. Then off to the Kakabeka Airport (home base) for final inspection! Should be airborne as soon as the strip is dry!!! :smt040


Couple of shots...


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Hatch for the oil cooler finally fitted. PITA this was to look good. Might change these rivets out for flush, but that won't speed this bird up! LOL.



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Installed a flush latch on the hatch instead of the crap butterfly Dzus fasteners provided with it.




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Starter comparison! About 17 lbs for the delco, 9.3 for the Sky Tec.



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Sky tec installed! Looks like I cut out a hole in my cowling for nothing since the sky tec doesn't have a bull nose on it! :( One more thing to fix!




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Final fit of the Cowling. Glad I got the fat and stumpy nose cone over the long and skinny one to match the short cowling! The 750's with the Rotax engines have at leas 18" more cowling than this beast! :mrgreen:


End is in sight! Gotta fly off the 25 hours fast this spring. Wife wants to start flying to some resorts up north for some week-end "get-a-ways"... I'm not arguing! :lol:
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Re: Installed my engine recently!!

Post by Pop n Fresh »

Looks great.
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Taiser
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Re: Installed my engine recently!!

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Updated pics!!!




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Made lead bricks for the tail. 14.8 lbs in the tail took a whopping 50 lbs off the nose and put the W&B in the "Cat's Ass" range! Still leaves me with 600 lbs + useful load! I can take some bricks out if I decide to permanently carry some survival gear or tools. But for flight testing, this was the simplest system. Put it back here because it will be behind three bulkheads. Took the rudder off for easy access.





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Dash upholstery added with defrost vents. Still have to add the SCAT tubes. Had to get this installed before final setup of windshield.






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Final install of windshield completed! Scary nightmare to install as it's quite fragile until secured into place! Now it's rock solid!




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Yep, she's officially now a Canadian Bird. Marks attached! :smt040 These are high speed decals that I got custom cut.





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Doors painted. Aluminum color for now on the outside. Will repaint when I finalize my color scheme but that won't be until I get the amphibs done. Interior is going to stay aluminum color though!





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Interior shot. Some Zinc-Chromate clean up to do, but interior is 99% complete! :shock:

Getting the cowling painted this week (too big and messy a job in my shop), still on schedule for taxi testing once the snow is gone. Some other tests to do for MD-RA, fuel flow, compass swings etc...

Hope to be air-born this spring, depending on how long it takes for MD-RA to file the paperwork with TC. Summer project is to build a trailer to haul it back home for winter storage (will borough one for now) and hope to start working on the floats next winter!
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Taiser
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Re: Installed my engine recently!!

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Finished painting the cowl! Painted it a polished aluminum color. :smt040





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Nice enough now to open the garage doors, so took a quick cell phone photo!

W&B is done. After paint, finishing up the interior, heavy avionics, big ass fire extinguisher, custom seats with sliders, dual controls and a massive engine, the "Silver BB" is heavy! 900 lbs!!!

Currently lock-wiring and double checking everything is tight and secure. Once I verify the control surface deflections, the wings come off and I can then finish painting the smaller steel parts (jury struts, attach fittings, etc.) then out she comes. Wings go back on in the backyard, then some fuel flow testing, run-ups and maybe some taxiing in the back yard... :smt118 Then wings off, pack her up and off to the airport for the final inspection!

Just ordered a Garmin Virb Elite Aviation bundle for the cockpit video too! She's real close now!!! :partyman:
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Last edited by Taiser on Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Installed my engine recently!!

Post by YYZSaabGuy »

Obviously a ton of work but a really nice-looking airplane, Taiser. Congrats and don't forget we'll need a massively-detailed "first flight" posting here when the day comes!
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Re: Installed my engine recently!!

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Got the wings off. Engine was tuned up and I finally got the prop pitched right to make full static power. That then involved adjusting the carb a bit to slow the idle down to compensate for the finer pitch! Then a quick mag timing check and she fired up. New starter (sky-tec) is WAYYY better than the old original boat anchor. 2 lb lithium battery spins this without effort. Got the fuel flow sensor finally working properly too. I have an AME buddy coming over next Friday to make sure nothing is glaringly wrong. Some minor painting to do on the wing tips and few parts then I'll give her a quick clean with Alumiprep 33 to make it gleam. Then off to the airport to get ready for final inspection! WOOT!

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Virb Elite is in and works great. Insane video quality from this thing! :shock:


Quick video of the smooth running Lycoming! :mrgreen: Don't mind the hill-billy tank on the roof... :rolleyes:


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Re: Installed my engine recently!!

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Update!

She made it to the airstrip, wings back on. Adjusting the flaperons has been a complete nightmare (took two tedious days) but finally done. She's sitting now waiting for a final inspection! :)



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Loading up for the airpark trip... This was scary. Took three trips. Built a big ass box for the wings but still every bump made me nervous! Made it one piece though...





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Wings put back on, attached all the wiring and control surfaces!





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Waiting for inspection! I'm tied up until next week so hopefully I can get it done by the end of next week. Then wait for paperwork to come in from the government... not a clue how long that will take though... :(
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Re: Installed my engine recently!!

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Got paper work in just under two weeks on an inspection back in April on the left coast.
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Re: Installed my engine recently!!

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What a great job Taiser. Very exciting to see, well done!




Had to break out my other personality.
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Taiser
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Re: Installed my engine recently!!

Post by Taiser »

MD-RA Inspection....





:smt040 :smt040 :smt040 PASSED!!!!! :smt040 :smt040 :smt040


Celebrating with a nice big ass couple of beers on my deck!!!

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Now I wait for the paperwork... :rolleyes:
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Taiser
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Re: Installed my engine recently!!

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She's alive boys!!! Working on a flight report now. She flew hands off. No heavy wing, nothing pulling weird. Ball kept nice and centered during the entire flight. Very docile and smooth, VERY comfortable, lots of cabin room. Can't believe I have ZERO rigging issues and ZERO engine issues so far. Couldn't be happier with everything. All engine specs are well in the green. Cylinder temps maxed out at 330F and I left the engine at max RPM for the hour flight to burn out the crap that would be in the engine since it's basically not been used for 3 years, and it was about 38c here when we went up! Only snag is my KX-155 died just before the flight! :( Dunno what's up with that, but it's going to the shop today. It was working fine up to 5 minutes before the flight, thinking the ancient power supply decided to crap out in the extreme heat...

Here's a short video of the first take-off, don't expect much, we babied it the entire way up! :D

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Re: Installed my engine recently!!

Post by donnybrook »

Congratulations! I see so many partial kits and projects for sale, it's refreshing to see one built and flying...
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Re: Installed my engine recently!!

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Got about 12 hours of flying done. Got enough dual for the insurance to be happy and I'm flying pretty regularly now. Have about 14 hours on it. At 25 hours I get my full wings and can fly more than 25 nm from the airport AND carry passengers! :) Having a blast just boring holes right now though! It's a different beast to fly though, but fun as hell!

Take-offs are all around 200' now without going to nuts. I KNOW it will do a lot shorter, just don't have the balls to do it. Landings are getting much easier, but it's been a learning curve. This thing does NOT land like a normal plane. I've only experimented with about half flaps so far, full flaps will helicopter it down and I just don't have the experience to find that a comfortable feeling yet. Hoping to have stall speed tests, best angles and best time climbs figured out by the weekend.

No issues to speak of so far. Had a mag that wouldn't ground (dirty P-Lead) and carb heat was wonky because the cable was slipping in the adel clamp. Both two second fixes.

Burning about 5.7 gal/hr in cruise at 80 mph, but can lean it out to about 5.1 gal/hr. All temps are good. Max cylinder temps at full power are 330F, Oil temp is around 160F... little low for me. The oil cooler is too efficient. I'm going to put a butterfly valve on it that I can control from the cockpit. I doubt it will need any oil cooling at all in the colder fall air.

Visibility is INSANE in this thing!!! Here are some shots from my Garmin Virb. Picture quality on this camera is AMAZING! These are stills from the video, but converted to JPG so they don't do the camera justice!

Cheers!

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