High Country

I've not been on the forums much these days but see I have several PM's regarding building the wide gear. I have all my jigs / equipment but have moved and gone through several big life changes recently which is taking most of my time. I'm hoping to have my shop ready mid summer and plan to start welding again. If you're in no hurry and would like me to fab something up please feel free to shoot me a PM and we can talk. 

Clear sky's and tail winds!!

Robert 

https://boise.craigslist.org/avo/d/ontario-grove-landing-gear/7056353044.html

Not mine but saw this add. Might see if this gear will work for you. 

wow after being off line and away from home for the last couple months i finally log on to find one of my old threads resurrected. lol. Just to be clear from my experience, i did speak with an earth X rep (whom I believe was an engineer) he gave me some very specific things to check which I did with the help of my local club all checked out well. when all was said and done I cleaned up the mess put in a different battery and put 65 good hours on it with no problems what so ever. I'm no engineer maybe I just had the wrong battery for the 582 engine maybe it was a fluke bad battery I duno. that said I've heard great things about these batteries from others using them in their airplanes with no issues. I believe I just got one with a defect in it. in the end EarthX did refund my money and no one was hurt just frustrated so I guess its just a lesson learned for me. take it all for what its worth to you

Thanks for the input, I will try and get the temps up in the morning then do Leni's test to double check all the mixtures. When we first got her flying last October we had a GSC prop that later became its own issue but when it worked the performance was much nicer, I hit cruise speeds of 100 indicated and double checked with another aircraft. Climb was much better too so I know the plane is capable of much more. Hopefully I  will know more soon and will post up the progress in the next couple days. 

I'm running an MGL engine monitor. might have to try and double check the sensor make sure its correct

I'm assuming your describing the same issue we had with ours. what we found to be a common fix was just to take a bit of material out of the rib web in that area. I used a sanding drum on a dremel and just rounded it off quite a bit until I could get not only just the straight fitting but also a socket over it. that way if i ever need to take it out later it is easy to get at. The structural integrity of the wing is not dependent on this sole rib so don't worry too much about removing the material here. 

I'm just starting a new thread over here as I was taking away from the original post on the other thread. 

That said I have adjusted the flapperons and added some weight to the tail spring. It is already flying much nicer however the performance still is not that great. But I think we are on to something. I went up this morning with my wife for about an hour. field elevation 4000' OAT at T/O was about 60* climb out at 6300 rpms and 60 MPH indicated was 400-450 FPM and cruise at 6300 RPMS was about 75 MPH Indicated. throttle settings on T/O was full power and at cruise I was pulled back about half way to keep from over running the engine. That said My next test when I can fly back to the flat lands will be to flatten out the prop for best climb and record numbers and then re adjust for best cruise and test it again. I'm pretty sure those numbers will be looking more like what I would expect. if so the best solution I can see would be to add an IFA motor to the prop water temp with some duck tape on the radiator is still low at about 115* not sure if the cold temps are robbing me of power or not. the new thermostat didn't make much difference in getting it up. may take me a week or so to get more testing done but I will post my results when I have them. 

ED, good point I'm getting a bit off topic from the OP so I think I will start a new thread. Think we're getting somewhere though  

Very nice, now you will forever have a time stamped photo to remember this years Independence day by.

I feel that it is fairly nose up even in cruise but when checked with a level the flapperons are just as the book says they should be, level with the bottom of the wing just outside of the lift strut attach point. Pulling in one notch of flaps gets me off the ground much faster and at about 38 mph. vs 50 and climb out is much flatter attitude but performance is still not good. is there something I'm missing here? maybe I should try putting some weight towards the rear to pull the CG back? I will have to double check the W&B but I know it was towards the front of the envelope as most of these birds are. 

EDIT: I believe the empty w&b was -13.66

I built the wings to the book specs before reading that I should have done them less... oh well lessons learned i guess. spent yesterday going over everything, cleaned the plugs, new thermostat, added a tiny tach to confirm the MGL. took it up early this morning to check it. still no good. climb out was 200-300 fpm at 60 mph, 6300 RPMs confirmed exact by the second tach. EGS's 1050-1060 water is a bit of concern though best was 111* I was hoping the new thermostat would get it up higher but it didn't. not sure where to go with that. I'm still wondering if i'm spinning this prop to fast. still hoping to see what gear ratios/prop combinations some of you are using. I've been fighting this for a while and I'm running out of ideas.

I've played with the pitch settings and tried it several times even at 6500 on T/O performance sucks. I had better performance with the 66" GSC but it was self adjusting in flight so it had to go. the lift struts are faired but not the gear legs yet. I have not checked the tach with another I will have to just to see. I'm running the MGL E3 engine monitor seems accurate for water and egt's. I'm right at 1050-1100 on the egt's after rejetting the carbs.  the wings are built with Speed ribs on HH spars and set at 1.5" washout. 

Yep that is correct Ed, I have both the MK IV rudder and elevator with electric trim. well worth it.

I'm jumping in a bit late but just came across this thread. I've been having real power issues ever since we finished building almost 60 hrs ago. having no prior experience with these birds I didn't realize how bad it was at first as i was just excited to be flying again. but after flying for a while and now being able to take people I realize my performance sucks. I've played with rigging / weight/ carb jetting prop changes etc. but am starting to think my problem is just that I have the wrong prop/gearbox combo. I would like to see some of you with the 582 put up your empty weights gear box and ratio as well as what prop, make, size, 2 vs 3 blade info. and what performance you are getting out of it.. .climb rate and cruise.. I would like to go to a C box and preferably keep my current prop if it will work but want to know before I keeping sinking money into it with no results..

-Specs-

Avid C with IV upgrades

Heavy Hauler extended speedwing (yes you read that right)

Empty weight 526 lbs

Rotax 582

Rotax B gear box w/ 2.58:1 ratio  (spinning too fast?)

Ivo 68" 3 blade ultralight prop with standard pitch

set to 6300 RPM's static as read from MGL digital tach. 

Take off at 60 mph 600 fpm solo and 400 dual

Cruise 70 mph indicated solo and 68 dual (flying at 6300-6500 rpms) below 6000 and I'm going down. 

Other - I'm 150 lbs wife is 130 lbs / no baggage / usually have 10-28 gal fuel on board 

Mixed gas burns just fine in the truck as well as the lawn mower.

and you won't have to worry about the mosquitoes following you either. 

The only problem i can see is that you forgot to post your route BEFORE you left! (or maybe you did and i missed it?) If i had known you were in my neck of the woods I would have met you guys for lunch Our plane stays at KMAN for the winter. glad you guys had a good trip and thanks for sharing it with us. 

We fold our plane up and trailer for storage as well, if your just going a short distance I would't bother draining out the tanks as long as you're under half tanks, if not just go back up for a while! Make sure you have the braces on to take the stress of the wings bouncing and the added weight of the fuel though. you do have the front braces that go from the front spar down to the lift strut area right? 

Just got back from a week of camping with the family and find this... thanks everyone 

-Robert-

Wow Mike! you just keep making that bird nicer all the time. Those tires are awesome, and to think I was excited when I got the 21 " Nancos  Can't wait for your PIREP

I would confirm this with the specific DAR that you are going to use but it shouldn't be a problem as they are not required, unless you have your "Experimental" placarding on them as I do in which case you will have to do something else for the placarding. good luck on your inspection

thnx gents. Tracking is w/i a blade tip thickness. I will be shipping them to GSC for a balance check/fix. It only has 300 hrs.

What did u replace yours with HC?

we changed over to the G/A 3 blade 68" IVO, much smoother, better performance, and super easy adjustment. 

Ours are also cad plated and we taped them off before paint, i agree with Ed they don't need paint with the cad plating and they look better than they will later on with flaking paint. just my .02

We had lots of problems with our GSC wood prop as well (on 582) check balance, tracking, and pitch. we balanced ours with clear spray paint but even after that was fixed we found that the blades were self adjusting in the hub. We did find that best way to fix it was to simply take a nail and place it into a stud on your living room wall and hang it up. vibration gone!!!

LoL, Happy Birthday Ed, sure is nice to have you around here! although we're still not sure if you're actually building a bird or flying a keyboard? 

hey you can't just start something and leave us all hanging like that could you please post a link to the parts you've found I'm wanting to build new longer flapperons this summer and haven't yet sourced the bearings. 

Thanks