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Messages - Jack

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61
Hangar Flying / If you were building it again...
« on: February 27, 2006, 11:00:10 AM »
Quote from: "Snappy"


Good luck and do the O320.  Have you ever flown an aircraft with too much power?


More power is always good.  I always loved having a light weight bird after burning off lots of gas and putting the pedal to the metal.  

O man a slick wing A-4 on a cold day and not much fuel is a nice lil rocket. Even a Herc with 20,000 lbs of fuel, no payload, and on a cold day is pretty damn fun to takeoff with.

Now a freaking Long with a full bag, taking off from West Texas on a hot day with an O-235 mouse motor isn't real fun and headed towards the Rockies.

Cheers;

Jack

62
Hangar Flying / IFR Advice
« on: February 26, 2006, 04:38:07 AM »
Quote from: "Dave in Eugene"
Thanks for all the well written opinions. I appreciate it. I am very excited to continue learning as a pilot. Time to go study.

Dave


One major consideration flying IMC in an EZ is icing.  If you don't have pitot heat some bad karma can result.  I have down 180s when some ice started sticking to my canopy.  

It's a pretty decent IFR platform no doubt.  I picked up my Navy wings back in 75 and we went right into IFR training almost from the start. So flying off the gauges is second nature to me.

It rides the bumps in the sky pretty well too. Having flown with an RV-4 often in formation, his stiff wing puppy doesn't take the bumps as well.

Cheers;

Jack

63
Hangar Flying / Re: Engine out!
« on: February 25, 2006, 09:07:13 PM »
Quote from: "Dave in Eugene"


All things being equal I think i would choose water over a farmers plowed field...

But I am really wondering what everbody else thinks?

If you had an engine out how inclined are you to go for a water landing?

Thanks for your opinions.

Dave


I generally go with what's under my nose or I know where a decent spot is right behind me.

Tis driven by altitude. The lower you are the less options your going to have.  In my case, if the engine does stop, am going through my procedures for a relight.  I use 70KIAS for a glide speed too.

Then the next debate is nose gear position.  Generally I would go with down, but if you need to stop quick.  Leaving it up and dropped the nose gently will stop you far quicker.

It's always, "what ifs" when flying and your best SWAG for a good outcome.

Jack

64
Hangar Flying / LongEZ Landing
« on: February 25, 2006, 03:33:29 AM »
Quote from: "Waiter"
NO WAY!!!

1st, you have photographic evidence,

2nd, there were witnesses.

Its been my experience, that the only really smooth grease jobs are totally undocumented, with not another soul within 50 miles.



LOL. IMO, that last foot prior to touchdown separated the men from the boys. I ended up flying VIPs in the Navy for 5 years for greasing the landings.  Tis how most folks grade a flight, smooth air and a smoother landing.

Jack

65
Hangar Flying / Re: rotary power
« on: February 25, 2006, 03:30:12 AM »
Quote from: "atfloyd"
Hi folks, I am doing some research on a rotary motor for my Long Ez.  anyone have any experience in this mod. Any input would be great..
Thanks...


Check Perry's site and the links.  He did a helluva of a job with a direct drive setup and it kinda of worked.

Tis one of my goals in the future to run a wankel in my Long.  A wankel has only 7 moving parts and it's near a turbine performance for power output and smoothness.

Good luck;

Jack

66
Hangar Flying / Ellison TBI
« on: January 11, 2006, 05:12:24 PM »
Quote from: "NWade"
 The points about icing and flow-alteration due to the butterfly valve in a conventional carb (mentioned in the article I linked to previously) all make good sense.  
--Noel


Most pilots are really clueless about icing and carbs.  Let alone the difference from anti or de icing gear.  Yeah a carb can ice up at 78F in certain conditions, by the same token it might not ice up at minus 9C with visible moisture present.  

I have flown the Atlantic in a Convair 440 in the middle of Winter and was sweating range with a serious headwind.  Using carb heat down at 6,000' cost me 10% of range.  With the gauges on the Convair I could detect carb icing prior to it impacting the carb.  I also knew the same motor on DC-6s never had a carb icing problem because of the manifold setup and the 6 was certified for severe icing.

Prevention and SA will keep you flying another day.  I am still waiting for a freaking motor to replace your typical Lyc or Cont motor in a homebuilt.

Cheers;

Jack

67
Hangar Flying / Ellison TBI
« on: January 08, 2006, 06:23:03 PM »
Quote from: "NWade"
Okay, I don't even have my pilot's license yet - so I may catch some flak for even sticking my nose into this conversation...  But before anyone starts ye Please understand I'm not sneering at you personally, Jack - but I fail to see the logic in this argument.

l


Give you some hints, after 10,000 plus hours of flying approaching 40 years and 12 of that flying Navy crap including heavy recips that just happened to have carbs in them.  I am very leery of new tech that doesn't have a million hours of time on it.  I flew single seats to 4 motor birds.

My logic is based on all of my body parts are attached after doing some serious maintenance check flights in the Navy, flying old aircraft into and out of Davis Monthan, depot level maintenance and 3 first time flights in homebuilts.  

I use to fly out of Mojave back in the early 80s and I met and knew most of the players in homebuilding.  KISS is always good.

Jack

68
Hangar Flying / Re: Ellison TBI
« on: January 07, 2006, 06:35:16 PM »
Quote from: "Bruce Hughes"
Hi, "Greybird"

  I have already iced up a carburetor
WHILE TAXIING OUT TO TAKEOFF.   That was in a Cessna 152.

The Ellison WILL ice up.   But not in the way that a carburetor
ices up; it gives you a lot of warning.  

.


So what's your point??  Carbs give plenty of warning and you should be aware of icing conditions when your flying??  Carbs have been around a long time and longer than most folks have been flying.  It's like any other piece of equipment, you have to know how to use it.

Jack

69
Hangar Flying / Re: MPH or Knots
« on: December 14, 2005, 05:12:03 PM »
Quote from: "Charles Davis"
Do most of you guys have or prefer an Mph airspeed over a Knots calibrated gauge?

What is the range on your airspeed indicator?


I always use knots for a very simple reason, your charts are setup in knots or nautical miles.  As for a freaking passenger wondering, tell them to multiply by 1.15 and figure it out.

Jack

70
Hangar Flying / Re: Injection, Carb, or Throttle Body
« on: November 27, 2005, 06:31:34 PM »
Quote from: "Bruce Hughes"
Hi, Charles


Having said that, my OPINION is the carburetors are a hazard and should
have been banned by the FAA.   .


I have flown heavy recips from 1975 off and on. 2800s, 1820s, and the much smaller GA motors.  In all cases you have to know the operating ranges of your motor and in the case of icing, ensure you use carb heat as required.  Sure you can get carb icing up to 78F in certain conditions. I have flown heavy recips over the Northern Atlantic in winter time and the Pacific.  

If you don't know your equipment, no doubt you could have a very bad day.

When I am flying my EZ, on the cold days I tend to add some carb heat up to 10C and this allows a little more efficiency on the engine without visible moisture around.

A carb is a pretty simple piece of equipment and it's been around for decades.  Just know the performance data for it and it will last a long time.

Jack

71
Hangar Flying / Prop spacers + exhaust
« on: November 09, 2005, 07:23:02 PM »
Quote from: "Wragie"
Actually that is what Lopresti found when he went over the Mooney's
cowling. Remember when they went from the big pie plate opening next
to the spinner and then they were two tiny 4" dia hole as far away from
the spinner and center as possible.]


When I was ground testing a Q-200 we did some tuff testing on the inlet cowls.  On the pilot's side, no air was coming in through the inlet. After trying numerous configs, we finally settled on adding a chin and we had air flowing nicely. We left the other inlet  side alone and it flowed fine.

I use the rule of thumb of double your outlet area from the inlet for cooling.

Interesting on the cowl removal at the prop for increased cooling.  One of my future goals, install some of those small computer cameras in the cowl and record airflow while in flight.

Cheers;

Jack

72
Hangar Flying / Re: First Flight
« on: November 07, 2005, 06:29:02 PM »
Quote from: "GlennBob"
Just bought a new Long-EZ.  Need to get some Canard time. Right now I have Zero.  Anyone in the Osh Kosh area or East of there (Wis) that could give a little dual in a Cozy or other side by side ?  How do I get dual ?  How do I get prepped for that first solo flight ?

Glennbob :roll:
----------------


Hopefully you can get some dual time.  I divide taxi speeds between high speed above 30 knots and then under is low speed.  Before you do any taxing, ensure you have memorized your emergency procedures and damn sure know emergency egress.  How will you stop if you have brake failure,  what happens if your engine catches fire, etc.???

I noted in some other discussion speeds they see at the end of the runway.  V2 speed or any climb speed is what your shooting for after takeoff, tis the most efficient speed for a climb.  On first flights of a project, which I have 3 of them, I climb and then turn into the downwind leg and keep it over the field for 30 mins.

Rule of thumb, always perform on the ground, engine stopped every procedure you can think of in the bird.  Just how fast can you perform an emergency shutdown, stop the aircraft, unstrap, pop the canopy, and grab a fire ext. for starters??   Do you have a routine that starts from left to right, right to left, or just wing it???

Now think worst case, upside down, at night, fuel leaking out and now what sportsfans???

Jack

73
Hangar Flying / Mysterious "thump" while flying my EZ-Help!
« on: October 16, 2005, 09:34:45 AM »
Quote from: "asaybe"
Thanks for you respose. I haven't tried just using the mag. However, the engine "thump" is noticeable in climb and just yesterday, I noticed it when powering down turning to final in landing configuration. .


Can we assume it's engine related?? Engine performance gauges should reveal something. Another area to check is your fuel venting. When I installed new lines, it made a helluva of an improvement at low power.

I don't have the time right now to give you the quick troubleshooting checklist. Am sure others know it. Currently I am in the middle of freaking Iraq and at times it gets a lil exciting.

Good luck;

Jack

74
Hangar Flying / Re: Engine-out Flight Testing
« on: October 08, 2005, 07:40:51 PM »
Quote from: "jdubner"
I  All in all, I spent about 15 minutes from engine shutdown to touchdown which equates to an 866 fpm average descent rate and agrees with what I saw on the VSI.  My groundtrack covered about 25 NM, although I could easily have .


I posted last year or before engine out data flights. Except I started at 10,000' and relit at 5,000'.  You will find your VSI decreases as you descend for the lower altitudes.  I just held her at 70KIAS and came on down.

It took 110KIAS to relight my engine also.  I did it with and without the prop stopped. With the prop stopped you decreased VSI by 15% or so.

If somebody else is planning on trying glide distance.  Do it over a big airport and be prepared for a relight.  I used a fairly hot day and the engine didn't cool down too much. Still I cranked her at idle and left it there for a couple of mins.

It gets real quiet up there and having a camcorder or other recording device helps.

Cheers;

Jack

75
Hangar Flying / Re: emergency ldg in Cozy MKIV--all is well--little embarras
« on: September 19, 2005, 10:44:51 PM »
Quote from: "Drew"
Two Electronic ignition to off---no change--then back on.  Mag off---no change either---back on.  Mixture already rich for the climb. But holy smokes----the oil temp was smoking hot----and the CHT alarms were going off also!  I throttled back with no change in any temps or vibration.

I
I looked around the cockpit again to see if anything else would jump out at me.  I looked at the speedbrake switch (tiny switch by the pitch trim lever)-----It was DOWN!!  it.


Good job of flying it, aiming it, and finally troubleshooting the problem.  Having forget to pickup my board a few times after takeoff, it feels much different and up it goes.  My SOP is leave the board down on the ground until I hit 40 KIAS, then suck it up and keep the takeoff roll going.

If you think you do have a fouled cylinder or two, you might have to lean the puppy back to unfoul it hopefully.  Done it a few times in various recip powered aircraft.

Hey your down in one piece and the airframe is reusable.

One thing for folks that haven't declared an emergency with ATC. After 40 odd declared emergencies, ATC has always responded ASAP and were very helpful.  Although you have to tell them what you want.  Most of the events were in military aircraft that were either going to or from depot level overhaul.  Very prone to mech problems.

Jack

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