My Savannah S model rebuild Blog

[Marty_d]

Oh Marty I didnt make the body...I need to make the ring that goes inside the tank to clamp that body to the tank. Although I am sure I could come up with something similar but its a lot of work to do so....much easier to buy those parts :)

Yeah I know... I was referring to the paint stripping & alodining and all the other work you're doing. Mabel will be in the air before you know it!

[rankamateur]

Oh Marty I didnt make the body...I need to make the ring that goes inside the tank to clamp that body to the tank. Although I am sure I could come up with something similar but its a lot of work to do so....much easier to buy those parts :)

If the ring is built as strong as the cap, how do you get the ring through the hole into the tank? does it have to be made in two pieces?

 

 

[Blueadventures]

https://www.recreationalflying.com/attachments/p1080284-jpg.37364/

 

Hi Mark This is the fuel cap for the Nynja made by Greg the wing nut pulls the cap parts up and expands the 'O' ring for a tight sealed fit. Very light as the tank neck is the receiving mount for the cap. Re vent you could use the next size bolt and drill its centre and silver solder an extension pipe. The Nynja tanks have a vent on the tank so the cap does not require the vent. Cheers

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Steve

 

The clamp ring is basically a circle but has a gap of about 20 or 30mm between 2 bolt holes. You can then get it into the tank... line up the screw holes and tighten it up

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi Mike

 

Have seen different versions of those as well. They do the job fine too. I just like the flush caps with the over centre flip. it does the same when you push the toggle down it pulls up the bung to create the seal.

 

The one I got looks like it will fit perfectly once I cut the neck off the threaded section f the sav tanks and whith the throat going down into the tank a bit that should stop splashing up into the breather I put in as well

 

 

[rotax618]

They look good Mark, how are you going to fit the vents, doesn’t seem to be too much room on the top of the cap.

 

 

[rotax618]

I’m sure that you have considered the problem that you will loose some volume because you won’t be able to fill the tanks higher than the bottom of the cap outer body ( probably a good thing to prevent overfilling) and the inner clamping ring will have to be made in 2 halves to go into the tank so will have to be rigid enough to clamp the uneven plastic tank using 3 screws in each half.

 

I noticed that the Groppo next door has flush tank fittings that have a brass screwed cap you can open with a coin, I have no idea how they vent the tanks, the screw caps are only about 25mm.

 

 

[IBob]

So the seal of the fitting to the tank is on the outside of the tank...and you will need either to increase the size of the hole in the wing skin, or have 2 gaskets: tank to skin, then skin to fitting, Mark?

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Not sure how I am going to do the transition on the skins yet. The seal will be on the top of the tank under the flange you see. The clamping ring inside the tank will be one piece. It will have a small cut out between 2 bolt holes so you can get it into the tank. like the pic attached. I will either cut them out on my cnc or get them lasercut out of 3mm and just drill and tap them

 

 

The venting I will drill and tap a small hole into the centre cap. There is a gap under the cap that is inside the seal that when I drill through will provide the vent. I will tap this and fit small alu or stainless tube with a threaded end I will do and screw them in sort of like what I have now but smaller in height.

 

 

[rotax618]

I got to look at how Groppo vent their tanks, they have a tube from the top of the outer end of the tank, the tube goes out to the wingtip where it is connected to a forward facing U tube.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Finally got some free time to get back and work on Mabel. I am now pulling the section behind the cargo area and the whole cargo area and control systems apart to clean and alodine it all. Mainly to fix the poor work that was originally done. This is also the graft area for the rear end so it must be right although it will actually be much stronger than the original anyway. The front has good access now so I can also then look at starting to fit the twin sticks and look at doing something different with the seats as well to make it more comfortable.

 

 

 

 

 

[Blueadventures]

Hi Mark these are the coolant pipes I was telling you about yesterday. Saves on long hose runs. Won't fit a sav I expect but could be an idea to make up. If not suitable for you rebuild log please ask admin to delete after you have viewed them. Cheers Mike

 

 

 

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I did something similar with mine but not all of them.

 

 

[eightyknots]

Reg reinforced the rear edge of the fin with two angle stringers too, but I was interested to see that they didn't deem them necessary to accommodate the added load on the fin from the extended rudder.

Hi Steve (or anyone else?), are there any photos or diagrams of this fin reinforcement mod? I will have a rudder extension on my Savannah and I would like to strengthen this part of the fin.

 

 

[rankamateur]

Hi Steve (or anyone else?), are there any photos or diagrams of this fin reinforcement mod? I will have a rudder extension on my Savannah and I would like to strengthen this part of the fin.

I didn't reinforce mine, remember if you make anything heavy enough it won't get off the ground. The engineers at ICP don't believe you need them. Reg designed his rudder extension after a conversation we had on the phone one night, about three days later I went over to start building and the parts were on the bench, but he did what seemed necessary, he is not an engineer. The only example is the old maroon Savannah demonstrator and it has a new home down at Dubbo, I don't know of any photos of the angle reinforcements.

 

 

[eightyknots]

Thanks Steve, I'll play it safe and adhere to the ICP design.

 

I really liked the maroon demonstrator and it arguably numbers among the nicest examples of Savannah XLs around the world. It has plenty of power! Does Reg own an S now?

 

 

[rankamateur]

Reg has had no plane since he sold her and is no longer the ICP distributor. If I was any sort of neighbour I would get on and finish my S so he could do a few hours before he forgets how to do it!

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

FINISH??????? surely not

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

If you wait long enough Steve you could enter it in a vintage comp

 

 

 

[rotax618]

I would be careful if you don’t understand the stress paths, reinforcing random points on a thin alloy skinned structure can give unexpected results - remember the NOMAD tail disaster.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Well its been a while since I have updated this blog/page. Life sort of has gotten in the way for a while. Bought a block of dirt for the grand daughter and then looked for houses to be built and got it done. Went for a trip to the USA with the better half...mainly to go and fly the next aircraft I will build after getting Mabel flying. Work has been crazy as well but this past couple of weeks I have been working most nights getting the really crappy stuff done. Danny and myself bought a heap of 16thou and 20 thou alu sheet to use for the skins for his S rebuild and mine. Turned out to be not so cheap as all this sort of stuff does. The plastic protection on the sheet sort of stuck to the alu and it has been a nightmare getting it off. Nothing would shift it and I tried every deadly solvent under the sun and it wouldn't even look at it. I found lots of threads about this issue of alu that has been stored for a long time the plastic well the glue actually sort of bonds itself to the alu. Turns out the best we came up with was cleaning vinegar..but you had to keep it wet with the vinegar and wait a day or two then most of it you could high pressure clean off but still lots was left. The only other way was elbow grease and a scotch brite and it has been very tedious. Anyway this past 2 weeks I have been getting stuck into it and after cleaning most off I then had to debur all the holes as we had previously drilled all the holes using templates before trying to get the plastic off. Using a orbital sander with 320 grit wet and dry but using it dry it deburrs the holes nicely and also gets the little bits of glue off that still remained. So I have been doing that. Today I have been cutting out the fuel tank holes in the bottom skin...it was new alu sheet I had bought thank god. By tomorrow that one will be finished the only 2 left are the front D skins which we have prebent in a jig so they will take a bit of work to do. The sheets then need to be alodined and wings can start to go back together..well 1 wing as I havent pulled apart the second wing yet as I have way too many parts laying around now. I have finally separated the rear fuse section from the front and I just need to finished cleaning some bits up and alodining them then the fuse rear can go up on the big table and start to be fully assembled. The rear skins will be alodined next week or the week after and the rear can go back together. 

 

Found more parts NOT riveted..cant believe it !!!! the main frame just behind the rear wing mount was missing 2 rivets in each corner section....unbelievable. Also they couldnt be bothered actually fitting things properly and drilled other holes to make the parts fit....I just cant believe it I am so glad I decided to put a[part the whole aircraft and literally turn it back into a full kit. Its a lot more work of course but I need to feel confident that I have the best it can be.

 

Anyway thats the latest update. I need to get Mabel finished as hopefully the next aircraft will be here around June next year so need to get Mabel flying and the Girlfriend sold to make room for "The Mistress". 

 

On another note when I was at Rans I met the guy who started the big bore kits for the Rotax 912 engines. They have since been copied by a couple of others like Edge Performance and the like I have done a deal with him and will after xmas have a big bore kit coming which will give me 114hp and with a tuned exhaust should get to just under 120hp. I have picked up a out of time engine locally that will be available early next year as it is still got a hundred or so hours to run and it will be rebuilt with bearings and checked over by my engine guru and the crank will also be welded so no chance of it slipping with the extra hp and the big bore kit fitted so that will be the engine I will use in the S21 Outbound. 

 

The pictures with anything you see silver coloured has to still be cleaned and then alodined

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Powerin]

Found more parts NOT riveted..cant believe it !!!! the main frame just behind the rear wing mount was missing 2 rivets in each corner section....unbelievable. Also they couldnt be bothered actually fitting things properly and drilled other holes to make the parts fit....I just cant believe it I am so glad I decided to put a[part the whole aircraft and literally turn it back into a full kit.

I can't believe it either...and yet it seems to be all too common. What is it about aviation that seems to attract dodgy operators? I don't know how these people live with themselves. It makes doing a build myself more and more attractive.

 

Is it time to name and shame?

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Well Danny's S is exactly the same...same rivets missing in his as well so I think it must be the way they built them. Obviously they deemed those rivets unnecessary !!!!. I know there were at least 13 done by these guys and I know for sure that 2 of them havent been done. 

 

Well finally finished the cleaning and sanding of the wing and all fuselage skins so they are ready to be alodined. I have a couple of right angle very long longerons in the fuse frame that need to be alodined Danny and I remade them when we had access to a really long guillo and bender. I will get that done hopefully before I head up to the farm in a couple of days. Will clean and alodine some of the parts in the previous post pictures and get them fitted to the rear fuselage section now finally sitting on my table. Once the parts are all done and fitted it then takes shape and is going together exactly the same as they show in the manual and the skins can go on. Then its get that front section apart and clean it all and the front can then go on. Then somehow I have to reorganise my shed a bit so it can be stored out of the way and I can get one wing assembled I have done all the parts for then I have to pull apart the other wing. I have a spare wing spar which I have redone and the new trailing edge spars made for the second wing and the spar extensions. I made 2 sets of each when I made them so they were ready when I got to the second wing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[eightyknots]

Found more parts NOT riveted..cant believe it !!!! the main frame just behind the rear wing mount was missing 2 rivets in each corner section....unbelievable. Also they couldnt be bothered actually fitting things properly and drilled other holes to make the parts fit....I just cant believe it I am so glad I decided to put a[part the whole aircraft and literally turn it back into a full kit.

I can't believe it either...and yet it seems to be all too common. What is it about aviation that seems to attract dodgy operators? I don't know how these people live with themselves. It makes doing a build myself more and more attractive.

 

Is it time to name and shame?

 

I am disappointed and disgusted. If these 'build experts' are the cause of eventual airframe failures, I  wonder if their guilty consciences will get them to get back to all the other planes they have built and correct the  deficiencies? ...I would say not!

 

The main problem is that the media will report something like "catastrophic ultralight airframe failure leads to multiple deaths". They may add the word "home made" in their article to make matters worse for careful home builders.

 

Before long, CASA will launch an Enquiry. This Enquiry could recommend a strict (and costly) inspection regime and/or tough restrictions on home builders.

 

I am glad you're discovering their shortcuts Mark, and correcting them.

 

 

[rgmwa]

The plastic protection on the sheet sort of stuck to the alu and it has been a nightmare getting it off. Nothing would shift it and I tried every deadly solvent under the sun and it wouldn't even look at it. I found lots of threads about this issue of alu that has been stored for a long time the plastic well the glue actually sort of bonds itself to the alu.

Have you tried a heat gun or hair dryer?