My Savannah S model rebuild Blog

[jackc]

Congratulations Mark, a beautiful job in the making 🙂

[Marty_d]

Hi Mark,  so you coat everything in white, let dry, then mask off for colour? 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi Marty   Yes because its a basecoat system the paint covers extremely well so its easier to do these surfaces like that as there isnt a huge amount of red. The clear over the top is the heaviest coats.  The fuse is mainly red but the red covers unbelievably well so will do the white but will paint past the masking line then can mask it an hour or two later and do the red...I do have a dark grey on the bottom and it will go over the red

 

I am picking all this up tomorrow morning and I will take the wing off the cradel and put the other wing on for painting...all the painted parts you see now will go to the hangar tomorrow. As soon as the last wing is dry then the fuselage goes over  so maybe by the end of next week it will be back here so I can get all the other stuff done to it

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

My trusty old Iveco van is literally made for transporting wings of a savannah 🙂

[Kyle Communications]

Finally some parts back in the hangar

 

[Paul davenport]

Love the red striping.  Thanks for taking us along for the journey

[IBob]

Looks fantastic, Mark! What is the paint system?

[Kyle Communications]

The paint is AkzoNobel Aerodur 3001 and 3002

 

It is the std paint used by Airbus and others for commercial jets etc

Virgin Airlines changed their colours slightly and they got rid of the paint they had. WE managed to just get in on the tail of it. It was sold cheaper than we could get good paint for. It is a basecoat system and clear. The only issue is you have to get the clear on no more than 72 hrs from painting the base coats. It is beautiful paint to spray. I am using a special 2 pack undercoat that was recommended by the paint gurus here for alu  ..it cost more than the paint. It was $500 for 5 litres but it will do at least 3 aircraft as it covers extremely well and doesnt need much at all so it remains very light

 

 

 

[planedriver]

Looking great Mark!

Bet you're getting excited at now starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

Well done!

[Kyle Communications]

Yes its been a long haul this one. Especially seeing I have a brand new kit here I havent even started thats been sitting here since Oct 2019

And I havent had a aircraft to fly since mid last year since the Girlfriend has gone. 

There is still a bit to do of course but once the paint is finished then the last run home shouldnt take too much longer. My engine should be back in a week or two after its big bore upgrade and ready to go on.

 

[Kyle Communications]

Its been a couple of weeks now since the fuselage has come back from paint. Had alot of "other" stuff happening around here but have managed to get a bit done. Got the rudder pedals installed The dashcut out and mounted on the hinged panel. Instruments and switches etc all fitted. New axels that my mate were made fitted beautifully, cleaned the brake assemblys so they actually slide now.Got a pair of new turfglide tyres and tubes. Was a drama fitting them. Had to drill new holes for the tube stems as they were not in the middle of the tube and the tyres were very hard to get onto the rims. 3 nights involved and lots of swearing. Had to get Danny to give me a hand with them. All mounted to the UC and the UC fitted so I could get the fuselage on its wheels finally.

Got the motor back from the big bore fitting. So have been putting all the parts back onto the engine. Checked the pickup gaps and 2 were 10 thou and the other 2 were 12 thou so they were adjusted to both be 10 thou before I put the engine into the ring mount. New CDI modules and oil filter done. Replaced the oil pressure relief valve with the new type mushroom head style. Replaced all the plug caps...the spark leads looked all fine and just finished today fitting all new water hose and clamps top and bottom..

Turned up 8 alu tapered washers for the engine mount rubbers so that the engine mounts actually work how they are supposed to. Not the big flat steel washers that ICP supply that dont let the rubber mounts do their job. Got to chase up some new mounting bolts for the ring mount to the engine mount then I can get the engine back on and start fitting all the other parts like oil cooler and radiator etc. Have to replace the fuel pump yet..may have found the one Rotax supplies but after market which saves about $200 especially when I have to get another for the RANS engine as well.

 

I only put some basic paint on the fuselage and I will flash it up a bit with some vinyl. Got another Jabiru static port and will get that fitted to the top of the fin this weekend as well.

 

Once the engine is on and it is sitting on its wheels proeprly it will also make it easier for me to wire up the avionics. The panel looks a bit bare but I have everything I need and the Ipad is a larger one I am going to use as I am over the Ipad mini being not big enough. I got a ram mount to suit the Ipad Air 3 that I will use and I will 3D print a tapered block it will mount to that will offset it from the dash so it angles toward the pilot

You may notice I have a centre throttle. Its a McFarlane one. As I have twin sticks this will help me to get used to using a centre throttle as this is what the RANS S-21 is setup as

 

 

90% done ...90% to go

 

 

[Marty_d]

Wow Mark, I'm exhausted just reading that!

[Kyle Communications]

Got the engine pretty much all dressed back up and it is now mounted onto the engine mount.The ring mount on a savannah is packed between the engine mount and the ring mount to get the correct offset for the engine. This helps to line up to the centre of the cowl. The engine mount is made off square to account for the engine offset so then you have to offset the ring mount to bring the front of the engine back to the centre.

The original washers I didnt take note of when I pulled it apart but seeing that the firewall wasnt square to the centrline of the fuselage that would havet made any difference. So dragged out the trusty laser I have to set the offset.

Started running a line straight down the middle of the aircraft shooting from the dead centre of the back and using the centre rivet lines on the rear fuselage as a datum. To my surprise (not) my aircraft is actually straight now 🙂   not like when it was originally built. I placed a rivet in the centre rivet of the top of the firewall rivet to give me the centre reference at the front and lined the laser up along the rivets and it was all very spot on. The laser is mounted high at the back so the vertical will shoot though the cabin and out to the engine gearbox. You should be able to see in the pictures. I had to fit 4 of the AN washer to the top left engine mount and this has lined the centre of the engine to within about 0.5mm so thats close enough for me another washer would make it too far I think. 

 

Then I set the rear of the aircraft to level along the top rear of the fuselage and set the laser to make sure the engine didnt have any "nod" angle. You can see with the laser it is perfectly level with the datum on the aircraft so there is only side thrust and no up or down thrust so I didnt have to adjust it.

 

Looks like I need to order another 800/6.00 tube for the front wheel as it must have a hole in it...it was the orginal tube and I was going to replace it anyway.

 

I will start wiring the avionics next I think this week. Now she is on the wheels it will be easier in the cabin to work. Once thats done then I will fit the twin stick mechanism...I have to still make new operating sticks yet and I havent made up my mind the final shape..still thinking about it.

 

 

 

[planedriver]

Well done mate. Looking great! 

[Kyle Communications]

Made and fitted a equipment tray to mount the RDAC and other things on to make it easy to get to all the wiring. Seeing the dash is hinged and I must say I quite like it..think I will do the same on the S-21.

 

The tray is quite light made from 25 thou sheet and the segmented strips you use for the fin and elevator cap mounting strips riveted to it. Its quite strong and it slides in over the side rails on the bottom side. The top sheet is on the top of the bend rail and it is clamped with a small 3mm strip at each side so it all can be removed with 4 bolts

 

Now I can start to do some wiring. Drew out my schematic last night. I will have a master just using the key which then turns on a 80 amp relay to power the buss. I have a starter button for the starter motor and not using the original switch for that function. Only using it for the master

 

Danny and myself have also come up with a really nice feature to the electric fuel pump which I will write about shortly that takes away forgetting to turn it on or off 

 

 

 

[rodgerc]

Looks sweet Mark

[Blueadventures]

Looking nice.  Could you fit camlocs where you have nutserts, will reduce unscrewing fastenings.  I did this with the Nynja and wow it makes opening up a quick job.   Look forward to the progress and one day will say hi in person.  Cheers.

[Blueadventures]

Hi Mark A friend of mine has just assembled a Sav XL with 270 hours on it. When we move the control stick left to right there is movement in the bolt fit out for the aileron control. The location where a horizontal AN3 size bolt is located low on the stick connection to the torque tube.  Have you struck this slop before? I’m having a better look for him this afternoon. Thinking some washers or a sleeve etc should correct things.  I did mention slop there is no good.  He did a circuit last Sunday and not happy with the slop that results in control lag. Thanks in advance for any comments and replies.

Edited September 2, 2021 by Blueadventures

[IBob]

Hi Blueadventures, I struck exactly the same thing on my Sav S build.

In my case the slop was in the holes in the control stick, not in the bush that passes through the torque tube.

A mate here turned up a couple of little top-hat bushes and we drilled out the holes in the control stick to take them.

 

I wonder if this is the result of using 'almost the same but not quite' metric drills for holes that take imperial AN bolts........

[Blueadventures]

14 minutes ago, IBob said:

Hi Blueadventures, I struck exactly the same thing on my Sav S build.

In my case the slop was in the holes in the control stick, not in the bush that passes through the torque tube.

A mate here turned up a couple of little top-hat bushes and we drilled out the holes in the control stick to take them.

 

I wonder if this is the result of using 'almost the same but not quite' metric drills for holes that take imperial AN bolts........

Bingo mate,  sounds exactly what I could see without dismantling.  My mate is coming out this afternoon and I'll look at it better then.  With what you say may be ream out to take the aileron type bushes might work for the top hats (just shortened a bit.  Cheers.

[Kyle Communications]

My XL build wasnt like when it was single stick then as I fitted twin sticks and the coupling from the twin sticks I made sure there was no slop. I would think Bon is right it will be slop of the bush in the stick. A tiny amount of flop is well amplified by the time it gets to the bellcranks on the flaperon mixer

 

[Kyle Communications]

Been starting on the wiring..I forgot its a mamoth task as well when your doing it from scratch 🙂

I am using the key switch as a master only that then switches a master relay which is 70 amps so its well big enough. You can see it on the pilot side attached to the side rail. The feed for its input comes from a 12G wire that comes from the top of the solenoid where the main positive battery cable goes to. The load side of the master relay splits in two. One to the 15amp breaker and the other to the 10amp breaker. The load side of each breaker goes then to a "neutral link" you can see both there. Then there are 4 feeds to four fuses each in the fuse block. The fuse block is split 4 and 4 for each buss. Then they go to their respective switches. There is a main earth block that all the earths of all the equipment gets connected to this also has the bolt for the main battery earth to go past then onto the starter on the engine so there are no earth loops to create noise and the RDAC for the EFIS and EMS-2 is also on the tray.

 

The first switch is fuel pump on the 15amp buss and the DC sockets for 12V and the USB charger sockets and anything else that is not the electronics on other switches. The 10amp circuit goes to a avionics switch that has the EFIS and the EMS-2. The next switch is the radio switch this does the aviation radio and the UHF CB. The next switch is reserved for my ham radio tracker. The switch on the pax side of the centre throttle is for the DC and USB charger outlets on the 15 amp buss

 

The Jabiru static port has been fitted to the top of the vertical stabilizer and all the pitot and static connections are hooked to the required instruments.

Made a rail housing for the SP6 compass module and the SP7 AHRS module to fit in the same place I had the first ones I did on the girlfriend. All the wiring is now completed on it and it is run up to behind the dash ready to go into the EFIS

 

Fitted the new throttle mod to the carbs to make sure its all fine and to get some final measurements for the CNC parts... I must say it feels really nice and so accurate on the throws for the carbs.

 

 

 

 

[jackc]

Mark,

Love the throttle setup on the carbies 🙂 

[IBob]

Watching this with interest, Mark. I have a Sav to wire somewhere down the track.

[Kyle Communications]

Have a nice funky handy mod for the fuel pump that is going into this build and future ones.

How many times have you forgotten to turn on or off the electric fuel pump?...I know its plenty for me.

VDO do a nice pressure switch for petrol and its relatively cheap where I can get them from.

The pressure switch fits inline and is setable..I think I will set it around 2 or 3 PSI. On the dash will be a 3 position switch.The switch will be auto/ off/ manual/ and a flashing LED same as I used for the fuel. In manual mode it works as normal..the pump is on when its on. In auto mode if the fuel pressure from the mechanical pump ever falls below the set pressure of the switch the electric fuel pump comes on automatically and a big red LED starts flashing on the dash. So you can pick your poison..still do it the old way or make it automatic...that way the engine should never stop because its either one or the other supplying the engine

 

I do like the hinged dash and the equipment tray in behind the dash..it does add a small amount of weight but I think its worth it for the convenience