My Savannah S model rebuild Blog

[rmorton]

Your alodineing looks perfect! What acid mix do you use and which alodine?

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi Richard

 

I use aluminium mag wheel cleaner from a auto accessory store...its cheap and you dilute it I think it was like 8 to one so 1 litre gives you 9. It bubbles up on the alu nicely without being too aggressive and washes off easily. The alodine comes in bottles. The brand name is Bonderite 1200 it is premixed in 1 US gallon bottle and it comes in a box of 4 bottles. For brushing you use it straight but for dipping like I do because it gives a nice even finish you dilute it 2 to 1 with distilled water. The carton is about 15 litres in total so it makes up 30 litres. It is pretty cheap really..although others are paying for 1 bottle that I get 4 bottles for. When I get home I will take a couple of pictures and post them here

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

pics as promised Richard

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rmorton]

Hi Mark,

 

thanks for that! It is interesting that I can get Aluprep, which is similar to the Ali bride for 15£ a quart in the UK but here it costs50£ Same story with Aldine :( I did find a powder version and use that to top up the solution when it weakens but in view of the toxic nature I am reluctant to do much more of it.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I must have run over the preverbial chinaman lately

 

Been trying to get stuff done on Mabel as I have just got some free time back

 

Attached are a few pics of Danny drilling the S side skins here at my place.

 

Today I went to the shed and started drilling the top rear wing skins for Mabel

 

That day which was last sunday I was feeling pretty crook and did drill a few holes as well as it so much easier with one doing 1 size of hole and the other doing the second size hole...but I couldnt keep going and went to the doc up the road....they are open on sunday mornings to see if I could get some antibiotics as I thought I must have a infection. I got back and told Dan I had to go and lay down. Dan finished his set and also mine. I ended up in the hospital on sunday arvo :(....They say you got to feel pretty bad before you die....It felt like I must have been close I think..blood pressure was 71/38 and emergency at the hospital were panicking....spent almost a day in there before I had enough blood pressure to send me to the ward...Lots of blood drawn and something like 4 litres of IV fluid and 6 different types of antibiotics were tried to see which was the best treatment. I got out on wed night after pushing to go home..you can not get any rest in hospital but they still didnt have a proper cause for the issue. They think it maybe Qfever. I hadnt heard of it before but looked it up. They took some more blood before I left and they will test the first lot they took again for this now as well.

 

There are many knowledgeable guys living off the land here and work around cattle. Do any of you know much about Q Fever and if the vaccination they have now works?. We have had cattle on the farm for 8 years now and never had an issue. The thing that headed them to Q was I said last time we were up the farm was like 4 weeks earlier but then I did take a quick flight up there 2 weeks before to get some measurements of inside the shed and flew home an hour later. The specialist said that fitted the timeline. Q is apparently airborne in dust etc and its a nasty bit of work.

 

Any experience from guys on the forum would be appreciated

 

I am feeling much better now although still no where near 100% and I take these special antibiotics for 2 weeks twice a day but I can go out into the sun they say I will burn to a crisp in like 5 mins as they make you "solar sensitive" so long sleeve shits and a hat and heaps of sunscreen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Marty_d]

Jeez Mark you've had a rough trot! All the best for a quick recovery.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Jeez Mark you've had a rough trot! All the best for a quick recovery.

 

 

[rankamateur]

You get Q fever hanging around the wrong end of cows! Be careful of the splash. You can get vaccinated if you make a habit of it. They test before they vaccinate you to make sure you haven't already been exposed so that test should have been able to confirm your diagnosis. Leonie and I have been vaccinated for about 20 years but our eldest daughter Tiffany couldn't be vaccinated because she had already been exposed.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

The specialist asked me about calves particularly. He said something to do with afterbirth when it decays and becomes dust etc this is the highest concentration of it ( Coxiella Burnetti ) and it gets blown around the place. He said most infections come from airborne bacteria. Our place is a breeding block and there are always 20 odd young calves all the time. Once weaned they are going again

 

 

[rankamateur]

Two of my girls have never been vaccinated and they have come and gone for over 20 years without incident. We only vaccinated the eldest, left the spares to their destiny.

 

 

[SDQDI]

Before I was married I got properly crook and they suspected qfever but it turned out it wasn't (can't actually remember what it turned out to be). My bride to be at the time came from a cattle family and being the son in law to be I found myself helping with marking lots of calves and after reading up on Qfever when I had the scare I wasn't long in getting the vaccination once it was clear I didn't have it. From all accounts it is a nasty thing to have and I think the vaccination is a smart way to go for anyone that spends time around cows.

 

As a side note I am pretty sure that it is a compulsory vaccination at our local feedlot if you are working there.

 

 

[rankamateur]

It is a nasty disease but no worse than leptospirosis, glandular fever or Ross river fever, but they all take a compounding toll on your liver. The eldest didn't need get vaccinated as I suggested before. she was the one who caught it when she was about 6 years old, had a huge temperature for about 3 days and slept a lot. when she later got tested pre-vaccination they told us she wouldn't get the vaccine because of her previous exposure.

 

 

[rankamateur]

As a side note I am pretty sure that it is a compulsory vaccination at our local feedlot if you are working there.

And also at slaughter works, avoiding the splash just doesn't happen there!

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Well I am feeling much better. Still not 100% though. I seem to be fine just mainly a little tired then I will get about 15 mins of the "wobblys" feel like crap. These antibiotics seem to be working but give your mouth the feeling of a garbage bin and taste buds are still crap. I am off on a 4 day cruise up to Airlee Beach this morning on the Pacific Dawn so some salt air and more relaxing on the deck...out of the sun though and I am sure I will be better when I get back. Then I go back and see the dr so hopefully will find out exactly what it was.

 

 

[rotax618]

Sorry to hear about your health Mark, it is a very serious disease, a neighbour of ours at Evans Head had to get a heart transplant as a result of complications from Qfeaver.

 

 

[eightyknots]

Sorry to hear about your health Mark, it is a very serious disease, a neighbour of ours at Evans Head had to get a heart transplant as a result of complications from Qfeaver.

At Evans Head. So Q Fever isn't confined to Q ueensland?

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hank about 600 cases a year in OZ about 300 of those in Qld

 

Still dont know yet...waiting for results

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Well after 4 days in hospital a couple of days at home then on a cruise to Airlie beach where I couldnt do much anyway I am finally feeling a lot better. Still not 100% but far better

 

So got back on saturday from the cruise and was busting to get some work done on Mabel. Top rear wing skins are drilled, Front D skin is drilled and bottom skin is now drilled. Put the top fuselage skin on the bench last night will get that drilled and then setup the bottom fuselage skin then I have the 4 skins that are the curved sides on the rear of the fuselage to do. Then I will start getting the centre section and baggage area disassembled and cleaned and alodined and get it back together. My cabin frame is quite rusted inside when I pulled the alu rear sections out so not happy about that. dannys cabin frame is all bent so he needs to make a new one and I will do the same so we will make a jib from my cabin frame which is nice and straight and make a new one for both of us but we wont have the alu sections in the rear we will make them chrome molly so the whole frame is tigged in one lot. Finally got my temporary cowl from the mold I made glassed by the guy next door at work...he owed me a favour..its only taken a year :)...anyway it has come out of the mold I can now use this as a sacrificial cowl to do all the cutting and shutting to accomodate the proper Rotax exhaust system I will fit. I will then make a much better split mold and this should also work for anyone that has a new 912IS engine in a Sav . I was going to do it on the XL but I think Mabel will get it

 

 

 

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Top fuselage deck skins all done. The bottom fuselage skins now aligned and pinned ready for drilling tomorrow night

 

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Bottom main skin drilled and then the top curved skins drilled and finally the bottom curved skins so all rear fuselage skins are drilled. All 6 wing skins have all been done. All now to be trimmed then deburred cleaned then I will try painting on the alodine to see how it goes. If I am not happy with that I will make a temporary tank from plastic and wood frame and dip them like before. I have a few bits ordered from Reg as he has a container leaving now with kits in it and I am going to replace the wing struts and have ordered aileron skins and the main spars for the ailerons. That should be here late January or early Feb

 

 

 

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Yeah well you may remember that I said I wasnt happy about some of the building that was done on Mabel so I decided I would strip the rear cargo area and centre section. Looky looky...no rivets set in the section right behind the main rear wing attachment Maybe just the internal cover section of the aileron rods but the rivets tie the front and rear sections of the first part of the cargo bay. I am really flabergasted that this can happen. I suppose at least with the new Tech manual and the inspections that need to be done before anything is closed up will hopefully pick this up. if it was just the one side I can understand maybe it was forgotten...I dont know how though....but both sides of the aircraft are the same

 

 

 

 

 

 

[IBob]

Mark. There is a new manual???

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I got the build manual with Mabel. Although I havent needed to look at it yet except for ordering parts. I cant believe they didnt rivet that area on purpose

 

 

[IBob]

I'm biting my tongue as best I can here.

 

Yep, it's shit, but the problem is vague, misleading, incorrect or entirely missing order of build.......which of course everyone knows...once they know it!!!

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Thats why I havent used the manual for any building at the moment...I am dreading it when I need to but hopefully I wont need to rely on it. Doing it section by section also makes it easier for the rebuild.