Another NEW Savannah XL on its way

[Kyle Communications]

I can make the angle steeper of course if necessary by making a new box I made the angle by sight so hopefully its right. I should have it rigged up on friday...need to get some more gas for my tig Ok I am wetting the shed floor down at the moment ready to spray the fuselage so hopefully it goes well :)

 

Mark

 

 

[eightyknots]

No matter how strong and how safely you built the aircraft, ultimately others will judge the plane by how well it has been painted along the lines of "beauty is just skin deep". It may be shallow, but that is the world we live in.

 

I really hope the spraying goes well, Mark.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Well I put the base white topcoat on yesterday I am reasonably pleased with the job. Considering it was done in the shed and not a spray booth it has come up pretty reasonable. There are a few little imperfections which will come out with a light buff . I have the elevator and stab out to do the trim for the red star burst that will be on the top of the stab and the wing then the maskeg up for the red on the fuselage is next. It will be sort of like the red and white Sav S pic that is advertised but the rear section of the fuselage will have more white within the red...Hopefully it won't look like a lolly pop but I want my aircraft to be easily seen when flying.

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[eightyknots]

Great stuff, Mark. Another step closer.

 

Do you mean this colour scheme?

 

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V

 

 

Source: wikipedia.com

 

Or this colour scheme??

 

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V

 

 

Source: airliners.net

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

The first pic with the mainly red and small white. I still haven't finalised what I am going to do yet but am fitting the tailplane and fin today to work that out but the front will be very similar mostly red with the 2 ticks of white but the rear side of the fuselage will have much more white on it more like a tick or maybe step checks not sure. Underneath will be mainly white but the triangle shape between the extruded runners underneath at the front will be red with about a 300 mm wide red strip from there to the back which will sort of look like a arrowhead and shaft when looking at the bottom and on the top there will be a white stripe about 300 mm down the rear section at the top on a red area...bit hard to explain but hopefully in the next week or so I will have it painted. this way then its time to get the wings over here and start to finish them off

 

Mark

 

 

[eightyknots]

The first pic with the mainly red and small white. I still haven't finalised what I am going to do yet but am fitting the tailplane and fin today to work that out but the front will be very similar mostly red with the 2 ticks of white but the rear side of the fuselage will have much more white on it more like a tick or maybe step checks not sure. Underneath will be mainly white but the triangle shape between the extruded runners underneath at the front will be red with about a 300 mm wide red strip from there to the back which will sort of look like a arrowhead and shaft when looking at the bottom and on the top there will be a white stripe about 300 mm down the rear section at the top on a red area...bit hard to explain but hopefully in the next week or so I will have it painted. this way then its time to get the wings over here and start to finish them offMark

I hope you get all the right "atmospheric" conditions so that you can get all your painting done .

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Got a fair amount done this weekend so far. I got quite a few parts painted last night ready for today to sort out my paint scheme. The morning here started out nice but by 10am it was blowing a gale so no more painting today so I pulled the Sav out to the car port and decided to do a few more things. I fitted the door hinges today and mounted the doors to get an idea on the lines I wanted for the paint. The line at the bottom of the fuselage will be white from there to the bottom and slightly under. The rear section I wanted to break all the red up with something. I looked around and couldn't really decide on what I wanted to do. I have always liked the "tick" they paint on Savs so I decided to go for a big tick on the rear. because its a base white the tick is covered and the rest is painted red so when all that line tape and masking is taken off it should look good I hope. I have a white GT stripe going down the middle at the top and on the underside it will be a red GT stripe with a sort of arrowhead under the cockpit floor so should be quite visible from above and below I hope. I will have a starburst of red on top of mainly white wings also the same on the tailplane. The white top strip will continue up the leading edge of the fin then about 300 from the top it will go horizontal to the rear of the rudder the rest of the fin and rudder will be red with a small double tick in the red area similar to the ICO Sav S pic also I will have the 2 ticks on the front and the engine cowl. I hope it doesn't look too dorky but mainly want something that can be seen easily

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I am trying to get it to look something like this

 

 

 

[eightyknots]

I am trying to get it to look something like this

That's really stunning and easily visible from a distance, I am sure!

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I wanted to get some painting done of the tail feathers before we get 3 days of wet weather here this week. I got the tailplane masked up and painted yesterday then late in the afternoon I got the fin and rudder done. I have most of the fuselage now masked up ready to spray I just have to mask up the underside and partial "ticks" for the nose area but will have to wait until sunday or next week to spray it due to the rain and storms predicted.

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sfGnome]

I reckon it looks too nice to risk actually flying...

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi All

 

Well today turned out pretty reasonable weather wise so I decided to try to get the fuselage painted while I can as there will be a few storms this next week it went pretty well there is a few places I am not happy with but in general its pretty good. It will be a lot better after I give it a light cut and polish. I will get the tailplane and fin mounted fully probably on sunday and get the control cables fitted. The also this weekend its time to paint my dash then fit all the electronics back into it and then install it. I hope to have pretty much everything finished on the fuselage by the end of this month when the engine arrives then I can fit it and then the cowl and paint the cowl. Once that is done I will bring the wings back to here finish them off and paint them.

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ballpoint 246niner]

Looks very similar to my Colour Mark RAL 2004 pure orange,really almost red.... Very nice

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi All

 

I put the fin and rudder and the tailplane and elevator on the Sav this afternoon. Its starting to look now how I want. I etched the dash yesterday and painted it the dark gray I wanted but some parts reacted with the etch so now I will have to strip off all the paint and start again. Not sure why as I haven't had any trouble with the etch previously but the gray paint I am using is not the Protec so maybe I will whiz down to them during the week and get some of their paint. I didn't particularly wanted to undercoat the dash as well and I don't want to do it for a third time so I will stick with what has been successful previously. I have some 25mm alu block for the nose leg extension and have done up the CNC program for it and I will make it this week then fit it as I have drilled out the nose leg axel and got a 180 mm hardened steel cap head 8mm bolt that fits nicely through the axel. I measured the difference in height of the old tyres and the new 600-6 ones I have on and to get the same sitting angle it needs a 23mm nose block extension. The hole in the middle is to save weight of course.

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

[eightyknots]

Fantastic painting progress so far, Mark. It's starting to look like a "stunner".

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I didn't think about it at the time but I emailed the pics to a long time friend of mine about the same age..we did a lot of gliding together in the mid 1980's...he sent back...."Its a bit Starsky and Hutch isn't it"...so it must be a throw back from our early formative days in the 70's and 80's

 

Mark

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi All

 

progress is still happening. Got some time this weekend to do some work as I was away last weekend. Been getting all the little jobs done, have got the fuel reserve container in and the rudder pedals and nose wheel steering my silicone covers over the steering rods and throttles installed. Spent a lot of today getting the dash reassembled and installed I only have a little more wiring to do and it will be finished off ready to power up. Just need to install the radio antennas and the UHF in. I also will have a nice lightweight APRS system installed after next week...I am a ham radio guy and we can have gps tracking with height and speed etc on maps on the internet. Anyone can look at them you just need a ham licence to have one. There are a couple of hams in the southest qld area who use them and they are great for realtime tracking so the Mrs can keep an eye on me when I am flying the 25 hrs off on the airframe. Spoke to Tom last week he tells me the boat is due to dock at the end of this week coming so hopefully late the week after that I can go and collect my nice new shiny 912

 

A couple of pics attached of my dash...Nice and simple just have to mount the GPS and the vertical compass on the top rim of the dash. Got the top lexan on and drilled that was a job....do not rivet the top cabane formers as you need to twist them to get them to line up in the holes of the lexan....the next is a section I am not looking forward to and that is fitting the windscreen

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

[pete8862]

You are doing a great job, can't wait to see it in the air

 

Pete

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi All

 

Been working on the dash and finishing the majority of wiring in it except for fuel pump and mags etc as will do those when I fit the engine which I should pick up next week. I am up at my farm this weekend and was outside working when I noticed a savannah flying at about 1000ft just to the west of us and I got the binos and it looked sort of like Gundys sav because it had really big main wheels so I rang him but he was at work but told me it was Rick who had bought his last sav VG he built it was the one on show at Monto last year. Anyway Gundy called him on the phone and we spoke then to Rick who was on his way back up to Gin Gin he turned around and came back and landed on my strip as I told him he was a bit west of us on the flyby. We had a chat but he had to go so snapped some pics of him taking off....I cant wait until its me landing on these strips here....hopefully early in the new year I will have my cross country endorsement done then it will be fantastic...just have to get the electric fence put up so the cows dont make the strips look like a moonscape with all their pats

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gundy]

Love those wheels. Love that plane. Good on ya Mark your plane is coming along well it was good to catch up last week. Gundy

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi Greg

 

Once I get the engine in things will rocket along. I noticed on Ricks sav you used the aircraft spruce throttle cables....Rick says you used something different what did you use...Mark Gray came up with the idea to use rods with ball links on then direct from where the throttle rods connect they look like they will fit to the throttle levers nicely but spoke to Tom yesterday he said it probably wont be any good because the motor does move forward when you apply power so that would change the throttle setting.....you have built 3 of these now I would think this last one of yours you would have it just about perfect...what did you ise and where did you get it

 

Mark

 

 

[Gundy]

Mark I built this plane for myself meaning there's no second throttle. I'm using a single vernier throttle system. There's nothing wrong with the original throttle it just needs tweaking. You need to weld another cable post on the passenger side which I think you've mention earlier that you did. By having the new the new post on the passenger side it keeps the cables the same length. The rods you are talking about wouldnt work in my opinion as the engine does move around like Tom says. That's why it's designed to have cables. Gundy

 

Ps. You need to cut the rubber in half that's in the friction lock. I found by having only half the rubber in each side it helps with a smooth throttle. But you need to apply some thin sewing maching oil to the rubber also. I hope this makes sense.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi Greg

 

Thanks for the advice. I saw there was only 1 throttle in Ricks plane. I think at this stage I will do the 2 throttles and maybe go with the second throttle bar. rather than weld one onto the rack I think I will machine one up that way I can make some adjustments with angle and position of cable attachments etc. Thanks again for your advice

 

Mark

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi All

 

I have a couple of questions for previous savannah builders

 

I picked up my 912 on friday and after opening the box and after looking and stroking and more stroking of the engine way too much on the weekend I got the mauls and CD out and started going through them. The installation manual is very comprehensive and has a lot of information to get through. I have two questions so far

 

1: The manual stated that you should fit a 22,000 uF capacitor across the main line bus line to stop excess voltage from the engine blowing up the regulator if the master switch is turned off before the engine is stopped. This cap is not supplied it is a option from Rotax it is not supplied by ICP either in the kit. How many have actually fitted this cap as I haven't seen any on the sav's I have seen. I can get them from one of my electronic suppliers so its not a drama but I was wondering how many people have actually fitted one.

 

2: The other question is the overflow bottle. The Rotax manual shows a vent at the top of the bottle and the ICP manual says to drill a 2.5mm hole in the cap...and thats all...the bottle has no fittings supplied that I can find also the entry into the bottle is shown in the Rotax manual to be at the bottom of the bottle the ICP manual shows nothing at all about it all you get in the kit is a fully intact plastic bottle. What did you guys do for this?

 

Mark

 

 

[Gundy]

Gday Mark I have fitted a capacitor to all the Savy's I've built or help build. It stops a lot of electrical noise through out the radio. The over flow bottle all I do is drill a tight hole in top of bottle To pass the overflow hose into. I cut an angle on the hose so the hose doesn't block it self off as u have the hose to the bottom of the bottle. I drill a 3mm hole in the top cap as a breather so the bottle doesn't get sucked in. Gundy