Another NEW Savannah XL on its way

[pudestcon]

You wasted some zip ties there Ultralights - like your style though:big_grin:

 

Pud

 

 

[eightyknots]

Interesting Ultralights.

 

I'm astounded that the bike pedals didn't align themselves longitudinally, along with the airflow.

 

 

[Ultralights]

just for the record, its not my aircraft, nor was i flying.

 

 

[pudestcon]

Spied this in a hangar at Northam airfield on Sunday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi Guys

 

Pud looks like a enviromentally safe savannah :) great for hiding in the rain forest

 

Well I have been plodding on with mine...although I have to say its been really cold out in the shed this weekend and tonight... I have filled in the area behind the seat and have all that sorted the next step was to get my super etch and paint as I wanted to paint the firewall before installing the other parts that go on there and then the nose leg so I can get it onto wheels. The U/C is fitted although not firmly yet and I ws talking to guys with savs about the wheel size. I decided to go with all the advice and put larger wheels on mine but not the tundra tyres. I tried to get Airhawk 600-6 but not really available but the Condors are plentiful as they are std fit on cessna 150 etc so I called up my mate at Aviall and got a set delivered today and fitted them to the rims which was easier than I thought itwould be assembled the brakes and fitted them to the U?C. I will be able to pretty much get the fuselage off the table later this week and onto its wheels so I can move it around and free up my workshop a bit.

 

I went out to Kilcoy yesterday and had a chat with the sav crowd out there it was a fabulous day..had a ride in JG's sav over down to the Somerset dam wall and back again :)...I really enjoyed that. Had a look at the different tyres and Gary has the condors on his sav and Ken has std tyres on his there is a big difference thats why I went for the larger tyres it seems like a far better option for me and the flying I will be doing. The weight penalty is only a kg or two and I think its worth it.

 

One of the things that has slowed me up this week was making the exit guides for the silicone boots that go over the throttle shafts and nose gear steering rods. I made about 3 different versions the ones I ended up sticking with were the egg shaped ones they were easier to make the little right angles make them easier to assemble and rivet and fit the boots better. Attached in the pics you can see the difference bet 2 out of the 3 versions.

 

I am starting to do my dash panel and will fit the Brauniger to mine. I dont want it in the centre as that where it fits I want it more in front of me so need to cut one of the dash vertical braces so I need to make a stronger panel to take care of this. Roger Weston has a Brauniger in his VG and has done a great job on it and I really like the glove box and the way he has made the dash panel to take over the switch position then folds under for about 50mm then another 10mm fold this makes the dash panel super strong so I am going to do it this way as well.

 

Our area up here is savannah city... I met another guy called Mark on saturday after looking at Rogers sav at Caboolture airfield and when leaving John Nooyen was tieing down "Jalapeno" so stopped to have a chat and I was introduced to Makr and we prompty went to his place not far from the cab strip and looked at his "S" he is building...nice job too...by the way they fixed up the S manual about those ring washers for the belcranks on the flaperon mixer so anyone building the XL look for those little rings S315 I think was the number on the bag. Anyway we have Steve at Narngba nd myself building XL and Mark and another guy I think Scott is his last name at Beerburram building S versions....the Sav's are taking over :)

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ultralights]

How much were the tyres? ill be needing some in a few more hrs!

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi Ultralights

 

I got them at trade price through a mate but i would image they would be around $100.00 each and the tubes which have the right angle stem would be around $70.00 each. The size difference is great as it will give me much better gound clearance on the prop as I will be putting on the Bolly 72inch

 

Mark

 

 

[eightyknots]

I decided to go with all the advice and put larger wheels on mine but not the tundra tyres. I tried to get Airhawk 600-6 but not really available but the Condors are plentiful as they are std fit on cessna 150 etc so I called up my mate at Aviall and got a set delivered today and fitted them to the rims which was easier than I thought itwould be assembled the brakes and fitted them to the U?C.

Last I had a look at JG3's wheels he had "regular" aircraft wheels and tyres on it. Are they the same as you're fitting to your Sav?

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi 80Kts

 

JG's are not tundra tyres and also not 600-6 his I think are 800-6 tyres. I wanted McCreary Airhawk after talking to a lot of people about it but settled on the condors as most have them because they are easy to get here in Australia. You can get a kit of tyres and tubes from Aircraft spruce for the Airhawks but by the time you pay for the freight it becomes very expensive to get them. The condors fitted really easy to the sav rims and the right angle stem tubes were also easy to fit. Everyone was telling me its a bit of a mission to fit the std sav tyres to the rims...I didnt even try that so cant confirm that but the condors fit really well

 

Mark

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Oh the 600-6 are std aircraft wheels for cessnas etc they have all the "correct" paperwork with them and the tubes where then come for GA tracking etc

 

Mark

 

 

[Ultralights]

i can attest, the standard tyres are a nightmare to fit!

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

It took me maybe 3 minutes to fit the tyre onto the rim halves and fit the tube before closing the hubs up with the bolts for each wheel...glad I didnt try to fit the std tyres

 

Mark

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Another thing I am doing is I ordered the Jabiru static port fitting that goes on the top of the fin was pretty reasonable price I thought $27.00 delivered. It arrived yesterday so will fit it to the fin this week....everyone says the static ports on the sav are pretty poor but the Jab ones work great so we will see I suppose when my baby goes flying :)

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

After speaking to quite a few sav owners I decided to remake the brackets that sit at the bottom of the nose leg mount out of stainless steel. These brackets can crack as they are only made from alu and they are subjected to a lot of hammering from the nosewheel and are a pain to replace once the leg and motor are installed. I got my mate who has a sheet metal section in his transformer making business to cut some 1.6mm SS the right size of the plate then got him to put the bend in it. After this it was easy just hold the original brackets flush to the new one and mark it out then hacksaw the stainless to rough shape then file it all to exactly the same size. Mark the holes very accurately then drill them out and they fit perfectly I am very happy with the fit. The stainless ones are on the right hand side in the pic the originals which I had already fitted are on the left. You need to be carefull with stainless when you work with it as the more cutting/heating/working you do with it the material hardens up dramatically. So when hacksawing do it slowly and when drilling use plenty of oil and do it slowly...I had no trouble at all it did take around 2 hours from start to finish but I am very happy with the way they turned out.

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

[Guest mark gray]

Re the Sav tires as supplied, they are an absolute bitch to fit, the main issue I have with them is how to get them off again if you get a flat in the bush, they are that tight. To overcome that I used a grinder to take off a bit of rubber where they would at least go on and off again. I saw Mark Kyle's Condor tires yesterday, I think that's the way to go - tall but narrow profile and they go on the rims well.

 

 

[eightyknots]

I saw Mark Kyle's Condor tires yesterday, I think that's the way to go - tall but narrow profile and they go on the rims well.

Sounds like a nice formula: NTP = LAR = ECK

 

(Narrower Tyre Profile = Less Air Resistance = Extra Cruise Knots)

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi All

 

Further progress this past week or so. I fitted the noseleg and all the associated parts then remounted the motor mount so I could re-istall the cabin frame and lock it all in. After checking several times during putting the cabin frame in and at its final riveted stage I am still within .5mm on the diagonals so I am very happy with this. I then was able to get the sav off the build table then dismantle the table so I can now move it in and out of the shed to allow me to get other stuff done there. I re drilled the fork for the nose wheel to clearances I thought that would work ok and I am very happy with the way it came out with still plenty of room for the bolts for the axel. I have to modify the axel yet by drilling it completely through and fitting a SS bolt all the way through but I have a lather here so no drama at all.

 

I have started on my dash panel also. I got my mate to bend me up a couple of dash panels to the size I wanted. Using Roger Western's idea with the panel although its a little different on the XL version. Normally there is a separate panel for the instruments and a separate panel for the switches. I have done the same as Roger to encompass the whole dash panel in one cover and the bottom bends under by 50mm then up vertical agin by 10mm this gives the panel great strength and it still uses the same mounting holes. I am using a Brauniger Alpha MFD so things are different but the throttles and some other gear is using the same holes and it also gives me the room for a glovebox as well. The drawings obviuosly are on the back of the panel so the layout will be the mirror of these when looking at the dash

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest mark gray]

Mark, you're progressing along pretty well. I'd better pull my finger out. I've decided to mount the engine before I do the wings to save space. Or I just prefer to muck with engines. Anyway, Iwill be onto you about fitting the tanks when that arises. Meanwhile I spoke with Steve Donald who confirmed the book as usual is a bit deficient. The ring mounts dont fit the engine as supplied with out moving the elec ignition box rear mount. Also water pump off, and L H side inlet manifold off to get at engine mount bolt. The main item to change is the rear ignition box (or whatever it is, you cant miss it) it interferes with the ring mount. The bracket can be turned around and/or remodified. I've taken a few pics and when you get to it, give me a hoy, unless anybody else needs the info sooner.

 

re the Condor tire, you redrilled the forks, what was the offset to get clearance?

 

catcha, Mark (Gray) (one of us will have to change names :)

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi Mark

 

I shifted the hole 15mm down from the original. I still may have to put a extension block between the noseleg and the fork to get clearance for the prop as the std wheel had more clearance from the tyre to the top. But I have seen a couple now with the new hole further down the fork almost to the end but I didnt think this left enough meat in the bottom of the fork so I sort of fudged it a bit which also meant I wouldnt get probably that extra height I need for the 72 inch prop but the extension can fix that ok. I was very happy with how central the wheel has now been set its dead centre of the fork as you can see in the picture so any sidewall movement in the tyre shouldnt allow it to touch the fork at the sides. I havent even ordered my motor yet so its 2 or 3 months away..still scraping up the bucks for it. Will drop around and see you this week anyway...by the way it was 15mm from centre of hole to centre of hole

 

Mark

 

 

[Gundy]

Hey Mark I've decided to go bigger tyres all round. I got rid of my 600x6 tyres and got the turf tundra tyres. I fitted these up went for a fly, there.s no difference in speed what so ever considering all the testing with the Dynon Skyview. After talking to John Gilpin about his trip out west and landing on old airstrips I've decided to purchase 8.50x6 for the rear and leave the tundra tyre on the front with a heavy duty tube in it. The Tundra tyres measure 16"x7" the new 8.50 measure 21.5"x8" this is a big difference in size for rolling over rough ground. These 8.50's turned up today so I took a couple of photo's. the photo is taking with a standard tyre that comes with the kit (look how big they are against the Rotax engine box) the other is with my 13 month old son Oscar. I will be fitting these to my Savannah $ next week as I start back at work tomorrow. Gundy

 

 

 

 

[Guest mark gray]

Hey Gundy, they could pass for flotation devices :) they look huge against the box. BTW, how do you rate the in flight adj prop? I see Bolly have got one out now.

 

regds,, mark gray

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Holy crap...Greg they are huge...your going to have a fair down tilt on the aircraft now....It will be interesting to see if these ones affect the top end speed now. I am really happy with the condors so far will see what happens with yours and the testing

 

Mark

 

 

[Gundy]

Mark and Mark these tyres are 2.8 kgs heavier than the 6.00x6 Condors. The reason behind this is when Bill landed in that soft strip he may have gotten away with it with the Tundra tyre on the front rather than a big $ bill. The prop I'm happy with defintly would put another one on any plane I own in the future. I will post some photo's of performance on my other post. heres a photo against the 6.00x6 Condor

 

 

 

[eightyknots]

I'm sure they'll be great tyres for landing on rough ground. The additional air should soak the bumps up really well.

 

I still wonder how many knots these larger tyres shaves of the top speed and/or adds to the rate of fuel consumption. I will be interested in the results once they're fitted, Gundy.

 

 

[Ultralights]

cant wait to see them fitted to the aircraft! oh, and what are they worth?