Another NEW Savannah XL on its way

[Guernsey]

This is an idea I have considered a few times, just need a couple of weeks with no cattle on the strip and a shower of rain to dissolve the land mines, and a gas bbq under the box tree.

Huh...no cattle on the strip.... so am I to assume that I am not invited???

 

The Flying Guernsey.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

hahaha your invited just no crapping on the strips...you got 125 acres to do that crapping :)

 

 

[dazza 38]

Great Stuff Mark.I have realy enjoyed reading all about your aircraft build and the great photos.Merry Xmas to you and your family as well.

 

 

[Guernsey]

hahaha your invited just no crapping on the strips...you got 125 acres to do that crapping :)

Thanks Kyle, I supply all the milk you need for the bbq but I will need the acres of grass for refueling and converting it to methane gas for propulsion. .

 

Alan.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi All

 

A big milestone today I started the engine for the first time. Got everything ready,primed the system tested the electric fuel pump and fuel pressure...no leaks so strapped the sav to the forklift...havent bled the brakes yet as I am modifying them for my big feet will show that when I have done it. I am really happy with the way the engine started so easily. The first run was only a couple of minutes I shut it down then checked for leaks then started it again didn't need any choke of course the second time then ran it up to temp then shut it down

 

. Interesting to note that at 2200 rpm the fuel flow was 5 litres per minute...the Brauniger has a realtime fuel flow reading. when shutting the engine down all the way back on the throttle was 1600 rpm that seems to be ok but what do most people set their min rpm to for full idle. Youtube video link below it has been edited otherwise it would be way too boring for most

 

 

Mark

 

 

[eightyknots]

Hi Mark,

 

Great to see you got the engine running. It's a shame I couldn't see it for myself when I was at your place last week.

 

Best wishes for the new year (with the Sav almost complete I'm sure 2012 will be a good one!)

 

 

[Towering Cu]

Congrats on the first engine run Mark!!! Not long now.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi All

 

Another post as its getting closer until she flys

 

I have fitted the windscreen...well what a job that is !!!! I had the screen on and off about 20 times at first I used some straps to hold the screen in I wanted to do it like reg brost does without the rivets....dont know how he does it its a hell of a job. I had it all pulled in nee drilled the holes in the cabin side frame and clecoed the screen in looking happy with myself until I released the straps then the screen came off the fuselage with a huge gap.... I docked around trying several methods but they all didn't work out. So in the end I put 2 screws...tapped and drilled the 2 front screen bars to hold the bottom of the screen in then had to repull the screen around and redrill the holes in the lexan to get it to fit better. This worked out much better and would be the way I would recommend to do it as it was the easiest way...remembering I was doing this by myself it maybe easier if you have someone else giving you a hand.

 

A couple of tips...put masking tape onto the area where the screen touches the top of the cabin deck as it will scratch all your paint off. Anchor the bottom front of the screen I did it by willing and tapping 3mm screws rather than riveting as it makes it easier to take it on and off. The rubber strip they give you is not very good so I went to Clark rubber and got some nice rubber edging that has a slot for the screen and a nice front rubber lip to sit in front onto the fuselage I also then fitted the U shape they supplied and put it inside the clark rubber strip as I was a bit short because of the way I had don it. This worked out really well actually much better than the original method you do in the book. I will lift the front rubber edge and squeeze some black silicone under it to get the seal also it will hold it all into place.

 

All in all it was abugger of a job but ended up quite nice so I am very happy but it was a lot of work and swearing for quite a few nights. Another tip I thought the screen was badly scratched but turns out it wasn't one side of the lexan has the white marked plastic covering but the other side is clear and it doesn't look like it even exists so here I am trying to polish out these scratches......felt like a di*khead when I was led to the idea that there was a plastic cover still on the lexan....once it was removed no scratches as it was in the protective clear plastic and the screen is nice and clear.

 

made a bracket and painted it to fit my vertical compass on the top of the dash and also shifted my GPS up higher on the front so I can see the radio properly now. I have the seat bottoms in and the seat so have a sitting position where before I was guessing a bit on the look angles. I have adjusted the rudder pedals and brake foot levers so my feet do not operate the brakes when using the rudders they are angled back I have also angled the pedals back so had to re adjust the nose wheel steering rods to their absolute minim now my leg position and feel of the controls is fantastic.

 

The other thing that has arrived this week is the thermostat for the engine. JG has a story about it on his website and Roger Western also has one fitted and swears by it. This allows for a much faster run up to temp and also prevents the engine from cooling off too much on long slow decants it also has a bypass on it as a safety . Roger says his engine never gets hotter than 80deg climbing or decending

 

Mark

 

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[Kyle Communications]

The screen was last week this week I have been working on the engine cowl getting it prepared for painting. I had to do a bit of filling where there were some chips out of the gelcoat but you can also see the weave of the glass which when you undercoat and paint it will show up in the paint. The method I used was to sand the gelcoat lightly then undercoat both sections then rub it back. Then the trick is to get a can of spray putty and spay the affected areas then sand the putty back this will fill the glass weave in the mold you can see this in the pictures if you look closely I also had a lot of filling to do around the air intake scoop there was some rough fitting of the intake once this is done then the whole lot is undercoated again then I will use wet and dry to sand the undercoat back and this should give a nice finish to the cowl when it gets its final top coat

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rankamateur]

Hi AllI wanted to do it like reg brost does without the rivets....dont know how he does it its a hell of a job.

 

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It's magic and if he told you he would have to kill you.

 

I worked with him for months and he still wouldn't tell me how he put the arrow through the whiskey bottle on his smoko table, then when we went to Monto fly-in and old monto magik man spilled the secret as soon as I mentioned it, don't even remember how it came up, I thought Reg was going to throttle him then and there.

 

 

[rankamateur]

...put masking tape onto the area where the screen touches the top of the cabin deck as it will scratch all your paint off..

Remember too that you are going to cover most of it up with carpet and sikaflex.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I used 3M super 77 spray on contact adhesive to attach the carpet to the dash its light and strong and you can still get it off if you need to without any damage to the paint work. The other thing I used was the front edge striping where the carpet meets the front lip of the dash cover is from Clark rubber as well it fits a lot better than the stuff supplied in the kit you can see it in one of the pictures. That is the only carpet fitted to the aircraft at this stage mainly for weight issues. Some have said the carpet deadens the sound but thats what the headsets do if you have good ones anyway and it saves at least 6kg or more when you add the glue even after all the offcuts are taken away. I will be putting some light antislip on the floor where you have your feet. The masking tape is when fitting the screen tight to the dash top the lexan will scratch your paint off once you have all the holes drilled and then fit the rubber edging you just remove the masking tape and no marks on your paintwork you can see it in the pics the green tape and of course you can line mark it etc without damaging the paint

 

Mark

 

 

[rankamateur]

I wonder if the problems you had getting a good fit with the windscreen were added to because you were trying to fit the windsreen to the carpet instead of fitting the windscreen to the plane then fit the carpet to the windscreen. The carpet is a lot easier to trim.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I fitted the screen first the carpet was cut after I had marked the bottom of the screen on the masking tape. The screen was fully fitted and drilled then I cut the carpet to shape then glued the carpet down and then put the screen in...the screen does not actually touch the carpet it is just inside

 

 

[eightyknots]

The other thing that has arrived this week is the thermostat for the engine. JG has a story about it on his website and Roger Western also has one fitted and swears by it. This allows for a much faster run up to temp and also prevents the engine from cooling off too much on long slow decants it also has a bypass on it as a safety . Roger says his engine never gets hotter than 80deg climbing or decending

Mark

It's a well-written story and can be found on JG3's excellent website: http://www.stolspeed.com/thermostat-for-912

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi All

 

Well its getting there. Got the cowl all filled and undercoated then painted...reasonably happy with the paint job on the cowl. Wish I had found my good sparaygun when I painted the fuselage it would have been a better job...nothing some buffing won't fix I suppose. Still doing lots of the little jobs it takes almost as long to do all the small jobs than to build the whole aircraft well hat is what it feels like. Soon she will be ready for complete lockup stage and I can get it into the big carport and get the wings across for finalising then prep and paint.

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ave8rr]

She's coming together very nicely Mark.

 

Still looking for sometime in March to fly her?

 

Cheers from Kununurra.

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

yes at this stage I was hoping end of feb but march is more likely hope you survived the lated blow up there all ok

 

Mark

 

 

[eightyknots]

Still doing lots of the little jobs it takes almost as long to do all the small jobs than to build the whole aircraft well hat is what it feels like.

In the USA, when speaking about kit planes, the aircraft builder often says: "It's 90 % complete and there is 90% to go".

 

 

[Ballpoint 246niner]

yes at this stage I was hoping end of feb but march is more likely hope you survived the lated blow up there all ok

 

Mark

Hang in there mate, almost there ask Mark G, he Converted in mine this week and is fully motivated to finish this magnificent aircraft.

Went to Dunwich brekkie today with another student, everyone loves it.... Honestly the best aircraft I have flown!!

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi All

 

Big milestone this weekend. got the sav to lockup stage so its now been shifted out to the carport and I got the wings and flaperons across from the mother inlaws place yesterday...just fitted them one at a time into my van..they fitted by about 20mm so at least they are here now and I can work on them.

 

Bob on the other thread was talking about the flaperon tips which I hadn't done yet so I looked at them. Quite easy really just need to shave off about 10mm at the back just past the last rivet hole this makes for a nice fit

 

One thing I almost forgot to do was put a strengthening piece from the bottom of the seat back to the main cross longeron in the front of the underneath hatch. Just removed 2 rivets from the longeron and drill 2 new holes at the seat back end. This longeron does move a little it is the belcrank end of the joystick for aileron control it does move about 2 or 3mm these 2 braces stop that and also stops the longer on from developing a crack if it doesn't have the new support plate.....mine does but I fitted them anyway because it makes sense to do so. The "S" version have some support brackets in the kit for this so they have solved the issue so its a good idea to fit these braces.

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

[eightyknots]

We're counting down the hours when this thread reaches 22,222 views

 

Above all, we are counting down the weeks until Mark flies his lovely red Savannah

 

We hope that the final tasks required to get up to the flying stage will go well, Mark!!

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi All

 

Been working away on the wings finishing off the small pieces like fitting the end tip plate I pulled the wires through the conduit I have previously installed when building the wings for the wing tip lights when I make them I put draw wire inside at the time so it was easy. Fitted the ERPS coupler onto the inside of the wing skin right next to the main strut mount where it meets the wingspar. The next job was to fit the strut mounting plates and the jury strut mount and also the triangular piece that the top of the door fits to when you close the door to seal off the inside to the wing root. Got my "tee" piece made that fits to the top input of the inner right hand fuel tank the fuel flow back from the engine goes into this and it also then goes down to the air bleed for the reserve tank and this also has a festo fitting to allow the sight tube will take some pics of it after I paint the wing.

 

Next job is the worst that is to scotchbrite the whole wing surfaces ready to etch prime its a dirty job and you go through heaps of rags. I use isopropyl alcohol with the scothbrite then wipe it off as I go but the wing is still pretty grubby after I finsh that then I go over with clean rags and prepsol and wipe the surfaces over again until there is no black gunk on the rags this way the wing is super clean. You need to prime the wing pretty soon after as to make sure no dust or swallow crap gets onto the wing.....bloody swallows think my shed is their home sometimes I am constantly chasing them out...they come in to get the spiders in the roof.

 

Anyway the right wing has been done and etched so will go back into the rack and I will get the other wing out and do all the same stuff again then its the undercoat and painting. I did this initially on 2 tables but I pinched Steve Donald's idea for when it comes time to do the painting he made this cool little rotating stand thing so I have copied it and for about 1 hrs work and little timber it makes painting the wings so easy some pics attached on mine now sitting in the rig. I used long 8mm bolts and you just drill a hole into the fibreglass tip cover if you don't fit lights you just fit a plug into it and if you get corrosion X done you already have the hole and plug done. At the root there is a small hole already in the rib in front of the spar at the bottom I just opened it up to 8mm from about 4mm so it doesn't affect the strength of the rib. and I just made a adjustable post for the flaperon hanger to set the angle of the wing whether its right way up or upside down this way the wing is flat when you paint it so should be no issue getting runs you can paint the wing totally in one go just rotate it after painting one side and then paint the other

 

I have agonised over what I was going to do about the fuel tank cap breathers. The manual says to do the tube over and through the wings to the bottom a lot of guys have metal tubes up and into a hook to forward face into the wind. After speaking to heaps of sav owners its pretty much do what you will, Steve has done his the traditional way and he gave 3 great reasons why to keep it that way so after thinking about it I drilled the holes through the wing skins top and bottom and I am happy with the decision.

 

Mark

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gundy]

What are the 3 Great reasons. I'd like to know as I've got The upright with a hook. Thanks Gundy

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi Greg

 

1: Water ingres if caught in rain while flying also bugs and crap can block the tube even if you have some wire in the front

 

2: Can't see if you are losing any fuel especially in the main tank that the fuel back feed from the engine goes into

 

3: Some inspectors will not sign off unless the fuel tank caps are not tied to the aircraft so they can not be lost if you forget to put the cap back on...the normal method ties the caps to the wing

 

so I thought they were 3 valid reasons so I did the extra to do it the way in the manual....I couldn't think of any valid reasons to have the caps done with the hooks other than it was just easier to do it that way

 

Mark