Mike Gearon

I prob should have added detail pics and the Sika product. 295UV. I’ve worked with polycarbonate as a mass production manufacturer so very aware of its tempremental nature and the 295 won’t cause crazing/ cracking. Also, there is an aluminum cover plate over the 2 door polycarbonate panels that meet. I’m adding the sika 295UV underneath to both bond and waterproof. . It’s suitable for polycarbonate without crazing. It’s UV resistant. But… in this case it’s also covered by the aluminum strip.

Aircraft 1 First oil change at 15 hours. We can now do the extensive test card work. Would have been today if the wild weather wasn’t a problem. We debate speed at 2650rpm 9500ft. I’m thinking 150 knots. Will report back with actual data/ video. Aircraft 2 Doors mostly done. They are just as painful as everyone says. Really should be a polycarbonate moulded piece. I guess the fact that Rans would have to make left and right tools is why it isn’t done. Getting the center where the 2 pieces meet over the door bow isn’t fun. We know of one lower panel blowing out in flight so I’ve added UHB tape under the polycarbonate where it’s specified to go on top. I’m also going Sika on top before putting on the aluminum strip. It’s not going anywhere! I’ve planned from the start to add the upper flap lever. It’s the only spot on the aircraft I’ve gone off script. The mechanism is exactly copied from Rans so nothing new going on in the ratchet mechanism. It’s proven so why mess with it? The change is just upper mount and reduced range of travel from 90 degree to 45 degree. Ready to go to laser cutter and the 3d printed console with room for iPads, maps etc, iPhone and drink bottles needs a little refining before going out. Advantages. real estate at center of seats is now fully usable. headphone jacks come from the upper cross piece. headphones have a hangar for each. 4 point harness mount points now provided. ‘’It all mounts off the seatbelt rear connect point so not an issue for seat belt security. If anything it’s just a little more forgiving in that the cross piece would bend a little in use. We do hope to never test this.

Nic and I fly the S21 with UL520t in the morning then build. Some beautiful flying weather lately. Build 1 UL520t is giving us some problems. Engine temps aren’t as well behaved as we first thought after getting the prop sorted and higher flying speeds. Starting to run out of options and will buy the louvers as next step. We also have black smoke and engine cutting out on take off. I’ll video next time. Observed 3 separate puffs of black smoke watching Nic on take off going home yesterday. We know we have that hesitation. Something to do with the FADEC deciding to cut ignition and we are around 2400 2450 at this stage of climb out. Will discuss with local distributor then look to support from Herman in Florida and perhaps UL engineers in Europe. My take on this is that the FADEC programmers have some parameter that is being exceeded and they cut the ignition. I do know that Nic feeds the throttle in slowly on take off roll to reduce the chances of this problem. We plan on running laptop in aircraft to assess what the turbo is doing and other things we can’t get through the G3X Build 2 Prop on last night. Nic is nearly through the avionics. We should be at engine cowl, doors, skylight, windscreen and near finish at some stage. Maybe next few months. It goes frustratingly slowly then seems to leap forward.

I didn’t put the pic up. Big day… here.

We worked extra hard to cool the slow aircraft and now we suddenly have it almost cooling too well. Could need cowl flaps! I never thought about stressing the prop with sharp turns. That’s a really good point. I whiz the RV6 around and will now make sure that’s just inertia and not much prop. I’m very familiar with blade stress on moment arms and have a patent lodged last July 2024 with exactly that problem solved for small scale wind turbines. Those little turbines can still throw blades a half a km or more! I’m building the first prototype and I’ll share when it’s on the tower. 5kw with a 5 meter spread of blades. It’s not that small!

Hey, that’s good research! I know in the RV6 I can’t use 2100 to 2300RMP and respect that completely. It’s for good reason they restrict RPM’s. So, any info such as that max .8kgm is helpful. Yes, I think the 3 blade Sensenich carbon fibre is a good option as far as balance and light weight go. Hoping we get a good run and long term reliability.

Aircraft 2 has the engine mounted and avionics are near finished. Nic is a work maniac as I think I’ve mentioned. I have to get down to hangar by 7am or he’s beaten me to it. I take a break at lunchtime and a little siesta then comeback and often Nic is still there and worked through. I don’t think he’ll be back for the more mechanical stuff and he’s a bit over the avionics and just wanting it finished. Still, I appreciate the help and very grateful he’s giving me time. Deb is top left. She’s lost 50lb last 4 months (American so she loses lb’s). Only started flying with me recently and happy to come into Tyabb but not so keen on the island runway landings between trees, birds, cows and the uneven ground. She’s surprised herself by looking forward to the Rans being finished and going on adventures. It’s heaps more comfortable than the RV. The seats are like armchairs in comparison and the big tyres make my runway feel smooth. Those things along with the slower landing speeds will really help her confidence in flying with me. Job today is antennae’s so Nic doesn’t run out of things to do. Then onto wiring the light speed ignition in. After that the big jobs are wings on (we learned from first aircraft… don’t put the wings on early. They are just in the way) then skylight, windscreen, prop and engine cowl. After that it’s flying and trying to keep up with Nic.

There was an airmaster 4 blade on an S21 that broke a crank. It looked like a monster blade assembly. We didn’t want to go the same way just in case. There were a number of circumstances around that crank break such as a very hard landing and some other unusual things went on. I’ve personally been against a CSU based on the RV6 I fly. I could leave it at 2400RPM and it’ll still take off and climb at some 1500fpm then cruise up high at 170kn. Only reason for the CSU in that aircraft I can see is aerobatic or perhaps short runway/ obstacle performance. However, this morning was an eye opener. We were maxed out at 2350rpm on take off and climb then finally levelled out it started to get longer legs and the rpm and speed climbed. So, yeah… maybe a CSU is possible with reference to concerns over the aircraft that had the crank break. That aircraft now runs a 520 non turbo. another “however”… Steve, the Sensenich guy said he’s considering running a smaller dia prop of say 74” against the 79.5” we have and working his magic with taper, twist etc. Sensenich are one of the manufacturers who are willing to work hard at getting it right. He said the Rans S21 is a real challenge with its speed envelope between stall and high speed.

Finally I can report on the S21 with UL520t We have 140kn TAS cruise at 2700rpm 1500ft. We also have stable oil and CHT temps. Game changer was talking to Steve at Sensenich this morning. We moved 2 degrees past the maximum gauge setting of 7. Each gauge is .7 degrees. So, we are at a ten. Static is 2150rpm and as you’ll see in video it’s almost spot on 2700max in the air. About 2300climb out max rpm. So, we’ve gone from a frustrating overrevving overheating 115k aircraft to the aircraft we thought it should be. Up high TAS? Maybe 150kn. Pity the American and Australian UL distributors aren’t more personable. The Australian guy suggested we f&$k off when we first visited. That should have been the red flag we ignored. The American guy is nicer with communication problems. UL Europe and UL Dutch guy in Florida USA are really good so it’s not all difficult people

Build update.

On topic of radio noise. In thr RV6 I have 2 icom radios. 128.00 which is Tyabb frequency is a known problem with these radios. Static that comes and goes. Ended up a few weeks back with static on both radios on any frequency. Had it checked out and didn’t really come up with a solution other than it appeared to be alternator noise. Today both radios were crystal clear and yesterday they were both terrible. That bothers me a lot. Has anyone experienced this?

SAAA Maintenance course. Adelaide at Parafield. Norm, Greg and Martin presented. Must complete this course to sign off annual. Also involves about 3 hours of online exam. Even open book it takes time. First day is a lot of regulations and it’s extremely difficult to stay awake. Norm did his best to make it lively and I don’t think it could have been presented better. The side detours to aircraft war stories make it much more interesting and I think we really benefit from those decades of experience. Second day is a bit more hands on but we don’t get greasy hands. Just writing up info as if we are doing actual maintenance logs. I get it. We become the Lamie/ A&P. It’s a bit like radio calls with who we are, where we are and what we are going to do. In this case it’s roughly….. Why we are qualified to do it. What reg we do it under. Why we are doing what we are doing. What we are doing/ replacing the thing and what maintenance info we referred to. Biggest benefit of doing all this properly is our own reference and a secondary but I ortant consideration is that the aircraft is worth more to sell if the records look good. So, in conclusion it’s a big hassle but worth it! Aircraft 1 is still about to fly, maybe next week. Aircraft 2 is starting to move along. Brake lines, header tank and fuel lines in. Controls mostly complete. Painted most surfaces and tail feathers and engine possibly on next week.

Aircraft 1 Pics below. Test pilot Ben checking detail throughout the aircraft before scheduling a test flight day. I thought it was the test flight day. Makes a whole lot of sense to spend a day thoroughly checking every aspect of the build before venturing into the air. We were lucky to get Ben as test pilot. He spends most of his time flying executive jets around the world. Aircraft 2 It’s the first time for a year that I’ve been able to get stuck full time into the build. It’s a bit like your first day on a new job starting back in. I got off to a rocky start putting fuel tank holes in the wrong spot a few months back. If you don’t do any building you can’t make a mistake. But….slowly got back into it and it’s been very satisfying laying down paint that’s not orange peel. Used to be and the paint shop sold me a HPLV spray gun. What a difference. I apply the paint in 1/4 to 1/3rd runs that isn’t too thick. That way if it’s slightly under or over the paint blends in and it’s near enough to perfect. Put the header tank in with triple and quadruple checks before drilling holes. The manual actually tells you to triple check. Don’t know what I was thinking when I drilled those fuel tank holes wrong. Probably over confident. Fixed that problem now! I’m back to the rhythm I had a year ago. Enthusiastic and putting in 8-11 hour days not including time spent each day on YouTube’s and sitting watching tv while thumbing through Rans parts, text and figure manuals. Nic and I are off to Parafield this weekend for an SAAA course in maintenance. Compulsory if you want to do your own annual etc. 8 participants and apart form the boring regulation stuff it should be fun with fellow builders. I then fly back to Melbourne and immediately board flight up to Taipei for 5 days. ‘Then back into build process only interrupted by hay baling. Nic will work with me on avionics. Expect to have avionics done and Titan engine all plumbed in by years end then maybe January finish up the skylight, windshield, doors and engine cowling. We should be flying Nic’s really soon.

Good catch. I lifted that quote off Wiki. Not a sales brochure. Must admit it seemed a stretch of a statement. Wiki joins the trust but verify list now.

Heart goes out to that family that lost the boys. I’m building an aircraft at the moment and talk with my daughters about one of the three grandchildren maybe taking over the S21 one day. Maybe the motor glider is a better option? I just purchased a Diamond aircraft Super Dimona. Was reading up on the Diamond DA40 accident rate. It’s super low. Read below. No stall related accidents. The flight data when combined with a rough measurement of the turn along with altitude and speed don’t look good. The DA40 has accumulated a very low accident record, particularly with regard to stall and spin accidents. Its overall and fatal accident rates are one-eighth that of the general aviation fleet and include no stall-related accidents. The level of safe operation is attributed to its high aspect ratio wing, low wing loading and benign flight characteristics. The aircraft can be trimmed full nose up, engine set to idle and it will descend at 600–1,200 feet per minute (180–370 m/min) at 48 kn (55 mph; 89 km/h) hands-off, a lower rate of descent than the competitor Cirrus SR22 can achieve with its airframe ballistic parachute deployed.[13]