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Aircraft kits Make a start! Help to populate the links pages here Links Cheers, Selwyn

The Lightning kit comes from the US. Back in the good old days of 95 cents to the pacific peso the kits were mid $40k's. See the links pages on this site for the factory site and for Dennis' Lightning Australia site. Dennis imports kits to order and runs a build assist program from his base in Kingston SE. Those prices are plus engine and instruments Performance seems to be around 140kt TAS, perhaps a little more, cruise with fixed pitch or ground adjustable. What we need is a good CS unit for a Jab 3300. VNE is 180kt, full flap stall 39kt. At the design weight, two people, 5hrs plus 45 and around 20 kg baggage. This is an aeroplane that will benefit from the proposed weight increases, its design weight is 648kg. As far as I know, retractable is a fantasy option at this stage. There were some photoshopped pictures around last April 1st showing one in the air with no gear, and very nice it looked too, but nothing in reality. For those interested in factory builds, Arion is currently going through the hoops to achieve FAA LSA certification for a production aircraft so I guess that will be along in due course. This will be the longer wing version to achieve the mickey mouse US stall speed requirements. The short wing stalls at 48kt clean, the long wing at 44kt.

That sort of misses the point a bit though. If you are landing in a crosswind with a sideslip approach then you will have the into wind wing down with opposite rudder and the thing will be pointing, and traveling, straight down the strip so the straightening up bit does not apply and, if everything goes according to plan, there is no undue strain on the gear. The interesting bit comes when you lose elevator authority and the nosewheel lowers onto the runway. If you are in a Jab then the nosewheel is definitely connected to the rudder all the time and the wheel will be pointing to steer in the same direction as the rudder, ie turn away from the wind, so if you just drop the nose and leave everything the same then the thing will swerve towards the down wind side of the strip. That makes sense if you remember we are in a crosswind. Before we lowered the nose the thing was trying to weathercock into wind and we were using rudder to hold the nose out of the wind. The trick is to remember that when we can no longer hold the nose up airspeed has decayed, the rudder become less effective and steering authority transfers from the rudder to the nosewheel and we need to position the pedals to steer the thing straight so, as the nose lowers we smartly take off the rudder and steer straight down the strip. With a little bit of practice you get the timing right and the transition happens seamlessly.

Section 21 - Elevator Final Installation This has some improved pictures of alignments required and removal of some confused text at step 33. Unfortunately, it also perpetuates some of the errors in the previous version. Some I have spotted are. calling for #8 screws where you have drilled 3/16 holes in the hinges and pictures of the incorrect, preproduction mid bellcrank layout.

Contains much improved information on setting up the tailplanes and straightening the trailing edge http://www.flylightning.net/Owners%20Info/Acrobat%20Manuals/17.%20Horizontal%20Prep.pdf

This has a new procedure for preparing, clamping and gluing the opera windows. No holes to drill in the perspex which has to be a good thing. Andrew Morrison (http://pioneeraviation.com.au/home/node/41) published a similar idea using half sections of plastic pipe as clamps.

This has a new publication date in the Build Procedures index but, on a quick read, I can't actually see anything new. The picture of the mid elevator bellcrank is still wrong and the Revision number and date in the doco is still Rev 0 01/04/2007. If anyone can shed any light please post a reply to this.

Section 20 - Horizontal Tail Installation has been revised in several places and expanded to include information on installation of the rear elevator bellcrank.

Section 30 Firewall Layout and Installation has been updated to include CAD drawings of a standard firewall layout.

Hey man, you've gotta stop hooking yourself up to that magneto! It's just not doing you any good. :big_grin:

Getting back to the gust thing. It's a pretty much data free observation, but my feeling would be that gusts can be sharper edged than lulls. Also, when approaching downwind, wind shear effects are airspeed positive rather than the normal airspeed negative so that works in your favour. I wonder what the strip is like when you are landing into wind up hill. That ridge in the background must produce some interesting turbulence.

When taking your viagra remember to wash it down well with water lest you end up with a stiff neck.

Regarding the Ozi Explorer "track up" issue, the 90 degree steps would probably be OK. The way my brain works, if I have to rotate the image through 180 degrees between inside and outside then I just know I'm going to stuff it up. I'm assuming that the compass display has a heading bug and will operate in a track up mode but it occurs to me that I may be assuming too much.

Well, sort of. The real problem is that the carburettor requires liquid fuel. The fuel pump is designed to provide that liquid at the required pressure but it can't work either if it is not supplied with a liquid feed. The vapour will form anywhere the pressure in the line is below the vapour pressure. Often this is the highest point, but if there is a high point in cold air and a low point in hot conditions then I'd go for the hot bit as the most likely location. Take the Pawnee ROM was talking about earlier. The highest point in the system was the fuel level in the tank. It didn't vapourise there. The fuel line came over the top of the muffler, into the fuel pump attached to the hot block and thence into the carby which was the lowest point in the system. While it was running, the flow of cool fuel out of the tank kept everything ticking along nicely. When you'd landed, taxied in front of the glider and waited while he was hooked up and all the rest, the fuel somewhere in the pipes and pump reached the magic combination of head and temperature. You'd then open the tap and the thing would roar off on the fuel in the carby bowl until it was about airbourne, then it would stop for just long enough for you to say "good golly goshkins", then it would spring into action again and all would be well. It pumped the hot fuel through, or it was pushed through by the pressure head in the tank and the flowing fuel never got hot enough to reach vapour pressure. The margin between vapourisation and not was quite small. The Pawnee would only vapourise below about one third fuel so just an inch or two of head made the difference. I flew the same aeroplane so I know this first hand. Were we silly or dangerous? I don't think so. We knew the systems and had a pretty good handle on what was going on. If we had had been operating from low wing tanks then it would have been a different story, hiccup, cough, die and all that went with that. As Yenn said, if you have a vapourisation problem, you need the either control the temperature in the lines or increase the pressure. To increase the pressure you need a pump upstream to take the cool fuel out of the tank and stuff it up the pipe. If you are having a vapourisation problem with avgas then you almost certainly have a design fault as the vapour pressure of avgas is controlled. If you have a problem with mogas then it could be design or fuel as the vapour pressure of mogas could be anywhere. If you need to run mogas then keep on insulating fuel lines and putting pumps closer to your tanks until you get the reliability you desire. Just remember that there is no way of knowing if the next batch of mogas you get is more volatile than anything you have seen before. Fly accordingly. And just remember, we do this for FUN.

Well, I am a fan of the "orient the map to the ground" school of navigation so I prefer to have track up display to conform to that. That way I don't have to try to rotate the map image in my head when I'm locating landmarks. If I label my waypoints then those labels remain right side up, the printing on the map may be inverted but that's the case with a paper map as well. The rotation of the image on the display during a turn is mandated by that display mode. So yes, I do want track up display. It's here or coming in Ozi Explorer, but I'm not sure about the CE version hence my question.

Could we have some details please, what make and suchlike? DId you have the unlocking step to go through? And one for the OziExplorer users, does anyone know if it has track up navigation yet?

The sad part about it is that I can tick off about 62 of those as "yep, had that one!"

Different Irishman this time, What do you call a bloke with rabbits up his bum? Warren.

Try here Teleflex.com.au - Products

Section 10 -Wing Prep has been updated to include installation of the fuel fillers.

Build Manual Updates Section 2, 10 & 41 There have been some recent changes posted to the build manual on the Lightning owners pages. Section 2 - Seat bulkhead assembly fixes the dimension conflicts in the original and adds some bronze bushes to the bellcrank pivot, these appear similar to the flap hinge bushes. I also note that they have picked up or reinvented my idea of using a template to drill the bellcrank mounting holes in the seat bulkhead. If there is anyone else out there who has trouble with his lefts and rights like me, remember to mark the template to top and front and then remember that you place the assembly on the back of the template to mark the holes, drill them in the template then place the template on the front of the bulkhead with its front side visible and drill the bulkhead. Section 19 - Elevator balance modification details the changes to the the aerodynamic balance on the elevator, basically removing it altogether. Nick's original notification of this change is in an earlier post on this forum. There has also been a change to Section 41 - Canopy hinges although the date in the build procedures list has not been changed, it still reads 02/05/08. It's in American so that is 5th Feb. The changes are the addition of the altered hinge to canopy attach detail for the skinned canopy. I first noticed this change a few days ago but I'm not sure when it occurred. I printed my manual pages in early June and I exchanged emails with the factory about how to do this step back in early September so it's sometime after that. Depending on when you printed your manual it may pay to check that you have this.

Information on changes to the elevator balance modification from Nick We have just completed flight testing on a modification to the elevator balance. With the development of the SLSA Lightning and the mission of the aircraft changing slightly, a need to make a change to the pitch force required was noted. With the standard wing the roll to pitch force was well harmonized at maneuvering speed and below. With the addition of the long wing tips the roll forces increased but the pitch stayed the same. This resulted in a some what unbalanced feel on the stick. There are two options, lighten the ailerons, or heavy up the pitch. While the first seems the better to get a nice light stick, the over all the mission of the aircraft with the long wing tip is going to be Light sport. So with this in mind and the typical pilot than being a newer light sport pilot or those who have not flown for a while due to a medical or other issue, the thought of making the pitch heavier to harmonize the controls was the better option. We have removed the aerodynamic balance from the elevator completely. The resulting change has increased the stick pull required by a good amount. In our 2008demo the stick force required with the balance to accelerate 1g was 2.5lbs, this is measured with a digital scale on the stick in flight and not a guess. With the balance removed the stick pull required in the same situation was 4.75lbs. This with the longer wing now provides a good feel between both roll and pitch, and I feel this is better for most pilots. An additional side benefit is the elimination of the “soft†spot in the center of pitch, anyone with enough time in a lightning has most likely noticed a small spot in the middle 1†of throw on the stick were its kinda dead, so that’s gone. This is not to say with a short wing that the pitch would too be heavy if one made the modification as well, I think that it would still have good stick feel. I have updated the builders manual online to incorporate this change, it is in section #19 on balance modification. Those of you asking if the roll can be lighten up to match the light pitch feel with the balances, well still working on that but should have a solution in due time. Thanks for reading my book. Nick Otterback Arion Aircraft, LLC

This article is an extract from the Lightning newsletter by Buz Rich and Nick Otterback which deals with landing techniques for the Lightning. It analyses a few of the landing accidents which have occurred and provides some guidelines for circuits and landings. Good material for anyone. How to land your lightning.pdf How to land your lightning.pdf How to land your lightning.pdf

As long as the tea doesn't give you a stiff neck when you drink it.

Things you can do with a Blanik. --- LINK