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Bruce Tuncks

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Everything posted by Bruce Tuncks

  1. Bruce Tuncks
    On the subject of running motors from methanol, I can report that I once used it in a borrowed lawnmower and for some reason the lawnmower went about twice the normal RPM. I had run out of petrol with just a square meter to go, and I saw this can of model plane fuel and decided to try it out. Well I successfully evaded the lawnmower owner for a week or so, but he finally caught up to say..." I dunno what you did but it has never run so good as when you returned it." I may have given it a decoke, but to this day I can't work out why the governor allowed it to over-rev like it did.
  2. Bruce Tuncks
    Thanks guys. The OAT would have been about 5 degrees, it was 16/9/2021 and between Kadina and Edenhope say 4pm. I'll look some more and do what old K suggests. Thats also a good point about the oil temp. It was in the green, but not very hot if I am remembering correctly. The CHT's were in the green too, near the bottom of the zone and just too much cooler than my old Jabiru SK to be believable.
  3. Bruce Tuncks
    Yesterday, I bought a J230D with a 3300 Camit engine. It has a dynon CHT/EGT setup with a rotary switch to select the cylinder. In flight, the indication did not go much beyond 100 C on any cylinder. I find this hard to believe, and completely different to what RF guy saw. Yes, it was a cold day. My plan is to take out a sender and put it into boiling water. Any comments?
  4. Bruce Tuncks
    Thanks Danny. The batteries are a bit different in that the LiFe is 13.2 volts, charging should cease at 14.2 volts. It sure doesn't feel like it is struggling, and the motor starts immediately. You sure know more electrical stuff than I do though. Actually, that Jabiru was yesterday replaced with a Jab 230 D. This Jab has a big Odyssey battery in it as well as a Camit engine. One of the things I will do one day will be to replace the Odyssey with a LiFe, but there are other things to do first, like the CHT's. I have put my worry about this on another thread...
  5. Bruce Tuncks
    That describes me Aro. But as a farmer, I can say that anybody is welcome to land here if they need to. Bugger though, there are some semi-hidden hazards in a lot of our paddocks. Like stump-holes and branches. And please don't you guys pick on turbs. He has made many very valuable observations and pricked many a thought bubble which has got out of hand. I find his postings, which I sometimes would like to disagree with, to be good reading.
  6. Bruce Tuncks
    Leave Melbourne, guys and come to Edenhope. No traffic on a normal day. I would appreciate some allies in trying to reinstate the old E-W runway. The N-S runway is 1000m of good bitumen.
  7. Bruce Tuncks
    Nev, while alcohol may not ruin rubber, it apparently attacks the sealant used in older Jabiru fuel tanks. There was a service bulletin to this effect. I was also of the impression that it also attacked some rubber types, so it is good to know that this may not be true.
  8. Bruce Tuncks
    The Jabiru kit came with a motorbike lead-acid Marty. It was no good at all. Even Jabiru moved to Odyssey batteries. I reckon the LiFe are much better and the weight saving is good too. Yes, I too could lose 5kg off my gut but it doesn't seem to happen. The original motorbike battery was stuffed up by leaving it on a small camping solar charger for some weeks. It hardly turned the engine when I finally tried to use it. Yes, the solar charger had a diode which prevented night time discharge, so I don't really understand what went wrong. The battery did not boil dry either.
  9. Bruce Tuncks
    I should have worried about the flywheel bolts I now know.
  10. Bruce Tuncks
    I started with 2 hobbyking LiFe batteries in parallel. They are 8.4 amp-hour 30C, which apparently means that they can provide 252 amps. They weighed just under a kg each, so the 2 were 2kg. Well I thought I was going to damage the starter motor, so fast did it spin over, so I took one out and it is more normal, with the 6kg down to 1kg. The old 6kg Odyssey went for another ten years on a farm buggy, but alas it has had it now.
  11. Bruce Tuncks
    I'm sure you are right PMC, its just that I never saw one. There used to be a drink called " white Lady", where you mixed the metho with milk. I guess the milk absorbed some of the poison. Methyl alcohlol ( CH3OH) is what we ran glo-plug engines on. There is a little in natural ferments too, and it is what gives you a hangover, since a metabolic by-product of methyl alcohol is quite deadly.
  12. Bruce Tuncks
    Metho is ethanol poisoned with an upper and lower boiling point substance. These are methyl alcohol and pyridine, a bitter oily substance. The reason for the 2 substances is to make it harder to distil the metho . It is cheaper than ethanol because of tax reasons. In the 50's, aborigines used to drink metho because they were unable to buy real grog. It did bad things to them. I don't think that a temporary injection for take-off would harm the intake rubbers too much, but you are right to worry Old K. Please keep an eye on the rubber hoses in the intake, and tell us the results of your trial.
  13. Bruce Tuncks
    About charging LiFe batteries: I just use the inbuilt Jabiru alternator setup, but I have a digital voltmeter so as to switch the charging off as soon as the battery is at 14.2 volts. This is usually achieved before the plane has moved. In flight, there are a few big capacitors which the alternator thinks is the battery and the radio works ok from this, the voltage is about 15 volts from the Jabiru regulator. I do have a power-supply cleaner for the radio, bought from a 4WD place. The standard Jabiru setup would soon ruin the LiFe battery without some protective charging electronics.
  14. Bruce Tuncks
    Yenn, you are an engineer of my vintage. We learned how to calculate buildings with maths. Buggered if I know what they teach these days. Computers are so much better that I was. At Adelaide, they sacked the maths dept from contributing to engineering stuff. The last time I tried to help a son-in-law, it was sooo much easier to do a google thing than to do it my old way, but I did both just for old times sake. And yes, to stay on topic, we sure did reinforced concrete and soil mechanics. There has been some good advice given out on this topic.
  15. Bruce Tuncks
    It's not surprising to find aeroplane blokes like motorbikes. Nearest thing to flying, I reckon. In my case, I convinced the wife to approve flying by comparing it favourably, safety wise, with motorbikes. About this time, we just happened to see the aftermath of several motorbike accidents and this helped my case. But here on the farm, I like my ag-bike and having this fall over on me, I wonder how you could right a bigger bike if it fell over... maybe this explains biker gangs?
  16. Bruce Tuncks
    Don't forget to put steel mesh in that concrete... without the steel mesh, you could get some nasty steps arise in future. And the subgrade matters, as has been said. You may need it removed and replaced with rubble to a depth of maybe a foot. And this rubble needs compacting. The better the subgrade, the less you can make the concrete on top, 130mm is quite a good figure, with 6mm mesh. Also, have a think about the base of the tin walls if you are going to make the floor last and use the walls as formwork.
  17. Bruce Tuncks
    We put up signs requiring oh&s plus biosecurity qualifications before entry to our farm. The main reason for this was to make it hard for bureaucrats to wander in and start spending our money and time on useless stuff like permission paperwork. We saved about $20,000 on our house by building it without all the permissions extortion stuff. We could do this by declaring the building as shearers quarters. While we would be annoyed at practice low level runs, in no way would we object to a real emergency landing, even if it was because a passenger needed to pee. Actually, we do get some low level stuff when a nearby paddock is aerial-sprayed, and this is very loud, but soon gone. We don't complain.
  18. Bruce Tuncks
    Yep, don't tell them anything. It cannot help you. I like the idea that " your engine seemed to be running rough." But once you landed, it seems to have improved...
  19. Bruce Tuncks
    If you have an emergency and need to land Spacey, the ownership of the land should not enter your head. Surface, slope and obstructions are what you should be looking for. A great many paddocks will turn out to be great for landing. Preferably into the wind and with an uphill slope and a good surface free from obstructions like SWER lines. Glider pilots are still taught these things.
  20. Bruce Tuncks
    Good luck with your sound barrier Lyle. Please let us know it it works for you. How much will it come to?
  21. Bruce Tuncks
    Glider pilots outland all the time, well we used to, and I am quite sure that there was nothing illegal in this. Personally, I never met an unfriendly guy. Some unfriendly dogs,but not so often that I felt the need to take dog biscuits for them. One mate landed on a runway which had a windsock etc but was real small. The owner turned out to be a delighted aeromodeller.
  22. Bruce Tuncks
    I like marty's idea. But I reckon you should have tried contact by radio first ( area frequency and unicom frequency) and offer the owner money if he turns up.
  23. Bruce Tuncks
    I agree with what has been said here Jay. You are to be congratulated for worrying beforehand about weight stuff. I flew gliders for many years then bought a kit small Jabiru. The big Jabiru has enough weight-carrying capacity I think for you. There is an American agent who would know your local figures etc, and I think he may be worth a call. Best wishes, and we don't think you are too old at all.
  24. Bruce Tuncks
    It was garfly's video of the rogue attack that got me reminded of the first account where the french resistance were calling for an attack with the aim of freeing prisoners, some of whom were due for execution. In each case, I got a slight impression that the top brass was not as keen as the lower people.
  25. Bruce Tuncks
    In general, delinquents show little interest in planes. I sure hope this continues... But you guys experiences have opened my eyes a lot. Sorry but thanks for telling.
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