Eatherbreather

Oh! I was going direct drive - any suggestions what size might be ok? The prospect of carving my own horrifies me, I need something "off the shelf". Doesn't have to be awesome, just safe and permit the engine to run.

G'day all! Thanks for the info! Yes mine has cast iron cylinders (with steel liners?) and a Tillotson carby. Some time back I kitted the carby with genuine parts still being made (in Ireland now). It also had the disgusting (useless) Victa twin ignition that I have removed including the fin-less Victa flywheel. Previous attempts to get this engine running have failed to produce more than a few consecutive coughs - the compression felt pretty low as I recall. When the weather improves I hope to re-visit it to get it running. I have got new head gaskets to fit (Victa 160cc same bolt spacing) and need to make and fit some lower cylinder gaskets and fix the pull start that died. Also need to replace at least one of the reed sets as some bored f*#kwit thought it would be good to make origami out of one of it when I had them out of the engine to try to find replacements - I am reliably informed that new reeds work much better than old ones even if they aren't damaged in any way. I don't like my chances but I will try to get it going anyway. If none of this sees it running I may get it off to someone more knowledgeable it may need a bore/pistons/rings rebuild? It is such a simple engine there really so little in it to prevent it from running otherwise. The notion of fitting a "Scout" propeller to it and having it work is encouraging though as that is the propeller I have been using and the only "loose" propeller I have! The Jimbo.

There is a guy in Northam that can teach - I can get his number to you if you want or there's good old (sorry Jim!) Jim Cuthill in Victoria (Falconhawk flying school). I had excellent results with Jim. He's a great guy and I would have qualified if it not for a minor mishap that put his Thruster out of action for a bit : ( I haven't tried the Wagin guy yet. Wagin being so much closer to home obviously appeals to me.

Ah yeah there not many of these types around unfortunately. Instructors are very few and far between too

Thanks matey! Thruster T300

Excellent! Fingers crossed they can teach three axis

Hey all, Any word on the Wagin flying school? Will they be teaching three axis or trikes? My machine as pictured is ex Bindoon. Some of you may recognise it James.

Woohoo! Look at them trophies! I have here his pulse jet starter and some engine mounts that appear to be for a "Dynajet" pulse jet. It is my understanding that he used to do night flying demos of pulse jet control line at the Perth Royal show. He certainly seem to have been a very keen and capable guy. A wee update for the Skylark twin - I fully re-kitted the carby a couple of days ago when the parts arrived from Tillotson - in Ireland! They moved their operations there some years ago. They had no record of my particular model of carby but true to their word the kit they sent fitted perfectly. I have removed and re-examined the reeds. They appear to be completely fine just as I recalled but I will replace them anyway. Once I have these sorted and I have repaired the pull start cord I will have another go at blowing the fence over (hopefully) Coming up after the break a look back at the stories still to come....

I see! If we're talking the same "Len" (and I suspect we are) then I have couple of things here that he used to own. I never had the pleasure of meeting him myself unfortunately. One of the items is a letter opener made from an old bit of streamline section flying wire? It has some numbers stamped around the threaded end (metric M5) but I have no idea what they mean or what aircraft this came off. I made a brass handle for it and use it every day I can fire off some pics to you of what I have if you like. Is there some way of sending private messages om here or do I need an email address?

Are you related to Len per chance?

Woohoo! Shelley beach! Just up the road from me! - Just checked out your hang gliding pics : )

It ran ok - I wouldn't say great but as you probably know Cox problems are often solved with more nitromethane in the fuel. I should re-visit it sometime and give it a damn good thrashing with some different fuels and maybe try different glow heads. It seemed to favour one cylinder more than the other as I recall (the one that's offset slightly to the rear closer to the intake?). I think this condition may also be because the rotating innards of the engine tends to pump the incoming fuel air mix towards one cylinder more than the other. It's because of this I am considering retaining the carbies mounted on the cylinders for my "flat twin whipper snipper parts engine" project. Two carbies will be harder to tune doubtlessly and make for a heavier and bulkier engine. My thinking being that if one cylinder is a bit weak I can hopefully correct (optimize) the fuel air mix for that side of the engine - this hopefully being possible by the piston ported carby enabling the incoming fuel/air mix being placed more or less directly under the piston and filling the transfer ports of that cylinder rather than having the fuel air/mix pass through the bottom end of the engine so much. If this doesn't work I can blank off the intake ports and mount a single carby on the crankcase (offset if need be to position the carby nearer whichever cylinder is weaker) with reeds. If this doesn't work I will have a beaut paper weight.