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bushcaddy105

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Everything posted by bushcaddy105

  1. bushcaddy105
    OK Cazza, If the demand is there, I'll gladly keep law and order with any interested takers. Current plan is to fly over on Thursday 1st, weather permitting. (It usually does!)
  2. bushcaddy105
    Just to stir the pot! Gooday Liam, There are a considerable number of us homebuilders (probably mostly with shallow pockets like me!) who dare to use liquid cooled auto engines, as the vast majority of auto engines seem to be. They have lots of advantages, eg reliability and low initial and maintenance costs, when compared with their air cooled (or combination cooled in the case of 912's) brethren. Their big disadvantage is an inevitable weight penalty, but with careful design this can be incorporated into many aircraft designs. The Subaru family, for example, have an established track record along this path, and I for one am looking forward to exploring the emerging small high-tech diesels (all liquid cooled) which are appearing in many car makers new offerings. Keep your mind open!
  3. bushcaddy105
    How about a round table session on alternate engines? There are a lot of us closely watching rapid developments in small auto engines, and may welcome the chance to come together to discuss ideas.
  4. bushcaddy105
    Ditto re the hospitality at Casino I spent a couple of hours there in 2008 waiting out weather en route to Natfly. The local CFI entertained me with his superb R/C model helicopter flying, and the members provided a welcome coffee & cake. Local knowledge was freely offered as well as a bed for the night if I couldn't get away that day. And all this to a perfect stranger who just happened to fly in unannounced! It saddened me tonight to go through my photos of this visit and see the beautifully maintained red Boorabee in the hangar - now sadly missed with its owner in tragic circumstances. They are a great club, and deserve to prosper.
  5. bushcaddy105
    Haven't seen the need for the big tyres on my Bushcaddy R80; it does a pretty good job as a bushplane on the 15 X 6 X 6 as standard, even though it is supposed to be on floats. Check out bushcaddy.com for lots more details
  6. bushcaddy105
    No trouble, Chris The EA81 is basically standard with the following exceptions:- Most important change is the camshaft - mine is a Wade 240 Heads are stock EA81, with 1.00 mm milled off the face, the inlet valve seat inserts have the ridge above the seat removed to match the port diameter. Valves are standard. I run an EA82 inlet manifold with an adaptor to take a single 1.75 inch SU carbie. An EA71 crank pulley slows down the water pump & drives an alternator off a Daihatsu Charade. An Alfa Romeo 33 radiator is mounted in the bottom of the pressurised cowl. A normal 13 psi radiator cap and overflow bottle take care of coolant. No oil cooler is needed or fitted - air flow over the standard sump is sufficient. The muffler is homemade - it simply combines both cylinder banks into a single central outlet. The distributor is a modified Nippon Denso electronic unit. This all drives a Foxcon redrive turning a 72 inch X 60 pitch Bolly 3-blade prop. There you have it! All I can say is that it continues to work well
  7. bushcaddy105
    Also G'day, Robert I have recently returned from a visit to your great country, and would have driven somewhere close to you while passing through Quebec. I built and fly a BushCaddy, from just West of Montreal (Vaudreil, in fact), and visited the company while there. Great people: great aircraft. I'm a bit like you - my grandparents motto was "We'll wear out, not rust out", and that served them well until 91 and 98 yrs. I have adopted the same family motto. My motoring fetish is Haflingers, a bit unusual for Australia, and head-turners whenever driven. I couldn't find any in Canada (and I looked!) Do you know of any?
  8. bushcaddy105
    Here's the requested update, Chris BushCaddy 4564 has (as of this afternoon's flight) 335 hours of EA81 power. It has been as far as Bundaberg via Innamincka, been to 2 Avalons, 2 Narromines, 1 Edinburgh Air Show,1 Camel cup at Marree, several trips to Mildura and many shorter sorties inbetween. It has been flown by many other pilots, all happy! So you can assume that I am quite happy with the conversion, and trust it implicitly. Only yesterday it had its first hiccup - an occasional miss on one cylinder. A lead fouled plug was the cause, not surprising as the same set of platinum plugs has done all those hours, with cleaning each 50 hr service, and a 99% of the time Avgas diet. I lashed out and fitted 4 new plugs - problem solved. My installation is simple, as close to how the engine runs in a car as possible, and I estimate that with my mods it makes about 95 HP flat chat. I cruise at 75% power for 14 litres/hour. I personally take the claims of more than 100 HP from an EA81 with a grain of salt. I trust that this gives you the info needed
  9. bushcaddy105
    Rejected Subaru? Hi Rudi, I'm curious as to why your Subaru was underpowered in the Savannah - perhaps it was direct drive, and not running through a propellor speed reduction unit? I quite successfully fly an EA81 in my BushCaddy (a bigger and heavier STOL aircraft), and while I acknowledge that the Subaru installation is all up heavier by up to 20 Kg, the performance is comparable to the 912S
  10. bushcaddy105
    Gooday Reg, have we met along the way?
  11. bushcaddy105
    You're correct, Ozzie, we are just so overcome by it all that we haven't the energy to report! There are about 200 Aussies who have signed in, and you can't go to anywhere near a beer without hearing that familiar accent. The locals tell us that they are surprised at the numbers attending - they had expected them to be down due to the local economy, but not so. This final weekend is a bit down on aircraft numbers due to unfavourable weather reports - I estimate that tonight (saturday) there would only be 25% of the fleet that was here last monday. The variety of aircraft has been stunning - to see all these highlights in one week has been a rare opportunity, and the forums have been varied and interesting. Today Burt Rutan gave a thought-provoking talk under the heading of "Predictions", but this turned out to be a stinging criticism of the American government's stance on climate change (This study of climate change is Burt's current hobby) He didn't pull any punches and got rounds of applause from the locals. This talk, and all of Burt's other forums this week will be posted on a website shortly - I'll post this site soon, probably when I get home next week. So there, we are reporting back, if somewhat belatedly!
  12. bushcaddy105
    It's not difficult to make your own. Chrome Moly tube is readily available in Oz and easy enough to notch to fit together on a simple wooden jig which provides the correct distance from firewall to engine. A professional welder will then zip it together for you (TIG welding required, NOT MIG)
  13. bushcaddy105
    Gold at the end of the rainbow Here's a shot taken on Saturday at Skypark, Port Lincoln
  14. bushcaddy105
    Gooday Yenn Having helped out before with this problem, may I suggest that you check the mechanical advantage between the rudder and the tailwheel. The principle is that for any given amount of rudder pedal movement, the tailwheel should move through a larger deflection angle from straight ahead than the rudder, assuming that there is little, if any, free play in the tailwheel linkage. This ensures that there is more direction control on the ground by the tailwheel than by the rudder as the rollout commences. In the air, this uneven deflection is of no significance. In practice, where the tailwheel is operated by spring links back from the rudder, it requires the lever length (measured from the aircraft centreline) to be longer on the rudder than on the tailwheel assembly. I'll attempt to post a photo to illustrate the above. Hope this helps
  15. bushcaddy105
    Why fly a bushplane? Campsite and "airstrip" on way home from Avalon 2009. It's at the junction of the Murrumbidgee with the Murray, near Boundary Bend.
  16. bushcaddy105
    Just to add a counter opinion! My BushCaddy (168 square feet of wing) was tied down 1 metre from Wigg's Gazelle, using 3 screwits and water ski rope. The only movement evident was that the tailwheel had moved sideways to the limit of its rope. The screwits were just as hard to get out as they were to screw in - no evidence of loosening in the ground. As I remember seeing when the Gazelle was tied down next to me, it was with star pickets hammered into the ground at a good angle. I can only put the difference down to the fickle nature of the wind - it was sufficient to fly the Gazelle, but perhaps not as strong a few metres away. No, I haven't bought any lottery tickets - my luck has all been used!
  17. bushcaddy105
    Try the Citizen Promaster range- I bought a pilot version in Singapore in 1994 and it hasn't missed a beat since. Useful for stopwatch, alarm & countdown timer when flying, plus 2 extra time zones on digital display (main display is analogue and easy to read) Not cheap in Oz, but quality (nearly) always costs!
  18. bushcaddy105
    Gooday John, I've just got home from a flying trip after Avalon. I fly the BushCaddy that was tied down one metre from your starboard wingtip, and I still can't fathom why my huge wing didn't also take off, and also how your Gazelle managed to finish where it did without hitting my wing. A VERY thorough inspection on Sunday couldn't provide any evidence as to why I shouldn't fly it home, so I did. All is well. I was there minutes after the event, and have photos from several different sources, including before and after shots, and of your aircraft the following day after it had been moved from the display line. I'll put together a compilation from all sources and send you a CD. PM me with your postal address, as e-mail would take too long (no high speed broadband here in the sticks!) From what I saw, the Gazelle had remarkably little damage, although I would certainly be looking for a better way to hinge the flaperons - the current setup looked way inadequate for my liking. I hope you are soon flying again, John Best wishes
  19. bushcaddy105
    This video has been around for a fair while - certainly months if not years. When I first saw it, it proclaimed to be an annual event held in Alaska. Certainly impressive! And I thought the BushCaddy got up & went pretty smartly. Not in the race with these guys, though
  20. bushcaddy105
    Gooday Chip Fancy reading a post from a Canadian about the BushCaddy! Great aircraft, in my opinion. I am the owner/builder of R80 19-4564 as shown on the BushCaddy website under "completions" Here's another thought for you:- I chose to use a Subaru EA81 as a cheap but reliable alternative. Not quite as powerful, not quite as fast as either Rotax or Jabiru, but oh so reliable and cheap to build and run. No cold start issues, either. It now has nearly 3 years and 290 hours of flying to its credit, and another one with a Subaru is about to be built in my locality. The owner is waiting for delivery of his kit. No worries about cold starts at present - we are in a week of over 40 degrees C temperatures here in South Australia. I will PM you, as we are will be visiting Canada this June/July and intend visiting the factory.
  21. bushcaddy105
    Redair, I just got back from a week away, and am rather distraught to learn that I have previously been flying in Area 51! And why are you wasting so much building time trying to avoid buying a Rotax? - I saw Mick's effort a couple of weeks ago, and he'll soon be flour bombing you while you are still scheming.
  22. bushcaddy105
    If you are handy with a soldering iron & are comfortable with some basic electronics, you can make up a Vox kit from Jaycar (about $15) which adds on to the inbuilt intercom facility of the A200. No internal changes needed - it simply picks up the appropriate pins on the connector. I housed mine in a little Jiffy box bolted underneath the Icom mounting cradle. This setup has worked well for nearly 3 years. PM me if you would like further details
  23. bushcaddy105
    After a recent discussion about setting 75% power for cruise, I have been reading up on this topic. There seems to be more answers than questions! Some ideas are:- Establish maximum full throttle level flight RPM and subtract 10% to get cruise revs. Set 23 or 24 inches manifold pressure (seems to be more applicable to constant speed prop applications). Read the engine manufacturer's info and use their numbers. The discussion involves a 1-off auto engine conversion driving a ground adjustable prop through a reduction drive. Max power and torque numbers can only be guessed at - no empirical testing has been done. The prop pitch has been set by trial and error to produce an acceptable balance between climb and cruise. What are your thoughts on establishing what is 75% power?
  24. bushcaddy105
    Depends on the aircraft! Have a look at pictures of a BushCaddy taildragger (e.g. my avatar) Visibility tail down is better than many nosewheelers; at flying attitude nothing less than superb. All pilots who have flown it just keep climbing at first, until they adjust to the view over the nose.
  25. bushcaddy105
    No toe-in or toe-out Been through this decision before, when building my BushCaddy. I aimed to have precisely parallel wheels, because with either toe-out or toe-in, the amount will change as the tail comes up on takeoff, or down on landing. It's this change that can alter handling, as well as suspension deflection occurring on bumps (otherwise known as bump steering on ground-based vehicles - not good on a rolling out tailwheeler!) As a bonus, tyre wear is minimised if there is no sideways component. After hundreds of takeoffs/landings my original tyres show little wear, and no pilot has ever been disappointed in the way the BC handles. Hope this helps!
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