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N40SH (A143) Flies

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hagargs(at)earthlink.net
Guest

Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 7:54 am Post subject: N40SH (A143) Flies

N40SH with a 914 and an Airmaster  prop took to the air at Gateway Airport under the capable and skillful hands of Bob Lindsay.  The plane works as advertized.  Bob noted  that it was the smoothest Rotax he  has flown behind yet.   This is no doubt due  to the  good job that Phoenix Conposites did balancing the  prop and my experience I had in balancing the Bings on my old BMW Paris-Dakar with my murcury manometers, It must be the hazardous material in the  tubes that gives you just the right amount of granularity in your adjustments. The plane is a good deal faster and more efficient than the  spam cans I am used to. We passed  the  Coolidge airport that usually takes 30  minutes to get to in only about 20 minutes. I didn't expect it to show up so soon.

  

 The aircraft is very stable,  the wings giving a very good rumble when approaching a clean stall is un-mistakeable.  With one person aboard there is left wing drop in a dirty stall at about 40 kts. Though not much worse than I have experienced in a certificated plane.  With 2 people aboard it becomes more stable in the dirty stall.  The times I have tried it., it appeared to just burble a bit before letting go.

  

 The  plane has been tested for flutter to Vne plus a good margin and everything was fine and stable.  Some basic aerobatic maneuvers were tested. The plane flies like it is on rails.

  

 All subsequent flights during the week originated from Falcon Field with me doing my practice take offs and landings at the huge runways at Gateway  Bob signed me off to fly it by myself this Saturday, he added a  10 kt cross wind restriction until I get some more time under my belt.  I did indeed use a good deal of the width of the 100 + ft wide runways at gateway on some of  the early landings.

  

  

 Excitement:

  

 We succombed to the dreaded clogged  fuel filter  syndrome.  This has happened so many times.  I figured I had it licked as I ran a  minimum of 40 to 50 gallons of fuel through the  filters and then changed them out.  The clear filter  housing was inspected  before the flight also.  Evidently running fuel through them doesn't do any good unless you have the plane strapped to a paint shaker to stir things up while sucking the  gas out.  Also it appears what  clogs the filter is  the same color as the filter, you only see some black particles in the filter that look benign.  Its what you  don't see is what kills you.  

  

 The filter  decided to stop passing the correct amount of  fuel at the  most in opportune time.  During a touch and go after we had lifted off and  were about a hundred feet in the air and with most of the runway behind us.  We probably touched  down within 10 ft of  the end of the runway and headed it into the mud and water rather than the  fence along Greenfield road.  The plane handles much better in the sloppy stuff than it does on the  pavement. The fire dept took some real  good pictures and the  lines through the  dirt are straighter than any track of a Europa on the  pavement.  A very good rough field aircraft!  I will have the post about 20 photos that were taken.  After talking to the guy with the FAA  badge for a few minutes.  It only took a little effort to pull it out.  The reserve tank was selected and  the  motor started ri  ght up and we taxied back to our spot.  The aircraft was hosed off and cowlings removed to get the stuff out of the  heat exchangers and every  thing was inspected.  The plane was no worse for the wear.  It flew the  rest of the week (Thurs, Fri, Sat) with nary a peep.  Cooling was  not a major concern as expected in the  Phoenix summer.  Oil temps were good.  CHT was close but stayed away from 135c but not by much.  I do have an air diverter between my oil and  water heat exchangers.  So maybe this is  telling me to bend it toward the oil cooler more to get more air to the water. 

  

 Solution:

  

 I need  to change the fuel system.  At this time I have a filter at the outlet of each side of the tank (primary and reserve). Each one of these lines feeds the Andair selector valve and then this goes to the  two fuel pumps.  There is no redundancy here, I'm using two pumps for takeoff and landing however I'm sucking off of one filter.  The two filters need to be downstream of the selector valve, just ahead of each pump.  That way if a  filter gets clogged the other pump can take up the load through  its own filter.  I don't see how I missed that item.  The small filters with the replaceable elements are going away and some larger disposable cheaper automotive types are going in their place.

  

 Other  issues:

  

 At pattern speeds with the  flaps down, carbon mon-oxide builds up in the cockpit to a very noticable extent.  We had  a monitor but it wasn't needed.  I need to put some seals at the flap actuation tube slots, like I believe Dave and Terry did.  I also have a good breeze comming up through the two holes in the console that are open where the rudder pullies are.  These need to be plugged up.  I am also going to stick a small air dam 1/4" high at the back edge of each Naca fresh air duct to see if I can get them to grab more air.  I have  two through vents in the aft baggage bay D panel to open up some more to get the air flowing out the back.

  

 The bungies could use a little tightening after sitting for at least 3 years during the build.  

  

 Both the fine pitch  stop and the coarse pitch stop on the Airmaster need  coarsening up.

  

 Flight instruments appear to be spot on.  (I had to turn  me a new static nose piece from aluminum for the pitot tube after busting the plastic unit a day before Bob arrived)

  

 The plane has over 9 hours of its 40 hours flown off.  The next  week or two will be used to work on the above items and to snoop around to see if I can find a  hanger to share with someone.  I would think a Europa with one wing off would fit just nicely with a high wing aircraft.  Its a real pain to be toting the plane around.  I will probably fly two to three times more if I was able to park it at an airfield.

  

 That's it for now you'll probably see the plane at Copperstate this year.  It however will still be in primer by then.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 Steve Hagar

 hagargs(at)earthlink.net (hagargs(at)earthlink.net)

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jodel(at)nildram.co.uk
Guest

Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 8:57 am Post subject: N40SH (A143) Flies

Firstly  congratulations on your first flight.

  

 The pump  filter layout has changed over the last few years and the latest version is at  http://www.europa-aircraft.biz/pdfs/xs914%20may%2006.vp.pdf pages  5-3 and 5-4.  What might not be obvious from these diagrams is that the  system favors using the filter on the inlet to pump 1 even if both pumps  are in use.  The second filter then acts as a back up should the first  become blocked.  During my flight test period (strongly recommended  by Nev ) I swapped out/cleaned the filters after every flight.  After  5 hrs I now see a little bit of crud in filter 1 after each flight and none in  #2. I will continue until both run clean.

  

 Have  fun!

  

 Simon

 [quote]   

   --

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Paul Boulet

Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 57
Location: Malibu, California

Posted: Sun Jul 30, 2006 7:49 pm Post subject: N40SH (A143) Flies

Thanks for the details Steve and congrats.  My only two cents is that the disposable fuel filter you're speaking of needs to be a high pressure one- the cheap glass see thru ones won't suffice.  Take a look at high performance racing type fuel filters.

 

 Take care,

 Paul Boulet, N914PB

 testing after monowheel to tri gear conversion



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g-iani(at)ntlworld.com
Guest

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 2:24 am Post subject: N40SH (A143) Flies

Nice to hear  you are flying and good luck.  Irene and I have just got to 55 hours on  G-IANI (914 and Airmaster).  I hope the comments below might be  helpful.

  

 1)   We have not had any CO problems.  We have  removable panels over the two holes above the rudder plies.  We also have a  good seal on the rudder pedal shafts where they pass through the foot  wells.  As far as possible the cockpit is sealed from air entering in  unwanted places.  This includes a sticky label over the hole in the  throttle quadrant.

  

 2) The flap  tube slots (and possibly the elevator trim tab slots) cause the whole of the  rear of the aircraft behind the "D" panel to be above cockpit pressure.   Your " two through vents in the aft baggage bay D panel" probably have air  coming in from the rear REDUCING the flow through the NACA vents.  Try  some wool tuffs on them.  We are experimenting with a vent in the "D"  panel ducted to the fin closeout (ie the area the rudder swings in).  The  area of the duct is 4 square inches).  The logic for this is that (Andy  Draper and I)  think this is a low pressure area due to the venturi effect  of the airflow over the fin/rudder boundary.  Subjectively this seems to  work. Were before we had little flow through the NACA vents below 100 Knots, we  now have a steady flow at all airspeeds.  I have remove the eyeball vents  we had (area 2 square inches) and just left the open holes (about 4 square  inches).  I want to try and get some pressure and flow reading  with  and without the duct but have not yet had the opportunity.  If you are  interested in this I can forward photos of what we have done.   

  

  

  

Ian Rickard  #505 G-IANI XS Trigear

Europa Club Mods Rep  (Trigear)

e-mail mods(at)europaclub.org.uk  

   or direct  g-iani(at)ntlworld.com

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astills(at)cox.net
Guest

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 7:09 am Post subject: N40SH (A143) Flies

 

  	  Quote: 	
		        Steve,

   Congratulations on your    flights. I know its been a long time coming for you and a lot of    work.

   I can tell from your    comments that it was well worth it. Sorry about the excitement from your    engine

   out but I have to lament    that the Europa filters are not worth much. I changed mine to 2" automotive    

   types that my friend Mark    found for me. Fits just right under the seats and a lot more filter surface. I    

   too have run my gas    through 4-5 times and came up with not much. May have to put a "Shaker" on it    as

   as per your obervations.    I'll have to get over and see the finished product before long. If  your    flying 

   over my section of town    when you get your 40 flown off stop off at Glendale for breakfast and I'll    buy.

   I've taken a hanger there    now. Again...congratulations

   Al    Stills

   N625Az

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kheindl(at)msn.com
Guest

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2006 4:28 pm Post subject: N40SH (A143) Flies

Tony,



I  believe Ian is venting via scat hose all the way to an opening inthe 

sternpost.



Karl





 	  Quote: 	
		  From: "Tony Krzyzewski" <tonyk(at)kaon.co.nz>

Reply-To: europa-list(at)matronics.com

To: <europa-list(at)matronics.com>

Subject: RE: N40SH  (A143) Flies

Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2006 08:43:57 +1200



   >>>  Your " two through vents in the aft baggage bay D panel" probably

have air coming in from the rear REDUCING the flow through the NACA

vents.



Before coming to NZ, ZK-UBD flew in Australia and the builder had added

two vents in the 'D' into the aft area. In early flight testing it was

noted that CO was entering the cabin and after some experimenting it was

found that the problem was the two vents. When these were blocked off

the CO problem went away.



Tony

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