Bit of an Update

Well I'm only at about 63 x hours now. I have managed to crack about an almighty 10 x or so from October last year. I've just had one problem after another on the plane and am truly sick of even going out to the airport and looking at it.

I'm completely bummed about it all at the moment. After the Second turbo seized up I just wanted to give up. I'm still going on auto pilot but sheesh.

Right as we speak I am in the middle of the Annual inspection and service that seems to be dragging on as I just haven't had time to get to it lately. Whilst this is going on I am fitting an external SP-7 artificial horizon module and also carrying out the addition of a cooling system to the turbo. I hope to be flying again by the end of April at the latest, as Easter and some planned holidays in April for a Formation endorsement will take up my time also.

I think the biggest bane in my aircraft are the engine mounts. I fitted a complete new set again and some 2 x hours and possibly 2 or 3 flights and the top mount looks like this again

I am positive the lower mount will chew out again and be rubbing on the accessory plate all too soon.  In case you were wondering whether I had not done them up tight enough, I had them tight, trust me. I have tried them mildly tight, overly tight, bulging out tight,  just right tight and even had hose clamps around them too to try and get some longevity out of them to some degree. Nothing seems to work. I have even joked to the point of asking Sonex tech to fly over and sort the issue for me if I pay for the ticket. No reply to that question and frankly I didn't actually expect one either to be honest. It would be nice though as this is getting beyond a joke.

On a bright side the plane flies really well still. I have just finally achieved my Aerobatics endorsement and have now flown my first Aero's in my own plane. It was a long moment coming as I had always intended one day to be able to do them in the Sonex and here we are. Loops, rolls, barrel rolls and stall turns are all that I have done so far. I was going to try out some spins but alas my engine mounts foil me again. Unfortunately I don't have any pics or vids but sooner rather than later I'll buy a cheap HD cam and get some vids and so on for you tube. I am really happy in the way the plane performed in all the maneuvers. It had plenty of power for loops and so on and just flies the path you ask it. Stall turns in the plane I did my test in were a real mission whereas in the Sonex it seems almost like the Super Decathlon and they seem to do them almost by themselves. 

 Please note, YES I had the Sonex hat on for all flights :)

I did do one away mission this year. It was a 2 x hour return flight to an Old Aero club member's station in the Mid west of Western Australia. Was good to get away from the field for a change and was really hoping at this stage all the issues were behind me. Errr no by the way. Just in case you were wondering. 

Got my self a Sonex shirt now too,,,, I didn't really like the other one I had with the upside down plane. Was just too hard to focus on. I like the new one :) 

I did get to take my mate for a fly too along the way. Something else I had been meaning to do. We were a bit squishy,,, neither of us ever really miss the second helping :) 

 I still have a long list of people keen to fly with me but it's a bit hard to tell them it's broken again. like WTF they keep saying. 

So just finishing off, here are a few pics from the last 10 x hours and my engine mounts.

The October engine mount replacement pics. 

The November Files of engine mounts

The December attempt at stainless steel zip ties. 

They didn't last long and were changed out on the 14th January. Actually they wern't that bad really this time but the secondary bush was so squished it seemed not to absorb much any more. 

The today pic just for reference. It's still fine but after 2 x hours but I have to add washers and re tighten them again. They were so tight before too and now look at the gap. 

Pictorial update

Getting a little bit tired of this.

(warning old post) (long flight never happened) I don't even know where to start

Well it's certainly been a long time since any update to this blog. I'm currently at about 50 x hours and have had so many ups and downs it's not funny. I hope I am finally getting on top of the issues I've had so will see from now. I have had a very unfortunate thing happen and the turbo has had to go back for inspection. Was flying okay, then had a break for 2 weeks, after a pre flight run up, found no boost. Long story short is the turbo has been sent back to Sonex for an inspection and report.

On a positive note the 50 x hours flying the plane has been soooooo good. The performance of the Sonex turbo when on song and solo just does it for me every time I take off. The plane flies like a little go kart you strap on.  I am eager to finish my Aero endorsement now and try that also when I get her flying again.  We are coming into winter here now and the best flying season. Smooth cold air with beautiful scenery when its all green.

I have a 37 x hour round trip across Australia and back planned for October. I am, to say the least, eagerly awaiting the return of the Turbo to get some hours back happening in the air. I really want to see at least 25+ or more hours trouble free before I even contemplate the journey. I do plan to bring along some spares in case of the unforeseen but hope not to need them. Now that I have the engine running cool and running well with the latest service bulletins I really hope for some good trouble free flying. I think some of the issues I've had date back to early in the first 5 hours when things ran hot and perhaps cooked some electronic components however I guess time will tell. I never see over 380-390 on climb out and the cruise temps are usually around 320-360 in the heat of summer so winter flying will be even better regarding temps.

With this down time I have been doing some Mods that I have been eager to do. I am in the process of adding the AUX tank behind the seat and dual hydraulic brakes. I made the biggest ass of myself landing at a local fly in with a really strong crosswind. Heaps of planes landed before me and to be honest some also did not. I did however just plan to see how it went and go around and back to base if need be. The problem wasn't landing but in the roll out. I had heaps of rudder authority all the way to the ground but apon touchdown had absolutely no control over the tail wheel and veered off the runway around a runway marker and thankfully back on the strip to taxi back to the parking area in front of  reasonably sized crowd red faced. That next day I ordered a second master cylinder and am in the process of fitting dual independent brakes. A second lever would have made me look like an absolute pro and I won't be letting that mistake happen to me again. The Aux tank will give me the range needed to make the big hops required to get across this country of ours. I have two big legs to carry out of about 3.5 hours each and the best flight I've had to date in regard to fuel with the standard tank is 2.8 hours plus reserve at around 110 kts throttled back to minimize fuel use. The extra fuel will give me a nice little buffer so I don't have to sweat about head winds and if I'll actually make it. I will be flying solo and the MTOW will be well under.

One more Step

Okay, I'm getting excited for the weekend. I really just can't wait for the wheels to lift off the ground and get that Sonex feeling again. My parts have all arrived today, and, earlier than expected.

Oil lines, Oil and the remote oil filter housing. I'll pick up an oil filter tomorrow and hopefully do this addition tomorrow after work. Double check everything on Friday then either fly Friday after work or Saturday. Well that's the plan anyway.

BACK IN BIZ BABY :)

Cowling vents and heat shields

So after melting various bits and bobs in the engine bay I finally installed some vents to vent the hot air after shutdown. I have not painted them yet but I think they look ok.

I was going to go to the trouble of sinking them in the cowling flush and so on but thought I'd trial them and maybe one day do that or probably just paint them first and fly till all the bugs are sorted. They are just a vent I bought on ebay, plastic and screwed onto the cowling. I have flown about 4 hours with these on and have noticed no change in engine temps during flight but after shut down, if you hold your hand over the vent, you can feel the hot air venting. This makes me smile.

Before I added these vents I had lots of trouble. I don't know if this caused the MGL RDAC to fail but I guess I'll never know.

I have also added some very crude looking (at this stage) heat shield over the engine mounts and trigger modules.

The heat shields are just made with some 6061 scrap I had and stainless zip ties and the insulation is a sticky backed  sheet that I have just stuck on and crudely moulded onto the accessory plate. I have also double wrapped the exhausts with two layers of exhaust wrap now too.  Since doing these small things my engine mounts have not needed changing and they seem to have stopped compressing even after the shortest of flights.

This pic shows the near new engine mounts after about 4 x hours flight. They had melted and crushed up and the pin was rubbing badly on the accessory plate. You can feel it in flight when they have worn or melted down as the engine begins to vibrate badly telling you that's the end of flying for that day mister.  Oh don't worry about the horrible brown leaks down the lower engine block, it's not oil , it's permatex from the initial engine build :)

 A vain attempt to add a washer or two to keep them tight, you can see how much the back one has compressed so I fitted a new front rubber and some washers to try and limp me through another flight.

Probably hard to see but the pin was rubbing on the accessory plate. New mount time again.

An indicator of how much it sagged as the prop rubbed on the cowling and scratched the paint,,, wasn't happy at all.


These lower three pics show the trigger modules and how much they had swollen up like balloons due to the heat from the turbo after shutdown, I assume, as inflight they have air running over them. I expect it was just the radiant heat when turned off cooking them or maybe in flight who knows. All I know is that since fitting the shield over the trigger modules they have stopped swelling. Both the top and bottom modules are swollen like this now but they aren't getting worse thankfully.  I emailed tech support early in the piece to ask about modules swelling up and was told I was the only one they had seen this happen to. As usual I guess I have done something wrong and not followed the instructions carefully enough. Anyway, it's fixed now. I will probably order 2 x new modules and another complete set of engine mounts and fit them so that now with the shielding in place the components should live long and happy lives in my cowling with the vents on the roof.

It's been a while and I apologize for what you're about to read.

Yes it sure has been some time since posting on this blog last. A million and one things have happened and not all of them good.

 To take us up to where I am at this exact moment can be summed up with the one word "Grounded" .   I had been chipping away at the hours and now have about 17 or so. Sonex released a service bulletin regarding the turbo and what needs to be done. Essentially the bulletin requires the use of only one type of oil worldwide and of course it has to be a specialist oil only made in the great US of A. That's fine, however trying to get my hands on it is rather difficult. I had quickly found out no one from the US will post it like normal freight so I had to find a supplier in Australia that had already done the importing and buy it from them. All good, I found a place and ordered the oil. So one month later and numerous contact with the supplier had them realising it had been delivered to the wrong address and they couldn't get it back from that person. That's handy. They are now thankfully sending me out another batch and I should receive it in the next week or two.

In the meantime Sonex have released another bulletin requiring the addition of a remote mounted oil filter and a mod to the turbo drain line. So here I go again and no parts suppliers in Australia seem to have this component. I have sent away for the part and the due date is 16th November to land on my doorstep. So let's call this a 2 x month grounding. With the info being tossed around in regard to improvements and so on to avoid melting key components, I am assuming like MGL modules and Aeroconversion trigger modules and engine mounts etc, due to the massive heat soak after shutdown, Sonex are again looking at further improvements in design. With some luck I may be flying after christmas.

So that's that and where I'm at. My plane has been pushed into the corner.

My poor old plane, the Aeropup, has been through the wars of late too. I had a random person contact me about the plane who seemed to be extremely interested. So as one person was keen I thought I'd advertise it while I had some interest. Long story short two lots of different people were keen to look at the plane but as I had it at home where it can't be flown, they asked me to take it out the the airfield and carry out the 100 hourly and get it flying. Well I did all this including trailer hire, temporary hangarage, numerous costs for the annual and parts replacement due and of course avgas.

 So all flying well, took the missus for a fly, contacted the people to tell them it's ready to be viewed and guess what?.. Phones not being answered, txt messages not answered, emails not answered.  Very disappointed. I'm not disappointed about not selling the plane but just in the outright pricks for asking me to do all this work then not even giving me a return call. Anyway,,took the plane home and it can sit in my shed for another year or two as far as I'm concerned. If anyone now thinks they may be interested they can come to my house, view he plane, and if keen, hire a trailer and help me take it out to the field and then fly it. Won't likely happen but that's about all I can offer at the moment.

So okay I'm almost all done with the negative stuff but I do have to put just one more in. I'm certain I have definitely run over a black cat as on one of the last flights I had with the Sonex before the service bulletin releases I has a major leak sprout from the turbo feed line.

Oil had gone everywhere. I was luckily only 5 mins away from the airport when I smelt a massive stink of engine oil suddenly while flying. I made a lowish powered glide approach from about 6 miles out and watched the oil pressure gauge in case it dropped to nothing and landed all ok, taxied back and found thi(see pic).. Consequently I made a a new pipe that afternoon with the guys help from the club and had it running again. There was lots of discussion about how the pipe was unsuitable and so on, due to it being in a vibration high zone and things. Anyway the service bulletin now replaces that exact hose with flexible line so problem solved.

I did however have a bit of a win with some tyres. I was stuck on the ground for ages trying to sort out a tube for the wheels. I have since found out the tyre size is common in the US apparently yet not over here it seems. To cut a long story short I walked into my local tyre shop asking for tubes and he has some tyres there. They turned out to be the exact ones I needed for spares and a replacement. He wanted $50 a tyre. SOLD I said,,, The supplier I had talked to earlier that day could supply them each for $150 plus postage, WINNING,,, anyway another kind builder from over east sent me a second hand tube to get me flying again while I waited for the tubes to arrive for spares. Life was good again. He also sent me this jack for a very modest price. Lightweight and works great. Best thing I've seen for jacking up a plane that can store away for trips and is super light and easy to use. For anyone with a Sonex, I can't help but say this Jack is great.