Colin Anderson
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Everything posted by Colin Anderson
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Hi Guys, A couple of days ago I got to fly my Piper Cub via the buddy box system. The plane was taken up by my instructor and trimmed for stable and level flight. However, on take off the plane tries to roll strongly to the right. Why should this be, when it can be flown hands off once airborne? It's a real mystery to me and also to my instructor, who is a pilot of full size aircraft! My instructor manages to take off with my plane in spite of the rolling tendency, but this will obviously be a problem when I get around to doing take offs and landings. I feel I need to find a solution before that time. So, if you guys have any ideas on this I'd appreciate the input. Cheers.
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I'm confused. The charger supplied with the 6EX has two LEDs on switch on these both glow red. Fair enough, as this is as expected. At some point the LED for the RX batteries glows green, indicating it is charged. However, the TX charge LED remains red no matter how long it is left. Is this normal? It has always done this.
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Thanks for the input William, but this issue is resolved. It was a blocked jet.
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Well, as you can see, this model is now completed! It has been flown successfully 4 times by members of my local club. Hopefully soon one or two of those members are going to teach me to fly! Before you all post, it doesn't fly with just two elastic bands holding the wing on! It uses 8! I've only fitted two for the photos. Some minor changes were made: increased throws on elevators and ailerons and a fuel filter placed between the silencer and tank. I tried fitting bigger wheels (our patch is a sea of mud and full of ruts), but the hubs were two wide to fit on the stub axels. I remove the wing struts for flying as I couldn't mount them securely enough; I might revise that at a later date, but its just fine without them. This plane isn't 100% scale anyway.
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This is indeed encouraging! It might take me a little longer - I'm 60! I bought RealFlight 7 and have pretty much got to grips with it. I mostly fly the Cub in the sim, as that's what I've built. However, I have also flown some of the others, including the 3D stunt planes, which I can fly well and actually land! How well this is going to translate into reality in my case remains to be seen! When I first tried RealFlight I kept crashing, now I don't. My Cub has now been flown several times by two of the club members (one of whom is an airline pilot), they have pronounced it flyable. One of the members (the pilot) has offered to teach me to fly! Yea... I can't wait! Now we just need some good weather!
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I wish John! I was working on my motorcycle as well today and we had hail stones!
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Today I took the weights of the wing panels. Weighing the wing panels down with opposite twist spears to have done the trick. The wing is now true. Whether it will stay that way, now that the weights are off, will remain to be seen.
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Just a quick update. Fired up the engine today with the 11 inch prop refitted, a new glow plug and a filter fitted between the silencer and tank. I'm happy to report that the filter has not interfered with the running. The engine's response is now back to what it should be. The throttle now responds fully throughout the range. As a bonus the exhaust, although still oily, is no longer black! So,once again guys, a big thank you!
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I'd have to wholeheartedly second Steve's comments above. To say I was blown away by the response is an understatement! So, very well done guys and thank you all for helping me resolve this problem.
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Interesting that! As posted earlier, Irvine recommend props from 10 inch ~ 12 inch for this engine! Yet most of the posts on here are sugesting this is "over proped"! I'll be sticking with the middle ground an 11 inch prop.
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Thanks guys. If I understand you both correctly you're saying that plugs glow less efficiently as they age. I can see the sense of this now it's been explained, so I'll fit a new plug and see if there's any noticeable difference.
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Graeme, The Irvine 40 is the same. It's designed to run off exhaust pressure. However, when I ran it on the test bench I had the centre line of the tank level with the main jet and it ran just fine; there was no pressure feed as, at the time I ran it without the silencer - until I took pity on my neighbours! However, it is not possible to fit the tank high enough in the Cub. I ran the engine in and flew the Cub on an 11 inch prop which I replaced with a 12 inch. I've noticed with the bigger prop that the revs do not increase above half throttle on the stick, so I'm going to refit the 11 inch. I first ran the Irvine on GN 5 that was embarrassingly old; the fuel I'm using now is fresh sport 5, which is apparently the same, but with a synthetic oil. How do you tell if a glow plug is bad? I thought they either worked or they didn't. I've noticed that you refer to Brian Winch on more than one of occasion. I'm embarrassed to ask, but who is he?
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I'm inclined to agree with you. However, I think it's worth trying, as I can always remove it should it creat problems. My feeling is that it was probably the main jet that was getting blocked, rather than the exhaust nipple (as I cleared both I'm unclear which it was); as some residue does occasionally travel down the pressure line and into the tank then some of that will eventually reach the jet. If a filter stops that then it's worth fitting.
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The problems started after the first flight. Previously there had been no problems; it was run in and flew on an 11 inch prop. It was only after I got the problems that I fitted the bigger prop. However, as your all telling me I'm a bad boy for going up a size and going to be good (honest) and go back to the 11 inch prop! i might just fit a filter in the fuel filler line and hopefully this won't effect the running. I've noticed that occasionally some of that black gunk that is coating my airframe finds its way down from the exhaust nipple and into the tank; perhaps it was this that eventually caused the problem.
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Thanks guys! So essentially sport 5 (Irvine formula)and GN-5 are the same; only the oil is different. Regarding the prop I'm inclined to go back to the 11 inch that the engine was run in with and flown. The 10 inch isn't going to give my finger much prop blade to flick, as the Cub's front profile takes up an awful lot of the prop's disk! Would the 10 inch really be suitable for a trainer? Irvine's manual suggests that I could go up to 15% nitro, but I'm not sure of the pros and cons of this; would it make the engine easier to start? I'm guessing also that the engine would run hotter as a result of high nitro?
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Stefan, this problem is now effectively resolved, thanks to John. He advocated flushing the main jet and clearing the exhaust nipple. This solution did the trick.
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This engine has had about a gallon of fuel through it. It was run in exactly according to Irvine's manual. Following advice from previous posts I'll be refitting the smaller prop. I understand the principle - smaller prop, less work, higher revs; bigger prop, more work, less revs. As previously stated I tried a bigger prop on the grounds of inertia making starting easier, but to be honest there's little difference - other than I've got more prop to get my finger on!
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The exhaust is very tight, as when first fitted it leaked around the flange; now it doesn't. I didn't really believe there was any water in the old fuel either, but if there was going to be any it would have been in this fuel rather than the fresh fuel. Incidentally can you enlighten me as to the difference between sport 5 and GN 5? Is it the nitro content?
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The building board is perfectly flat. While building, the spars remained flat to the board and leading edge sheeting was applied whilst the wings were pinned down. This is a Flair kit and there are no plans. The ribs are positioned using pre cut spar webs; once dry leading and trailing edges are marked using the rib positions along the spar. I had no trouble with this building the first half and everything lined up. However, in attempting to repeat the procedure on the second panel I couldn't get the ribs to line up with the marks I'd transferred to the LE & TE from the main spar without putting the ribs out of line! In the end I made sure that all ribs were square and then inserted the LE & TE, ignoring the measured marks. However, I think it was in getting the LE sheeting in place that the warp crept in. Personally I'd rather build a wing in two halves and then join them, rather than the Flair kit's method of building the wing as one complete unit. If I'd had a plan to work from I'd have used the method I'm more familiar with.
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A brilliant idea BEB, but given the wing's size not really practical for me. I'm relying on a moderate amount of weight, an opposite twist and time.
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I take your point regarding the wing tips, which are indeed deprecate, but I'm measuring inboard of these. The left wing panel is out around a quarter of an inch. I've got the wing weighted down at present with some opposite twist; I'll see what this achieves. I'm not overly optimistic, but it's worth trying before resorting to more drastic measures.
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Regarding water in the fuel: yes, this is possible in the first batch as I'm embarrassed how old it was, but it worked! However, the fuel I'm now using is fresh - I've only had it a few days.
