On June 24th, 2004 Yves Rossy drops out of the Pilatus airplane at an altitude of 4000m over the Yverdon airfield. Before pulling on the little lever that controls the opening of his wings, Yves lets himself glide for a couple seconds and at the altitude of 2500m, he starts the ignition of the engines and waits 30 seconds for them to be able to stabilize. Once they are steady, he can finally speed up the engines and suddenly the dream comes true. He manages a horizontal flight at 1600m from the ground for more than 4 minutes, at a speed of 100 knots in formation with the Pilatus airplane.

Typical autumn day, it’s cool, and very windy.

I did start the motor a few days ago for some friends.  I used it as a loud, powerful leaf blower.  Worked really well actually, the whole have the of the ground under the tree is bare of leaves.

Focusing on setting up a niche website using affiliate links.  www.coulsontech.info

Now that I have passed my last Microsoft Test, I am a MCSE in 2000, and 2003.  Now I can get back to flying.

As I sit here at Panera, posting to my blog, I look outside and see the rain just pooring down.  Alas, typical autumn weather.  The trees are changing, and all I want to do is get in one last fall flight before they are all changed.

I hope next weeks weather is more promising.

I have not been able to fly, I am busy studying for a MCSE upgrade exam.   I hope to get out one of these non-windy days, the trees are changing colors and should look awsome from up there.

Here is the copy of my First TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction)

Thanks Mr. President
Here is the Text of the TFR

AOPA ePilot Special Airspace Bulletin October 2, 2007

A special notice to pilots in the southeastern Pennsylvania area

==> ATTENTION PILOTS <== FAA TO ESTABLISH TFR OVER LANCASTER ON WEDNESDAY AOPA is sending this message to advise pilots in and near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that the FAA has issued a notam restricting flight in the area during President Bush’s planned visit on Wednesday, October
3.

There will be a large 30-nautical-mile-radius temporary flight restriction(TFR) centered on the LRP VOR’s 239-degree radial at 3.8 miles, extendingup to Flight Level 180. It will be in effect from 10:35 a.m. local until 1:50 p.m. local on Wednesday. Also, there will be a smaller 10-nm-radiusGA no-fly zone in effect within the larger TFR during that time frame.See AOPA Online for the full text of the notam along with a graphicaldepiction ( http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/notams.html#7/8779 ).

The affected landing facilities are Lancaster (LNS), McGinness (8N7),Smoketown (S37), D. Evans Farm (PA73), Donegal Springs Airpark (N71),Herbst Heliport (0PS6), Keller Brothers (08N), Baublitz Commercial (9W8),Rover (PA31), Reigle Field (58N), Deck (9D4), Little Britain (79PA),Harrisburg International (MDT), Gilbert (73PA), Dee Jay (8PA1),Shoestring Aviation Airfield (0P2), Farmers Pride (9N7), Morgantown (O03),Chester County G O Carlson (MQS), Muir AAF (Fort Indiantown Gap) (MUI),Capital City (CXY), Harris (3PA8), Grimes (8N1), Reading Regional/Carl A.Spaatz Field (RDG), York (THV), Level Acres Farm (PA84), Farmington (MD94),Kampel (2N5), Forest Hill (MD31), Bermudian Valley Airpark (07N), Bendigo(74N), and New Garden (N57).

Because TFR airspace frequently changes, AOPA strongly encouragespilots to obtain a briefing and CHECK NOTAMS before every flight.TFR violators may be intercepted and forced to land.

Actually this really doesn’t affect me, as I will not be flying from 10am to 1pm. In fact I don’t fly until after 4 pm most days. It’s just to bumpy with all those thermals.

Wind: 290 @ 5mph
Location: Baublitz (9w8)
Temp: 70ish … cool

It was questionable flying. The wind was coming over a bunch of trees towards the airport runway. I thought when I when I took off I was heading into the right direction. Once I got airborne only a few feet I realized that things where a bit different.

When launching I faced an opening where there were No trees. Once airborne I found out the wind was going AROUND the tree. Once above the tree line, I quickly rose. Almost to fast, and thought I was going to stall, so I left off the throttle a little bit to bring the wing a bit more overhead.

Baublitz Landing

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-398025760052769912

Winds: 190°-280° @ 5-7
Location: Shoestring (9W8)

Did a reverse launch to start

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1597882987701312611 

Did a forward launch the 2nd for the second take off. Winds died down a bit.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7491196991383138579

Landing

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7407313628147837297

Few things:

Do not try to put a battery in a camera when 1000 feet over the ground. The battery slipped, and fell into a forest of trees, there was no hope of even looking for it. The bad thing is that the battery is a custom battery, not like I can goto the local store and pickup a new one. ;-(

I could feel the rotor from a building on top of a hill about 3/4 mile away upwind. Very odd for 5-7 mph winds. I Could tell as the canopy would bump me left and right in the seat. Once above the rotor, I climbed pretty.

Wanted a side by side comparision between my old GPSMAP 76CSx and my new GPSMAP 96c.

The reason for the switch? Was for Aviation and obstacle databases.

My Old GPS Reading.

Here is my New GPS reading

Overall thoughts on the difference between GPSMAP 76CSx and GPSMAP 96c.

Heading???
Con: 96C does not have a heading as a data field.
Pro: 76csx does, due to the built in magnetic compass.

Aviation Data:
Pro: 96c… hands down, as it’s the only portable on the market.

City Streets:
76CSx, seems to see them better. Not sure why 96c doesn’t, they are the same maps and same detail. Need to experiment with this more.

and most importantly, GPS reception.

The GPS76CSX is about 10% more efficient when locking in or satellites, or when keeping them in track. I noticed in the satellite window, a sizable difference. I will include a pictures soon for your own inspections.

Overall… well, I think I will continue to use the 96c despite the various technical challanges. Mainly due to the Airspace and Obstacle databases.

Okay, I just replaced the started, and now the thing doesn’t even crank over.

Time for further analysis of the problem.

After removing the harness, and looking closely at the wiring, I found that the white wire was sheared completely in half. Almost as if someone cut it on purpose.

(Image once downloaded)

I soldered the wire together, and put some shrink tubbing on it. It still didn’t fire up. WTF? After even closer examination of the wireing, the yellow wire, right next to the white wire looked nicked. I thought it may just be on the plastic, so I tried to spread the plastic coating apart, and it broke.
No choice but to also solder that one.

Once I got them soldered together, and everything put back together the motor fired right up.

Thank God it wasn’t the kill switch wire that broke. I wouldn’t know what to do if it wouldn’t turn off.

Now I know that if the motor doesn’t turn off, I could reach back and hit the on/off switch.

I may still put a valve on the fuel line going to the motor, as a just in 2nd case (Just in case times 2)

There have been some very interesting developments.

I got all the needed part (Tuned Exhaust, Starter, and Starter bracket)

But then I had to wait for High Temp Grease .. which I found…
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cspages/permatex.php

You can find a copy of the thread on TalkPPG.com
http://talkppg.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=297

Got the motor Back together on Thursday 9/21. However the motor wouldn’t turn over. I thought, let’s make sure the battery has a full fresh charge. I let it charge overnight, and started it Friday during my lunch break.

Whoo hooo.. it fired up.

I’m going flying tonight.

Winds: 290° @ 11
Location: Shoestring

Launch
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2533957332971178068

Landing
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6057656898443948857

The flight was awsome, and felt great to get back in the air.

I got off the ground with only a few steps, and made it over the 9ft high corn. Since the winds were so high, I did get a chance to feel turblance when far away from trees, and low ground objects. I stayed about 1000′ feet above the ground. To high, and I feel I would be going backwards.

I stayed facing the wind almost 90% of the time, unless wanting to turn around. When I did I felt I was easily going 30-40 MPH across the ground. But when going into the wind, it was more like 3 Mph. Here is a screen shot of the log.

I kept steady on the throttle. It looks like I was staying level. This was the first time using the GPSMAP 96c. Which has aviation maps and obstacles. I am not sure if it was my flying, or the GPS that gave the flat lines.

One of the noticeable and a bit scarry event happend. It was shortly after take off, before I was able to get into my seat. I wound up downwind behind a bunch of trees. When I got in this area, I felt almost no wind on my face, and started to wonder if I was in sink. The PPG Bible said that if you have no wind in your face, you are sinking. It was rotor from the trees. I left off the gas, to let the wing come more overhead then added more throttle. I also started a slow left hand turn to go down wind. Both of these help me get out of the rotor, and incident free.

A few days ago, I wanted to fly, but couldn’t due to weather. So I opted for starting the motor.

It wouldn’t crank, and starter would disengage after turning the prop 1 or 2 times.

After tinkering with it a bit, I realized it was probably the battery. My brother stopped over after work that day, as I told him what was going on.

We decided, it was probably the battery.

Took it to battery warehouse. There the lady put the motor on her amp tester. The draw went down.. and wasn’t giving the full power. It was working at 12.5 volts, but couldn’t hold the load. Probably a bad cell.

This explains why it wouldn’t start, or even cranked past the tight part of the rotation where the cylinder compresses the inside.

Got the new battery, and was charged in about an hour.

Tried it again.. and still would start.

I would have waited till the fall.. but this bugger wouldn’t start..What’s the problem?

1. So far I have identified the starter, since it wouldn’t stay engaged.
2. Louder than normal operation, and metallic sound coming from tuned pipe.

So knowing that what I was about to do.. it was time to make a few calls. It’s a new motor, and shouldn’t be having problems. Warrenty time?

Time to make a few calls…

First I called Javier with Aerolight.com.

I explained the problem I am having with the starter. After he understood what brand I had (Fly products Kompress) he mentioned that he knew about the problem. Which is, that when the starter button is pressed the start would engage the flywheel and try to turn over the motor 1 or 2 rotations, then the motor is still running, but disengages the flywheel. It’s like a magnet is letting loose to early.

He said to send in the starter motor, and they would send me a replacment.

When removing the starter today, I noticed that the starter mounting bracket was busted. Completely sheared off. I don’t know if this was due to the torque of the starter, busted due to the engine vibration, or just fatigued enough to break it. Probably the later two.

Looks like I will take this with me on Monday. I will be going to a machine shop client. See if they can do a quick weld for me.

AeroCorsAir.com

I needed to get in touch with Alex to get an Invoice for a replacement Cylindar head (see my posts on UPS damage after shipping from CA)

I sent Alex and email several days ago, and heard nothing. Called on Friday around lunch time, then a second time later in the afternoon. I finally got a hold of Alex.

I proceed to tell Alex how I needed and Invoice for UPS for replacement parts for a cylinder head. He also mentioned I would need an O ring too. I am glad I called, otherwise I would have missed this.

I asked about my starter and muffler problems.

He’s a smart guy, cause he started ratttling off Ohms law about resitance, and a device can only pull so much due to resistance. He also said I could hookup the starter to a car battery. Sounds like a solenoid issue, not keep the magnet charged to keep it engaged.

The starter issue was a bit of a mute point, but I figured since I had him on the phone. People on forums like to argue alot. He said he didn’t enough time to argue will everyone to set them straight.

Then I asked about the muffler and tuned pipe. He said to first Localize the problem. If it’s the tuned pipe, there is a cone on the inside. It make have come loose, or broken. If it turned sideways it could block the airflow the motor to over heat. I wonder if it could explode??

That was a defining moment for me. I could visualize an electric switch on the “Okay to fly” position immediately switch to the “Don’t you dare Fly” position.

Then since I was on the phone he decided to product an invoice. It took him about another 5 minutes.

I said Alex, “Thanks for the invoice, but uhh.. it’s in a word perfect format. I cannot read it. Could you send it again, as an RTF document?” I know what was a format that word perfect could produce and MS Word could open. It took about another 10 mintues, as he was familer with only one way of doing things. I proceded to tell him how to use the “paper clip” within outlook. I knew it was outlook cause I heard the DeeDoo sound in the background.

I got the invoice, and motivation for wrenching my motor. (disassembly)

So in summary.. here is what I learned from Alex Varv from http://www.aerocorsair.com/

1. Make sure that you lube the ball joint. You can loose air through this.
2. Put silicon between the tuned pipe and muffler. The rubber gasket will cover the joint.
3. The starter can be hooked up to a car battery and will not burn out due to OHMs law. The device will draw as much power as it can handle due to resistance.
4. Tuned pipes are expensive $350 on his website.

Another reason for doing this maintenance is my previous post about my father mentioning how loud I was compared to 4 stroke PPC (Powered Parachutes).

Now for problem #2, loose metal sound coming from tuned pipe.

I took off the down pipe, noticed no noises. Okay, time for the tuned pipe.

Shook the motor, and heard it from the tuned pipe. Something has come loose, and needs replaced.

Good news..I just got an email from Phil. UPS is cutting a claims check to him.

So.. now I am waiting for a starter replacement, and will need to order a tuned pipe on Monday.

Woooo Hoooo.