Feb 18, 2022     Engine warrantee Repair - (10 hours)       Category: Engine

After doing the required runs and another oil purge the tappet would still not seat. Sling authorized the warrantee. Before the mechanics came, I had a grounding issue that prevented Lane A or B and fuel pump starting. The guys from Midwest came by after one of their installs and located the offending wires. All is electrically good.

That solved, the tappet was replaced. No damage to the engine running the bad tappet was discovered The Rotax installed tappet did not have the spring installed during manufacturing. I am surprised that issue was not discovered during the Rotax engine test stand run

  Dec 19, 2021     First Start - (18 hours)       Category: Engine

Fitted the propellers, Checked all fittings and performed the oil purge.

First start went ok, however, the intake valve on the #2 cylinder would not check. The problem is not the clearance with the valve and the rocker but that the lifter has no compression at all. The instruction say that if you have a "soft" lifter to run at 3500 rpm for 5 minutes to purge the remaining air out but I am hesitant to do so with such a loose lifter.

I have a question in to a Rotax mechanic to see how I should proceed.

  Oct 31, 2021     FInal Engine & Cowl instal/fit - (12 hours)       Category: Engine

Installed the oil and coolant radiators. The oil radiator fit perfectly and all parts were there.

The coolant radiator did not fit well into the supplied lower cowling. The lower cowl has been quite difficult from the start. Of the 2 points for the radiator to fit and attach, one side was done well and the other was not. I had to grind down where the radiator would not lie flat. Also the support of the bad side had to be reinforced with epoxy & fiberglass mat and reshaped to accept the mounting hooks.

The angle brackets supplied came with 2 large holes drilled (?!) that made riveting the hinges impossible. Soooo..., I made new ones. I am getting more comfortable fabricating my parts rather that waiting (how many months?) for new ones to be sent from South Africa.

The remaining hoses were wrapped with heat shield and fittings finally torqued and torque seal applied. I am going to have an IA inspect the firewall forward before engine start.

I epoxied a layer of heat shielding to the exhaust area of the cowing.

  Sep 29, 2021     Cowl Part III - (25 hours)       Category: Engine

It's been a tough month to get things done as they are flying me quite a bit.

As I stated previously, the lower cowl was not in the best shape (in talking to other builders, the consensus is that my composite issue are most likely caused by the worker removing the parts from the mold before they were fully cured).

1) The lower cowl was mis-aligned.. 2) the nose gear fairing was not centered. 3) the air filter intake was significantly out of alignment. 4) the cowl sides fit perfectly but the nose are by the prop is off.

The following are the fixes applied to the above issues. The heat gun got quite a work out. "Rolling" the gear fairing to center it with the gear. Fabricated a new air intake and attaching to the cut down portion. Trying to align the nose pieces together.... this required adding some fiberglass to the bottom lip and building up to match the top lip. Finally, the exhaust fairing was epoxied and Superfil used to make a smooth seem.

I only used the larger 4002 camlocs on the portion that attaches the cowl to the fuselage, I used 7 smaller 2700 camlocs for the sides and the inspection doors. TAF Torrence was using more of the larger camlocs along the sides which I thought was a good idea but I decided the smaller camlocs in the greater number would be fine

Whew! Next? Install the props and run the engine, finish paint prepping and get the booth set up

  Aug 23, 2021     Engine Cowl II - (7 hours)       Category: Engine

I have a mis-formed lower cowl and was having trouble getting things even remotely to fit. I had some down time in LAX so I went down to TOA to see what I could learn. I talked to the man that puts on the cowls for the Sling assist build there. He showed me a jig he made and the process and steps they are using there. It's a bit different from the manual.

I made my jig and started as instructed by TOA. Mark a centering line on the aircraft on the upper fuselage by the firewall. Rotate the prop hub to create a level center on the spinner. Put the jig in 2 spinner screws. The jig has adjustable jam nuts to set the vertical and the jig mounting holes are elongated for horizontal fore/aft. Drill #30 and put clecos to set (to be filled later). I attached the bottom cowl to check fit and luckily the offending side just barely fit.

Now that the upper cowl is fixed and will be the reference for the bottom cowl after the edge is trimmed and cam-locks installed.

  Aug 16, 2021     Engine Cowl - (11 hours)       Category: Engine

Started fitment of the cowl. I added the inter-cooler and intake box to make the fitting better. I will add the oil cooler and engine coolant radiator at a later date.

First, getting the cowl front edges aligned. The usual sanding and heating to Get the upper and lower halves edges mostly in alignment. Next I needed to fabricate a 5 mm spacer between the spinner and composite cowl. Oddly enough, Home Depot has a 5 mm underpayment board that is perfect for this. Next, I will then fit to the aircraft.

  Jun 13, 2021     Exhaust - (6 hours)       Category: Engine

Made the modification to exhaust pipe to fit the cowling. The cut was in 3 parts. Cut away the welds. Cut the lower half of the pipe. Removing that section allows the final cutting of the upper section. The fit was fine but the support clamp had gaps and I did not not like the firmness of the fit as it clamps over the half shroud. I fashioned a piece of metal to fit the other half and make a smooth complete circle. The support stack fits fine.

  May 09, 2021     Intercooler and Oil Lines - (12 hours)       Category: Engine

Test fitted the intercooler and and mounted for radiator hoses, oil lines, and put the heat shield on the required hoses.

When the fuel lines are finally fitted the Fire sleeves will be installed

  Apr 19, 2021     Adding accessories - (6 hours)       Category: Engine

Cutting and fitting coolant hoses, oil hoses, fuel lines and running the Rotax wiring.

I decided to upgrade the oil hoses with MIL 6000 hose. It has a 10 year life and it a bit more robust. Cutting and fitting is actually easier than with the hose supplied by TAF. The problem is the AN8 fitting with a 12mm ID hose.... difficult to fit is an understatement.

I will go with with metal fuel lines as much as possible in the engine compartment.

My son (also a pilot) was visiting so, of course, I had to put him to work!

  Mar 24, 2021     Preliminary Fit of Rotax 915 - (4 hours)       Category: Engine

I took the engine off the shipping mount and put in on the aircraft mount loosely.

A special shipping riveted nutplate had to be removed from the engine itself that facilitated bolting to the crate. I had to grind the steel rivet to remove the plate. Once completed, the engine was hoisted into position and the mounting bolts finger tightened. Now the task of finishing fitting the accessories.

  Dec 13, 2020     Rotax 915is - (1 hour)       Category: Engine

Engine arrived! Rotax 915is turbo. fully assembled!

  Feb 08, 2020     Ordered Fire Wall Forward kit & Interior Kit - (1.0 hour) Category: Engine

Rotax 915iS with Whirlwind propeller . 4 month lead time for the engine so I thought it would be wise to order now rather than have the build come to a halt.

Interior finishing kit.

Discount if ordering as a package,