Marty_d

Good info gents. I'm also getting to this stage so interested in the answers. Mate in Canberra who's built 2 Zenith CH750's has told me he used Norglass Shipshape which is available through Inspirations.

Maybe he's bin doon to Bindoon and didnae like it. Lower Chittering sounds like a town in Midsomer Murders.

Interesting how they see this thing being used. I like how the ambulance one drops off two paramedics who work on the injured person for a bit then slide her into the craft and send it off with only her on board. Who maintains her vitals on the way??

Could be a hoax. The propellers look like fixed pitch and the contra rotating drive doesn't look like it moves, so how do you control the beast?

I was lucky, a very generous person on here gifted it to me!

I like this solution as it doesn't require me doing anything. Mine has the small hole too, I had assumed it was the pilot hole for the nipple but it may just be for pressure relief. Thanks all, the general consensus seems to be that it isn't needed so I'm happy with that.

That got your attention! I need to put a nipple on the lid of the square plastic water overflow bottle so I can run a thin tube down to the bottom of the firewall. What have people done with that? The nipple needs to have a 90 degree bend because the top of the bottle is quite close to the cowl. I can get something like this: https://www.prospeedracing.com.au/products/brass-1-8-npt-90-degree-3mm-hose-barb-fitting-pro-speed-racing - but because it's NPT I can't put a nut on the inside of the lid, and I reckon the plastic is too thin to tap with a 1/8 NPT thread. Any ideas? Thanks, Marty

https://www.nowbuildings.com.au/sheds/farm-sheds/open-bay-farm-sheds/hangar/

I agree. Can't see the necessity for military aircraft to practice in high RPT traffic areas. If it's vital to practice near/in a city (why?) then divert civilian flights away from the area.

Milled aluminium in most of the small ground adjustable ones.

Huh? It's water. 1:1

Capable of 820 US gallons according to the Fire Boss site. So a smidge over 3000 litres.

My Bolly was around $1800 3 years ago, have they increased that much?

Would have thought W&B would be an issue with all the load aft of the CG in such a small plane.

I went up and took the wings off just in case I need to grab a car trailer and get the plane away. Most stuff in the house is replaceable, but that thing owes me 15 years. With the "T shirt arms" of the cover drooping, she kind of looks like a floppy eared dog...

1600 hp I think. https://www.firebossllc.com/

You might be safer in a Rolls Cowardly... it rolls away from danger!

At the moment there's a bushfire in Snug Tiers national park, which is only about 10km or less from our place as the crow flies. For the last 2 days there's been between 3 and 5 Air Tractor AT8T's constantly bombing the fire. For the first part of yesterday they seemed to be going to the upper Derwent near New Norfolk to reload with water, but later - and all of today - they've just been touching down on North West Bay near Margate, obviously loading very fast (they're only on the water for 10 or 15 seconds before going again), doing the 3 or 4 minute flight to the fire and back for more. Apparently the fire is very difficult for regular vehicles to get to because of the terrain, so it's been fantastic to see these planes scoop up water every 10 - 15 minutes and hit the fire. So to the pilots of these planes, as well as the Bell 214 choppers that have been bucketing water - you are bloody heroes, thank you for your efforts to keep our properties safe. (Having said that, I really hope it doesn't spread quickly and burn us out!) Not to mention the people on the ground - the firies, police, coordinators, volunteers and everyone else involved - very grateful to you all. Tried to get some pics after work today but my phone camera is crap.

I think you're trying to duck the question.

Horses for courses. Nyngan is a town of 2000 people so probably not a lot of traffic on the road. From that photo the stretch of road he landed on looks long, straight and level. Plenty of visibility for both the pilot and any oncoming traffic. Compare that with the forced landing about 15 years ago on a Victa ct4 on the Brooker Avenue north of Hobart. He ran out of fuel and put the aircraft down on a divided road with a rise, bend and overpass and concrete barriers. Needless to say the aircraft was a write off. He must have been lucky with traffic because that stretch of road turns into a parking lot during rush hour.

Good on you! Inspirational.

Hi, Nope - not as yet sorry! The front wheel stays on the ground with the engine attached and doesn't when it's not, that's the extent of w&b to date...

Hi Skippy, Be not concerned - as I said, that was simply the breather barb which I haven't YET run a line back to the tank. For the purposes of the test I simply filled the header then put a crimp in that plastic hose with a clamp on it so I didn't get fuel pissing out of the breather barb. On my to do list is to run 1/4" alloy fuel line, which I have some of, back up from the breather barb to the wing root, then thru to where the existing return line goes into the top of the starboard tank and put a T joint in there.

It was already fitted. I got the tank 2nd hand from the Sav guy, so whoever had it before might have put it in.

After pitching the blades, I went back and removed the whole prop from the engine, sat the hub on a level block above the bench and measured from the bench to the LE and TE of the tip of each blade, rotating the hub so that each blade was measured at the same spot. Happy to find the measurements were the same to the millimetre (LE-LE-LE and TE-TE-TE), so no difference whatsoever. My Mr Funnel arrived yesterday so I grabbed 20L of petrol and headed up to the plane. Tested the fuel system bit by bit, apart from some tightening needed at one connection it was all good. Some learnings: Mr Funnel is excellent but not particularly stable when balanced on the tank neck. I will print up a support stand with the profile of the wing surface at the bottom which centres on the tank neck, with a circular rim at the top to hold it steady while filling. My Sav header tank does indeed have an additional 1/4" barb for a breather tube. I will have to fabricate another line back to the wing and a T in the hose that goes back to the top of the tank. For today I just put some 1/4" id PVC on it and into a bucket until the header was completely full, then crimped and clamped the hose. Tested the two tank taps in the cockpit individually, checking that each was pouring at about the same rate into the header. They did. Then both on and the pouring doubled. I then took the hoses off the carbs and into buckets, and opened the cockpit tap. This resulted in a fast drip on each side but no real pressure. (Assuming that when the engine is running the mechanical pump sucks it through). Next I made sure a fire extinguisher was within reach and held my breath while turning the key, then hit the switch to the electric pump. This caused both hoses to jet the fuel out quite nicely. I hadn't put graduation marks in the buckets, but it looked to me like at least 1L/minute on each side if not more. I was running out of time so didn't get a chance to put the hoses back on the carbs and test the fuel pressure gauge and return line, will do that next time. Drained the system from the lowermost point at the bottom of the header tank (looked for all the world like the plane was squatting and having a very long piss) and looked into each wing tank, confirmed they were both empty. Used Mr Funnel again to put the fuel back into the container. Very happy that the system seems to be working as designed, with no leaks! In the 2 pictures of the header tank, you can see the difference between having the breather crimped off first, and letting it fill and THEN crimping it off. This confirms what @IBob said about the early tanks not having a breather and the low fuel sender going on and off. There's a definite air gap under the sender when it was crimped first, where in the second pic you can see that the tank is completely full. ...when ya gotta go...