danny_galaga
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Everything posted by danny_galaga
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Can't be bothered. It's already dialled in for a similar plane, so that will be near enough for me 😀 -
I can redline it! So on takeoff I have to fly like the big boys and do quite a bit of fiddling with the throttle. No WOT with the wooden wonder! So- 5800rpm take off run, then flaps up, then back it off to 5400rpm then when leveling out, down to 5000.
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But my wooden prop only gives me about 65 knts at 5000 on my Rotax 912. As lovely as it looks, the props primary purpose is not aesthetics, so out it goes. The Whirlwind prop is 3 blades and carbon fibre, the exact opposite, in my mind, of a beautiful prop. But it came off a Savage Cub. So it's already set up for a similar airframe to mine. Should be pretty close to optimised. I don't care if it isn't right now, it's gotta have better performance than the wooden one ☺️ Oh, just to add to the fugly factor, the spinner it came with is too big forl my cowl. So sans le nez it is!
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Almost certainly won't be flying tomorrow unfortunately, will be there late and changing the propeller. Which is another thread I have to update 😄
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It's a blocking valve. You turn it on and pump the brakes. Ages ago when building this kit I discovered it had been assembled incorrectly ( non symmetrical outlet fittings on the wrong sides) , I think at the kit factory. So all it did was act as an on/off switch for the brakes 😄. I swore black and blue I was just going to take the lever off and leave it in there, but everyone here convinced me to fix it. It was quite a big job getting the floor panel off again to do that. Maybe I introduced some crap in there when I took it out to fix. If my problem now is actually the park brake, this time I really will just leave it off and not use it.
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Yes, once landed, you have to feed in some opposite rudder to keep it straight on taxi. For some reason I don't think to feed in opposite brake. Maybe because then I'll have TWO hot brakes 😄 Like I say, I'll totally leave the park brake alone for the next few flights to see what that does
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Un-seizing model airplane engines when they've been left full of castor oil and forgotten for 20 years ☺️
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They do slide, as it's a single piston. It's a sort of push me, pull you action so there's (somewhat) even pressure on both pads. Anyway, went for a fly after using the park brake and I'm back to square one 😄. Left hand brake is getting hot now. Next few flights I'm not going to touch the park brake, if everything comes good again I'm going to have to suspect it's that. Might not be releasing properly or something. And if it's not that, then the brake bleed, but I'm confused why anything is getting so hot when I'm not even using the brakes.
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So this happened today. Now what? ☺️
danny_galaga replied to danny_galaga's topic in Aircraft General Discussion
Damn you! There's no markings or indicator or anything on the trim lever. Thought I could live with it, but what's the use of a 3d printer if it just sits there...
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Yes, that's the thing with very simple devices isn't it? The device is simple, it's problems can be bamboozling. The calipers were indeed sliding ok. But obviously other factors must come into play. Maybe for instance if there's the tiniest bit of inaccuracy in the pads, they might kink the slides just enough that they grab and the disk overheats, making it even more stuck. Anyway, let's see how we go using the park brakes tomorrow
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solved! I think 😄 Another pilot in the hangar asked what the grease on the sliding pins on the caliper looked like. But when I took the right one off a few days ago it was clean as a whistle and I just assumed that's how they are. But I shouldn't be surprised with this kit. He said any similar brakes he's ever worked on always had a thin smear of grease. I happened to have some anti seize grease which seems ideal for this job. Did both calipers. Two landings and a taxi back to the hangar gave me a much more respectable 35 ish degrees, both brakes with ambient of about 18° Will try the park brake tomorrow. I wanted to keep potential multiple issues separate.
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Fantastic! A friend did a similar thing to dry his motorcycle boots ☺️ If I ever live somewhere cooler, I'm stealing this idea!
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Yes, that's how I realised in the first place. Furthermore, when cooled down, the wheels turn easily again. Anyway, I've done something to them before I went home. Will test it tomorrow and report back 🙂
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I got all scientific n shit this morning and did lots of taxiing. Except for one anomaly (it's not science if there isn't a mysterious outlier 😄 ) I very quickly worked out that the park brake was the issue. So I did some (very inconsistent) circuits. Not using the park brake. When I came back the left was even hotter than I had measured the right! WTF? But now I see what you're saying. The only problem is that everything starts off free, and since I'm not even using the brakes you would think it would stay that way. Nonetheless, it can't hurt to bleed the brakes and see if something changes. Oh, a tecnam landed at the same time so I had a chance to measure their brake temps to get an idea of what it normally be
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Today I'll do some taxi trials before pulling out the tools. Normal taxi, to establish how quickly it gets hot. Ill do that near the hangar, once I know how quickly it gets hot, it saves me taxiing a long way. I suspect it won't take much. I have one of those thermometers you point at with. Between each test, cool the brakes down. Next, start up with park brakes off but brakes applied. Taxi. Then start up no brakes and no park brakes (by now the engine will start straight into an idle so it'll be safe as long as I'm ready to act). Taxi. Then start up from.passenger seat, using the brakes. Taxi. One of you mentioned it could be a master cylinder, these tests will definitely sniff that out, or whether it's the park brakes.
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Two fingers? Luxury! The Bushcat has very heavy ailerons. Have to lead with rudder. I suspect if ever I needed to fly an Edwardian aircraft, I would need no further training 😄
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Definitely the correct fluid. It's a mineral oil system. Just using what's recommended. My experience with hydraulic brakes in cars is that if you have air in the system, the reverse of what you are implying happens. Ask me how I know 😂
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Some good thoughts there. I forgot to mention that since I'm on a grass field the only time I use the brakes is PARK on start and engine run ups, and to 'unkink' the tailwheel after pulling the plane backwards out of the hangar. And then of course a quick jab when taxiing to check the brakes are working. I'm
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I figured the engine section is the best place to ask My plane has matco ph-8 disk brakes. The right one is getting much hotter than the left one. Have to add extra herbs after landing to taxi. And much harder to push back into the hangar. It looked a bit glazed, so I was hoping maybe it's suffering from a positive feedback loop whereby the more it overheats, the more glazed it becomes. The more glazed the hotter it gets. I took the caliper off, and de glazed with wet and dry and water. Also touched up the pads with wet and dry on a flat surface. The system is comically simple, and everything thing seems to moving. Pressing the brake pedal gently showed the piston moving. The caliper sliding thing slides. I'm at a loss! If I don't hear of any easier things to try by tomorrow, I'll swap left caliper for right (they are symmetrical) and see if the problem follows it.
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It's kinda irrelevant how much runway the plane used since it clearly took off
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Video in this article from airport CCTV. Definitely had plenty of go taking off, initially. Around the ten second mark it seems to have run out of steam for what ever reason https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-13/india-plane-crash-what-happened-video-flight-data/105414220
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I actually have 3201 that I bought from a glider pilot in Germany when they went to 8.33 spacing. Lots of cheap radios out of Europe because of that. But then I got this free modern radio, so I went with that. But I'm just looking at the 6201 now I'm re-reading this, and it looks nice and straight forward. What I don't like about the MGL is that it has a gazillion settings and functions in there that i will never use. So Becker may be on my list again, along with Trig, which is highly regarded and also not loaded with useless functions ill never use, mainly because I won't remember which ten different things I have to do to get to the function 😄
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Dreamliner I think?
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Charge/low voltage indicator lamp
danny_galaga replied to Underwood's topic in Instruments, Radios and Electronics
Yes, I don't think it's actually needed. Unlike 3 phase car alternators, where from my very shaky memory, the warning light goes through the exciter diodes, which gets the rotor windings going until the alternator outputs energy. If the warning light blew in that case, your car alternator might not start charging. But the joys and wonders of electrical engineering - quite often there's enough residential magnetism in the rotor to get everything going regardless. Usually after a big rev. Anyway, that doesn't help the op 😄 -
Charge/low voltage indicator lamp
danny_galaga replied to Underwood's topic in Instruments, Radios and Electronics
Can you disconnect the capacitor? I don't think the capacitor should affect it, but you are thinking it and that would be the easiest way to know for sure. In any case, it would boil down to something going on with the regulator since it normally wouldn't do this.
