02.03.2010: I have again spent some time abroad (and will do so again for the next two weeks), which does not really help progress with my plane. In addition we had yesterday an audit at our flying club by the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation. As we not only flight training, but also sightseeing flights some of our planes are licensed for commercial operation, and these planes have to be managed now by a Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation (CAMO). Having a commercial CAMO do that for us would probably cost us more than we sell flights for, so we decided that we have to be a CAMO ourselves. It is on me as the technical manager of the club to have us certificated as CAMO, and that takes quite an effort. Not only did I have to write an 80 pages process document, but that of course also had to be introduced into our maintenance organisation manual, which required some new processes and some reorganisation of tasks.
Our flying club has also ordered a ready to fly SportCruiser last summer. We expected to receive it later last autumn, but then the Swiss distributor suddenly “disappeared”, meaning he did not respond anymore to either phone calls or mails. As he should have done most of the paperwork the whole project was delayed. We finally decided to clarify the situation directly with the factory, and I volunteered to go to Kunovice to clarify the situation. I therefore took the plane to Vienna this morning, which is closer to Kunovice than Prague, and flights are cheaper too. From Vienna I drove to Kunovice with a rental car.
Once at the factory the sales manager already waited for me. First we went of course to see our plane, which was parked in the big main hall of the factory. They had to do some test flights with it, as it is the first one with the Sensenich propeller flying with a permit to fly, so it carries a temporary Czech registration. They promised that the papers will be ready next week to be sent to EASA, after that it should only be a matter of two to three weeks until we can pick up the plane.
Here the cockpit, it looks nice. .
I noticed that the plane has an improved heating with a bigger heat exchanger and a defroster with an electric blower. They told me that this is only an intermediate version and that they are currently redesigning the heating again. Cool, I might add something like that to min plane at a later stage too.
The factory was full of planes under construction to be delivered as PiperSport aircraft, but there was also a row of planes ready to be ferried to their customers (once the weather improves).
03.03.2010: The factory now has a canopy cover in the program. It is very light, but they say non the less sufficient even for permanent outside parking. They also have one that covers the cowling too, as well as one that covers the full plane, including the wings.
04.03.2010: I brought a few items back from my visit at the factory. The most important one is the new water radiator. Compared to the standard Rotax radiator it has angled corners at both ends, which give a better clearance between the radiator and the cowling. Also the two connections for the water hoses are angled so that the water tubes have more clearance from the exhaust tubes.
The new design also requires two new water tubes, which came with the radiator. I have started installing them today, more about that tomorrow.
I also got the bracket to install the oil thermostat. I did not like the look of it just with the grey base paint…
… so I sprayed it black.
Below what the installation looks like now. I definitely prefer it like that.
I also got the manufacturers plate as well as the fireproof plate with the registration. This is required in Switzerland, so that a plane can get identified even if it burns completely after a crash…. That requirement probably dates from a time when planes were completely made from wood…
The plate has to be installed far from the firewall and the fuel tanks, so the usual place is below the horizontal stabiliser.
05.03.2010: Today I continued installing the new radiator. I initially thought that this would be just a small task, but the factory completely changed the routing of the water pipes with the new style radiator. The water now flows from the expansion tank on top of the engine below the left cylinders to the top left inlet of the radiator (in the direction of flight, as seen below) and then back from the bottom right outlet underneath the right cylinders back to the water pump.
First this meant that after removing the existing tubes I had to change the orientation of the water inlet on the water pump from pointing right to pointing left (as described in the Rotax installation manual, 12.7, page 57). Below a view on the bend pointing in the new direction.
Below a top view of the new installation, compared to before there is now no more water tube running over the top of the engine. The angled corners of the radiator can also be seen here, they will add some clearance between the radiator and the cowling.
Below to pictures of the engine as seen from right, where the water tube runs more or less straight now from the radiator to the water pump…
and from the left, where the tube now runs downwards from the radiator, then underneath the cylinders and then up to the expansion tank (respectively vice versa if considering the flow of the water).
The installation definitely gives more clearance between the water tubes and the exhaust tubes, especially near the radiator connections. I non the less added some heat shield blanket around the rubber hoses near the exhaust tubes, as can be seen below.
I also tidied up all the wiring and tubes. Silvan gave me some advice about re-running some cables so that all parts that have to be serviced are accessible now without having to remove anything. The whole installation really looks very neat now…
…except for the electrical system, which I will finish next. Once that is done the engine will be ready to be run. Next week I will however be abroad again, so more progress only in about 10 days.
05.03.2010: I am still alive, but unfortunately also still abroad. More building progress should however be possible next week.
16./17.03.2010: I spent two days at the airport, but did not even touch my project. On the 16th we more or less finished our CAME based on the findings from the CAMO audit we had on the 1st March, and on the 17th we had the annual audit of our Part-145 maintenance organisation. From this some (ridiculously small) findings resulted, which again will have to be rectified and then reported. I slowly have to tell the board of our club that I should be employed for at least 20%, as I spend at least that much time every week working for the club.
25.03.2010: I continued wiring the panel this morning. First I did the ELT, then I continued with the ignition switch.
26.03.2010: More wiring today. I will be off again next week, but the week after I can probably power up the panel to check all functions.