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The Taylor monoplane saga - propeller hub build & other things

phaxtris said:
The chance of a non-pilot passenger puking is much higher than the chance of crashing, especially on a bumpy day. It takes a bit to get used to the bumps.

giving them the chance to fly is like a fam flight that @DavidR8 took, just without the cost (for them at least), they might get hooked and you'll end up with another pilot friend
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we aren't in the "members only" section so... that's how we get new people to enjoy our hobbies as well, by giving them the opportunity to try new things, safely

I love how as a community we all want to share our hobbies and I've been blessed to meet some wives and family along the way

but you pilots giving me the yoke isn't funny 😀
 
When I did fam rides the passenger flew the whole flight except for a few seconds when I would trim the plane upon leveling off at altitude as that is done by feel. I also handled the rudder. Just after touch down I would tell them to look at my hands and they would see that my arms were folded across my chest. The actual meat and potatoes of flying are very simple, it's the gravy, side dishes and desert that take time to learn.
 
phaxtris said:
The chance of a non-pilot passenger puking is much higher than the chance of crashing, especially on a bumpy day. It takes a bit to get used to the bumps.

giving them the chance to fly is like a fam flight that @DavidR8 took, just without the cost (for them at least), they might get hooked and you'll end up with another pilot friend
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My second training session in an ultralight i sprayed my cookies and died a thousand deaths from embarrassment. The old instructor was o gracious and kind after i made a mess of his plane, he was even helping me mop it up. My gosh he was a gentleman.
I still haven't gotten any better with motion sickness but hope when I am in full control of my own ultralight I will do better.
 
DPittman said:
My second training session in an ultralight i sprayed my cookies and died a thousand deaths from embarrassment. The old instructor was o gracious and kind after i made a mess of his plane, he was even helping me mop it up. My gosh he was a gentleman.
I still haven't gotten any better with motion sickness but hope when I am in full control of my own ultralight I will do better.
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I was way into flight training before I popped that cherry, probably 25 or 30 hours, we were having a bit of a time, I think we were into it for 6 consecutive spins (stall into spin, not rotations), followed up by some very aggressive banks to the left and right for a windsock check....and that was it, instructor had to fly the downwind while i made use of the barf bag, i still made the landing. That is still to this day the only time ive thrown up in an airplane, so far at least, there is time.

I fought with a queasy stomach for a while during training , there was probably a month or 2 i took gravol before every flight, eventually i got over it, but i was second guessing the whole flying thing, glad I toughed that out. I don't think it's all that uncommon, there is a lot for your body to get used to flying small planes, especially in the summer.
 
phaxtris said:
I fought with a queasy stomach for a while during training , there was probably a month or 2 i took gravol before every flight, eventually i got over it, but i was second guessing the whole flying thing, glad I toughed that out. I don't think it's all that uncommon, there is a lot for your body to get used to flying small planes, especially in the summer.
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I've heard from other pilots that they "outgrew" motion sickness eventually. I'm not sure any of them had it as bad as I have it.
Ultralight training session 3 I took full dose of gravel. Got through the flying with no problems. But afterwards during "ground school" I just about couldn't keep my head up all i wanted to do was sleep. Got done, drove my truck out of the yard, parked it and slept.
Sessions 4,5 and 6 I used some sort of patch I bought at the pharmacy that was sold for sea sickness. I had to have the patch behind my ear the day before and they worked like a dream. No sickness and no drowsiness. They were expensive tho if I recall right.
Many years since those sessions so I will soon be starting at numero uno once again in the near future.
 
phaxtris said:
Finally made it out for a test flight, plane starts up amazing on the oldschool 009 points distributor, 3deg advance seems to work well. The new camera position is pretty cool, especially on take off, landings, and turns.

But, something is not playing nicely, i dont think the coil from the electronic setup is working well with the points, missing pretty good under load, felt like a fowled plug on the ground, not so much in the air (checked the plugs, all good) i will have to take the cap off and inspect the points, and replace the coil with a more standard higher impedance coil. hopefully that will cure that issue.

I was in "get this thing back on the ground" mode, so a very tight circuit and the somewhat hard carrier landing.

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When I had my 58 chev I dropped a 327 into it and was having trouble like you describe I was using a Acell distributor and finally found it using a clear distributor cap it turned out that occasionally the points would arc to the lockdown screws.
 
Chicken lights said:
Hard pass. I know it's an old pilots trick to give passengers control and they think it's funny. I have zero idea how to navigate in the air and I'm ok with that. I can't scuba dive or surf worth a damn either and that's ok too 😀
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Guessing you don't sky dive, hang glide, or bungie jump either!

Oddly, I hate heights, but I like flying. Gimmee the controls please!

Absolutely no stalls though.
 
DavidR8 said:
Maybe I need to pursue my dream of flying...
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A word of advice, if you’re going to do it, do it sooner than later. That way you’ll have more time to enjoy it before Mother Nature and your AME (Aviation Medical Examiner) catch up to you.

You’ll need a Cat 3 or 4 medical and the fewer conditions you have the easier it is to pass.

D 😎
 
Tecnico said:
before Mother Nature and your AME (Aviation Medical Examiner) catch up to you.
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I quit dreaming about getting a plane and a license when I learned that spin training was mandatory. I understand that isn't a requirement anymore. It's prolly a good thing that the AME wouldn't let me anyway.

I'm sure glad there isn't an MME. Machining Medical Examiner....... KILL ME NOW!!!!
 
I am not sure what to think about your ignition, all I can offer are a few suggestions. It is strange that the timing will vary, makes me think that perhaps the advance is hanging up/sticking in different places, or something is worn and varies the timing. I don’t know if you are using new components, all old, or a mix.
I have seen a set of points not quite seated properly, screws were tight too, caused misfiring. Bad plug, a plug not seated right, misfiring at some rpm. I have had one engine that nearly wiped a coil every year, never did figure that one out. Does the rubbing block for the points have a bit of lube on it. Can make a big difference. As best I understand, you are using the points. Remove cap, try to turn rotor, you should be able to advance the rotor some, when released, it should return to the position you started from, (mechanical advance). Can you check the dwell on the points? Can’t remember what it should be for a 4 cylinder. A sometimes near impossible one to spot/see, can be a carbon trace/track on the rotor or on/in the cap, causes high tension to take a different path, sometime shorting to ground or to a different cap tower. Check plug leads for shorting to ground or another cylinder, plug and or cap boots can be shorting. High tension leads can be bad, would think you are using wire core and silicone/? covered/insulated. The carbon core tension leads were a pain!
Would you be able to run engine (on the ground) at night without losing important body parts when starting. This can often can give a great visual of shorting high tension leads,( an old timers trick).
So maybe a few ideas?
 
The distributor with the timing problem was the VR pickup distributor, brand new, likely very slow hand starting does not play well with that type of pickup, im back to a (brand new) 009 mechanical advance points distributor, that has been ran in and modified for 25 degrees of total advance (vs 22), it holds timing very well

Anyhow, its all fixed, I believe the 1.5 ohm coil was overloading the condenser and the points themselves (pitting on the brand new points after 30 minutes of run time). I went out there, cleaned everything, filed the points, re-set the gap (and yes re-set the timing), installed a bosch 3.4 ohm coil, shortened and put a new end on the coil wire (slightly different location), replaced an end on one of the plug wires that did not *click* into the distributor as well as i would have liked

after all that fired up in 3 blades, warmed it up, did a few full power run ups, flawless, egts good, cht's good, wideband reading 12-13:1 wide open, engine accelerates smoothly.......AND the best part....I now get just shy of 3000rpm static, thats an extra 200rpm! the cooler weather might give a few rpm, no way it gives me 200, im going to attribute that to carb tuning. No flight, I wasnt feeling circuits, and the weather was not looking good all around.....plus i have to go change a wheel seal

Anyways, excited to see how much that 200rpm means for the climb, i checked the video, it managed 500fpm with a pretty bad miss, hoping i might see the 800 fpm thats noted in the logs by the original builder
 
jorogi said:
Aw jeez, considering the terrain, trees and remoteness what's wrong with circuits at power pole +10' ?
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hey let me make excuses for myself 😀 There was plenty of ceiling for circuits, no problem. I do need to sort out some kind of defrost though, i do have cabin heat, and it does work, but in the few minutes of ground runs i was fogged right up, either i need to re-direct it, or get a little 12v/battery powered fan to blow air on the inside of the canopy.

I did really have to do a wheel seal, that was the original plan for Sunday. Ive had to add over 2l of gear oil to the rear end this week, its literally dripping out from between the drum and backing plate after a drive, but now thats done, and my hands stink like gear oil, yey!

That field isnt as remote as it looks, that highway on departure is the trans Canada about 15 drive minutes east of the Calgary city limits, circuits are 4400, yyc class c is 4800, where i had it before was much more remote, getting a hangar here was a stroke of pure luck and timing, 35 minutes from the house.
 
That was one thing I always liked about twins, they have Janitrols so it can always be toasty and warm with clean windshields. If you're lacking defrost maybe you need to repower so you can climb out at 100 knots 😉
Also if you moved to the coast you'd easily get that 800 fpm.
 
jorogi said:
That was one thing I always liked about twins, they have Janitrols so it can always be toasty and warm with clean windshields. If you're lacking defrost maybe you need to repower so you can climb out at 100 knots 😉
Also if you moved to the coast you'd easily get that 800 fpm.
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Climb at 100kts i wish! its not even designed to cruise at 100kts! lol

It might be as simple as having to make a deflector to direct the air at the canopy instead of at me, with such a small cockpit i don't think it matters much where the air is directed in regards to me being warm

I checked the video, and with it missing, and me pulling the throttle back part way through the climb (trying to find a spot that didn't miss), it was still managing 500fpm. I only ever got 500fpm when it was ground running at 2800 (i dont have a vsi, i use the gps alt and time it on the video), so if it can pull that now, missing like it was, im hopeful to see better climb performance. We will see! but for now im grounded until the new elt arrives, hopefully some time this week....i kinda drug my feet ordering that, who wants to spend that kind of cash for a benefit you only get to enjoy with a crash
 
Decided that it was time for this thing to have tail wheel steering, the full swivel tail wheel is a handful on roll out with such short coupling, not to mention hard on brakes. There are no plans for this, talking with other home builders this is what i was able to come up with. I still need to sort out what springs to use and the linkage, for 3 evenings into the project i think im doing ok


As you can see its a pretty short distance with a fair bit of vertical height to span
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made up some arms and bent, shrunk the vertical distance down to less than 3"
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One of the problems facing this was how to drill 2 straight holes through 65mm of wood, with only one chance, for that i made a drill jig that you can see in the bottom right of this photo, the bit travels through the bored and faced round bar that is tacked onto flat bar in a square u shape, i used door shims to cinch it tight on the angled spar
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love it when a plan works out, both holes passed through perfectly and exited the corresponding holes on the opposite side of the jig
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next bend up, fit, and drill some attaching hardware
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and a video in action


Still outstanding is finalizing the spring and connection arrangement ( i dont believe the spring is stiff enough), replacing the hardware that goes through the spar, and fully welding the control horn to the tailwheel fork (currently only tacked)

on a side note, for some reason youtube loves that video, 600 views in an hour? wth
 
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