SkyPilot

I also have a spacecraft as my other machine. But it is top secret so I can't divulge any information at present time...

Inquiring minds want to know. I've been quoted as much as $13,500 for mine. If I was a millionaire, I'd be flying an Ovation 3

I don't have any problem. I get up to 14,500' and have not noticed a low pressure. Maybe your steam gauge is FUBAR?

I always worry about that after a long day. I fly amphib seaplanes and it is a bigger concern landing gear down on the water than gear up on the pavement. Either way expensive and embarrassing. I'm busy touching wood right now...

Wow! I hope it works for them. We all need them to stay in business or we'll be flying something else eventually. I just ordered a new piece for the head-liner.

Quote: jetdriven leave throttle at 1000 RPM. touch nothing. crank. at about 15-20 blades it fires. mixture rich, maybe pump on if fuel pressure is unstable for the first 30 seconds. straight from David McGee, the man!

Quote: carusoam Somebody once put this into an excel spread sheet. About two years ago. I don't recall who did the work. It was easy to update with A/F specific details It would be nice to update to IPhone app... PIELOG are you there? Best regards, -a-

Quote: carusoam Props are expensive, three blades cost more than two. High tech materials cost more than aluminum. Weight and balance are effected. The benefits, most often, are too small compared to the price. If your plane needs a prop is one thing, or you are racing against Becca is another reason.... Overall, a knot costs a lot compared to the benefit... Improve HP: missile or rocket conversions are nice, increase prop rpm works within proven limits, turbo add-ons work Decrease drag: cowling, vent, wing roots, gear doors... What was the budget? -a-

My '67F has just been weighed after pulling out the tube radios. It's pretty much stock and I put in a nice skytec starter. It now weighs 1783 lbs. That gives me a 957 lb usefull load. Subtract full fuel and it leaves 573 pounds which is plenty for my wife and I plus a few bags. I don't know why I bothered to insure all four seats. I'll likely drop that down next year. I like to have a real weight on my machine. In the old bush-flying days, we'd overload tile the airplane couldn't fit anymore or was sinking at the dock. But I fly for business travel or pleasure, and there is no need to fly too heavy. Plus, with a proper loading, I can get another couple of miles per hour, and better climb.

Quote: KSMooniac The metal 3-blade props are heavy! ~20 lbs more than the 2-blader IIRC. The MT is the lightest of the bunch, about 12 lbs lighter than a 2-blade McCaulley.

Quote: N601RX By heading function do you mean DG tracking, or will it track anav or gps also?

My worst one was only a partial engine failure. But I was flying a wheel-ski equipped C180 and taking off north-bound at CZGR (Little Grand Rapids, Manitoba). Just after becoming airborn and at about 50' in the air, (about halfway down the runway because we added power slowly on gravel), my prop started surging. It was already too late to abort and there is a large open set of rapids at the north end of the runway with a set of power lines across the top of them. Two things: I didn't immediately recognize it as an engine failure, I was thinking prop governor (actually I was probably just thinking "Oh S---!!!), and second, I would have ended up in the freezing rapids had I aborted because of lack of runway length. I struggled to clear the power lines at 70 mph but made it by about 5 or 10 feet (seemed like 3'). The prop surged madly. As the water narrowed and became thin ice, I put it down in the same general direction of takeoff, at which point the engine quit entirely. It was then the shaking (mine) began. It was scary getting out onto the ice. I had some gas line antifreeze on board and put a few in each tank. I got a bunch of crud and ice out of the sumps and kept draining until I was clean. As soon as I could I got off that thin ice and back over the thick stuff. On the way back to base, my engine quit entirely and I dead-stick landed a couple of hundred yards from my front door. We cleaned the fuel system and figured we had it licked. Then I had one more total failure at 400' before bringing it in for maintenance 165 miles southwest. I had checked my sumps before take-off originally. They had contamination but had come clean. Contamination was fairly routine up north, when fueling from rusty old drums. We always filtered twice. Once at the tanks and once through a chamios filter at the wing. The airplane had been sunk the summer before. We found that the rubber bladder fuel tanks had wrinkles in them and was holding back and junk and ice until the wings rocked at which point it would scoot over the wrinkle and block the screen. The tanks were old and required replacement. I'm a little anti-bladder now...

Interesting thread. I've fixed everything else on my airplane. Now I am tackling the Brittain. The folks down at Brittain were kind enough to email me a pdf Flight Manual and Maintenance manuals for my unit which is a great help. My autopilot has only the heading function not the altitude hold. I had it working briefly on one flight but it hunted back and forth on HDG. Now that I have the manual, I'll begin troubleshooting. If all else fails, I'll send it in. Any suggestions?

Quote: jetdriven Plenty of people have lost speed ging from a 2 blade to a 3 blade. Some of the lucky ones didn't lose much. But no verifiable increases, except perhaps Scott with his MT 3-blade. I got for performance instead of "standing tall and proud on the ramp" to quote a Beech ad.

I heard from an aerobatic pilot that the Telex Stratus 50D puts everything else to shame. I don't want to add any more weight, so I'll likely trade in the old "David Clamps" for a new-fangled Telex. At $750 it's a lot but a good hearing aid costs more

It's hard to tell which one was the most bang for the buck eh? I'm going to try out something a little different. I need to top 14,500' to get over the mountain around here, so I am aiming to put on a Turbo. I do long legs and wouldn't mind cruising at 18,000'. That should speed me up. I'll add the windshield after if I'm still not happy with the improvement. (And if I'm not broke). I'm betting all your mods combined would just about add up to a turbo. The M-20 cost about $32,000 plus installation.

Have you got a phone number? No idea where tri-city is. I'm from the boonies

I dump it in the weeds along side the hanger because the tower would see me if I dumped it on the ramp. That way, I don't have to mow as often and it saves me burning the gas in the mower. Thus, that makes me an enviromentalist because I don't use weed killer, which is really nasty.

Great! I'll use these, and when I get back in country, I'll pull out a tape and measure it all up to be sure. In the meanwhile I can program the App I did notice that your loading graph is very different. My manual does have the graph, just not the other two sheets you included. If anybody else has input it would be appreciated.

Quote: maropers LASAR mod to ship mid June - cant wait!!!!

Has anybody switched from a 3 blade prop to a 2 blade prop? Any speed increase noted?

I just had my plane scaled (yep on real scales) during the last C of A in February. My mechanic made me up a nice weight and balance sheet and as a result of removing old tube radios and associated antennae, I now weigh in at 1783 pounds. My bird "The Time Machine" lost 17 pounds. I've also started using the treadmill and cutting back on the growlies, to lose additional dead weight and gain cockpit room. How does my aircraft MT weight compare? I've got electric gear and manual flaps.

In a recent thread about fuel caps and dipping tanks, the weight and balance and overgross questions came up. This is very important stuff. Nobody wants to get hurt. Also, in the event of an accident, being overgross or out of C of G limit will invalidate the Certificate of Airworthiness (Canadian name eh?) and thus you have no insurance. I've got all four seats insured at the moment, but full fuel, there really is no point. So the big question is: Has anybody measured out the stations for the fuel, seats, baggage area, and hat rack? I can't find them anywhere in my owner's manual. I have the Co-pilot flight planning App on the iphone, and it is great, but need the stations to make the weight and balance function useful. (Note: I posted this in the wrong forum initially, oops)

In a recent thread about fuel caps and dipping tanks, the weight and balance and overgross questions came up. This is very important stuff. Nobody wants to get hurt. Also, in the event of an accident, being overgross or out of C of G limit will invalidate the Certificate of Airworthiness (Canadian name eh?) and thus you have no insurance. I've got all four seats insured at the moment, but full fuel, there really is no point. So the big question is: Has anybody measured out the stations for the fuel, seats, baggage area, and hat rack? I can't find them anywhere in my owner's manual. I have the Co-pilot flight planning App on the iphone, and it is great, but need the stations to make the weight and balance function useful.

I just had my plane scaled (yep on real scales) during the last C of A in February. My mechanic made me up a nice weight and balance sheet and as a result of removing old tube radios and associated antennae, I now weigh in at 1783 pounds. My bird "The Time Machine" lost 17 pounds. I've also started using the treadmill and cutting back on the growlies, to lose additional dead weight and gain cockpit room. How does my aircraft MT weight compare? I've got electric gear and manual flaps.