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UltraFun AirSports |
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Final Assembly |
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6/2/03. Now comes the fun part. Putting all the finished
pieces together. I've set a new first flight date for Sunday, June
15th (Father's Day).
This time I used my engine hoist to put the engine on instead of just lifting it up there myself. Much easier! A quick e-mail to Guy at Titan revealed that they had changed the design of the mounting studs by making them longer. Adding 5 washers on each raised the mounts high enough to clear the Kevlar panels and for the castle nut to reach the cotter pin hole. |
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The prop was assembled and installed. I love the new finish of the Warp Drive hubs. | |
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The exhaust was simple to install. The throttle and choke cables were hooked up. Around 485 hours to this point. | |
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I'm using a radiator out of a GoldWing. The size is a little larger than the stock Rotax radiator. Who says a radiator has to be black? | |
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The oil cooler I picked up is a pretty nice match for the radiator. | |
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I got an oil thermostat, so the cooler can be bypassed when the oil isn't warm enough. Should help on those frigid Nebraska winter days. | |
| Initial Start | 6/8/03. After all day of fabricating radiator mounts, tying up loose ends and filling up fluids, it was time to start the 912S. The engine was primed with oil by removing 4 spark plugs and spinning the prop by hand. We then moved the plane outside and tied it down securely. Here's a couple of movies from the initial startup. | |
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5/10/03. We were supposed to trailer the fuselage to the airport the previous night, but severe thunderstorms and area tonadoes (not the flying kind) made it impossible. With Debbie gone to class tonight, I decided to just taxi the plane the 5 miles from the acreage to the airport. Ground handling was good, and I was able to lift the front wheel off at anything over 20mph. Top taxi speed went over 30mph. | |
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Fuselage ready for the wing in the background. | |
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Debbie stopped by after class, and my friends Brian and Ray stopped by to help put on the wing. | |
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The wing went on pretty easy. Here I'm inside bolting it to the fuselage. | |
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Another shot. | |
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While I've still got trim and little odds and ends to go, the plane looks ready to go. Tomorrow night, Sam will include it in part of her senior pictures. | |
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I used hydraulic lift struts for both doors. Got them from a camper place. They both had a 25lb lifting capacity. | |
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