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#11
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![]() "pac plyer" wrote in message om... But one thing bugs me, and that is: How come Juan never flys his creations? Since you asked nicely, I will tell you. ![]() -5B #1 was bought from a Idaho NG officer who had bought it from the original builder. Had a great time tracking down the person I bought it from when the original builder told me my seller had never paid for the airplane and he would not give me title until he got his money. He was really cool about it, and when I told him where he could find the lowlife, we caught up with him in mid-summer weekend warrior refresher. His CO scraped the fluff of his carpet with his ass and he coughed up the money. I finished the fuselage and was about ready to start installing the landing gear, when it was sold because Eagle hired me to work management in Fort Worth and would not pay to ship the bird _or_ the tools to Texas. I had already paid a couple thousand in taxes and shipping and wasn't about to do it again. So I sold it to an IA in PR who runs a very successful NDT shop and hasn't taken it a paragraph further in the plans. It took me over a year to round up enough money to put a DEPOSIT on another airframe, and lets not talk about how long it took me to fill up a toolbox again. -5B #2 was the old N22TR, one of the first -5's to fly. After Ted Rogers passed away it bounced around the country until it landed in the hands of a genius by the name of Tom Johnson, designer of the only skirtless hovercraft that can climb hills at 70 mph, among other _way cool_ hardware sitting in his back yard near Oakland. He was the first to put a Rotax engine in a -5, a 532. He partnered with Keith Hinshaw for that one. They took that engine out and installed the first prototype of the AMW-225-3 but just as they were almost ready to fly the Rogers' estate lawyer adviced the widow about the word "liability" and she ordered the plane destroyed. Tom put it away for some years until she passed away, and then I got a hold of it. It became N522PR. I spent a lot of time restoring and upgrading it with what little money I could must out of an Eagle salary. The engine was completely overhauled and upgraded by the folks at 2SI, and I had them put in an Airflow Performance mech fuel injection system, upgraded the landing gear, bought the SuperSpar upgrade, designed and built a completely new panel, etc. It was sold when I got the opportunity to buy a -5J built in Australia by a CASA DAR. I sold it to a Citation/Lear ambulance driver in Spain, and bought the jet with that money and some stock options I had laying around. Immediately after I bought the jet, and one day before I was supposed to fly my first Angel Flight mission (terminal pancreatic cancer), I went down for the count with acute pancreatitis and woke up 10 days later and 55 lbs lighter, with my tongue split open and tubes in places I didn't know I had orifices. That was Nov of 01. AOPA Escrow had a great time trying to track me down to complete the transaction. They thought I was dead (and little did they know that they were almost right, I came this close to going the way of Meigs). I was not able to do a damn thing to it until March of 02, when the last of 5 tubes was finally pulled out of my abdomen and the large slices of my side had closed up. The plane was damaged in transit. I talked the insurance company into bringing the builder here (first trip to the US). Since then I've been working to make the aircraft airworthy. I am done with all items on my list except W&B and CG, and getting the hang of setting the fuel controller to induce the appropriate misting from the engine injectors. It also took me MANY months just to get some information on the engine, enough to order a custom N1 RPM and be able to operate it safely. And of course, I lost my medical and it took me until june of 03 to get it back. I'm not in your league when it comes to pilot experience, but I've paid my dues since 1974, when I worked as a line boy in exchange for training in Grumman trainers and a few hours in a Pitts S2A. Since then I've flown... I guess some 20-25 types of aircraft, from C150's to... well, some things I'm not supposed to say I was allowed to fly when I was in the Marines. ![]() Juan |
#12
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And of course, I lost my medical and it took me until june of 03 to get it
back. Life is ridiculously short isn't it? Just when you start having real fun, something like this crops up. Congrads on getting your medical back. Hope that airshow food doesn't do that to you again. ;-) Good luck on everything. pacplyer |
#13
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![]() "pac plyer" wrote in message om... Life is ridiculously short isn't it? Just when you start having real fun, something like this crops up. Well, yes and no. I expect to be retreaded and thrown back on the road. Everything I see around me tells me there's no way we're here for a one-way trip and poof, end of story. The Hindi have it right, IMO, except for this idea that we can come back as ants and we shouldn't whack cows, cut them up and throw them on the grill. Congrads on getting your medical back. Hope that airshow food doesn't do that to you again. ;-) Good luck on everything. Thank you. Same to you. ![]() As to the food, I learned my lesson. I cook my own now. ![]() Juan |
#14
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or Walt? Who's the best pilot? We'll, you're looking at him!
:-D (notice, I purposely kept BWB out of the competition.) Thanks for keeping me out of the contest. Hell, I'm just a light aircraft driver with 5000 hours in all kinds of **** from gliders to hot air balloons and seaplanes to helicotpers. I think the only civilian rating I don't have is BLIMP. Ha Ha Of course there are hundreds of type ratings I don't hold. Never flew the big iron. I spent this weekend flying helicopters all over the ****ing place...logged 12 hours in choppers just Friday, Sat and Sun. For Juan, I was at French Valley airport in the R-44 on Friday evening taking a fuel filter to a buddy stranded there in his MD-500 and saw a BD-5J mounted on a pole in front of the main terminal building. It had the thrust reversers opened up and looked to me to be a kit that nobody completed. Looked good too. Someone might buy that thing and finish it. O.K, seriously, my guess is that Walt has more stick time, if he wasn't just a crew chief or something, and Juan is an accomplished builder and aspiring driver. But one thing bugs me, and that is: How come Juan never flys his creations? I mean it would make a great story for his writing gig. Medical? It's worth answering to get the jackel pack off his back. I can't seem to finish my project by the way. I think I'll just have to stick it on a pole or something. :-( See above! BWB Best wishes guys, pacplyer (p.s: Walt, what seat did you fly in?) |
#15
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On Mon, 25 Aug 2003 05:24:18 GMT, "Juan E Jimenez"
wrote: "pac plyer" wrote in message . com... Life is ridiculously short isn't it? Just when you start having real fun, something like this crops up. Well, yes and no. I expect to be retreaded and thrown back on the road. Everything I see around me tells me there's no way we're here for a one-way trip and poof, end of story. The Hindi have it right, IMO, except for this idea that we can come back as ants and we shouldn't whack cows, cut them up and throw them on the grill. Congrads on getting your medical back. Hope that airshow food doesn't do that to you again. ;-) Good luck on everything. Thank you. Same to you. ![]() As to the food, I learned my lesson. I cook my own now. ![]() Juan Yeah, that goes double for me fella. Congrats on getting that medical back. ****ing doctors. I hate like hell to think that some ****ing Medical Doctor has to sign me off to be a piltot every year. Some ****ing doctor determines whether I can fly or not. That's bull ****. I'm going to fly no matter what some ****ing doctor ever says. I'll find a way, even if I have to sign everything I own over to someone else so I have no assets to lose, I'm gonna fly. I may fly in the desert out where I can't hurt anyone if I keel over, but I'm gonna fly. BWB |
#16
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![]() Bill, have you looked into the Wunderlich Flexible Shaft Prerotators? I believe he has setups for the Rotax engines, and it'll be lighter than a battery/starter combo. And you don't have to worry about charging it. I use one on my Bensen, also his rotor brake. I don't have a rotor tach, but it'll spool up my blades fast enough that blade flap on takeoff is not a problem. Dick Wunderlich doesn't have a website, but you can contact him for info/brochure at: Dick Wunderlich Prerotators 306 W.16th St. Lockport, Ill. 60441 Phone: 815-838-0450 Fax: 815-838-0630 Also, Ernie Boyette uses a hydraulic pump/motor setup on his Dominators that people have adapted to different machines. His contact info is at his website: http://www.rotorcraft.com/dominator/ I don't have any good pics of my prerotator, but I think I may have some closup pics of the hydraulic units, from the PRA fly-in in Waxahatchie last year, if you need them. The pump motors are probably available at Graingers. Mike I had one of those flexible prerotators on the Snowbird when I bought it. But I changed the engine to a Rotax 582 with the E-Box drive since it had an electric starter. That prerotator wouldn't work with it, so I went to the electric. I get one good shot at it and it drains the battery completely. So, I crank up the engine first, after getting the blades turning a bit, then hit it. It works great, but I have to fly for half an hour to recharge the battery for the next spool-up. Bill |
#17
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battery was down to 4 Volts during the second spin up.
I gather the engine on the gyro has no generator? I don't know squate about gyros, so I don't know what the hell's a "Snobird." I tried to hover an R22. Once. The entire goddamn flight school was in tears. I want to try it again but I gotta find some other place to do it. ![]() Nah, it has a lighing coil with a diode on it so you can actually tap off it and charge the battery back up. It works okay. All I need is a bigger and heavier battery, but that means I have to lose about another 10 pounds off my big fat gut to compensate for it. What battery do you have in there now? A little motorcycle battery from Walmart. Real airworthy eh? Ha Ha Just have to bite the big one and stop eating pizza and drinking Newcastle beer. I stopped eating crap after spending three weeks in the hospital with my side cut open so the docs could shuttle me back and forth to the OR to stuff me full of gauze after my pancreas went south. Learned my lesson real quick. Jesus Christ, are you okay? Damn, I hope that never happens again. Happy Skies. BWB |
#18
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![]() Bill which motorcycle battery are you using? I put a Odyssey 680 in my RV-6 and it cranks my O-360 better than any Concord RG aircraft battery I have ever used. I highly recomend it. http://sunnbattery.com/item.jhtml?UC...0&PRID=1292858 Jerry I'm using a cheap piece of **** battery from Walmart. I have the gelcell 35 amp-hr battery but I didn't want the weight. I'm going to have to build a new bracket for it and just bite the bullet and use it. BWB |
#19
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![]() Badwater Bill wrote: Bill which motorcycle battery are you using? I put a Odyssey 680 in my RV-6 and it cranks my O-360 better than any Concord RG aircraft battery I have ever used. I highly recomend it. http://sunnbattery.com/item.jhtml?UC...0&PRID=1292858 Jerry I'm using a cheap piece of **** battery from Walmart. I have the gelcell 35 amp-hr battery but I didn't want the weight. I'm going to have to build a new bracket for it and just bite the bullet and use it. BWB Bill, the Odyssey 680 weighs 11-12 lbs compared to 22-25 lbs for the gel cell. Gell cell battries are not the way to go for what you are trying to do. They well not stand the discharge/recharge Here is a site that has the specs for the Odyssey batteries. The weights listed also includes the metal jacket. You can buy this without the metal jacket but the metal jacket can also be used as a battery mount. http://www.odysseyfactory.com/specs.htm If you all ready know all of this stuff then never mind. :-) Jerry |
#20
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![]() Bill, the Odyssey 680 weighs 11-12 lbs compared to 22-25 lbs for the gel cell. Gell cell battries are not the way to go for what you are trying to do. They well not stand the discharge/recharge Here is a site that has the specs for the Odyssey batteries. The weights listed also includes the metal jacket. You can buy this without the metal jacket but the metal jacket can also be used as a battery mount. http://www.odysseyfactory.com/specs.htm If you all ready know all of this stuff then never mind. :-) Jerry Thanks Jerry. I'm going to order one. Bill |
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