KR> Flying a KR home after purchase
Randy Smith wrote: > Why did he not fly it home?? I know Randy was kidding when he said this. I don't think Lee's plane was flying yet, although I could be wrong. Lots of KRs have been totaled or substantially damaged by first flights on "pickup". I could have easily become a statistic myself, and I consider myself to be a pretty good KR pilot. You get a one-way airline ticket weeks in advance, and when you get there you're under pressure to fly it home, whether you (and it) are ready or not. Although you could spend a few days going through it to see if it's airworthy, what you really need to do is trailer the thing home and go over it for several WEEKs, to make sure you know exactly how it operates, and if it's really safe to fly...with no pressure to fly it home right now. If trailering a KR home from buying it sounds like a hassle, imagine the hassle of being in the hospital for a few weeks because something didn't work exactly like you'd hoped or expected... Mark Langford ML at N56ML.com website at http://www.N56ML.com
KR> Vinyl ester for fuel tanks
No matter what you use for your fuel tanks, Ethanol is bad news for your fuel system. ?If your tanks are glass, no matter what kind of resin you use, Ethanol will disolve it in fairly short order. ?If you're not using ethanol, almost any resin will work well. ?The tanks in my KR were built using Safe-T-Poxy 18 years ago, then sloshed with an alcohol resistant sloshing compound. ?The tanks in my KR have been in continual service for 16 1/2 years now and 1000 hours of flying time with no issues. I have always used alcohol free Mogas when it was available, and for the last year, I have been running a mixture of 80% Mogas and 20% 100LL. ?My KR is old enough that I even ran a tank or two of 80 Octane red Avgas through it before it bacame unavailable. -Jeff Scott Los Alamos, NM > - Original Message - > From: Timothy Witmer > Sent: 11/16/13 07:01 PM > To: KRnet > Subject: Re: KR> Vinyl ester for fuel tanks > > Pure-gas.org/ has hundreds of gas stations by states with pure gas >
KR> Tailwheel springs?
Where do all get your tail wheel spring?? I have a B 4X140 that has recessed areas top and bottom in the mount.? bottom is one and one half wide, and top is one and one quarter inch wide.? I has holes for two quarter inch bolts,? the mount is at approx. 45 degree angle.?
KR> Vinyl ester for fuel tanks
Vinyl ester has slightly better durability for 100 LL aviation fuel. Epoxy is satisfactory also for 100 LL. Both resins will dissolve slowly in the Ethanol that our enlightened government requires to be added to automotive gasoline. In the presence of water in the Ethanol laced fuel, the Ethanol is much more active and will dissolve Vinyl ester quite quickly. (Been there, done that, got the aluminum tanks.) The water is absorbed by the Ethanol that is stored in vented gas station and aircraft fuel tanks until it reaches 6% water at saturation. All the chemistry experts I checked with refer to this condition as a super solvent for Vinyl ester. No mechanical filter will separate the dissolved water from the Ethanol. Rubber components in aircraft fuel systems are also attacked by Ethanol. Worst case is the hardening of the tiny rubber tip on the float needle for float carburetors. Recommend that Ethanol automotive fuel not be used in Vinyl ester and Epoxy aircraft fuel tanks. Sid Wood Tri-gear KR-2 N6242 Mechanicsville, MD, USA My M-19 is being constructed using the pink board and AeroPoxy laminating >> resin, but the wet cell wing fuel tanks will use vinylester for fuel >> resistance. >> >> Oscar Zuniga
KR> Vinyl ester for fuel tanks
Pure-gas.org/has hundreds of gas stations by states with pure gas On Nov 16, 2013 8:04 PM, "smwood" wrote:
KR> FOAM THICKNESS
Hi Larry, I wholly agree about the pro's of Klegicell and I would love to have a set of "skins" made with it. However, Dan Diehl's skins were made with Lastifoam. It's a lot better than the urethane but not nearly as tough as klegicell. I know this because I hangared with Dan for 18 years and have seen and helped him make skins. I have also used his "skin foam" in other parts or my own KR. As a disclaimer, I will say that I don't know what type of foam was used before the change to Lastifoam prior to 1996. That is the point that I started becoming much more aware of composites and the materials used.
KR> Vinyl ester for fuel tanks
Pure-gas.org/has hundreds of gas stations by states with pure gas On Nov 16, 2013 8:04 PM, "smwood" wrote: > Vinyl ester has slightly better durability for 100 LL aviation fuel. > Epoxy is satisfactory also for 100 LL. Both resins will dissolve slowly > in the Ethanol that our enlightened government requires to be added to > automotive gasoline. In the presence of water in the Ethanol laced fuel, > the Ethanol is much more active and will dissolve Vinyl ester quite > quickly. (Been there, done that, got the aluminum tanks.) The water is > absorbed by the Ethanol that is stored in vented gas station and aircraft > fuel tanks until it reaches 6% water at saturation. All the chemistry > experts I checked with refer to this condition as a super solvent for Vinyl > ester. > > No mechanical filter will separate the dissolved water from the Ethanol. > > Rubber components in aircraft fuel systems are also attacked by Ethanol. > Worst case is the hardening of the tiny rubber tip on the float needle for > float carburetors. > > Recommend that Ethanol automotive fuel not be used in Vinyl ester and > Epoxy aircraft fuel tanks. > > Sid Wood > Tri-gear KR-2 N6242 > Mechanicsville, MD, USA > > > > My M-19 is being constructed using the pink board and AeroPoxy laminating > >> resin, but the wet cell wing fuel tanks will use vinylester for fuel >>> resistance. >>> >>> Oscar Zuniga >>> >> > > > ___ > Search the KRnet Archives at http://tugantek.com/archmailv2-kr/search. > To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to KRnet-leave at list.krnet.org > please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html > see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change > options >
KR> [CorvAircraft] ACS gascolator or USHER gascolator
That's the problem. ?The fuel filter works great as long as you never get water into your fuel system. ?When my KR was new, the seals on the recessed fuel caps didn't seal. ?It sat out in the rain for 3 days, which ensured that all three tanks had substantial amounts of water in them. ?While the fuel drains are in the lower corners of the tanks, they didn't drain all of the water. ?I was getting substantial quantities of water out of the tanks and gascolator with every flight and it took nearly 40 hours of flight time to get the tanks completely clean. ?I haven't seen any water in the fuel again in 950 flight hours. Using a filter rather than a gascolator is fine as long as you never get any quantity of water in your fuel. ?Today's fuel delivery systems and filtering are pretty good, so getting a bunch of water has become a rare thing. ?However, I can't think of any certificated aircraft that is built with a fuel filter rather than a gascolator. ?It is an aviation standard for more reasons than an archaic FAA system. -Jeff Scott Los Alamos, NM > - Original Message - > From: Larry Flesner > I have 500 hours on mine with a gascolator and no filters so I guess > you can go either way. I do filter my fuel before adding to the tank > and all airports are required to pump their fuel through some good > size filters and check every day for water and contaminates. > > On the issue of leaking gascolators, I can't imagine anyone running a > float type carb running more than approx 5 pounds of head > pressure. The standard gascolator, like the one I'm using off of a > C-150, should easily handle that kind of pressure. I've seen > airplanes brought in for annual that had a gascolator half full of > water. I would imagine that an in line filter that blocks all water > would have eliminated any fuel passage at that point. Six of one, > half dozen of the other. Pay your money and play the game the way you want. > > Larry Flesner
KR> Tailwheel springs?
At 02:23 PM 11/16/2013, you wrote: >Where do all get your tail wheel spring? + My spring is a section of a 1930's era automobile spring I found in the attic of a local blacksmith shop. I cut it to length, cold bent it to shape, and dressed the ends to fit the tailwheel. Some make their spring using glass / epoxy, others purchase their spring, and there are many other sources. Consider the spring from a golf cart, small auto,, etc. Larry Flesner
KR> FOAM THICKNESS
? Pete and all, obviously many have used this type of foam over the years . It provides as a filler to form a shape just as does the rigid urethanes most have used for their wings. Yes urethanes sand fast and easy but again it too is easily delaminated as many have found out over the years. The klegicell foams are a many times superior foam for aircraft structures and was not available when Ken Rand designed the KR aircraft. He used what was available but now that we know of superior products why wouldn't we use them? I wish I could talk everyone in this group into purchasing one piece of klegicell type foam, do a one or two ply layer of bid on a 12" X 12" piece then do the same on the Home Depot blue or pink and the same on the green or tan urethane. Let them all cure for a day then get a hold of?a corner and see if you can take the cured cloth off. The pink and blue will immediately delaminate and come off? easily as it will the green or tan urethane. You will not be able to take it off of the klegicell it is a tough more structural type foam. It is the same type of foam Dan Diehl used in his pre molded wing skins. Just try this, it will make you cry if your serious about long term airframes, especially wing skins. My friend that found the aluminum WAFs in his KR wings found them because his wing skins had delaminated from the green or tan urethane foam his wings had been built from. I didn't see it, he told me about it. The Varieze? fuselage floor sidewalls and nose were made from the green urethane 2" thick foam sanded to shape with four spruce longerons? one in each of the four corners?lengthwise in the fuselage?like a KR and it has a aircraft grade?plywood firewall and?bulkhead which was the instrument panel but no other sticks Inbetween like a KR. The wings on Ezes are Dow styrofoam not expanded polystyrene. This type of Polystyrene is what white cheap ice chests are made from as is the same type in?sheets used in packaging for shipping,??most people call that styrofoam but its not.? Dow Styrofoam is much stronger and is what solid core wings are made of in?Rutan?canard?types of airplanes. It is easily hot wired to shape. The Longeze uses the klegicell foam for all structure floor?sidewalls seat backs, instrument panel, fuel cells?and the canard attach structure with certain numbers of layers of bid or uni on all of course. The solid core wings and winglets are made from Dow Styrofoam. I believe it is a extruded product but came in 8 or 10" thick billets. it has a tough outer skin on it when in this form. it used to be sold in 7 or 8" thick by 10 or 12" wide sawed out pieces without the extruded skins on them. Pete you are probably fine for your canopy frame, most Eze canopy frames were made using the green or tan urethane because it sands easily. Rutan's designs relied upon a carefully designed layup schedule? of unidirectional and bidirectional cloths for strength but he switched to klegicell foams as soon as he found out about it over 30 years ago now Wow I'm getting old! If my memory serves me I believe klegicell was developed and manufactured in Sweden originally. On canopy attach points like latches?you need to remove a small area of the foam, replace it with hard points made from high density klegicell, wood, or hard blocks made from multiple layers of bid cloth. All of these need to get floxed in place then glassed over by overlapping the surrounding already glassed area by at least one inch on all sides to form a structural connection. The ideal thing is to flox these hard points into the shaped foam before it is glassed in the beginning. I don't think anyone is going to die but obviously if you were to have a high speed air penetration/delamination under a wing skin for example one could be in serious trouble quickly. We will pray that never happens. Hope this helps Larry Howell Pete Klapp wrote: > Larry > I did use some of the pink foam when constructing my canopy frame. While it > is not a structural component such as a control surface, do you think this > will be a problem? There are three to four layers of kr glass covering the > foam to create a box beam like member that the canopy was then glued to with > flox. Should I consider building a new frame or wait and watch to see if > there will be an issue? > Pete Klapp > >>
KR> gascolator or filter?
Dan Heath wrote: >>So, what is the advantage of using a gascolator over a fuel filter that filters out water. I eliminated my gascolator. Have I set myself up for some real trouble?<< I put two different filters on N56ML, one coarse on the way into the fuel pump and a much finer one on the way to the carb. I didn't have a gascolator either because I just didn't have room for it and they didn't make a high pressure version back then (that I know of). In 1130 hours of flying, the only thing I ever found on the outside of the filter were a few "hairs" of outer fuel hose insulation. I did have a water drain on my main fuel tank, but (and I shouldn't admit this out loud), the first time I used it was the last, because it got stuck open, I'd epoxied it directly into the tank rather than into a fitting, and I was forced to seal it forever if I wanted to keep any fuel in the tank. That's one of those things that I would "fix later", and never did. Having said that, I never found a single drop of water in my fuel filters, nor ever had other water related issues. BUT, that's because I was very lucky, and always bought my fuel at the same store, and fortunately they are good about keeping their tanks free of water and clean filters on the pumps. My wife pulled into a gas station 25 years ago driving her fuel injected Rabbit, and after filling up she only made it about a mile before the engine quit. The fuel filter was soaked with water and trash, and was clogged to the point that the engine got no fuel. That's where gascolators come in very handy...by separating that stuff out, letting it collect on the bottom, and you can easily drain it and sample what's going on every time you preflight (assuming your drain is conveniently located near the lower cowl opening). You can do it either way, but there's luck involved in the "filter-only" method. The gascolator is a great first line of defense, with the filter as a secondary. I agree that "regular" bail type gascolators can be prone to leaking, but the high pressure ACS gascolator should be a much better bet. >From my experience, small town airports pump more water and sediment than you'll ever see in the automotive world. I guess they figure we all have gascolators and will catch it before we fly. See enclosed photo for N891JF gascolator installation. It's easily drained with a fuel tube with the cowling installed. This is far easily than disassembling the filter to check for debris and water, which I only bothered to do at condition inspection time, once per year! I'll fly more confidently with this installation. Hose will be firesleeved as soon as the totalizer is added. Having said all of this, I put a lot of hours on N56ML with nothing but filters, and it worked out OK. I do suspect some good karma was involved, however. Trying my best to get the panel installed in the plane this weekend, and then on to sensor installation on the engine. Still probably two months away from flying this thing though... Mark Langford ML at N56ML.com website at http://www.N56ML.com -- next part -- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ACS_gascolator.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 78353 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://list.krnet.org/mailman/private/krnet_list.krnet.org/attachments/20131116/3cbb1dcb/attachment.jpg>
