Projects blog - Fly Micro restore, mod & repair

26/10/201530/01/2018

Luggage space for LSA

The Skyleader GP One which is SkyFreedom Aviation’s NZ demonstrator only had a single storage compartment, so that it was a challenge to pack and access all the items required for long cross-country trips. I have designed and manufactured a series of additional storage spaces to make the GP One more user-friendly.

First up was a lightweight carbon tray in the centre console. This is handy for mobile phone, pens, sunglasses, etc. The headset sockets are also recessed into this tray, so that the plugs are less likely to be bumped.

The second addition is a 50 litre luggage locker below the existing locker. It fits bulkier items such as jackets, daypack, lifejackets, etc. I used the hi-tech epoxy resin infusion process to manufacture it, which means that the new carbon/foam locker only weighs slightly more than the original fibreglass locker.

More info at: Luggage space

23/09/201530/01/2018

New exhaust, cowling and radiator for GP One

When the Skyleader factory staff returned to the Czech Republic in late June (after a very busy 10 day visit), there were a few unfinished tasks on SkyFreedom Aviation’s GP One demonstrator. Over the next few months, I worked steadily on completing these tasks.

Since the new exhaust has been re-located further aft, the under-slung radiator had to be shifted. It is now mounted vertically on the right side of the engine compartment, with ducting built into the lower cowling. It took some interesting welding and fabrication to align the radiator with the ducting and available mounting points.

More info and photos at: Exhaust and radiator changes

02/03/201530/01/2018

Pitching a Rans S6

I helped a Rans S-6 owner to adjust the propeller pitch on his microlight. It was not going very fast in cruise mode, yet it would take off quite quickly. He figured something was not quite right.

He desperately wanted some more speed before he convoyed long distance to Rangiora with a Tecnam ‘Eaglet’ and my Skyleader ‘GP One’, both of which cruised easily at 100 knots.

We checked the blade pitch using a bubble protractor and found up to 1/2 degree difference between blades. Then we carefully adjusted it to have one degree more pitch. The result was pleasing – an increase of over 5 knots in cruise airspeed (now 85 knots at 5000rpm revs), but only a small decrease in take-off/climb performance.

Read about the trip http://www.skyfreedom.co.nz/news-blog/canterbury-foray

15/01/201530/01/2018

Don’t sit on my Bantam nose. Oops – too late!

While doing a factory upgrade on the tail fin of the Skyleader GP One, one of the local U-Fly instructors asked me to repair a nasty crack in the nose cone of his Bantam microlight. A customer had sat down on it while waiting in the hangar, causing it to collapse under the abnormal load. A big crack had appeared in the fibreglass.

Since I already had all my glassing tools and supplies on hand, it was very quick to sand, mask and glass the crack. The owner was delighted to have a professional job done, instead of attacking it himself with a ‘surfboard repair kit’ from the local hardware store.

06/01/201530/01/2018

carbon VTU upgrade

The Skyleader factory asked me to fit an upgrade to the VTU (vertical tail unit) of SkyFreedom Aviation’s GP One demo aircraft.

The beautifully-made carbon and foam sandwich parts duly arrived after New Year. I fitted them under the supervision of Bill Barber (of Snark fame) and Callum Smith (Twenty24 Aircraft Maintenance). The extra ribs and the transition piece connecting the boom to the leading edge of the VTU have hugely stiffened the whole tail.

More info at http://www.skyfreedom.co.nz/news-blog/factory-upgrades

12/12/201430/01/2018

Paint and Power

Last weekend, the Shadow microlight project took a big step forward towards completion. That occurred when the fibreglass nose cone was glued onto the honeycomb fuselage tub.

Then began the long job of mixing lightweight fairing powder with 2-pot epoxy and carefully filling every hole, crevice and hollow. Once the epoxy has set, I spray on a faint guide coat of colour paint, followed by even more hours of sanding down the filler. The coloured guide coat shows up any imperfections in the surface, so the process needs to be repeated until you’re happy with the smoothness. Since the aircraft is old, I stopped well short of perfection – it will look OK from a distance..

Today I masked up the fuselage, then sprayed an adhesion coat onto the fibreglass nosecone, kevlar side panels and thin plywood canopy shroud. Hopefully that will help the water-based paint to stick well.

A few weeks ago, the new Rotax 582 ‘Blue-top’ engine arrived. It is fitted with oil injection and a by-pass cooling system. This system is an improvement over the 582 ‘Silver-top’ model because it keeps the coolant circulating within the engine block, while the engine is warming up. When the thermostat does open, it diverts hot water to the radiators and closes off the by-pass.

11/08/201430/01/2018

new Streak kitset nearing completion

Recently I had the opportunity to visit some Shadow owners in England (as I was en-route to the Skyleader factory in the Czech Republic).

I visited Tim Walker near Manchester who is building one of the last wide-body Streak kits to come out of the CFM factory. It’s fitted with a 75hp Rotax 618 engine, carbon-composite main landing gear and a digital cockpit display. It should be exciting to fly.

Since I hope to upgrade some components of my 1988 CFM Shadow microlight (e.g. main landing gear, cooling shroud, etc), I was pleased to see beneath the surface of his Streak,. get close-up photos of construction details and make some measurements.

It was neat to spend time with yet another enthusiastic Shadow owner. I hope that Tim will be flying his Streak soon.

09/08/201430/01/2018

G-MVAC – the Shadow in my website’s header image

What a surprise? When I was in Shadow Flight Centre’s hangar at Old Sarum airfield, I spotted G-MVAC hiding beneath its covers.

This is the very Shadow that I have used for the main header photo on my Fly Micro website.

I love MVAC’s simple colour scheme, with yellow and grey fuselage stripes. Maybe I’ll paint my Shadow in these colours?

07/08/201430/01/2018

Shadow Flight Centre @ Old Sarum

My personal project is restoring a 1988 2-seat CFM Shadow microlight. Recently, as I was en-route to the Skyleader factory in the Czech Republic, I had the opportunity to visit some Shadow owners in UK.

One stop was at the iconic Shadow Flight Centre near Salisbury. Fiona Luckhurst and Raymond Proost host a myriad of C-D and Streak variants in their hangar at the Old Sarum airfield. They have built up a vast knowledge of the CFM Shadow series, having operated a flight school for many years and repaired/maintained a lot of these classic microlights.

Raymond was kind enough to show me some of their unique equipment. The ‘historic’ red boom jig (for accurately making replacement Shadow or Streak booms) allowed me to definitively solve the mystery of the correct tailplane incidences on the 582-powered Shadow D-D and Streak models. Raymond also has a nifty pattern for getting the nose leg wires correct. I inspected a brand-new Crosbie undercarriage – it was reassuring to find that the mods I have done to strengthen the undercarriage of my Shadow in New Zealand are along very similar lines.

27/04/201430/01/2018

Old timer in the air again

ZK-JPA, an historic Williams Mark 4 homebuilt, needed some TLC recently. Before it could be issued with an annual Permit-to-Fly, a cracked stringer underneath the fuselage needed to be repaired .

Mike Nicolson, the current owner, asked me to tackle the job. Although it was very easy to glue the spruce, it was tricky to work in such a confined space with access only from underneath.

It was great to see the inner structure of such an aircraft. It reminded me of the plywood/spruce frames of 1950’s canvas canoes. everything was nicely sanded and still well-sealed with varnish.

Job done, JPA is once again airborne and awaiting a buyer.