Lynn Erickson

I'm not aware of any Lycoming 360's that can't be installed in a pusher

balance has nothing to do with it. the power pulses of each cylinder makes them move on their own and at different times. they are always moving relative each other. the three seperate pipes are the better way. three pipes welded together will break.

I am waiting to see if the ACK unit really sells for $ 560 when they get their certification. it is going to use the existing remote panel from the ACK or the Ameri- king units. ACK says it should be released in July. one drawback to the ACK is they use expensive battery packs but they are good for 5 years. the Ameri-king uses 4 d cell batteries. One of the problems I see with these units in a canard airplane is the antenna, the supplied antenna is made to mount outside on a metal airframe. www.ackavionics.com/

if your in a wet climate then it would be better not to tape up the bottom of the wing seams and the wing attach holes so what ever water does get in has a way out. water held in tis area will cause the wing attach bolts to corrode. in the nose I would provide a way for the water to get out. standing water is the worst situation.

I have the VM 1000

I have replaced some on others plane for many different reasons. one got cracked by putting some thing in the backseat, another was leaking after about 10 years, one had gotten clogged and was stuck full of fuel. and one was softened by the fuel. I have never had them in my plane and have never missed them. I always check the fuel by looking in the tank and to see if it looks close to what the electronic gauges say. most pilots fly by fuel burn when planing a trip and filling the tanks full or use a dip stick to measure the amount of fuel. I use the gauges all the time but have never relied on them to be the last word.

I started out to install the gauges and as the electronic gauges got better and better over the years I decided to omit the sight glass. the systems we have now work very well and there is no need to install sight glasses. As many builder have found out the sight glasses do not last forever and many have had to replace them after only a few years. I love the electronic gauges and the one I have even maps the shape of the tank. it is always with a 1/4 gallon of being perfect. most of the engine instrument systems include fuel gauges with everything else all in one electronic gauge. with either system there is still the need to look in the tank to verify the gauges are still working properly. even the sight glasses have been known to give false readings

on my aircraft I can lower the nose while the mains are still retracted. I tested to see how much the nose wheel does by itself. mine is 4.5 " wide and it changes the sink rate the same as the speed brake does. keep it as narrow as you can.

its not how much power that you have, its the power you don't have if there is a power problem and it comes down like a rock and can't glide back to the field due to excess drag. the wire used on mine and Dave's is the hinge wire .089". the wire acts to keep the doors opening at the same time and aligned vertical. the coil tension spring holds the doors in the full open position and holds the doors closed when stretched over the strut

watch out making the strut too wide, besides being a better landing break it is also a better takeoff brake. with main retracts you already have a lot of take off drag the spring steel wire that berkut used for the doors is the hinge pin material from the piano hinges. bends easy and already has the right temper. can be bough form ACS separately

Looks good The main thing is to use push/pull type cable and not the pull only and the spring that is used on the Brock throttle

the break in of a new engine is not a problem to do during flight testing. the main concern I have with using a runout engine is not the engine it self. its the other systems, the carb, alternator, fuel pump, vacuum pump, oil pump, mags, or fuel injection, if they have been sitting for a long time. secondly, how long has it been stored without being properly preserved for storage. how much corrosion is inside the engine. how bad is the cam as they usually go first.

exhaust wrap is used to keep heat off other components in an engine compartment, it also helps keep the heat in the pipe to make the headers work more efficiently. the warp does have some effect on the life of the pipe material due to the fact that the pipes get hotter because they are not in free air. most aircraft exhaust are made of type 321 stainless steel and this steel can take the heat of a warped pipe with no problem. using the warp on pipes made of type 304 stainless steel or carbon steel will shorten the life of the pipe. with air-cooled aircraft engines the cowling has a large amount of air flowing over the exhaust and in most cases does not need to be warped. but the are many where the engine is tightly cowled and the use of exhaust wrap or heat deflector must be used to avoid the heat from destroying other components.

they should just come out, remove the felt dust seal and lift out the inner race with the rollers and cage. the wheel bearing should be reinstalled so there is a slight preload on the bearing. tighten the bearing hand tight and then with a wrench, tighten to align with the next cotter pin hole.

no they probably did not , in fact many types of baby powder made before the '60 used chrysolite asbestos, bad stuff, but the one I have is made of talc. have you ever seen anyone use baby powder and have a problem? the tubes used in the lamb tires are the natural rubber type not the new synthetic type use on certified aircraft. baby powder does contain fragrance oil in a very small quantity. you will get more oil off your hands while working on the tires then the amount in baby powder. I have never heard of a problem do to baby powder. we do know that the tires hold pressure better if filled with nitrogen instead of air.

those are not the same as the ones used in twin aircraft. the aircraft ones use a blower and a gas flame to heat a heat exchange the same as a home forced air heater. the parking heater is a gas flame to water heat exchanger and it heats the water in the engine cooling system. a leak in the heat exchanger never enters the car cockpit and a leak in the cars heater core would just get thing a bit wet. you don't see them in aircraft because there are not many water cool aircraft engines

Your uncle sounds like most builders. 3 weeks give or take a year or two. I guess 1 year because it looks 90% done so that means that you have about 90% to go. wiring alone will take you 2 months of evenings, if you have experience in aircraft wiring. if every thing is really done and they never are. and every thing that is done works perfect and it never does you will have at least 5 weekends to get all the perfectly built and working systems to really work correctly. and to take an engine that is a runout and been sitting for a while and expect to use it for test flying a plane that has never flown is to put it bluntly, not very smart. are you building this plane to just test it and thats it? I don't think so, if you are going to commit to the project then you should build everything in the plane to the highest standard before the first flight. I have seen to many people have first flight engine problems and homebuilding does not need any more on the record books. this may seem a bit harsh but I have been assisting builders like yourself for 25 years and have lost a few good friends along the way because they made light of the task ahead of them and did not follow the advice of the people that know better.

first, ez poxy is still being produced http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/cmpages/ezpoxy.phpfor that repair you could use almost any epoxy, as they only hold on the nose gear box, not structural. these cracks a common because the layups in that area are thin. has the aircraft ever had a nose gear up landing that the owner has forgotten about?

thats right, I still have the same container of baby powder that I have used for the last 35 years and it was used by my father for at least 20 years before me.

those are not the right tire you need the tires that were made by Lamb now are made by Cheng Shin when you order you want whats called Lamb in the ACS catalog, they come in 6 or 8 ply rated and are for 96 psi. I was at ACS yesterday and they had a full shelf of them.

One thing I noticed about carbon wings on a Berkut is the ruff ride in turbulance . the wings don't soak up the bumps as well. also the carbon transmits any vibration all the way through the aircraft and different things buzz at different frequencies. also screws tend to come loose faster from the vibration. carbon also wears out around screw holes and under the tinnerman washers a lot faster then glass. even though it is stronger and stiffer, it is not as durable as glass.

the pressure on the outside of the engine will be about 8 psi less at 20,000 feet

not that it can't be done but it would take twice as long to do as the Long ez. there are many updates and changes to the vari eze. for all the work it would take there might be two planes built. there may be one other person in the world besides you that will want to build one. the others will just buy a project and finish it. If you want to build one the plans are out there. I have a couple of sets of shop copys collecting dust, if I can find them you can have one but you will have to figure out the updates for yourself. there is a set for sale on this forum that have never used see http://www.canardzone.com/forum/showthread.php?p=51895#post51895

I would think there are many valves used in cars that you could use for heat control. you will need a fan for the same reason as a car there is no air flow during taxi. you will need to recycle the air through the heater, if you don't the heater core will need to be very large to heat a constant supply of very cold air. remember the air that comes in has to go somewhere. if the air can't get out it can't get in

when you move the strake forward, the extra material added might weight a 1/4 of a pound and you would have to try hard to make it that heavy.