---------------------------------------------------------- Europa-List Digest Archive --- Total Messages Posted Mon 12/31/12: 6 ---------------------------------------------------------- Today's Message Index: ---------------------- 1. 10:53 AM - Re: mono wheel rear faring (h&jeuropa) 2. 11:03 AM - Auto-response (Viorel Nichols) 3. 11:56 AM - Re: 914 surging/loss of power (h&jeuropa) 4. 01:22 PM - Re: Re: 914 surging/loss of power (Tim Ward) 5. 03:38 PM - 2013 (mau11) 6. 11:17 PM - Re: Removing magnetic plug from Rotax 912 gearbox (Richard Lamprey) ________________________________ Message 1 _____________________________________ Time: 10:53:30 AM PST US Subject: Europa-List: Re: mono wheel rear faring From: "h&jeuropa" Graeme, Back about 10 years ago, Kim Prout sold a fairing for the mono. It was available in carbon or fiberglas. Bob Jacobson and Cliff Shaw had similar fairings fit to their monos. You can probably find photos in the archives - look back to 2002, 2003. We can send you a couple of photos if you can't find any others. Kim occasionally checks this forum. Or there may be a couple that were purchased and never installed. We just looked at the new club website but couldn't find a link to builder mods. We've had ours fitted since the first flight so can't comment on performance change due to the fairing, but it looks nice and doesn't weigh much. Jim & Heather N241BW Mono - 914 Airmaster 425 hours Read this topic online here: http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=391279#391279 ________________________________ Message 2 _____________________________________ Time: 11:03:01 AM PST US From: Viorel Nichols Subject: Europa-List: Auto-response Away on holiday from the 22 December 2012 till 29 January 2013 Wishing you a happy festive season . Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Viorel ... ________________________________ Message 3 _____________________________________ Time: 11:56:37 AM PST US Subject: Europa-List: Re: 914 surging/loss of power From: "h&jeuropa" An update, fuel tank vent restriction. We trailered our Europa home from Colorado and commenced with the annual condition inspection. As part of that, we sent out the carbs for overhaul - no problems noted. We replaced all the 4mm turbo control hoses per the 5 year requirement - no defective hoses were found. The carb sockets were updated to the latest specification 2 years ago and inspection showed no cracks. A few hours prior to this trip we had inspected all fuel filters including the ones in the electric pumps. No debris was found - we haven't had debris in the filters in several years. What we did find were restrictions in the fuel tank venting system. The result of these restrictions is that the fuel flow was limited to the amount of air that could get by the restrictions which was way less than 5 to 6 gallons per hour that we normally use at cruise! We have a modified fuel vent system, similar to that described on Custom Flight Creations website. The tank vent (Tygon SE 200 fuel line tubing) leads to the top of the cobra where it is connected to the cobra. From the top of the cobra, a vent line (more Tygon SE200) goes over the head of the cobra to the belly of the fuselage. The sight gauge vent and long range tank vent join together and go over the top of the cobra independent of the fuel tank vent. All three vents join together a foot below the top of the cobra and then a single tube goes to the belly vent. The vent on the belly is fabricated similar to the build manual instructions for the original factory vent on the top of the fuselage - it is a piece of 1/8" tubing bent to face forward into the airstream and has two 1/8" bypass holes in the rear in case the main opening gets clogged. In Colorado we discovered the belly vent was packed full of debris. There was even debris sticking out of one the bypass holes. We managed to clear and clean that vent tube using carb cleaner in an aerosol can. We did this before the test flight. It was really plugged because it is difficult to access on preflight and difficult to tell if it has debris. In our case we hadn't blown it out in several years and between a little oil from the engine and operating mostly off grass strips a oily mess accumulated. We have added cleaning the belly vent with aerosol cleaner to our condition inspection checklist! In Colorado we also noticed that the Tygon tubing going over the cobra looked a little kinked, but figured it hadn't changed or gotten more kinked during this trip. But now we think that it did. On this trip we filled the tank all the way up into the neck of the cobra to have the maximum amount of fuel on board. We also added a quart of oil about 10 hours before all these problems - but that actually overfilled the oil tank and caused it to blow by and out the oil tank vent onto the belly of the airplane helping plug the fuel tank vent. With the belly vent blocked or nearly so, there was very little air available to replace the fuel being drawn from the tank, so the air space in the top of the tank and in the vent line was being put under vacuum which caused the tygon tubing to kink more. We did one test flight in Colorado and the engine ran normally. However that was after using a few gallons of fuel doing all kinds of ground tests, so there was more air space in the fuel tank and the tank walls could collapse a little. But we topped up into the cobra again before our last departure and subsequent precautionary landing. So we have replaced the tygon tubing with aluminum tubing over the cobra head to prevent kinking in the future. We also moved the return line from the fuel regulator from the bottom of the fuel tank to the top of the tank because our tech adviser advised that certificated aircraft do not return fuel to the bottom of the tank. We've only made a couple test flights since (runway is snow covered now) but they were normal. The big learning experiences: be sure the fuel tank vent on the belly is clear, be sure there are no kinks or restrictions in the fuel tank vent system and clean the belly tank vent thoroughly every condition inspection. Funny how we always thought about the fuel tank vent system in terms of space for fuel to expand while sitting in the sun and in terms of letting air out of the tank during refueling, but we never thought about it's most important job of letting air into the tank to replace fuel consumed! Jim & Heather N241BW XS Mono, 914, Airmaster 425 hours Read this topic online here: http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=391288#391288 ________________________________ Message 4 _____________________________________ Time: 01:22:15 PM PST US From: Tim Ward Subject: Re: Europa-List: Re: 914 surging/loss of power Jim and Heather, Happy New Year. One of the reasons for having the fuel vent on top of the fuselage, as the Company dictated, was for that reason. I remember asking the company about putting it below as it does look aesthetically more pleasing. It still amazes me how much debris gets thrown up on the underside of the fuselage damaging the tail wheel fairing and spring arm. Mixed with exhaust can make it hard to clean as well. All the best, Tim Tim Ward 12 Waiwetu Street Fendalton, Christchurch, 8052 New Zealand. ward.t@xtra.co.nz Ph 64 3 3515166 Mob 0210640221 On 1/01/2013, at 8:55 AM, "h&jeuropa" wrote: > > An update, fuel tank vent restriction. > > We trailered our Europa home from Colorado and commenced with the annual condition inspection. As part of that, we sent out the carbs for overhaul - no problems noted. We replaced all the 4mm turbo control hoses per the 5 year requirement - no defective hoses were found. The carb sockets were updated to the latest specification 2 years ago and inspection showed no cracks. A few hours prior to this trip we had inspected all fuel filters including the ones in the electric pumps. No debris was found - we haven't had debris in the filters in several years. > > What we did find were restrictions in the fuel tank venting system. The result of these restrictions is that the fuel flow was limited to the amount of air that could get by the restrictions which was way less than 5 to 6 gallons per hour that we normally use at cruise! > > We have a modified fuel vent system, similar to that described on Custom Flight Creations website. The tank vent (Tygon SE 200 fuel line tubing) leads to the top of the cobra where it is connected to the cobra. From the top of the cobra, a vent line (more Tygon SE200) goes over the head of the cobra to the belly of the fuselage. The sight gauge vent and long range tank vent join together and go over the top of the cobra independent of the fuel tank vent. All three vents join together a foot below the top of the cobra and then a single tube goes to the belly vent. The vent on the belly is fabricated similar to the build manual instructions for the original factory vent on the top of the fuselage - it is a piece of 1/8" tubing bent to face forward into the airstream and has two 1/8" bypass holes in the rear in case the main opening gets clogged. > > In Colorado we discovered the belly vent was packed full of debris. There was even debris sticking out of one the bypass holes. We managed to clear and clean that vent tube using carb cleaner in an aerosol can. We did this before the test flight. It was really plugged because it is difficult to access on preflight and difficult to tell if it has debris. In our case we hadn't blown it out in several years and between a little oil from the engine and operating mostly off grass strips a oily mess accumulated. We have added cleaning the belly vent with aerosol cleaner to our condition inspection checklist! > > In Colorado we also noticed that the Tygon tubing going over the cobra looked a little kinked, but figured it hadn't changed or gotten more kinked during this trip. But now we think that it did. On this trip we filled the tank all the way up into the neck of the cobra to have the maximum amount of fuel on board. We also added a quart of oil about 10 hours before all these problems - but that actually overfilled the oil tank and caused it to blow by and out the oil tank vent onto the belly of the airplane helping plug the fuel tank vent. With the belly vent blocked or nearly so, there was very little air available to replace the fuel being drawn from the tank, so the air space in the top of the tank and in the vent line was being put under vacuum which caused the tygon tubing to kink more. > > We did one test flight in Colorado and the engine ran normally. However that was after using a few gallons of fuel doing all kinds of ground tests, so there was more air space in the fuel tank and the tank walls could collapse a little. But we topped up into the cobra again before our last departure and subsequent precautionary landing. > > So we have replaced the tygon tubing with aluminum tubing over the cobra head to prevent kinking in the future. We also moved the return line from the fuel regulator from the bottom of the fuel tank to the top of the tank because our tech adviser advised that certificated aircraft do not return fuel to the bottom of the tank. > > We've only made a couple test flights since (runway is snow covered now) but they were normal. > > The big learning experiences: be sure the fuel tank vent on the belly is clear, be sure there are no kinks or restrictions in the fuel tank vent system and clean the belly tank vent thoroughly every condition inspection. > > Funny how we always thought about the fuel tank vent system in terms of space for fuel to expand while sitting in the sun and in terms of letting air out of the tank during refueling, but we never thought about it's most important job of letting air into the tank to replace fuel consumed! > > Jim & Heather > N241BW > XS Mono, 914, Airmaster > 425 hours > > > > > Read this topic online here: > > http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=391288#391288 > > > > > > > > > > ________________________________ Message 5 _____________________________________ Time: 03:38:26 PM PST US From: mau11 Subject: Europa-List: 2013 SGFwcHkgbmV3IHllYXINCk1pY2hlbCBBVVZSQVkNCg0KDQoNCg0KDQpldXJvcGEtbGlzdEBtYXRy b25pY3MuY29tPGV1cm9wYS1saXN0QG1hdHJvbmljcy5jb20+ ________________________________ Message 6 _____________________________________ Time: 11:17:14 PM PST US Subject: Europa-List: Re: Removing magnetic plug from Rotax 912 gearbox From: "Richard Lamprey" Happy New Year to all, and apologies for returning to an old topic... Bob (Borger) had an option for a Sears tool that would remove the plug. Bob, do you have details of that (picture, part number?). Best Richard Kenya Read this topic online here: http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=391314#391314 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Matronics Email List Services ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post A New Message europa-list@matronics.com UN/SUBSCRIBE http://www.matronics.com/subscription List FAQ http://www.matronics.com/FAQ/Europa-List.htm Web Forum Interface To Lists http://forums.matronics.com Matronics List Wiki http://wiki.matronics.com Full Archive Search Engine http://www.matronics.com/search 7-Day List Browse http://www.matronics.com/browse/europa-list Browse Digests http://www.matronics.com/digest/europa-list Browse Other Lists http://www.matronics.com/browse Live Online Chat! http://www.matronics.com/chat Archive Downloading http://www.matronics.com/archives Photo Share http://www.matronics.com/photoshare Other Email Lists http://www.matronics.com/emaillists Contributions http://www.matronics.com/contribution ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These Email List Services are sponsored solely by Matronics and through the generous Contributions of its members.