---------------------------------------------------------- Kolb-List Digest Archive --- Total Messages Posted Fri 10/29/10: 6 ---------------------------------------------------------- Today's Message Index: ---------------------- 1. 12:46 AM - Re: Re: slingshot thrust line (Pat Ladd) 2. 12:46 AM - Re: Re: slingshot thrust line (Pat Ladd) 3. 08:21 AM - Nose-over protection (Kirby, Dennis Civ USAF AFMC AFNWC/EN) 4. 09:49 AM - Re: Nose-over protection (robert bean) 5. 08:18 PM - Re: Nose-over protection (Richard Pike) 6. 09:39 PM - Rudder Covering - How to? (WhiskeyVictor36@aol.com) ________________________________ Message 1 _____________________________________ Time: 12:46:50 AM PST US From: "Pat Ladd" Subject: Re: Kolb-List: Re: slingshot thrust line (You don't work for our current political administration do you?) I am Obama`s best (only) friend. Pat ________________________________ Message 2 _____________________________________ Time: 12:46:50 AM PST US From: "Pat Ladd" Subject: Re: Kolb-List: Re: slingshot thrust line I'm surprised the regulators in the EU haven't made it a requirement already. >> Hi Richard, I am sure they are thinking about it. After seeing the picture of the `training wheel` in use I can quite see that my worries about the `knock on` effects of fitting the wheel were groundless. I think that the ladder may still come in useful. Pat ________________________________ Message 3 _____________________________________ Time: 08:21:20 AM PST US Subject: Kolb-List: Nose-over protection From: "Kirby, Dennis Civ USAF AFMC AFNWC/EN" (NOTE: Subject line changed - was: "slingshot thrust line") Rick Girard wrote: << ... the original application for this ... It's a nose over wheel ... If you apply too much power too early, your plane comes over on it's nose and continues on its merry way. >> Rick, and All - Notwithstanding Richard Pike's gracious offer for the free nose-over protection wheel, I believe this is the EXACT purpose for the steel nose-over hoop that Homer included in his design for our Kolbs. Less drag than Rev Pike's wheel, and I got to test mine firsthand recently. Am happy to report that it worked just as advertised! I took a flight last month with a somewhat heavy passenger. Lined up on the runway centerline, was ready for takeoff, I added full power a bit too briskly. We began rolling, the tail came up, and up, and up ... Next thing that happened was the loud scraping sound of the steel hoop scraping the runway. With a birdlike movement of his head, my passenger immediately looked at me with eyes as wide a saucers. I'm sure any bystanders watching my takeoff roll would have seen sparks. I instantly brought the control stick back to lower the tail a bit, and we continued the takeoff normally. I like to think my casual recovery conveyed to my jittery passenger that this was all part of the plan. Obviously, with the extra weight ahead of the main wheels, my normal habit for takeoff was not the right technique, as I allowed the tail to come up too quickly. My fault, but easy to account for, next time. And so, despite John Hauck's ongoing tongue-in-cheek ribbing about my Kolb "training wheel," I'm glad I had one at the time! Otherwise, I'd be needing to repair fiberglass. Dennis Kirby Mark-III, 912ul Sandia Park, NM ________________________________ Message 4 _____________________________________ Time: 09:49:46 AM PST US From: robert bean Subject: Re: Kolb-List: Nose-over protection If you have any "low riders" in the neighborhood have one weld a carbide strip on the hoop. It would make night time takeoffs entertaining. Richard P.... With a couple of pieces of pine that gadget could be transformed into a serviceable wheelbarrow. So far, flying solo, I haven't had a problem. Due to having a FAT MkIII with puny power. Sometimes the farmers leave ruts in the end of my strip that require a good jab of throttle to get out of. When carrying a passenger I progress with careful diligence. I didn't get much time in during late summer. Hot weather, house projects, and worst of all, another carb problem. My fault it turns out. I had cut a flange gasket out of what I thought was a really high quality piece of gasket material. Because of the way the suzuki vibrates its little brains out, the carb has a sizable side shake on its well leveraged mounting. Part of preflight is to check if it has any wiggle. -anyway, a chunk of that gasket got sucked in during takeoff (natch) and left me at 300" with an engine out. You know the routine, first look down at the options. Bad. REAL short field. I jabbed the throttle a couple of times and perceived a burst of power. Good thing the starved Solex has an accelerator pump. I literally pumped my way back around and managed to plop it back on my strip with porpoising bursts of power. Felt good about that anyway. All that stress on the poor old cog belt wasted it. After installing a new one I found another problem. The gasket material had gotten sucked into a sensitive part of the carb. I spent an astronomical amount of time trying to find the elusive piece of crap. Just when I thought it was ok it would act up again. Had an exciting landing once when the engine quit at idle, the wind ballooned me up 20', and I sez "Oh, S***" Another little gust providently eased me back. OK, this is getting to be a bore, but one last time I opened up the marvelous vapor machine and took out parts you can't remove. I went bananas. Did I find a culprit? Not really, but this time was the fix. Running good again. As for a gasket. I annealed a piece of copper for that duty. Wish me luck. BB slow but persistent On 29, Oct 2010, at 11:18 AM, Kirby, Dennis Civ USAF AFMC AFNWC/EN wrote: > (NOTE: Subject line changed - was: =93slingshot thrust line=94) > > Rick Girard wrote: << ... the original application for this ... It's a nose over wheel ... If you apply too much power too early, your plane comes over on it's nose and continues on its merry way. >> > > > Rick, and All ' > > Notwithstanding Richard Pike=92s gracious offer for the free nose-over protection wheel, I believe this is the EXACT purpose for the steel nose-over hoop that Homer included in his design for our Kolbs. Less drag than Rev Pike=92s wheel, and I got to test mine firsthand recently. Am happy to report that it worked just as advertised! > > I took a flight last month with a somewhat heavy passenger. Lined up on the runway centerline, was ready for takeoff, I added full power a bit too briskly. We began rolling, the tail came up, and up, and up ... Next thing that happened was the loud scraping sound of the steel hoop scraping the runway. With a birdlike movement of his head, my passenger immediately looked at me with eyes as wide a saucers. I=92m sure any bystanders watching my takeoff roll would have seen sparks. I instantly brought the control stick back to lower the tail a bit, and we continued the takeoff normally. I like to think my casual recovery conveyed to my jittery passenger that this was all part of the plan. > > Obviously, with the extra weight ahead of the main wheels, my normal habit for takeoff was not the right technique, as I allowed the tail to come up too quickly. My fault, but easy to account for, next time. > > And so, despite John Hauck=92s ongoing tongue-in-cheek ribbing about my Kolb =93training wheel,=94 I=92m glad I had one at the time! Otherwise, I=92d be needing to repair fiberglass. > > Dennis Kirby > Mark-III, 912ul > Sandia Park, NM > > > > ________________________________ Message 5 _____________________________________ Time: 08:18:33 PM PST US Subject: Kolb-List: Re: Nose-over protection From: "Richard Pike" Finally remembered why I made that thing. The 532 that graced the MKIII did not have my complete confidence when I first began to fly it, and my little airstrip does not offer much in the way of places to go if the engine quits on takeoff. Also, running the engine up to full throttle solo will probably introduce you to the nose hoop, and it is almost guaranteed if you have a passenger. But with the training wheel... I remember my first flights out of here, I locked the brakes at the end of the runway, gradually added power and a bit of down elevator until the airplane eased onto the nose wheel, and then I went to full throttle for about 45 seconds to see if the engine was going to behave, and then released the brakes and took off. I figured if nothing blew up in the first 45 seconds of full throttle, it ought to run for another couple of minutes anyway. After several hours of that I decided the engine could be trusted (HAH!) and went to the hoop skid. Eventually I learned how to fly it and took the hoop skid off too. Richard Pike MKIII N420P (420ldPoops) Read this topic online here: http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=317453#317453 ________________________________ Message 6 _____________________________________ Time: 09:39:57 PM PST US From: WhiskeyVictor36@aol.com Subject: Kolb-List: Rudder Covering - How to? Guys, I am in the process of recovering some of the components on my FireStar. I don't recall how I did the rudder the first time (it's been more than 16 years ago) but I am having trouble. I'm using the Poly-Fiber process. Attempting to use one piece of fabric, I glued one edge to the L.E. spar, wrapped it around the trailing edge and back to the L.E. spar and glued it in place. Now I have a lot of fabric at both the top and bottom, where the rudder is curved and I don't know how to handle it. It looks like if I glue one of the fabric sides to the curved tubing and cut off the excess, then I would wrap the other side over it, but there is so much fabric I don't think the iron could shrink it enough to get rid of the wrinkles. Also, where the fabric wraps around the small diameter trailing edge, even to cut the one side to wrap down onto the tube for gluing becomes close to the other side, almost like a slit to separate the two, which would almost make a place where it could come apart. I thought about using two separate pieces of fabric and after installing them, run a 2 or 3 inch tape on the TE. Any suggestions? Bill Varnes Original Kolb FireStar Audubon NJ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Other Matronics Email List Services ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post A New Message kolb-list@matronics.com UN/SUBSCRIBE http://www.matronics.com/subscription List FAQ http://www.matronics.com/FAQ/Kolb-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/kolb-list Browse Digests http://www.matronics.com/digest/kolb-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.