Snoopy and his Sopwith camel

after being downed behind enemy lines due to engine trouble and under the cover of darkness Snoopy rebuilds his engine with deft skills in his hands wrought by his Creator.
as carefully as he can in unclean conditions he somehow manages to get it all done and put back on without being found out by the Germans and was able to fly safely out of harms way………..

ahem,well,it wasnt quite like that but close !! I was in a dark hangar.
I went to the airport today on a mission to get my engine back on after a full overhaul and running today,try holding a sixty pound engine in place with one hand and starting bolts with the other doing your best to not drop it,whew !!

all went well until I tried to find gas around here with no corn squeezins in it,crap !! went to caseys and bought three gallons of 87 octane and topped it off with two gallons of 100 LL avgas,now we are talking !!
this engine requires no less than 93 octane and by guess and by golly my old thinker did the quick math and figured it should work out right,if not,my lawn mower will love it !!!

I pulled the spark plugs and spun the engine over several times to clear the excess oil I used during assembly.
put them back in and primed the fuel system,full choke,spin the engine over using the prop to pull in a fresh fuel charge.
choke off,grab the pull starter,one pull,nothing,second pull,several pops out of the exhaust !! third pull,it took off running sputtering a bit from the rich mixture and finally settled into a perfect idle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I let it run for two minutes and shut it off,let it sit for five minutes,no choke,one pull and its off and running like it should,man this thing sounds great !!
in total,I ran it maybe five minutes varying the throttle settings,temps are spot on,accelerates without hesitation,as perfect as you could hope for !!!

I so wanted to get it outside,fold the wings out and run it much longer for break in and retorque all of the bolts and nuts but an incoming storm with very heavy rain nixed that idea.
maybe tomorrow !!
an hour of break in on the ground and go flying !!!
as any good southerner would say,I ainta goingta sleep fer a week by gum !!

I hope the video works out,two seconds worth or the file becomes to large for me to submit

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So the motor weighs around 60 lbs. What does the whole plane weigh with no pilot in it? Always amazes me when I fly that those cans actually can get & stay off the ground.

Casey’s gas……….can’t count how many times you have warned me about that stuff!

Well done on the engine. I hope it drys off enough tomorrow you get to take it for a rip.

Dutch,Caseys does have 87 non ethanol gas that will work for most applications,I dont plan on flying with it though but it will work for break in on the ground,especially seeing as how I am using Schaffers extreme two stroke 9000 series full synthetic oil.
now if this thing ran on diesel,no way would I even consider the outlet I used today,that is what you were warned about if I remember??

the plane dry weighs 254 pounds,I weigh 240 at the moment and have enough room to play with before I am considered overloaded and thats adding in the five gallons of gas.

this plane for being an ultralight is very well built with all aircraft approved metal and fabric.
even the safety harness is a five point harness and is rated for aircraft use.

Iowaboy1 wrote:

the plane dry weighs 254 pounds,I weigh 240 at the moment and have enough room to play with before I am considered overloaded and thats adding in the five gallons of gas.

Dang, dang, dang,,,,,,,,,,,, I was so hoping you were going to say it was a two seater.

as carefully as he can in unclean conditions he somehow manages to get it all done and put back on without being found out by the Germans and was able to fly safely out of harms way………..

Any chance the unclean conditions looked like this?

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sure was !! but that was during the disassembly process and I had to put the parts somewhere !!
after all of the machining was done and everything was cleaned up it was assembled in the most sanitary conditions short of a hospital operating room I could find,my kitchen table while the wife was away!!!

sure glad it wasnt a big block chevy,the table wouldnt of held up that!!

What’s not good about Casey’s fuel??

Iowaboy1 wrote:

I could find,my kitchen table while the wife was away!!!

I find the kitchen table makes a great work bench.

Nice work Sheldon. Almost there.

What’s the VSO of that baby? Looks like you could add a set of tundra tires and set her down almost anywhere.

Grouse

Grouse,if I was sixty pounds lighter it would stall at 37 knots indicated.
I can get off of the ground at 42 knots and land the same speed.
flying off of a grass runway I need three hundred feet for take off and landing on a calm day,with a little head wind a little less.

Iowaboy1 wrote:

Grouse,if I was sixty pounds lighter it would stall at 37 knots indicated.
I can get off of the ground at 42 knots and land the same speed.
flying off of a grass runway I need three hundred feet for take off and landing on a calm day,with a little head wind a little less.

Why not just get it over with and buy a Cub Sheldon?

Upload videotape YouTube and you can link then. Most sites have a size limit. My dream is to have a fun little airplane. Nothing fancy.

B-man wrote:

What’s not good about Casey’s fuel??

Casey’s is very aggressive with their ethanol blending, at least 15% in their regular unleaded. Have heard some people don’t care for how it runs in vehicles mileage wise, I just try to avoid it as well.

That’s a cool little plane, good luck and keep us posted.

Mudshark, honestly the kitfox handles better than a cub does,that and its much cheaper to fly and maintain.

Andrew,thanks,I appreciate the help and hope to put up a short flight video once the engine is broken in,the video will probably have a ton of ponds in it as I am always looking for a new place to go fishing around here.
if you are serious about finding a small plane,there are many good champs,cessna 140’s150’s out there ready to fly for not a lot of money,under fifteen thousand.

zooks,thanks,will do.