at least that's what I should change the rego to.
309kg to be exact.
This is not overly surprising given the mods.
Pete's heaviest Twister is 296kg and Johan's is 303kg.
As it is my first build (never say never) I did the usual thing and made things too heavy. Lucky for us that cruise flight is not that effected by weight as induced drag in the cruise is only 5% of total drag. Hopefully my 'speed' mods will recoup some of the drag points back from the extra induced drag from the weight.
Yesterday I washed G-FUUN and used Car Lack polish on the upper surfaces. This is what the glider lads use so it must be good stuff. It certainly feels silky smooth to the touch now. I must have lost a kg of sweat doing this as it was the hottest day in September since 1911 yesterday. That might help me get under weight for G-FAAT?
The last few days have been spent cleaning out the fuel tanks. It's a shitty job but someones got to do it. I did 9 cycles of Vaccum, part fill with petrol, shake around and upside down, drain petrol, clean out areas I can get to with rags, boroscope inspection then repeat. So 9 cycles of this on the Port tank until it was clean then 8 cycles on the Starboard tank. Both are immaculately clean now - even in no mans land in the middle.
This afternoon after the weighing I started to strip out the filters.
The pre filters were surprisingly not that dirty.
After much swearing and skinned knuckles I had the fine filter out and gave it the 'blow' test. Compared it to a new fine filter the difference was huge - very easy flow through the new filter and asthmatic flow through the old filter.
So that was the root of the problem with my rough running engine - the fine filter was all clogged up.
Lots more work to do before final inspection (proper one this time) on Tuesday.
 |
| Roy Sears of EeziWeigh doing his thing. |
 |
| Roll on wireless scales. |
 |
| Tailplane has to be level for weighing. |
 |
| Porky Pig! |
 |
| Pre filters cut open |
 |
| Bit of crap but not too bad. |
 |
| Stripping out the filters and return line. |
Hi -- do you what were the main contributors to the weight?
ReplyDeleteHi, I think the various modifications made and also my lack of experience with composites meant that some parts were made heavier than necessary. Also I used standard car bodyfiller to make various surfaces flat for paint (as did my painter) so that surely added to the weight. If I could do it again I would use micro as a filler as that is lighter in weight.
Delete