Sport Pilot Talk

It was the perfect day to do it, but as my co-pilot said: "We got chicken s#*t before the top!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l963pPQocE4

.......

Pretty flight. I've been wanting to go down there this summer. Dunsmuir's only an hour and a half from here. Thanks for the inspiration.

drdehave wrote:Thanks! There certainly was some pent-up demand to fly, after being down nearly 2 months!

Question: Has anyone flown to 12,000 feet, then checked their spark plugs right afterwards? Mine showed rich-running across the board. I assume this is normal, and that the auto-mixture compensation provided by the rubber diaphragms just doesn't "cut-it" (i.e., provide perfect mixture) that high?

It is my understanding that the plugs will be sooty up from just the little of taxi time from the runway back to the hangar after landing.

I love these videos, love the scenery, love your attention to detail and love your little plane.

Must be great having it back in the air.

BTW, I would probably go ahead and check the float bowls and strainer screens after nearly every flight for a while, to make sure no detritus is working its way from the tanks into the system.

Eddie: "BTW, I would probably go ahead and check the float bowls and strainer screens after nearly every flight for a while, to make sure no detritus is working its way from the tanks into the system."

Roger that--and thanks!

Wow. Just wow! Great video.
Thanks for sharing.

designrs wrote:Wow. Just wow! Great video.
Thanks for sharing.

+1

drdehave wrote:Thanks! There certainly was some pent-up demand to fly, after being down nearly 2 months!

Question: Has anyone flown to 12,000 feet, then checked their spark plugs right afterwards? Mine showed rich-running across the board. I assume this is normal, and that the auto-mixture compensation provided by the rubber diaphragms just doesn't "cut-it" (i.e., provide perfect mixture) that high?

I don't know if this is related what you are seeing on your plugs, but I have heard that the Bing carbs do a good job with mixture up to about 10,000 feet, but after that the mixture becomes progressively more rich.

Rich, I caught up with Wes and N93WS this past weekend at Ryan Field 2MT1. That strip is snuggled up against Glacier National Park and was the site of the RAF's annual Donor Appreciation Fly-in. As you might have seen, Wes and a friend (with whom he's crossed the Atlantic in a Mooney) are flying their Rotax powered LSA's to Alaska from Florida this summer. And back. He just completed some higher altitude flying to get over the Continental Divide and also escape Ryan via Maria's Pass, back to the Front Range in Montana.

Anyway, Wes and I were talking about the absence of a mixture control on his - and your - Rotax. He summed up the situation as 'an imperfect mixture at every altitude', which is not unlike the situation we all face with fixed pitch propellers. I think you may just be seeing the circumstances of your full recreational agenda.

BTW you'll find the Rans/Just LSA journey to Alaska and back here, if it sounds interesting:
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-en ... /tpod.html

Jack: "He summed up the situation as 'an imperfect mixture at every altitude.'"

Yes, I'm pretty sure that was all I was seeing--too rich for the 12,000' where we were. Then we descended at low power for 30 minutes, really making the plugs black!

My mechanic has installed mixture control on his Rotax 912ULS in his AeroTrek, just because of such issues. And he now frequently goes to 14,000' going X-country

My Rotax runs really well however I notice that the inside of the exhaust pipe is sooty black. Folks on the Vans Air Force forum say this is completely normal. For the past 6 months I've used 93 non-ethanol auto-gas exclusively.
My plugs were fine at 100 hours. I don't have a mixture control and my 912 ULS has dual altitude compensating carbs.

I noticed that when I first got the plane, and was using mostly 100LL with Decalin, the inside of the exhaust was a more pinkish grey and I had a thin white line around the exhaust pipe rim,which I attributed to the lead in the gas.

The airplane and engine perform well and I've flown as high as 9500'. Today I flew one leg at 4500 and 7500 on the return and got 4.5 gph based on fuel used.

While I still had my medical, I climbed my Sky Arrow to 13,500'. It was still climbing, but I did not have oxygen with me, so I stopped it there.

The engine still felt like the mixture was appropriate - so symptoms of overly rich mixture - which kind of surprised me.

Did not check the plugs, but whatever voodoo the BINGs do seems to work.