Dave_Miller@avivacanada.com wrote:
> It will get worse. I've been sitting at the airport for
> the last 2 months waiting for the MD-RA to allow me the
> privilege of a temporary C of A. At the moment they are
> questioning the phenolic firewall material that forms
> part of the fuselage, and the use of the Skydrive carb
> heat system.
>
> If there are any Canadian registered 912S powered
> Europas using Skydrive or similar, I would appreciate
> hearing from them, or from anyone else who can confirm
> the efficacy of the system.
>
> Now with regard to your stainless steel firewall, you
> should not have let me have Graham's phenolic one. It
> works great, and I just don't see how anyone ever got
> the stainless cut outs to fit well.
>
> In a rather depressed mood
>
>
> .Dave C-FBZI
I can confirm that my 912S engined Europa has the SkyDrive
carb heat kit.
When the PFA was asked they said that this was a
recognised "mod" from the engine distributor and that the
only paperwork I had to go through was to have a PFA
Inspector sign it off after installation.
As the PFA is normally quite pedantic about requiring full
mod application (to themselves) - for them to accept the
SkyDrive carb heat kit was a sign that it was definitely OK !
I note that Lockwood also sells the same thing in the US
so I am not sure whether it is a Brit item, or a Rotax
item, or where it comes from.
Be advised though that the SkyDrive carb heat kit requires
HEAT in the water system. I have been reading
incredulously about builders who have baffled up the
tunnel and have no problems with cooling. Of course
"enough" cooling is fine in the summer and "overcooling"
in the winter is OK for the engine, but not for the carb
heaters.
In fact I see that there are three modes of flying
(although any position between them is also possible)
1. Take off on a very hot day
2. Cruise and descent on a cold day
3. Take off on a cold day/cruise on a hot day
It is not possible to have a fixed baffle set-up which
produces optimum air-flow in the radiators to keep the
temps in the best band (80 - 90 C) at all times.
Adjustable baffles are needed.
Now there are NO thermostats in the engine - water or oil
Ideally an oil thermostat could be used which would allow
quicker warm up, and the radiator (which is too big) could
be uncovered so that hot weather cooling was improved.
Such a thermostat is available from Lockwood in the US
($60 !) and also from Franz the German Rotax
distributors.Unfortunately the PFA intheir wisdom have not
accepted either of these oil thermostats for use here
without he "full mod application process".
The PFA when asked about it told me to talk to Nigel Beale
of SkyDrive. He admitted that he had put an oil
thermostat on one of his 912 enigines in the past but so
far he hasn't responded to a request for the PFA mod
number under which it was approved. I suspect that as a
"engine manufacturer" he could do that without PFA formal
mod (similar to the way Europa made several changes and
experiments with G-KITZ !)
--
Richard
Richard F.W. Holder 01279 842804 (POTS)
Bell House, Bell Lane, 01279 842804 (fax)
Widford, Ware, Herts, 07860 367423 (mobile)
SG12 8SH email : richard.holder@avnet.co.uk
Europa Classic Tri-gear : G-OWWW, High Cross
PA-28-181 : Piper Archer : G-JANA, EGSG (Stapleford)
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