Air Dave

FEFY flies again!

April 14, 2007 on 8:59 pm | In Aviation | 21752 Comments

Thursday afternoon I made the first flight with the engine re-installed.  The performance was unbelievable, it was like flying a completely different airplane.

It’s Saturday evening now and I have just over 5 hours of flight time on the engine.

My previous full throttle speed was 100kts, I’m now getting 120kts.  Quite a significant increase.

Here’s a few assorted photos of the engine installation and interior cleanup.

     

   

   

 

The Engine arrives!!

March 30, 2007 on 7:39 pm | In Aviation | 5024 Comments

I picked up the engine today..   Here’s some before.. And after photos.

  

Ken has certainly performed his usual magic in rebuilding the engine.  The performance promises to be comparable to the appearance of the engine based on the 1 hour test run that was done at the shop.

Engine ready for pickup..

March 27, 2007 on 9:48 pm | In Aviation | 5104 Comments

I got the call from Ken Vike at Vike Aeromotive yesterday.  The engine had just been fired up and run on the test cell at the engine shop. 

Ken reported that the engine was running great, and was in fact turning the test prop 30-50 RPM faster than average.  That translates into extra horsepower when the engine is able to turn the prop faster. 

I’m really excited to see the difference in performance in the plane once it’s all back together.  The engine was originally 150hp, with all the upgrades and the tuned exhaust I’m expecting to be producing about 180hp. 

The engine has been stripped of all the old paint and repainted with colours to match the stripes on the plane.  Photo will be posted soon!

 

Engine upgrade continues..

March 27, 2007 on 9:40 pm | In Aviation | 255 Comments

The plan of a simple installation of a new exhaust has grown into a major production.

The original plan was to order the PowerFlow exhaust, and while waiting the 3 weeks for it to arrive install high compression pistons. 

In the process some corrosion was spotted on the cam followers inside the engine, which then meant it was time for the dreaded “bottom overhaul” on the engine..  Then since the engine was off, I might as well strip the engine mount, have it NDT’d, and repainted.  I also sent the oil cooler out for overhaul, and the alternator.  Most parts on the plane have only been in service for 1000 hours, which isn’t much, but considering that it was over a 30 year period, they were due to be checked over..

While waiting for all the parts to come back from their overhauls I stripped the paint off the firewall, and repainted the lower half, and polished the upper half.  It took a lot of effort, but I think the result was more than worth it!

     

 I also didn’t like the look of the forward float fittings, so I removed them.  Very good thing I did as there was a lot of hidden corrosion.  Fortunately it was caught in time, another year and it would have become very expensive to repair the aluminium skins.

     

On the inside of the plane, the lower left engine mount bracket and stringer were showing signs of corrosion.  About 60 rivets had to be drilled out to remove the parts.  Again fortunately the corrosion was caught in time and the parts were able to be restored.  If you look at the first photo below, you can see the rust on the steel fitting.  The aluminum in contact with the steel was also starting to corrode.  The 2 parts would have cost about $700US to replace with new ones.  How’s that for incentive to keep on top of any corrosion you might spot!

 

 When Cessna built the plane in 1973, fiberglass insulation was glued to the inside of most of the cabin.  It’s common practice to remove all the original insulation these days and replace it with a fireproof type of closed cell foam.  The fiberglass tends to hold onto any moisture, and keeps it in contact with the aluminum.  A perfect example of this was the bottom side of my glareshield.  I was replacing the hoses in the vacuum system when I decided to remove the fiberglass insulation in this area, here’s what I found:

   
The brown colour is the remains of the contact cement and fiberglass insulation, the corrosion is the white powdery looking stuff.  A couple hours of cleanup and re-paint and this area will be like new again.

While I’m showing the worst of the problem areas in my photos, the plane is in great shape.  I’m really happy to be finding and correcting all these issues before they become more serious.

More engine pics…

February 4, 2007 on 4:52 pm | In Aviation | 5507 Comments

   

 Painting some parts..

  Installing the ADC oil filter.

FEFY gets more Horsepower!

February 2, 2007 on 10:36 pm | In Aviation | 774 Comments

Rachael and I did a day trip to Oliver, BC last weekend.  Enroute I noticed that the CO detector was showing signs of exhaust gas in the cockpit.  Shutting off the cabin heat resolved the problem for the remainder of the flight.  That night I pulled the exhaust off the aircraft and found two small cracks where the exit stack meets the muffler can.  

I’ve had two upgrades for the engine in mind since buying the plane.  First I wanted to install high compression pistons, which take the engine from 150hp up to 160hp.   Later I was planning to add a PowerFlow tuned exhaust system, which claims to add a further 23hp.   With the crack in the exhaust it changed my plans around and it appeared that the exhaust was now going to come first..  After thinking it over for a couple days I came to the conclusion that I might as well just do both upgrades in one shot..  The timing is good being winter and only flying the plane a couple times a month recently, better now than in the middle of summer.  The timing works well to install the ADC oil filter system, all my parts have arrived to start that install.

So…  Here’s how the plane looks 6 days later..

   

  Just for reference..  Here’s how the engine looks when it’s all together.

I’ll post more pictures as parts arrive and things start going back together.