Posted Wednesday, November 4, 2009 @ 12:44 PM  

Many congratulations, and welcome to our exclusive band of Fournier-loving pilots.

Please, please be very careful with that carb. Dribbling fuel and a wooden airframe covered in highly flammable dope add up to the serious risk of disaster, mostly on the ground during starting, but also in the air.

A well-known and highly respected British pilot was killed by an in-flight fire earlier this year, and many, many airplanes have been destroyed on the ground the same way.

Earlier today I saw a silencer (muffler) that had been blown wide open along its seam because of an over-rich mixture during starting. Just imagine a sheet of yellow flame ripping anong the side of your airplane when the engine eventually starts, or a spark igniting a pool or a dribble of fuel within the cowlings.

Earlier in the week, Matthew and I held a foot-square piece of his old rudder fabric and I lit it with a match. I had to drop it within a second. It didn't so much burn as explode in my hand. Food for thought!

Now I am extra glad my Australian one is covered in non-flammable Polyfiber.

Please take care Ray, but do keep on enjoying that little plane.

Posted Thursday, November 5, 2009 @ 05:03 PM  

I'll bring the cell if you are thinking of dropping in for a visit, I'll be the guy with the Big Ass Smile.

858-232-7063

[Edit by jb92563 on Thursday, November 5, 2009 @ 05:09 PM]

Posted Monday, November 9, 2009 @ 11:45 AM  

I certainly had my doubts about the Aerocarb but after reading the install and operating directions that came with the carb
and adjusting the valve tappet gaps this weekend, I am happy to report that the Aerocarb does not slober fuel anymore
and starts right up on each start attempt either hot or cold in no more that 5 props when hot and ussually on the second prop
when cold.

I set the Valve tappet gaps set at .006" according to my Great Plains VW Aeroconversion manual, since I could not find a value in
the RF4D Operating Manual. (just found the Rectimo Manual with the proper values....I'll regap)

This book is a great reference for VW assembly and setup as it relates to Aero Conversions.

I found most of the Valves were badly out of spec, some being 1/4" gap and others being essentially no gap.

I'm sure that was a big factor in the hard starting and am frankly surprised it ran as well as it did like that.

I am sure hand proping would work for me as well at this point although I saw no reason to risk trying it out.

Like anything else you just have to follow the manufacturers instructions and do things the way they suggest.

I did not rotate the carb to "split" the fuel stream but am still considering that option.

I am still thinking about Bob G's warning about the Aerocarb and am being cautious about it and looking to eliminate danger in that area.

Making sure that if fuel does drip that it is not near anything hot and has no place to pool in the cowl.

Also going to wrap the exhaust pipes with heat barrier tape to reduce in cowl radiated heat.

I also want to seal some fresh air leaks in the carb area so it is forced to suck warm air to reduce the risk of Icing.

I'll need to get a probe in the area of the carb and try to measure the carb intake temp inflight at some point.

I have Wednessday off (Vetrans Day) and will be going flying

[Edit by jb92563 on Monday, November 9, 2009 @ 01:24 PM]

Posted Monday, November 9, 2009 @ 02:35 PM  

I did not want to try full lean since its likely the engine would stop producing power, or stumble/misfire badly and did not think all that vibration and irregular power pulses would be very conducive to crankshaft and prop life.

It would be my preference to not run in the stumble region at all as those stumbles after time must weaken or break things inside the engine I would imagine.

There are all sorts of good leaning advice on aircraft engines that may be designed to handle rough running but I don't think I would want to subject the poor little VW to that kind of torture for the sake of saving a bit of fuel.

When at Coolige airport in AZ, I spoke to the replica Spitfire owner and he said his fuel consuption in the 12 cylinder Allison was 50 gals/hr so it put our tiny 3.5 gal/hr into persepctive.

If you need to do longer flights then install more fuel capacity, soar or fly slower rather than torture the VW for a saving of maybe 0.5 gal/hr tops by running it in the rough region.

Thats my 2 cents, but I'm rather conservative when my butt hangs in the balance.

Posted Monday, November 9, 2009 @ 05:12 PM  

I just mentally estimated 3.5 gph as a conservative frame of reference for my flight and
I think the precise figures will be somewhat less than that.