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Yeah, me too. BUT, it will give me a better plane.....not perfect, as I
hope to fly some day, but better. Yeah, that's it, that's the ticket, yeah.
;-)
All the best,
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net]On
Behalf Of Al Wick
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 10:06 AM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Jeffco Problem...worst day as a builder
Oh man. I'd be so upset. Sorry you have had to go thru this.
-al wick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Christopher Barber" <CBarber@TexasAttorney.net>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Monday, August 11, 2008 7:28 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Jeffco Problem...worst day as a builder
Well, this was the worst builder day I have had. That includes the day I
realized I had to build a new rotary engine, which, btw, was running better
each day before this fuel issue developed.
As the collective from the various list I am on may recall, I have had
persistent fuel leak issues. A few weeks ago I had a visit from the fine men
of the Ellington/JSC/NASA fire department when I leaked a few gallons on to
the hangar floor while I was at home sleeping late. Also, I thought my
original clear factory tubes failed due to ethanol. They had turned color
and became brittle (turns out they had not YET leaked.
I tried sucking new Jeffco into where I thought the leak was (very hard to
reach area behind the spar. I found a loose hard point and since I was
having some fuel seep through the floor of my cabin I thought maybe the fuel
was seeping in behind the hard point into the foam to the cabin floor. Since
the two hard points from the strake fuel line were both put in per plans
years ago (before my choice to use a rotary, thus auto fuel) they were
installed with EZ-84/flox. Since the flox around the loose hard point seemed
a bit "off" I decided to redo both of them with Jeffco. At the same time I
also took out the factory fuel elbow fittings as mentioned above and
installed Vance Atkinson's gages. I did this over the last few days.
I thought all was well, but when I added fuel to the right strake only, I
still had fuel seeping through the cabin floor. So, I am having fuel leak
though the inner foam. I spoke with Velocity, Inc who stated I could either
go into the inner skin around the stake storage area or cut a hole in the
top of the strake to find the leak. I chose to go into the top of the strake
as I thought it would be better to not try to patch a leak from the outside.
So, I cut a hole in the strake to apply Jeffco to try to find/cure the leak.
EEEEEEAAAAAKKKKK. I opened up the top right strake and the Jeffco on the top
of the strake was sitting in the bottom of the tank. OMG!!!!. Almost all the
Jeffco from the top of the strake had fallen off. It was all flaky and not
adhering. Also, a number of places from the sides and bottom had also fallen
off.
I called Velocity, Inc and they said they had never had this issue before.
They suggested I look in the other stake to see if the problem was there
too. We discussed when I applied it and how. Now guys and gals, I am not a
complete incompetent. I know I sanded stakes before I applied the Jeffco, I
mixed it well and per instructions. Also, the top strake Jeffco was applied
at a different time/batch from the sides/bottom. The Velocity top strake is
a pre-built piece and is laid on the strake sides/bottom in a separate step
and the Jeffco is applied to the top before you seal it, then you seal it
with more Jeffco.
I have never had more than about 20 gallons of fuel in the system (about 60
total capacity). I have had the fuel sit in the strakes for a long while
though. I used the Jeffco since it is supposed to be more resistant to fuels
like diesel and auto, even with ethanol...at least that was my
understanding. Some ares of the strakes seem pretty good (but I don't trust
any of it now). I did get TWO, one gallon kits of Jeffco back when I did
this part of the build. My first thought is that perhaps one of the buckets
was a bad batch. Donno.
I did cut into the pilot strake too. It was not as bad. The top of the
strake looks good, but I do have some flaking on the sides. There are four
compartments in each strake. I cut into one on the co-pilot side, and three
on the pilot side so far. One on the pilot side seems perfect (so far). The
inconsistency has me confused currently. But to be honest, after dealing
with this for a while and trying to be philosophical about it...such as I
would much rather find it now, I walked away and worked on re-attaching my
ailerons after balancing them.
So, it seems many of those other fuel issue may have not been the problem I
thought they were....this does seem to be the cause for when the fire
department came out as that leak just seem to happen. When I pressure
tested this system a few years back, all seemed fine.
I am posting the pix on the Canardzone but I am posting this message on a
few sites like FlyRotary and the Velocity Builders site. The factory asked
me to post too so they could have a look and determine if this may be a
isolated incident (such as me missing something big) OR if it could be a
bigger problem. Well, here are some of the pix I took....if they are blurry,
don't worry, it is only my tears......
The link to pictures is
http://www.canardzone.com/forum/showthread.php?p=25569&posted=1#post25569
All the best,
Chris
-Al Wick
Cozy IV powered by Turbo Subaru 3.0R with variable valve lift and cam
timing.
Artificial intelligence in cockpit, N9032U 240+ hours from Portland, Oregon
Glass panel design, Subaru install, Prop construct, Risk assessment info:
http://www.maddyhome.com/canardpages/pages/alwick/index.html
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