The new shop/hangar is taking shape...

This is the layout as it stands...



With a 5MPH headwind, 50HP should have me in the air in under 300' with enough altitude to clear a 50' obstacle (tallest tree in any direction is under 20')

You're just about in business there. Pretty serious little machine too.

jbruney said:

You're just about in business there. Pretty serious little machine too.

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Yes, the Quicksilvers are pretty much the best stuff, and while the older air-cooled Rotax engine isn't the latest/greatest, they are bulletproof with very good power.

Mine is an MX (3-axis) Sprint (proper ailerons) II (2-seater). I've converted it to single seat so it requires no license and no registration, as long as I stay in Class E airspace.

Hope that holds up for you after they begin the quest for new/more revenue. Looks like lots of enjoyment.... with maintenance guaranteed done correctly the first time.

jbruney said:

Hope that holds up for you after they begin the quest for new/more revenue. Looks like lots of enjoyment.... with maintenance guaranteed done correctly the first time.

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We're outside the city limits from the two nearest cities by a good bit, and "grandfathered in" as to restrictions. There are small ranches operating all around us, so it will be after I'm dead that my kids MIGHT ever have to deal with encroachment and tax escalation.

As for maintenance, I helped my brother-in-law build and maintain over a dozen QS ultralights when he had a dealership in the early 80s. 2-strokes are a piece of cake, no oil to leak!

The shop is looking more like an actual shop now; complete bathroom with shower done, lights & power done, workbench partially dismantled and moved in, then re-assembled without the lower shelf (to provide more ample work surface space above)-



Drove out there a couple of nights ago to fetch a pair of Norton mufflers I need to send out, and got a photo of the hangar bay lit up; it's a bit shadowy back near the tail, but ample for my needs...



So many loose ends that I get bored and start something else; set up the pipe columns and main joists for a boat shed using the leftover steel-



Still a LOT to do...

Looking good. You're getting there.

The boat shed roof went up quickly, not much to it...



Eventually, I might extend it to the same far end as the rest of the building, I just didn't have another 10"x 15' [ Purlin,, and 4 more 9' lengths of 8" Z. The thought that popped into my head as soon as I stepped back to take this photo was that I'm pretty sure I'll end up enclosing this bay and pouring a slab there...

How about a picture of the boat GP? It must be getting pretty hot there. Our Daisy got splashed last week after a month of annual fettling and varnishing etc. I’m hunting Atlantic halibut this year. Almost no chance of getting one but being well clear of land is reward in itself.

Mmm... I miss halibut. My favorite fish to eat. Just make sure its dead lest it total your boat.

At present, the 17' Sunbird (Penta 4) is suffering from a drooling water pump and non-functional bilge pump, a bad combo indeed...



Perfect for my little family of four, but I have 14 other kids including spouses & grandkids!

Pretty little runabout. I’ll bet you could swap out both pumps in two hours, sneak off with your favorite three and a picnic lunch and come back a new man.

That's today's plan, in advance of a zipline trip with the kids & grandkids, booked for Memorial day (for my wyfe's birthday). It's 5 runs with one of them being the longest zipline in Texas, that runs over a small bay on Lake Travis; rather than drive over there, the plan is to boat over to the site.

Meanwhile, I took the engine cooling shrouds off the ultralight, removed several mud dauber nests, and painted the covers; also painted the tri-bar and pulled the carb for overhaul and the exhaust for painting. I now have all the parts necessary to complete the rebuild (famous last words)

But do you have a rebuild xls to refer to? ;-)

gortnipper said:

But do you have a rebuild xls to refer to? ;-)

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OF COURSE! (modeled after the ones for the bikes). Also have one for my truck, and the boat. I stopped short of the lawnmower, but now that I think abot it, it was running a bit rough a couple days ago when I used it last...

Turns out the boat had punctured the THIRD U-turn cooling hose it's had since my son first bought it years ago. I suppose I have found the repetitive failure point of this idiotic thing. It sure didn't help that the bilge pump decided it wanted to retire on the SAME DAY...

How do you puncture one cooling hose, let alone three? Sounds like good old American engineering.

Scout63 said:

How do you puncture one cooling hose, let alone three? Sounds like good old American engineering.

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Well, the OMC Cobra (Volvo Penta 4) uses a cooling hose that makes a short 180 degree turn; that hose popped off 3 or 4 times while my son was the owner. Always ended up getting sluggish, then almost swamping on the way back to the dock with the bilge pump failing to keep up with the inflow. Then it finally tore the hose, and we replaced it with better clamps and a generic hose. That failed quickly, as it was slightly squashed making the U-turn. We replaced it with a Volvo hose.

By the time I bought/traded for the boat, it had a good number of hours on the last repair, and promptly failed on me. OF COURSE. I replaced it with another Volvo hose and this time I used bolted stainless clamps. "End of my worries!" (I thought). We've had 5 or 6 outings in the one year since, and now it did this number.

Definitely something strange about the design, and a reinforced hose is required, but not available...

Lots has happened since the last post - Swapped out the boat sump pump & cooling hose, but the starter solenoid must have taken on water, it's not responding.

The building hasn't had anything else done, it really needs hangar doors, but I'm thinking of extending it 10' in the front and pitting bi-fold doors on a dedicated frame in front of that.

We went to the beach (South Padre Island), one of my nephews took us out trout fishing (4 limits between 5 people, so pretty good fishing)



Got a lot of work done on the plane, and had it out taxiing. Two of the three runways are entirely TOO ROUGH; I need to rent a proper grader and get them smoothed out. I'm still over-reacting with rudder pedals when taxiing, I need to remember tiny moves do a lot with this bird on the ground (didn't help that it was bucking and bouncing down the runway). Need to clean the air filter and sort the jetting, as it will not rev up with the air filter on, and I didn't make a mental note of which slot the slide needle was clipped in with, before I overhauled the carb. Felt great to to at least be able to test-fire it and roll it around; not much left to do before a couple of crow-hops...



As can be seen here, the front of the slab got back-filled with a rental tractor. It also had a box blade, was abused by previous renters (already had one broken bracket when I picked it up); broke 2 more brackets and popped a hydraulic hose so I gave up trying to grade the runways and got a partial refund.

Well, I got a GREAT Father's Day gift - a pile of steel materials to build a hangar extension with DOORS! Of course, I have to BUILD it. Anyway, I still have half a box of welding rods and 10 pounds of sheet metal screws, so here we go...

Built the main front frame with one main Purlin, and put together 3 of the door frames


The trusty old '04 Chevy did the hoisting duty



Flipped the main frame over and welded on the 2nd Purlin to form the box beam... (two of the door frames "skinned" in the background)



Set the two 4" pipe bases in concrete, then we'll hoist the main 3" frame up and into the bases where they'll get set to the proper height and welded in place. Already welded split sections of 4" pipe to the 3" pipes so they'll slip in only to what SHOULD be the exact level (with 24" internal overlap). We shall see how well I set out the level lines and measurements...

If you’re extending a brand new, purpose built, building... fire the architect....!