Light Aircraft Association

It is now getting to the point where most fuel supplies at UK forecourts contain up to 5% Bio-Ethanol. Many members who wish to use MOGAS in their aircraft are finding it difficult to locate sources of ethanol free fuel. It would be useful if members could put a note of the supplier and location on ...

Dave, Shell have recently introduced a fuel which they call 82UL. This from their web site; Very recently a new Avgas grade 82 UL (UL standing for unleaded) has been introduced. This is a low octane grade suitable for low compression engines. It has a higher vapour pressure and can be manufactured f...

Rod, I have been looking into the topic of ETBE in some detail recently. ETBE is manufactured using 47% of bio-ethanol and 53% Isobutylene, reacted at high temperature over a catylist. The former component is a renewable, whereas the latter is a well-head product. ETBE therefore only counts partiall...

Nigel Hitchman mentioned a reply that I made to the initial post. Here it is. The fuel situation is changing rapidly at present with more distribution loading racks supplying ethanol blended fuels. Below is a copy of the relavant sections of the Engineering Report for NC which was issued for the las...

Actually its not a bad idea to open them up once in a while. I do not have a Rotax, but I do have a Jabiru. A few years ago I was returning to Hinton from Popham when I noticed that the oil pressure was a little lower than normal. As the flight progressed the pressure dropped even lower and I divert...

Neil / Nigel Stick to the tightening sequence shown in the manual where the first sequence is 10 ftlb bottom row first. I understand the reason for this is to compress the push rod tubes evenly. If you try to do the normal diagonal sequence the heads may try to go down onto the top of the barrels co...

Tony, I notice in your first post that you have shielded the ignition leads and earhed the shielding. I had a similar problem of radio interference on my biplane when it was fitted with a VW. That installation had Slick magnetos, but the interferance was from the leads. When I fitted braded shieldin...

Mike, So far as we can tell the type certificate for the Robin series aircraft has not been revoked. The commercial scenario in France relating to these aircraft has been very complicated as of late, but we are in continuous correspondence with our collegues in RSA to monitor the situation. Hopefull...

Brian was correct in his earlier post. We have been gathering data from European Countries on their interpretation of the revision to ICAO annex 6, relating to the carriage of ELTs or PLBs We have a number of annecdotal responses from within Europe, but we feel that we really need to confirm the act...

Regardless of the forecast, the actual at Hinton-in-the-Hedges was 500ft cloudbase with light rain and mist all day. No Henstridge this year then !!
Hope that others faired better.

Kind Regards

Barry Plumb

Rob,

I flew behind a VW for about 500 hours or so in my biplane.
Always used Castrol GTX 20/50. Never gave a moments worry with lubrication, even in peak summer temps.
Straight 30 is great for running in.

Happy Landings
Barry Plumb

Chaps, Here is a little more news on the situation affecting the Robin DR series aircraft, courtesy of a good friend in RSA France. M Pellisier was the owner of three companies, Apex Aircraft, Apex Industries and CEAPR. The two Apex companies were liquidated as of 16th December 2008. Pellisier was t...

Gents, The situation regarding the DR series Robins and the CAPs is to say the least complex. Unfortunately it has also been turned into a political and legal minefield with the Courts and FFA involved. To explain the situation in purely airworthiness terms, perhaps I can help to shed a little light...

GD, You are absolutely right about those old engines being far too complicated, they must be one of the most complicated mechanisms ever created by man (short of the Hydron Colider!). In the later war years and early post war years the reciprocating engines were coming to the limit of their developm...

G.Dawes, Sorry but I just have to make a comment on the accuracy of your post. To my knowledge no one ever flew behind a three row radial. P&W made two and four row radials. The largest was the R4460, known as the corn cob. It had 4 rows of 7 cylinders. Wright aeronautical produced the appaling R335...