World Wide Web Woes

In between the many non-aviation related chores I need to tend to these days my thoughts wandered off and continued to mull over how the engine for my Ibis homebuilt aircraft is going to look like.

The thing I contemplated the last couple of weeks is ‘compression ratio‘.
After collecting a lot of information from various sources I was flabbergasted at the large spread of data points.
Ultra high compression high-revving engines that apparently get by with using low-octane fuel as well as engines with a very low compression ratio that still need Avgas 100LL to run smoothly.
Obviously there was something wrong with my data points….

Then it dawned on me that one could measure compression rato in multiple ways:
- The maximum possible compression ratio would be calculated by determining the ratio of head volume above the piston (when the piston is at TDC) with the volume displaced by the piston between TDC and BDC.
- The ‘net’ compression ratio would also take the position of the valves into consideration. Think about it: if the intake valve is still opened a bit when the piston is at bottom dead center (i.e. the intake valve closes with the piston after BDC) this would reduce the effective/net compression ratio, as the full piston swing between TDC and BDC should not be used for compression ratio calculations.

Likely old hat for you engine buffs, but something I never considered before. Clearly, I somehow need to normalise my data points if I ever am going to base any decision on these….

Hi,

after finishing the renovation of my workshop (soundproofing, thermal isolation, lighting, etc.) I’m happy to report that I’m back at building my RJ.03 IBIS homebuilt aircraft.

Last Saturday I put in a couple of hours towards completing the main gear.

This picture below is an early one showing the bare main gear laminate, which is built up from ash strips. I’ve been working on mounting the wheels, flanges and other sundrie.

Check it out on my RJ.03 IBIS main gear page…

Electronic Iginition for my Aircraft

The VW aero engine for my RJ.03 IBIS is going to get a double Leburg electronic ignition system.
The electronic ignition system originating from the UK is generic enough to have been installed on VW’s, Subarus, KFM’s and a C65, all of this with the endorsement of the British LAA (formerly known as the Popular Flying Association).

Automotive ignition coils

Each of the Leburg electronic ignition controllers drives an automotive Visteon (Ford USA) ignition coil unit.
These units are vacuum impregnated with epoxy and have a sealed EHT connector. This makes them very robust and water proof.

Full story on my IBIS canard project site

To read the rest of this story and to check out more pictures, see: Leburg electronic ignition for RJ.03 IBIS aero engine

EDWJ/Juist after all

Some time back an attempted FlyBlog-4 meeting on Juist (EDWJ) got flushed down the drain by a persistent patch of dense fog in the northern part of the Netherlands, causing those members who are based there to cancel the event.

Juist, one of the westerly Frisian Isles

EDWJ is located on a flat piece of land outside the dikes that protect the southern part of Juist Island. Five days after our visiting EDWJ, the first serious storm during the autumn 2007 flooded the entire airstrip. Luckily there was ample warning, so that all aircraft and other equipment could be moved inside the dikes before the high tide and storm struck the airport.

Größere Kartenansicht

For canard-afficionados: you might want to zoom in and do a search: there’s a SpeedCanard parked here somewhere…:)

For more information and pictures, check out my FlyBlog-5 Fly-in Report.

A couple of times a year, a group of flying Dutchmen who also keep a blog about their aviation related hobby meet face to face and of course travel to these meetings by air, preferably as pilot-in-command…
This time I was actually able to fit the event into my schedule.

The fly-in was to take place at JUIST (EDWJ), a German island, one of many that decorate the coastline of The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.

At the end of the day I was the only one to show up on JUIST, read this FlyBlog-4 report, to learn what had transpired on my first ever attendance…

As of today, I’m yet one more step nearer to finalising my RJ.03 IBIS instrument panel specification - this time by getting the flight timer (that had been on order for quite some time…) delivered to my doorstep.

I noticed the postman nearing our front door, so he needn’t ring twice as I was quicker this time. The photograph below shows what the instrument looks like.

If you want to learn more about it, check out: my IBIS project website

enjoy!

October 2nd 2007 became a sad day for the local flying club I was a member of at the time. A Cessna172 crash ensued after not aborting a touch & go that should have been aborted. One of the photo’s further down this page shows what the results looked like after the Cessna Skyhawk had come to a grinding halt.

RWY 03 was in use at the time. The Cessna 172 crashed into a swampy field almost directly on the extended runway center line behind RWY 03. The swampy field - together with the airbags in the seat belts - might well have saved the life of both elderly pilots.
The husband/wife crew had flown an number of traffic patterns and touch & goes. After multiple bounces at the attempted landing, not a lot of runway was left to continue with yet another take-off. Why a takeoff wasn’t aborted after the last bounce is currently unclear. The Cessna 172 crashed almost exactly on the RWY 03 centerline extension, about 300-350 metres (appr. 1000′) on the NNE side of Jevenau Creek (see map further down below).

The aircraft crashed with its nose almost pointing back to the runway. Perhaps a post-rotation asymmetric stall situation - leading to the starboard wing tip to touch the ground, a fence at the end of the runway or something else - may have induced a rotation of the entire aircraft, which caused it to crash tail first. Again a lucky circumstance for the pilots involved, because if the Cessna 172 would have crashed with the nose in the intended direction of flight, mass moment of inertia would most likely have caused the plane to tumble over at impact and the aircraft could well have ended up on its back.

The picture below shows the Cessna 172 crash site in the direction of the runway, meaning that you’re actually looking into the direction of RWY 21. At the north-east side of the airport, the field is elevated quite a bit above the local swampy fields, as is convincingly illustrated here. Visiting pilots please take note!

What can I say? At the end of the day, an aircraft is merely a stack of material wrought into that lovely shape that intrigues us so much. The important thing is that for the two pilots involved, it was a landing they could walk away from…..

During the weekend of ‘le grand jour de la grande nation’ I had the pleasure of spending some time in Vichy and Roanne.
During this weekend, I visited the RSA fly-in and also met one of the IBIS designers, who invited me to be checked out on two of these birds.

For more information about this weekend, check out: Visiting the 2007 RSA fly-in

Enjoy!

That’s me in the back seat, preparing for my very first RJ.03 IBIS checkout flight. After 4 flights and some 2.5 hrs flying time I can tell you: canards are a different flock of birds…

The realtiy of building my experimental airplane made me re-think the instrument panel concepts for my RJ.03 IBIS.
On the one hand, I didn’t want to commit cash to the tune of something like a GNS 430 early on in the project, thinking that as my project progresses, electronics will become more economical and more powerfull as well.
On the other hand, I needed to plan the panel, wiring & wire routing, etc. to be able to continue with the fuselage. I didn’t like the idea of having to back track in the future at a moment in time where the fuselage is closed and modifying things becomes awkward.
So, after putting my thinking cap on and after inviting a glass of very nice Gragganmore in the supporting act, I modified my wishlist, dropped the GNS unit and started from scratch.

What I ended up with was the decision to use older equippement that is currently being phased out by those that upgrade to the latest cry in avionics.

At this moment in time, I have my avionics stack complete, with the exception of a VHF tranceiver and a transponder.

Preparing for a homebuilt aircraft project is an interesting exercise, especially so if it’s your first homebuilt airplane project and if you happen to be relocating at the same time.
I’ve added a few pages about what I did to convert an old double garage into a genuine aircraft building workshop.
In addition to this, there’s also information about how I store my wooden building materials (especially plywood and timber) for my RJ.03 IBIS homebuilt airplane project.