Toryn

1 hour ago, ShawnM said:

Wow, what a difference a balanced prop makes. I was blown away how much smoother my prop was.  

Really looking forward to finding out soon.   Also thought it was a bit strange that the previous owner had screws of 3 different lengths holding on the spinner cone for the 2 blade.  All in all though, that prop is still in pretty good shape.  What do you guys think it’s worth?   I believe I saw they are about $1850 new on the sensenich site.  

On 10/28/2021 at 12:32 AM, rtk said:

 I’ve advised my Mothers friend of my experience with gaining a couple of knots TAS from ceramic coating! 🙂

Confirmed.  Gained a few knots and had to bring back the rpm’s to keep my cruise in the green haha.  I have been dealing with a vibration issue with that 2 blade prop and decided to swap it out for a 3 blade.  Pitched it for 3.5.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get a dynamic balance scheduled soon to make it perfect, but it’s way better already.  

13 hours ago, rtk said:

 I’ve advised my Mothers friend of my experience with gaining a couple of knots TAS from ceramic coating! 🙂

Looking forward to it.  Plus I’m probably a few lbs lighter just in the dirt and mold I was able to get out of the wing lockers lol.

On 10/26/2021 at 10:05 AM, rtk said:

Those products were:  Mothers Waterless Wash and Wax, then the Instant Detailer (good for post flight wipe down) and now the Mothers Ceramic Detailer (like the Instant Detailer except it it contains some of the ceramic silicone oxide to help with beading.)

Are you guys proud?  No more H20!!  Haha Fun project ahead! 

6 hours ago, ShawnM said:

I cringed when I saw you taxiing around in the rain, the plane is not weather proof at all and water will get in the wings and other places if you are not careful. There are places in the wings and tail that you don't want to get wet.  

I have only washed my plane once with a hose right after I bought it 8 years ago and have never washed it with a hose since and never will. Big mistake in my opinion as water will get in places you don't want it and bad things will happen. You have heard of "rust" yes?  

Wow guys, thanks for the wisdom on this… I mean it makes sense to me that corrosion can occur with water, but I’d assumed being an aircraft that may inadvertently encounter bad weather involving water that bare metal surfaces would be primed and painted to help prevent this.  What about morning dew that forms pretty much everywhere?  Is it more about the volume of water pooling in certain areas?  I’m glad that we only pulled it out of the hangar to get a quick vid of the lights and immediately towel dried it after we put it back in about 10 minutes later    That being said, what’s your preferred method of getting the dirt off the plane and shining it up? 

       I’ll make it a point to avoid water from here forward and look into the ceramic coating.  Like Bob mentioned, I’d seen that pro vinyl wrap shops were ceramic coating wrapped vehicles because it preserved the life of the wrap and helped slow the fading of bright colors, which definitely relates to our SC.   Again, thank you both for the insight.

28 minutes ago, rtk said:

see some mold (mildew?) on the underside of the wing locker door.  Mine had that too.  I cleaned it off with all purpose cleaner, and then used some ceramic spray on it to help prevent the mold from recurring

Thanks, I’ll definitely give that a try.  There was a very strong mold/mildew smell there when we opened it.  Where did you find the ceramic spray?  

50 minutes ago, ShawnM said:

I'm still shocked that your plane didn't have the flat mounts molded into the wingtip like mine and other legacy SportCruisers.

Yeah that would have made things so much easier   I appreciate any time spent on your  design for my wing curve… I’ll be more than happy to compensate you for it.   Side note, the 2nd Gen NLG is in the plane.  My hunt still continues for a 3rd gen, unless you’re still thinking it may be best just to swap to a more reinforced fork.  The 2nd gen is noticeably thicker in diameter and much straighter than the one I just removed so that makes me feel a bit better.   And by the way… you were right, getting that gear back in and safety wired in that small space was absolute murder.  I’m thinking the next swap is the old saggy stained leather interior (especially the side panels) that currently have that fresh - 1967 station wagon smell after it’s been sitting in a dusty garage for a few years haha.  Plus the exterior is now completely different so a color change is in order.    Speaking of color, check out the view we got the first time we opened the right wing locker.   Still trying to figure out the best way to deal with this mess. 

On 10/20/2021 at 9:39 PM, ShawnM said:

Hi Toryn and glad to hear everything is going as planned. I'm still working on the light mounts as they are turning out a bit more difficult that I had thought. Getting the curve of the wingtip into CAD has been tricky but I'm close........I think. I'm not used to machining 3D compound curves but it has been an adventure. How your plane ended up without any flat mount is still a mystery to me. 

Hey Shawn, no worries!  You’ve inspired me to be more able to handle things like this if the needs arise.  I love reading your posts about all the mods you’ve made..  I decided this was a great opportunity, so I researched CAD, then researched all sorts of plasma cutters.  After alot of YouTube,  I decided the best option was to learn to design using Autodesk Fusion 360 software.  Being a med student a was able to get free full access to all aspects of the program.   I then decided to learn how to 3D print… so after a lot more YouTube I decided on the Creality Ender 3 V2.  After designing my bases for the Aveo Nav/strobe wing lights including the complex curves, with proper mounting screw hole dimensions in Fusion 360, I chose Cura as my slicer to create G-code files that the 3D printer can read, I chose Carbon Fiber Polycarbonate to print them up due to its immense strength, heat durability and light weight.  Each base only ways 10 grams.  I then wrapped the border of each to match the wing tip wrap which took them each to 12 grams.  After rewiring the lighting and removing the original box behind the copilot seat, I was in business!  Everything is working perfectly and looks MUCH more updated.  Thanks again for the motivation Shawn!

19 minutes ago, DavePilot said:

my wife and I were ALSO both student pilots at the same time way back in 2011 and we also decided to BUY the flight school airplane - a great decision * - this has worked very well for us !

have y’all both Solo’d yet ?

 

* Owning your own airplane is definitely a MONEY MAKING Enterprise….at least that’s our story and we are sticking to it…

LOL

 

 

 

 

 

I’m about 20 hours in and should be soloing any time now.  She is just getting started.  It’s been a great experience so far, but definitely more of the money SPENDING enterprise so far haha.  Although we did catch somewhat of a break on the hull insurance.  Also due to new FAA regs, we got the LODA immediately. 

1 hour ago, ronin5573 said:

Why do I hear the party pooper song in my head right now ??? 

There’s a party pooper song?    Forgot to mention the plane was converted to ELSA some time ago by the previous owner, which we’d verified with documentation. 

Hey friends, 

     My name is Toryn.   I’m a 4th year med student currently rotating in Michigan.  Prior to that I was the frontman for a rock band called FUEL and touring lead vocalist for Apocalyptica from Finland, among others.   My girlfriend and I are student pilots that recently became SportCruiser owners because we wanted our own plane to train in and we’d researched how great SportCruisers were to train in.  We found one in Ohio in Barnstormers that had a somewhat rocky past including damage from a prior incident in which the canopy had opened during flight which apparently caused the owner at the time to set down off field which caused some damage to the wings.  This had all been repaired prior to us seeing it for the first time.  After hiring an an aircraft mechanic with Rotax experience to fly down and do a pre buy inspection for us, we decided to negotiate a fair price off the asking and became the new owners of N85PB.  
     There were some immediate changes that we wanted to make.  The plane had no ADSB and it was still using the Garmin 496 GPS.  After reviewing all the options, we decided to swap the 327 transponder for the 345 for the ADSB in/out.  We swapped the 496 GPS for the touchscreen Aera 660 which also works with our SL40 radio.   The colors weren’t really us, so we decided to wrap the plane in fluorescent red and carbon fiber vinyl after researching options vs paint.  New weight and balance planned but we feel the additions will be minimal.  We weren’t able to find a 3rd Gen NLG, but install a 2nd Gen we’d found online in the interim, as the 1st Gen was bent and we didn’t have any confidence in that whatsoever.  Lastly, we have removed the original lights which were strobe only. (No navs).  We will be replacing them with the powerburst lights described by ShawnM in prior posts here.  He has been great in guiding our decisions in revisions.  Anyway, great to meet you all!  Enjoy the photos of our recent changes! -TG