Hi Scott,
I did an inspection today of an RV12 SLSA. Everything looks great and you guys did a nice job with the engine systems and hoses.
I do have a couple of suggestions for the company assembling these.
1. Safety wire the oil magnetic plug.
2. Safety wire the oil pressure plug screw just below and to the left of the oil filter on the bottom.
3. Safety wire the exhaust springs.
4. Don't fill the exhaust springs with silicone. We discuss this in some classes. When you fill them the springs retain heat and can prematurely fail. When left empty they have air circulation for some heat dissipation. Rotax recommends the high temp RTV to be placed on the outside of the exhaust spring. A small pencil thin bead isn't strong enough to do a good vibration dampening job. Making it about 3/8" (up to 1/2") wide by about 1/8" (up to 1/4" thick and working it in between the coils does a great job of letting heat dissipate, dampening vibration and allows you to pass the safety wire down through the center of the exhaust spring.
5. Don't over tighten the carb throttle arm cable nut. This plane had wire throttle cable trands cut.
6. Don't cut the throttle cable too short leave it about 2" past the throttle arm attachment so you have some room to adjust the cable length if need be or trim the end of the cable if it frays. This plane had its cable trimed right up at the throttle arm screw.
7. Use a clear plastic line off the fuel pump drain. You have a nice aluminum line, but you'll never really know if the pump is oozing or has a slow leak unless you get down to the bottom of the tube and find an oily tip which might not happen due to a slow ooze and or the air blowing it off the tube tip. The clear line allows an owner to see an oozing fuel pump in a second.
Nice aircraft and the owner was very happy with it and whom ever set the prop rpm did a nice job by not over pitching the prop. It had really good performance.
I did an inspection today of an RV12 SLSA. Everything looks great and you guys did a nice job with the engine systems and hoses.
I do have a couple of suggestions for the company assembling these.
1. Safety wire the oil magnetic plug.
2. Safety wire the oil pressure plug screw just below and to the left of the oil filter on the bottom.
3. Safety wire the exhaust springs.
4. Don't fill the exhaust springs with silicone. We discuss this in some classes. When you fill them the springs retain heat and can prematurely fail. When left empty they have air circulation for some heat dissipation. Rotax recommends the high temp RTV to be placed on the outside of the exhaust spring. A small pencil thin bead isn't strong enough to do a good vibration dampening job. Making it about 3/8" (up to 1/2") wide by about 1/8" (up to 1/4" thick and working it in between the coils does a great job of letting heat dissipate, dampening vibration and allows you to pass the safety wire down through the center of the exhaust spring.
5. Don't over tighten the carb throttle arm cable nut. This plane had wire throttle cable trands cut.
6. Don't cut the throttle cable too short leave it about 2" past the throttle arm attachment so you have some room to adjust the cable length if need be or trim the end of the cable if it frays. This plane had its cable trimed right up at the throttle arm screw.
7. Use a clear plastic line off the fuel pump drain. You have a nice aluminum line, but you'll never really know if the pump is oozing or has a slow leak unless you get down to the bottom of the tube and find an oily tip which might not happen due to a slow ooze and or the air blowing it off the tube tip. The clear line allows an owner to see an oozing fuel pump in a second.
Nice aircraft and the owner was very happy with it and whom ever set the prop rpm did a nice job by not over pitching the prop. It had really good performance.
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