From: "Richard Schultz" <Rschultz5@houston.rr.com>
Subject: Europa-List: Oshkosh by air - return by Avis UPDATE
"For those keeping up with the story of the engine problem.
I used my enclosed trailer to recover the aircraft from its temporary
exile
in Iowa and have returned it to Houston. I had hoped that the time apart
would give the plane a chance to think about it attitude.
I was off today and finally got around to pulling the cowls and going back
through the engine fuel system one step at a time. The fuel filters, as
before were clean. Testing the pumps showed the normal amount of unregulated
fuel flow of about 5 gallons in 10 minutes. Looking at the carburetor system
for how it works the mixture. I pulled each of the vacuum lines and checked
them for holes and cracks. I also inspected the 3-way valve for any dirt or
blockage. I pulled the airbox pressure sensor and checked that it was clean
of dirt and open to the back. I then pulled the static port that plugs in
through the firewall. I was surprised to feel it stick in the firewall as I
pulled it out. Looking back through the hole I noticed a rubber tube end
facing the inside of the hole?
Not remembering adding a vent hose to the sensor end I opened the access
panel to the firewall and removed the radios from the stack to get my hands
inside the panel to see what I had done.. I found the source of my problem
attached to a 3 inch piece of tape clearly marked REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT.
I had left the cover over the end of the static port during sanding and
painting and had made plans to remove it before installing the instrument
panel. Guess what I forgot to do! UGH I left the rubber end cap on the
static port. I guess the first 80 hours the engine was run in a lower and
cooler environment then the last part of the Oshkosh trip. The added height
and temp was enough the cause the fuel-air mixture to be too lean with the
static port plugged.
I will give the plane a good going over this weekend while I have it
stripped down as I am at the 100 hour mark and want to check every thing but
I plan to get a flight test in the early part of next week weather
permitting.
Lesson learned if you plan to do something later, ADD it to your annex E
check list so you double check you got back to it. While this had a happy
ending it could have been a lot more exciting if the power failure had been
complete and at night."
Richard,
This perhaps not everybody's best idea (and too late for those
already built) but:
Anywhere in the build manual where I have not carried out the
instruction to the letter (saving distortion nuts till later or whatever) I
have put a red dot on the outer top corner of the sheet and a red line
opposite the applicable direction - so that in review I can scan through the
manual and correct the installation to its final state, put an 'X' throught
the red dot, initial and date the correction, and annotate the applicable
sentence.
Then I ran a notice on the title page, describing this process for the
examiner and any one else, so that it became an intrinsic part of the build.
The Binx nuts were a typical sample.
Ferg Kyle
Europa A064 914 Classic
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