Building the new Bushbaby SAFARI

[Bushbabie]

I asked Oupa-G about the sexy legs fitted to HOG. Thought you may all benefet from the info.
This was his reply,"They were made from en45 steel waterjet cut to the prope profile and then rolled for the correct geo metry and then heat treated and then annealed nogal a whole process."

[Karman]

So the story continues I will be glad if there are any questions do it through this page and not a PM because then I can answer it and other people can share.

Cheers Oupa-G

Hi Oupa-G

I've read most of the thread already , but still cannot find out where can "buy"/"Make" this BMW conversion , or the parts/goods needed to get it done.

Any info on this will be great.

Thanks
L:

[Oupa-G]

I'm back on line I have been reporting on everything and meanwhile I was test flying and CAA gave me their piece of up hill that is all over now. The Bosvark with all its mods is successful and flying really well.

Regarding the gear I did it it is nice and strong it has done about 500 landings now but I I had to do it again I would just put on the standard gear. If you want to do it really well you must make two gear legs that bolt on ala Cessna to save more weight. Then you must change the center section in the airframe ,I'm a bit tired of paperwork.

Regarding the BMW conversions we experimented I now have a lovely map on the ECU and the twin system is working very well. I however find that builders make mistakes in the wiring myself included.

The builders want to do their own wiring and then I spend hours on the telephone trying to make a diagnoses . In future we are going to supply wiring harnesses to the length supplied by the builder

From the drive side I have had unforeseen disintegration's and I cannot supply anybody something that I am not myself sure of so hence the delay. Even Brand X brought out electronic fuel injection and they have had their share of problems and that with a budget of 13 million Euro. Where do I come in with a home builders budget. Also the risk of litigation. I at my age would not like to have my life savings grabbed by some unscrupulous lawyer. So the modern world has changed. But we carry on the next batch of 10 are in the making.

I am now going to fly and have breakfast at Morning Star


Cheers Oupa-G

[Jean Crous]

Friday past I saw Oupa-G at Morningstar, he seemed REALLY pleased to have the ATF for the Bosvark........at long last
May you long enjoy your hard work Oupa-G !!
Regards
Jean.

[Oupa-G]

It is amazing how much fun I am having I can now fly any where without being tense about a ramp check or some thing silly.

I'm playing with the autopilot power setting and I ballasted the luggage compartment with 25l of water I can fly the aircraft anywhere just on rudders. This is so nice I'm 2 hrs short of the 100 hr inspection where I will do the filters compression etc valve play and look at the engine with a magnifying glass. I do not expect anything funny she is running to well and smoothly.

Since my refuelling cart with a proper filter cartridge my prefilters are staying much cleaner and I want to urge that everybody that refuel from cans to filter the fuel.

The water ballast is because the engine mount was designed with the ballistic chute in mind.
The ballistic chute will be fitted in the near future and then the CoG will be as where it was planned from the start.

Fitting it and routing the cables will be a bit of a "kopkrap" but we will solve that one.

With the new rules that is a minor mod. After all I am now a master and King in paperwork.


Cheers Oupa-G

[Boet]

Oom Frans, baie geluk met jou pampiere. May you have many thousands of enjoyable, safe flying in your Bosvarkie. Looking forward to your promised visit!

Fly safe.











no bloody wonder the climate is changing.....bloody useless paper chase killed another 6 acres worth of trees!

[Oupa-G]

Dankie Boet ek kan nou weer geweteloos vlieg en geweteloos skryf.

Cheers Oupa-G

[Oupa-G]

Nou n klomp gevlieg I'm getting 105mph 0n 18l/hrs

An absolute joy.

Cheers Oupa-G

[Boet]

En DIT alles.....NET terwille van die gewete. Goed dat daar nog mense met n gewete is! Veilig vlieg ou vriend!

[KFA]

Jy vlieg nou al bietjie lank rond Oom Frans .........Anything new to report?

[Oupa-G]

I know I have been quiet but lots of work and the free time is now spent flying and not building. The Bosvark is great and everything I wanted from her. The cabin is big enough and it can fit two big okes and also does not have a problem picking up the load actually with ease. It is so nice flying legally with all the papers. All the various mods I did to the engine are doing well she is super smooth and uses no oil starts on the button and she really is a kick the tyres light the fires type of aeroplane.

I recently did the 100hr inspection and service. Found nothing wrong with the inspection so it ended as a service which was oil filter Fuel filters pre and main checked the valve clearance no change then cut open the oil filter not even a bit of carbon. This is a good sign. Carbon normally comes from the bottom of the piston if the piston runs hot and then carbonizes the oil. This fits in with the oil temp where the sump oil temp runs at 85 C the oil from the valve gear comes into the radiator max 115 and leaves the radiator at 85. The exhaust is working well as well as the voyager driving the autopilot. She has done 107 hrs just running sweet. Because of these results I have decided to make another batch of ten components to help people with conversions. I was a bit cautious supplying because I had to first Iron out small problems. There is nothing worse then supplying somebody with something that does not work. The force landing I did in Namibia was totally unexpected but the clutch coupling that I have now made has changed the running of the engine to a turbine.

Enclosed some foties have a good look at the EGT's on the graph The tuning of the EboXi's took some time as I was changing the amount by 2% at a time . I'm getting there this even burning is part of the smooth operation engines to rich and to lean run rough. I so wish I had support but in the end I'm just a one man band. Comments will be appreciated because then I can answer them. Just writing and getting no feedback wears one out.

Cheers Oupa-G

[Oupa-G]

Just some pictures from my mobile phone these are the newly machined Flywheel part the extra weight on the flywheel doubles as an extra 60-2 pickup they are back for the fitting of the dowels once that is done they are of to the balancers. I have customers waiting for these parts so Sacha you will not have to wait to long now. The clutch couplers still need the final cut on the threads then they are also finished. THE Waterjet machine was newly installed at a friend of mines workshop and I can slip a job in when there is space on the machine the 60-2 gears were waterjetted and then the dowels that take the force of the starter ring gear are done on the indexing table.

That is all for this early morning of tomorrow to Botswana and Zambie and Namibia will stop in Loeriesfontein at the Bushbaby Guru sometimes also know as just Boet


Cheers Oupa-G

[Boet]

Thanks for the visit guys, we enjoyed the pleasure of you company. On Tuesday next week, self is off to the Kalahari Bundu Bash. Hope the weather holds!

[Oupa-G]

It has been a long time not posting. But I fly, busy refining the installation and bringing monitoring of the engine to a higher level. Reading about the Prieska accident with its very sad outcome, it is our duty to try and foresee potential problems. The gearbox has not been without problems and I'm in close contact with the makers of the gearbox. One bearing had a higher rate of failures and the new housing is made to take the new enlarged bearing. This made me think there is excellent monitoring in helicopter gearboxes as well as our gearbox on the PC12 in the form of Chip Detectors A chip detection calls for grounding of the aircraft.

I could not find a suitable reasonably priced Chip Detector so the answer was make it yourself . With the help of Ystervark on the net he found nice magnets look like a washers and the best of all the supplier is in Somerset West. He picked up the magnets and I did the machining and attached are the foties of the final product. The sensitivity can be adjusted by spacing the magnets further apart. The normal metallic dust particles will set of the warning light. What is wrong with an additional oil change its only 200cc of oil. It may save a forced landing. Any forced landing carries its risks. Chips will give a definite red light.

The insulating materials can withstand the temps of the gearbox, if I have to use this Chip detector on an engine I will use a different insulation material but there are no ball or roller bearing in the engine.

It is said that 5% of bearings fail within the first 10% of their life. How they came to these figures I do not but I do know from own experience that bearings fail.

I just want to add that the valve clearance that I measured at the last service was the same as I had adjusted the valves to 100hrs ago. So it was a check no adjustment necessary and the valve play was again noted.

Happy flying

Cheers Oupa-G

[Boet]

A man working with his hands= Labourer
A man working with his mind and his hands= A craftsman
A man working with his hands,his mind and his heart= An artist!