CAA Certification on the UFO Gyro

[MPL Pilot]

This last week was one of those ones that produced more challenges than anticipated. The EJ25 engine did not
last long with the turbo. Oil leak on the head gasket was causing the oil temp to rise beyond normal operating temperatures.

Seems Johan always has something up his sleeve, when I arrived at Wagtail Friday afternoon, he had fitted a 2l Subaru 16 valve. These engine's
came standard with a turbo fitted on the production models.
During the Static thrust test, performance was excellent. The EJ25 (normaly aspirated) produced 237kg, and the 2L was pushing 303kg under 5000rpm
The boost was only 0.5 bar.

The weight to thrust ratio: all up weight 650kg and thrust 300kg = 2.16:1
According to Johan a ratio of 5:2 (weight to thrust) is normal on some gyrocopters.

Johan will continue with the engine management settings and test flights during the week.

I highly appreciate Johan's time and effort to make this project a success.

[FLYNOTE]

Ek weet nie lekker wat hier aangaan nie maar dit lyk na n moerse sukses
You go mpl pilot. Get that ufo to gariep what ever you do. Modling wont give up until your smile is bigger than his !

[lion]

Was there on Saturday - the motor sounds awesome!

[Jabbanaught]

Yes hope to see UFO at Gariep !

[MPL Pilot]

Get that ufo to gariep what ever you do. Modling wont give up until your smile is bigger than his !

Modling is pushing hard to get the UFO ready, and I am not sure who has the widest smile, the results with the 2L is unbelieveable.
If all go according to plan the UFO will take to the sky this afternoon

[Wagtail]

I think this is what you wanted to show, really red hot exhaust stack. The turbine housing was actually also Cherry red in colour, but the picture was taken after we already came back on the power so only the exhaust pipes are still pink in colour.....

And then.........the exhaust manifold split open along the seam........and this was on a VERY expensive imported branch...imported stuff is not always better than our own local stuff....now we will go for the stock standard South African BOSAL pipes...

[Gyronaut]

Pierre and his lovely wife Sandy popped into Morningstar yesterday to say hi!
It was nice to put a face to the name MPL-pilot. Hope the UFO is ready and happy before Gariep.
Look forward to seeing it there.

Len

[MPL Pilot]

Can not believe it is Friday again, and Gariep is coming closer fast!

Pierre and his lovely wife Sandy popped into Morningstar yesterday to say hi!
It was nice to put a face to the name MPL-pilot. Hope the UFO is ready and happy before Gariep.
Look forward to seeing it there.

Len, was good to meet you as well, it is a pity we could not meet Christine.

Thank you for the flip in your M24, you gave me more confidence for the upcoming conversion
to the UFO. Flying the Orion, with the side by side has a different feeling, especially just before landing.
I have to mention, a gyro is an amazing aircraft, the wind was pumping 30-35mph, and flying the M24 was a pleasure.

The exhaust is coming on fine, will have it ready for Monday when Johan is back from the north.
I discovered there is more to an exhaust that meets the eye, thanks to Bert de Graaf in Pretoria. We will have to
make up some goodies to support the exhaust while it is cherry red and vibrating during normal operating conditions.

Watch this space, we are getting there

Regards

Pierre

[crashtestdummy]

Let me know if you need another reduction drive for the subaru motor
PS the internal structure of the block with water channels on the 2.5 are not as strong (less stiffners) as that of the 2L turbo thats why they dont work so well
What boost pressure are you using
What management system are you using now do you still use the LINK or are you using another one?

[MPL Pilot]

Hi Crashtestdummy

Let me know if you need another reduction drive for the subaru motor

Thank you, we are sorted with the reduction drive.

PS the internal structure of the block with water channels on the 2.5 are not as strong (less stiffners) as that of the 2L turbo thats why they dont work so well

This mighy be of value for for Johan, I am a novice with the Subaru engine, but thanx anyway.

What boost pressure are you using

We only need 0.4 boost as far as I know. We will be able to confirm the boost when Johan gets back from vacation. We are aiming for
290kg static thrust, which would make the UFO safe to fly on a warm day at 5000 feet above sea level.

What management system are you using now do you still use the LINK or are you using another one?

Still using the Link, sometimes I think we should change to something else, since the agent in SA is pathetic.

Thank you for your interest.

Pierre

[gyrofan]

Wow, saw the UFO flying with that turbo motor....it is impressive. Spoke to Johan and he says it climbed out with an all up weight of 685 kg at a rate which puts a normal ROTAX gyro to shame. I believe they are putting in a lot of effort to get the UFO to Gariep as well. The flying looks good but Johan is not finished. I must say, there is enough smiles after landing and if smiles can get her to Gariep then she will be there...
Good luck guys, you have really thrown enough effort into this one...

[Jean Crous]

Hi Pierre, ek is bly om te lees dat jou Gyro so goed bymekaar kom. Dit is darem n lekker gevoel as mens weet dat die regte mense aan jou vliegtuig werk!!
Groete
Jean Crous

[MPL Pilot]

With water and oil temperatures under control, we had some progress in the right direction.

Johan flew it, then loaded some weight until he had an extra 80kg, to simulate a pax. The gyro became more unstable as it got heavier during flight.
With the last landing, it was quite visible there was a wrestling match with the controls.
This is where the 685kg came in, the gyro+80kg popcorn+Johan=685kg.

The other problem was, it was not possible to catch the nose on the take off run before the tail wheel
touched the ground. Same with the landing, tail on the ground first, then the main wheels.
Another disadvantage was, the tail wheel forced directional control, rudder had very little influence as long as
the tail wheel was in contact with the ground.

The end result, Sycamore tail was fitted, new telescopic cables for rudder control and 15kg in the nose to get 5° nose down
position during the hang test. While this was happening, duel controls was fitted as well. Tail wheel clearance has improved significantly.

With the first test, the prop wash just pushed the tail to the left and the gyro ran of the runway to the right . After setting the
rudder position, the ground run was a lot better, but we needed more adjustment on the cable.

Johan will test fly the UFO today, and hopefully we will know soon what the result of the tail modification has install.

Will post some pictures with the Sycamore tail later.

[fransstrydom]

Thanks Pierre,please keep us updated on the progress.This impacts on the planning for Gariep.Also Jaco's Xenon.
franss

[MPL Pilot]

With the Gariep flyin, the UFO had to fall in the back of the que.

With the first test, the prop wash just pushed the tail to the left and the gyro ran of the runway to the right . After setting the
rudder position, the ground run was a lot better, but we needed more adjustment on the cable.

Johan will test fly the UFO today, and hopefully we will know soon what the result of the tail modification has install.

The test flight had similar results as the previous time. Not enough left rudder

Johan and myself had a test jig made to simulate rudder control during static runs.
After the first test run, Johan knew exactly what the problem was with the rudder, 300kg prop wash over the rudder
was at work with negative results.
We changed the tail angle with 10 deg to the left, and had positive results on the test jig.
Now he had constant control from a low to high power setting with left and right rudder.

Back on the runway, the effort of the test jig was worth the wait. On the second run Johan was satisfied with the
UFO's behaviour and took to the sky.
We did some fine tuning on the cables ect. during test flights.

There might just be a surprise at the Allday flyin.

Die enigste ding met die UFO, soos Flynote verwys het na Mak. Die UFO lyk nou soos n "dik gevrete eend"
wat n skop op die g@t gehad het.

Johan can give some insight on the results of the test flights, it will be good to hear that detail from the man himself.