Building the new Bushbaby SAFARI

[Boet]

Going to the Fairest tomorrow, for bussiness, and also to take Oupa`s Bos-Ot`s cowling down. On a recent visit to our town, he bought an old platform scale. The sort of thing that is too simple to lie about the weights. I bought one too. We both have a distrust in electronic scales. Scale is also loaded. The Venture is so full, there is not place in it for an extra message!

Bosot no two plodding on behind Bosot no one. Oupa wants to put "baffles" inside the header tank, so we had a discussion this morning about what will be the best way to go about it. Like he calls it: Cross polination of ideas!!

Visit to Oupa tomorrow will have to be brief, have LOTS to attend to, and Fridays in The Fairest are short days!

[Oupa-G]

At the meeting on Wednesday at our club I was repremanded for no photo's on the web. I took the allegation very seriously.
The meeting was good with the CAA represented by Braam Hechter and Fanie Keyser. There was a constructive debate and we are very pleased that we get feedback from the CAA. We are all very pleased that we have a NTCA movement and I'm sure that the members are safety conscious and we all want to be good citizens and safe Aviators. Boet arrived Friday morning with the painted cowling and the Bosvarkie was moved to the hangar and the wings were put on. The stiffnes of the gear seems to be OK and I can now proceed with the final version . The cowling looks stunning and we can now proceed with photo's for the CAA file. I hope the paperwork and the finishing touches will now run parallel. I have taken a bunch of pictures and will post them during the weekend.

Cheers Oupa-G

[Oupa-G]

This weekend very busy took the Bosvark to its own hangar sharing it with the Baron. Finished all the connections in the left wingroot also in the evenings I wrote the preliminary handbook which will be amended after the test flying. Did not take to many photo's but that I will do. Did do some taxi tests the CoG and gear position feels 100% the brakes are excellent I could hold the brakes and lift the tail and turn it stationary. I could do the same with the J3 Cub that I once owned. Just some photo's of the weekend. Not on the last picture all the helping hands Sean Curren supporting wing ala African style Charl Starke putting in lift strut bolt closely checked by Ystervark. All hands were on deck as well as moral support by every-one. I also see that the 43000 hits have been registered hard to believe thanks.


Cheers Oupa-G

[KFA]

Hi Oom Frans. Mail my 'n paar foto's as julle klaar is vir die website.
Dankie
Stefan.

[Boet]

Flying the Bosvarkie is not far off now!

[Oupa-G]

I finished the left wingroot plumbing. Will do the fuel flow test tonight. Now I have to drive to the hangar and can't just quickly do something. It is a planning mission. Boet paid a visit on Sunday morning we had more aircraft movements then at Cape Town international and that without a tower or radar vectors. Everybody just slotted in at one time I coun ted 12 flying machines Trikes Bushbabies Jora's CT Tripacer etc the day was beautiful. Boet gave the Bosvarkie a healthy critical eye and so the of to do things is getting shorter. I have not put on the flaperons , that is to help me from a flying temptation before everything is 100% finished. Will keep you all posted.

Cheers Oupa-G

[charl]

Dit lyk goed! Ons wag in spanning

[AndyCAP]

Awesome Gents.... Cant wait

[Boet]

With a nice long weekend looming, surely Oupa will have everything up-and-running by Monday??? Kyk, ek jaag nou nie die Oupatjie aan nie, maar nou moet jy darem wragtig n slag KLAAR maak!! It is a Bugger-up to finish everything at the airport. There is always something that you forgot to bring along. Tools, loose parts etc. For times like these I have learned tha hard way the value of a note-book. WRITE everything that comes to your mind pertaining the trek to the airfield down.Much less to-ing and fro-ing. Anyway, enjoy, I am going to spend some quality time FLYING. For a bloody change!!

[Oupa-G]

Have been extremely busy this week day work after hour work and little Bosvarkie work. But during the week I sneeked in a few hours checking the fuel flow. To start of I was very dissappointed I could get no spontanious flow with 20 liters in the tank the routing is such that there is a higher point due to the high angle of attack on the ground 10 degrees. This is something I cannot tolerate, with the right set of circumstances you could use up all the fuel from the header tank and then run out of fuel , not safe. Luckily Facet pumps with their new PosiFlo range have a pump that pumps well and when not pumping has a free flow through it. I fiddled today with placement of the pump and now the result is super. I was just informed about Mike and James ariving safely in Hawai what a magnificent achievement we must all congratulate them. Back to the fuel flow, the Facet pump starts the flow like starting a syphon. Under syphon flow I get 1.5 the amount of flow that I need at full power. The flow is 45 liters/hour in free flow for one side . The BM engine uses 30 lit/hr so it should be enough just running on one tank. If taking off on both tanks fuel starvation should not be a problem. If I let the fuel pump run all the time on one side the flow increases to 120l/hr. So now I can finish the wing roots and complete the wing assembly. Just some photo's on the pump and fuel flow test.


Cheers Oupa-G

[Oupa-G]

Just another picture of the pump in position giving more perspective. Buiding time wise the project is not yet one year because
I only really started building in Sept because it was in Sept when I got my new hip. The fact that we have such a faboulous team in Loeriesfontein is really part of the success so I could spend my time on what I like best.

Cheers Oupa-G

[Oupa-G]

Today finished all the wingroot pipes the fuel gauge lights stabilized all the pipes of the AoA fuel vent and the main fuel line. After all the fittings were checked and checked no kinks in any lines I then replaced all the tempory wing bolts with permanent bolts of the proper grade. Because the wings cannot be folded with the flaperons in place , that is a Safari design. The reason is that in the raising of the tail to make sure that the take-off AoA would be sufficient, this was also because the tail was lenghtened. The flaperons were fitted and aligned and to-morrow the final fuel flows will be checked , the papers sent to CAA and then the taxi tests can begin. This will show if the gear is what we were looking for. The toe-in is 0.5 degree which should be sufficient. I also bought a pull scale(300kg capacity in 50gram increments) so we will be measuring the actual thrust supplied by the engine , in that way we will be able to compare apples with apples. To-morrow I will show photo's of the finished aircraft.


Cheers Oupa-G

[Ian]

One of the most interesting threads ever.. this is what it's all about, I never miss it

Thank you very much for all your posts Sire !

Cheers ian

[windswept]

Yep, I am already starting to get that funny feeling like when a good TV series comes to an end.

I think Oupa and co. will have to start the next project / series so that I can get rid of that funny feeling!

All the best for the final stretch....

[Boet]

Oupa was BESIG die naweek!! Ek is ook nou moerse moeg. Ga nou rus.