Improvements on a Fly Power 115
by Manfred Mornhinweg - Chile
Here are photos of several of my mods. I borrowed a digital camera from
a friend, since the process of taking slides, developing them, and
scanning, will probably take ages...
Comments:
Cover.jpg: It shows how I store the motor, next to the washing machine
and below drying clothes. What I want to show here is the protective
cover. It is made from PVC-clad nylon fabric manufactured by Good Year
Industrial. Instead of sewn, it is glued, using a glue called "Mirafix"
here in Chile, but surely called otherwise in the US. It is a
heat-activated contact glue for this material, very easy to work with,
and extremely strong.
One of the prop blade sheets has one side slitted and fitted with
velcro. The prop is poked through it when installing or removing the
cover.
The white color of the material is useful to keep the inside cool when
the sun shines on it.
Note the wall transformer in the back. It keeps the starter battery in
permament charge.
Throttle.jpg: This shows my starter button installation. As shown on
the photo, the button is relatively hard to reach, so it is not pressed
unwillingly. The switch is a rather stiff pushbutton type, requiring
quite some force to depress it. It keeps just clear of the throttle
lever when this is pulled to full power. It was protected and insulated
by heat-shrink tubing, and held in place by cable ties.
Fuelline.jpg: Here you can see my present fuel line routing. The primer
bulb (a motorboating one that is much better than the original) is
installed vertically. I still have the loop in the line, above the carb,
and this photo shows clearly how silly that loop is! I will get rid of
it soon.
Fuelfilt.jpg: In several places I have read that paper-type fuel filters
should NOT be used for our machines, because the paper tends to separate
the oil from the gasoline! So I bought a small wire-mesh filter from a
chainsaw shop. It is small enough so that any air bubbles trapped in it
are of little consequence, which allowed me to install it horizontally.
Note the use of metal hose clamps for all connections. The cable tie in
the back is used simply to hold the filter to the frame.
Filter.jpg: This shows my installation of a cheap automotive filter
instead of the original, very weak foam air filter. I cut two plates
from 3mm aluminum, which press the filter element between them. The
filter element comes with the black rubber seals installed and costs
less than two bucks. Two 6mm bolts join the two plates. These bolts are
fitted with nylon-insert safety nuts.
The filter element is a MANN C811, if I remember well.
Filtcarb.jpg: This shows the air filter from the carb side. The aluminum
plate has a cutout in the diameter of the carb opening, and is chamfered
in order to allow unrestricted air flow. The hole is NOT exactly
centered! I had to offset it about 3mm in order to allow the bolt heads
to fit into the little space available around the carb. Even so, one of
the bolt heads had to be slightly ground off. The good thing is that the
bolts cannot turn, so you can mount the nuts without holding the bolts.
The plate was sealed to the carb with silicone caulk, which against
common knowledge holds up quite well in this application! I guess that
silicone has never read that it should dissolve in fuel!
Silstrap.jpg: Here you can see the safety wire I attached to the top
bolt of the silencer. If the silencer ever breaks, or the bolts come
out, this wire should avoid damaging the prop and catapulting the
silencer through the wing!
This photo also shows a new, better rubber motor mount, bought from
Chris Bowles and intended for the Fresh Breeze. And there is a TinyTach,
velcroed to its "parking position" on the top of the frame. Another
velcro pad holds it to my leg when flying.
Safety.jpg: Here you can see another safety wire. This one avoids that
the trike wheels drop, in the event of a tensioner coming loose. It is
made in the same way as the silencer safety wire: Applying pieces of
copper tubing to the steel wire, compressing them in a vise, and
notching them with side cutters. It's almost as strong as a professional
copper clamp applied with a special crimping tool. I can get neither the
clamps nor the tool here in Chile.
Hang.jpg: This shows my new hang point setup. A loop sewn from 1-inch
webbing is thrown around the black shoulder bar, and engaged twice to a
carabiner. The strap of the harness runs through the carabiner too. It
takes almost no load, but is there as a safety feature, should ever the
steel bar break.
The glider, not shown in the photo, engages to the carabiner, and there
is the speed system too, between the carabiner and the glider A band.
The U-locks, previously used as main hang points, now just keep the
webbing loop from sliding on the steel bar.
This system allows quick wing attachment, speed bar use, and shifts the
hang point 2 or 3 cm back, which produces a better balance for me.
Shoulder.jpg: This shows the shoulder hang point of the harness attached
to the trike's steel bar through a triangular lock, and at the same time
it is attached via a trapezoidal lock to the reserve parachute bridle.
3rdatt.jpg: This shows a third, or rather fourth, attachment point on
each side of my harness: It joins the harness at leg level to the trike.
This avoids the trike swinging forward and lifting my feet into the sky
when throttling fully up. It further allows to take the feet from the
rest bar and letting them dangle, or use the speed bar, without the
trike swinging nor the prop changing its attitude.
The attachments are made from two pieces of velcro sewn back to back.
This kind of velcro strap is very useful for many purposes!
Speedbar.jpg: The speed system lines (yellow) run through two rings and
attach to the speed bar. Since I can press the bar almost straight down,
no pulleys are really required. Not shown in the photo, the trike main
bar passes above the speed bar.
Velcro.jpg: A piece of velcro attached to the underside of the trike's
main bar holds the speed bar in place, under my upper legs, during
takeoff. It is installed using a sheet metal screw and a large, conical
washer.
Helmet.jpg: My sister models the helmet for us. Never mind that she was
afraid of the flash and closed her eyes. The helmet has internal ear
cushions made from vinyl-covered fabric, containing alternating layers
of lead foil and plastic foam. This produces a good degree of acoustic
insulation. Philips high efficiency headphones are glued over the
helmet's ear openings, using silicone caulk. The headphones are of the
closed type. An electret microphone capsule is embedded in plastic foam
for wind noise protection, and glued with double-sided tape to the right
side of the helmet's mouth protection. A PTT switch is glued with
cyanoacrylate to the left upper side of the helmet, easily accessible in
flight over all the usual range of motion of the left hand. All cables
are held in place with Scotch 33+ insulating tape. The cable running to
the radio is thin enough to break in case of getting tangled around my
neck.
