My plane is flying well after its Annual inspection plus alternator brush mount repair and oil cooler cleaning. I did a climb from 500 ft to 7000 ft at max rate and the oil stayed under 90 C or 195 F with OAT of 34 C or 93 F on the ground.
@gallois, your post is a great example of why there is no way I’d buy a liquid cooled aircraft engine for my own use, or for that matter one with an ECU. I say that while also being involved with development of an aircraft engine that has both those features – to make money.
Some of that money ($900 including parts and labor) was spent recently to have the third radiator installed on my wife’s car, and it’s also on its second water pump at 83K miles or 134K km. The latest radiator failure involved the hose fitting breaking in half adjacent to a hose clamp. Happily while the engine did overheat before being shut off, the head gasket (also absent on my aircraft engine) still seems to be OK. No exhaust fumes in the coolant when ‘sniffed’.
The pain au raisin OTOH sounds good to me as I sip tea while writing this 
@Silvaire nearly all the aircraft I have been flying over the last 2 years are liquid cooled either being diesel or Rotax.
This is the first major/weird problem. I say major because the aircraft is grounded and I say weird because at the moment we haven’t found the cause. It might turn out to be something simple but overlooked.
I don’t have a preference for ECUs or FADECs or even constant speed props although some of these things can be very useful.
I also don’t really have a preference for type of engine. My main concern is cost and availability of fuel which is probably one of the main differences between France and perhaps the rest of Europe and the USA.
If Lycoming and Continental with their monopoly situation in providing engines for piston singles and light twins had put a bit more thought, earlier to the needs of future users they might still be unchallenged by any serious engine provider.
Its now up to European airports to look to the future and make MOGAS, unleaded95 or whatever suits the challengers and the Mogas using Lycosaurs of today. And they need to do it at a price not hugely loaded from what you pay when you fill your car at the supermarket.
Went up to the hangar and put the rebuilt C90 back on the Vagabond. The engine is dated 1971, the airframe 1948 (would originally have had an A65).
Then spent some time in the garage – drilled and prepped some parts, primed them and shot a few rivets:
Graham wrote:
C90 back on the Vagabond
Wow 90 horses Do you have a wing tank too? I used to fly a 65hp PA17 with just the 12 USG tank underneath the panel and found range a bit restrictive.
@Graham good to see the Vagabond freshly re engined :)
Capitaine wrote:
Do you have a wing tank too? I used to fly a 65hp PA17 with just the 12 USG tank underneath the panel and found range a bit restrictive.
Yes there is a wing tank but it is not yet plumbed in. Range is a little restrictive, especially since it’s fun to fly the Vagabond to the kind of strip that doesn’t tend to have fuel.
Dan wrote:
Today I found some icebergs (…) drifting across the small lake by the Chüeboden-gletscher (Cows-ground-glacier )
Your mountains never stop surprising us!
2 months since I didn’t fly, but I took the (new) club’s Rallye for a checkride in a quite convective weather. We made some usual checkride stuff with specific of the rally: the Iron-style deadstick simulation around a field near Fayence, and some landings in various configs. I was a bit amazed how this Rally behave so different from the one I flew previously. This one is a 180T “galerien”, although the other one I flew before is a MS893A, and there is a tangible difference on the flare. The MS893 just fall like a rock as soon as you close the throttle. This “galerien” one, also not really lighter, do flare gently to make you miss the touch point by a good 20 meters. Not a big deal, just something to get used to.
The slats also behave differently, they are constantly moving back and forth around 1.4vs, also on the MS893, they was francly locking from one side to another. It coul dbe surprising in a no-flap landing. Slat usually jumps out at the moment you flare, and you have to pull them before (by giving a nice pull on the stick while flying slow).
Good feelings again :D.
What is good is that I found a MOU FI, and I will soon be starting this rating again.
Some of that money ($900 including parts and labor) was spent recently to have the third radiator installed on my wife’s car, and it’s also on its second water pump at 83K miles or 134K km. The latest radiator failure involved the hose fitting breaking in half adjacent to a hose clamp. Happily while the engine did overheat before being shut off, the head gasket (also absent on my aircraft engine) still seems to be OK. No exhaust fumes in the coolant when ‘sniffed’.
During my 35 odd years of driving ICE cars for about 30.000 km a year I’ve never ever had a radiator or water pump fail. Your wife must have been extremely unlucky. But if that’s the failure trend, there’s only one remedy. To buy her an EV!
The good news is that my wife’s car is worth what I paid for it, and she’s been driving it since 2011. The money saved on car depreciation does help pay for Avgas.
Radiator failure is often calendar time related, but in this case the failure was of the noncorroding plastic tank.
On most cars with a rubber timing belt, the water pump is replaced at every belt change. They are often seeping a little bit past the seal by that time. I cannot imagine why anybody would want to get involved in any of that kind of nonsense on an aircraft when the same cooling job can be done with no moving parts whatsoever. You spend your money, I’ll spend mine.
EVs also have liquid cooling systems, by the way. I work in electrification of machinery and propulsion. My job is solving problems and increasing the associated reliability. Its useful, well paid work for a reason and every working day could pay for a radiator change on my wife’s car. There might be a lesson there, anyway its one that I’ve benefited from learning. You spend your money, I’ll spend mine.
