Ok, Here are some pics of the few additions I have added to our X-Air.


Here is My interpretation of In-Flight Mixture Adjustment for 2 stroke flight engines.

These are the sources of my inspiration:

Green Sky Adventures HAC

Jack B. Hart FireFly site

Thanks to Jack for sharing his work, helped me a lot.

1. The carbs have to be re-jetted for your most lean condition.
2. For me I use 165 mains, and had to re-pitch me prop, which gave me ~1200 EGT, 6000 rpm, static,
    OAT ~40F.  Cruise 5000 rpm, ~1150 EGT, much better performance in cool weather.
3. The orifice was trial and error; I used several plastic vacuum tees; filled one side with JB weld and drilled
    them out with different sizes from .040 - .090.  I found that the .060" worked best.
    The orifice has to be small enough for the vacuum to overcome it, and large enough so the vacuum will not     kill engine at low rpm.
4. One has to be careful, I noticed that if the needle valve is turned out, and the orifice is too small,
    IT WILL KILL THE ENGINE AT LOW RPM!!!
5. My system has only had ground test, no in-flight test has been done yet.  Ground test have shown to be         successful in warmer weather.

Needle Valve

Bowl plumbing

Vacuum port in the back

Now, pics of the new antenna mount:

I used split collars from McMaster Carr.  These are

1" collars, but worked well on the metric tubing. 

Windshield bracketing, I LOATH using wire ties to hold a windshield on.  Also, split collars and Adele Clamps.

That's it for now; more later.

Current and ongoing projects

At the moment, here in NC;  we got 8 inches of snow (I know it's not that much).  And, now that I am older than I was a while back; I care nothing for braving the cold.

Here is the short list:

• Open Source and inexpensive EFIS for Experimental Aircraft

1. It uses a BeagleBone Black, running Debian Linux
2. 4D Systems 7" lcd Cape
3. Custom Flight and engine sensor boards coming soon.

At the moment the EFIS is still on the bench while I try to learn to write code a bit better, update soon to follow

• Volks Plane II

Right now, seeing how it's winter time, we are not doing a lot outside.  The right wing panel is ready for paint, and the left panel is still in the rafters.  Along with a few other odds and ends, hopefully it will be ready by next summer.

• X-Air Standard

We picked up this X-Air about a year ago,  we have added a few upgrades here and there

1. AirCom antenna based on Dean A. Scott's design (Thanks Dean)

Dean A. Scott, Inverted Vee Antenna

The bracket in the pic's has long since failed, and has been redesigned, more pics later

• Custom Pitot/Static

That's about it, I will post more when I get around to it.

Our Airplanes

So here is my blog that has to do with my other hobby, Aviation!

Currently, me and the family own 2 aircraft, and several quad copters.  So, this is day 1 and a dry run also.

Here is our VP-II, currently under construction

And here is our X-Air Standard

Here is my Robotics and Electronics Blog;

Hiatt Robotics