First Engine Start

After checking and rechecking everything we added fuel to our header tank, about 2 gallons.  We ran the fuel pumps and checked for any leaks on the high pressure side of the fuel system.  Finding no leaks, we moved the airplane outside to start the engine for the first time.  We secured the airplane to a nearby tree and made sure we had a fire extinguisher nearby.  We used a first start checklist and engine start checklist provided by Rotax.  We were rewarded with an easy start and smooth running engine. 

Hours: 2

Congratulatory Fist Bump 

Propeller on, oil filled, fuel and coolant systems work

We installed our new prop, which is a three bladed carbon-fiber propeller with a diameter of 190cm, made by a French company called E-Props.  Hopefully it performs as good as it looks.

Prop installed on engine.

After double checking all the oil connections, we added oil to the engine (it's a dry sump system), and purged the air from the system by following Rotax's procedure.

We've been chasing some leaks in both the fuel and coolant systems.  Original debug was done by pressurizing the system and spraying the connections with soapy water, but this just wasn't good enough as we couldn't identify any of the leaks.  We then bought a stethoscope (with an air leak adapter), an ultrasonic leak tester, and some super-bubbly fluid from Rectorseal (all fairly cheap from Amazon).  All three were used and help find the leaks in the fuel system which were from connections directly beneath the header tank.  One of the fittings under the header tank needed to tightened (a standard pipe thread fitting), and two hose clamps needed to be tightened.  We still had an issue with one of the hoses beneath the header tank, so I replaced a 6" hose section and reclamped. This time it worked and the fuel system now holds pressure without leaks. 

These hose connections were leaking

We also identified a leak on the coolant system, and tracked it down to a bypass valve on the cabin heater line.  The valve itself felt a bit loose and likely defective, so a new valve was ordered and installed.  This new valve has a better, smooth feel to it, so we feel better about its quality.  Other coolant hose clamps were also tightened a bit to help ensure the system was sealed.  Hours: 17

Replacement Bypass valve installed

Carpet, Fuel lines, Brake system

We had to make some small adjustments to a floor carpet piece that we received from the factory due to some fittings under the seats that were in the way, so Michael put his sewing skills to use to trim and restitch the carpeting.

Michael modifying the floor carpeting

Various clamps holding the fuel lines were checked and torqued, then the fuel line fittings themselves were also torqued and marked with "torque-seal".  A low-pressure test was run on the system (from the header tank to the engine) to look for possible leaks.  The system was pressurized slightly with air, and it is indeed leaking, as it loses about 5psi of pressure over 5 minutes, so more investigation is required to track this down.

As mentioned in a previous post, we decided to remove the parking brake, so the parking brake cable, valve and all associated cabling and tubing was removed.  A nice black plug was installed in the panel where the parking brake lever was previously located.

The left brake had previously been bled, but it has a slow leak at an elbow fitting near the tire.  This fitting needs to be "clocked" correctly, but we found that one more turn to tighten it more was not possible.  After some research, we found a few possible solutions.  One is to use a better thread sealant (now on order), another is to use a new fitting that will have slightly different threads that will allow the correct clocking, and yet another possibility is to tap the threads a little more to allow the fitting to turn a little further.  So we'll try one or more of these options to fix this issue.   Hours: 12