Flatlands pilots need not install a skylight.

If you do a LOT of mountain flying, you immediately understand the benefits of a large skylight.

If I didn't have one today, I would be retrofitting one tomorrow. It's my favourite modification for mountain flying.

Practically every pilot who goes into the mountains with me comments on the benefits of the skylight, as soon as we enter the first steep turn.

Another useful addition to the BH is to plumb a removable 20 gal sprint car fuel tank (Summit) that can be removed/installed in the baggage compartment when in the 2 seat configuration, giving 90 gallons w/ aux tanks: O-540 PAKT - KBLI nonstop with 1.5 hrs reserve.

http://mykitlog.com/users/display_log.p ... 8795&row=2

Given that I'll have an io-540 and will be setup to run lean of peak at altitude, I should be able to setup for ultra economy cruise and make that leg anyway.

Here is some data from another AFP/IO-540 builder that runs LOP:

"Hi Schu

I have almost 70 hrs on my Bearhawk now and began flying LOP after the break in time. You maybe know that my plane is rather heavy. Empty weight 1700 Lbs.
Then I am flying usually at altitudes around 8000 ft. Keep that in mind.
I taxi with a brutal leaned engine to avoid sparkplug fouling.
I take of with the standard method. Engine run up at 1700, lean to Peak Power and check my ignition not regarding RPM drop but rise of the EGT's on each cylinder. If you switch one electronic ignition of and see all EGT's coming up then you know that the remaining Ignition is OK. Same white the other one.
Then I enrich my mixture for take of.

When I am on cruise altitude at or above 8000ft I reduce RPM to about 2150 and pull back my mixture to a fuel flow of about 10 Gal. In the meantime I can hear when the engine goes over to the LOP side. Depending on the altitude I can lean a little bit more so I am ending up between 9 and 11 Gal/hr.
Throttle remains full open.
With this setting I usually see between 120 to 125 Kt TAS. (the only speed which counts )
I mounted my strut fairings last weekend and I hope to get maybe 2 to 3 kt more.

I recently accompanied somebody with a Piper with 180 HP and that airplane used 9 Gal/hr and was cruising at about 80kt. As wingman at this speed my IO 540 was burning 7.5 to 8 Gal/hr. LOP
So the smaller engine is not always the better choice.

Hope that helps!

Georg"

Regarding skylight and summer heat, on the Maules with the large skylight we have a self retracting roller blind.
Just reach up and back, grab the handhold move forward to the hook and voila, no more hot sun. To open release from hook and cover retracts to a 2" diameter roll.

maules.com wrote:Regarding skylight and summer heat, on the Maules with the large skylight we have a self retracting roller blind.
Just reach up and back, grab the handhold move forward to the hook and voila, no more hot sun. To open release from hook and cover retracts to a 2" diameter roll.

Know of a source for the self retracting roller blinds?
Mark M.

Depends on the size but you could buy from Maule [email protected] or find their source. Maybe a camper or truck parts store or some such place.

jrc111 wrote:Another useful addition to the BH is to plumb a removable 20 gal sprint car fuel tank (Summit) that can be removed/installed in the baggage compartment when in the 2 seat configuration, giving 90 gallons w/ aux tanks: O-540 PAKT - KBLI nonstop with 1.5 hrs reserve.

http://mykitlog.com/users/display_log.p ... 8795&row=2

Yes, but where do you source the required black water tank for such a journey?

jrc111 wrote:Another useful addition to the BH is to plumb a removable 20 gal sprint car fuel tank (Summit) that can be removed/installed in the baggage compartment when in the 2 seat configuration, giving 90 gallons w/ aux tanks: O-540 PAKT - KBLI nonstop with 1.5 hrs reserve.

http://mykitlog.com/users/display_log.p ... 8795&row=2

Real shame that Ron's plane got crashed. That was a nice ship, I hope it gets rebuilt one day.

PAKT - KBLI nonstop with 1.5 hrs reserve.... I am confused. Am I missing an inside joke or is that distance intended to impress? Maybe I am mistaken about the distance - looks like 540 NM?

A stock IO-540 Bearhawk can make that flight on the main tanks alone with 1 hrs reserve, running lean of peak. With tip tanks you make that flight with 3.5 hrs reserve. Put in a smaller IO-360 and you can fly almost double that distance.

Much better to install fuel injection than a belly tank in place of passenger seats!

Battson,

That distance is significant, because it's the distance between the Southern most point of Alaska with fuel, and the Northwestern most point of the lower 48 states. In other words, if you can fly that, then you don't need to deal with landing in Canada.

Of course, you will be flying up the inside passage, which has it's own pearls, so most people fly through Canada over the Alaskan Highway anyway.

schu

Schu, I’d be pretty interested to see how you build your hard points into the wing. I plan to do the same thing but since my wings were already closed up when I bough them I decided to make it a future addition.

"PAKT - KBLI nonstop with 1.5 hrs reserve.... I am confused. Am I missing an inside joke or is that distance intended to impress? Maybe I am mistaken about the distance - looks like 540 NM?

A stock IO-540 Bearhawk can make that flight on the main tanks alone with 1 hrs reserve, running lean of peak. With tip tanks you make that flight with 3.5 hrs reserve. Put in a smaller IO-360 and you can fly almost double that distance."

I pulled my logbook to make sure I got it right; it took 4.4 hrs PAKT to KBLI at about 140 KTAS/15 gph (not LOP) with an average GS of 122 or so (18 knot headwind, with 1.6 hours remaining. Regarding black water, I'm partial to the Gatorade plastic bottles!

maules.com wrote:Regarding skylight and summer heat, on the Maules with the large skylight we have a self retracting roller blind.
Just reach up and back, grab the handhold move forward to the hook and voila, no more hot sun. To open release from hook and cover retracts to a 2" diameter roll.

Baby section of any chain store will have great retractable visors.
Have 3 mounted at different places on my canopy’s in 2 different planes.

Okay, got the front seats figured out. I bought some NOS military 4-pt harnesses from ebay. They are made by Schroth the same people that make amsafe. The harnesses are very good quality, and they were cheap. I attached a picture of what they look like.

So now a new decision. Rear seat belts. The plans call for lap belts attached to the rear seat, which is pretty common, but I can order two more of those 4-pt setups and put them in. It will require more welding of the shoulder harness mounts to the frame, and obviously more weight, but I suppose I can pull them out with the seat.

So what would you all think? Put lap belts in? Or build harnesses?

schu

I think if I had an opportunity to put harnesses in everywhere, and they didn’t interfere with the use of the back with seats removed, I’d say yes. I must say, though, that I do appreciate the 3-point system in my Maule back seat because they don’t get in the way when retracted and the back seat is removed.

Maybe fashion some sort of clip or similar to hold the belts out of the way like in my Suburban when the back seat is out.

I’m going to hut 4 point belts in my back seats. 90% of my flying will be with my kids and I need as much help as possible to keep the safe. Current plan is the use fixed harnesses that wrap around a upper airframe tube like used on some Pipers.

Also, consider using piano hinges for the seaplane doors and the rear passenger door. I wish I would have and am needing over how I can change to them without a bunch of welding and painting in the fuselage.

Why piano hinges? Adding a third (or fourth) hinge pin isn't strong enough? Or are you trying to seal stuff up?

Thanks for the feedback!

schu

Sealing stuff up. The main issue is the rear passenger/front passenger door interface. The slots you have to cut in the front door to clear the hinges on the rear door are large and will be a significant struggle to seal.

whee wrote:Sealing stuff up. The main issue is the rear passenger/front passenger door interface. The slots you have to cut in the front door to clear the hinges on the rear door are large and will be a significant struggle to seal.

I guess I still don't quite understand how the upper hinge of the front door can change how the aft side of the front door seals. Isn't the interference of the cargo door forward hinge the same regardless?

Using piano hinge on the rear passenger door is what I’d strongly recommend. It completely eliminates the issue. I also think piano hinges would be far superior for seaplane doors than using the hinges Bob used for the door windows. Every BH builder knows Bob loves weldments and would rather weld up some functional replacement out of stuff from the scrap bin than purchase the real thing from a supplier.

I understand not wanting to redo something that works especially on a kit build airframe. I think there is a better way to do it and wish I’d considered other options. I just had to remove my doors to put my wings on and broke the plexi on one door while trying to remove the clevis pins from the hinges. So while I wasn’t happy with the hinges before I’m really not happy with them now. My dad was ready to cut off the hinges months ago when he was working on the doors. I should have let him.

Decision made.... I'm going to install rear seatbelts. The ones I found on ebay fit fine, so I ordered two more.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Schroth-Milita ... 2162965992