Congrats Mike!!! Glad to see you back in the air in such a good looking airplane! Someday I will be too!

gunny

Ready for adventure! You are stoked!

nice job mike! that is a beautiful plane you have there.

A1Skinner wrote:Looks great Mike! I have almost an identical jack pad. Mine has a piece of angle iron at the bottom for the jack to sit on. Works great!
I'm curious how much fuel you had to put in before it started reading on your dipstick?

We have the long range fuel tanks with two caps per tank, 74 usable. 5 gallons per side didn't register on either, unless you stuck the inboard stick in at the steepest angle you could towards the back. 10 gallons per side had a good reading on the inboards, about 1 inch up the stick, dry on the outboards. 15 gallons per side got measurable amounts on both sticks.

The reason I did 2 sticks is that the tank is open all the way through on each side. If you even think you might be close to full, you never open the inboard cap because it could be below the level of the fuel in the tank - POOF!! There go 5 gallons down the wing! I was glad I haven't done that yet - I got some good dual on this when we first got the plane if you end up being well below full on that side, the "Long Range" stick can still give you a good reading because it is calibrated down to 15 gallons.

CapnMike wrote:

A1Skinner wrote:Looks great Mike! I have almost an identical jack pad. Mine has a piece of angle iron at the bottom for the jack to sit on. Works great!
I'm curious how much fuel you had to put in before it started reading on your dipstick?

We have the long range fuel tanks with two caps per tank, 74 usable. 5 gallons per side didn't register on either, unless you stuck the inboard stick in at the steepest angle you could towards the back. 10 gallons per side had a good reading on the inboards, about 1 inch up the stick, dry on the outboards. 15 gallons per side got measurable amounts on both sticks.

The reason I did 2 sticks is that the tank is open all the way through on each side. If you even think you might be close to full, you never open the inboard cap because it could be below the level of the fuel in the tank - POOF!! There go 5 gallons down the wing! I was glad I haven't done that yet - I got some good dual on this when we first got the plane if you end up being well below full on that side, the "Long Range" stick can still give you a good reading because it is calibrated down to 15 gallons.

That's great info. I have the LR tanks on my 180 as well, so I know all about leaving the inner caps on if I'm close to full. I just was never sure how much fuel it took to register on a stick due to the tail low attitude. I always figured I had about 15 gallons total if I could see fuel over the bladder at the inner caps. Pretty close guess! I really need to do a good calibration like you have done though.

CapnMike wrote:

I measured the 10" t/w on my 180, OD is 10". I measured an unmounted 8" t/w tire, OD is 8" (see a common thread here? ) Therefore I'm guessing that the 14" XP Mods t/w (which uses a 500x5 tire) has an OD of 14". Now I'm curious as to the OD on the baby bushwheel as well as on the 400x4 tire used on the Gar Aero fat t/w. I'm guessing that they're pretty darn close to each other. Anyone wanna measure theirs and post results?

*add* Just looked up the baby bushwheel on the Airframes Alaska website, they refer to it as an 11" tire and it is identified as an 11x5x4. So I assume it measures 11" OD?

CapnMike wrote:

I made something very similar years ago for my C170 (with 180 legs). Worked alright but always scuffed up the paint, rag padding or not. It didn't fit the C150TD's legs too well, so I gave it to a friend to use on his 180. He reports paint scuffing also. I've borrowed a store-bought jack pad (by Bogert?) from the local FBO, and had the same paint scuffing issues but not as bad-- probably because instead of tapping it back down the gear leg, you can just loosen the adjusting bolt to get it off. I have since gone considerably lower-tech, and use a short length of 2x4 clamped to inboard side of the gear leg (parallel to the floor) with a pair of c-clamps, with a piece of 1x 2 to protect the paint on the outboard side. Then put the "cup" of the floor jack up against the lower edge of the 2x4. Not as elegant but works great and no paint scuffing. Plus 2x4's are cheap and you can fabricate this with a saw-- no shear brake or welder needed.

hotrod180 wrote:I made something very similar years ago for my C170 (with 180 legs). Worked alright but always scuffed up the paint, rag padding or not. It didn't fit the C150TD's legs too well, so I gave it to a friend to use on his 180. He reports paint scuffing also. I've borrowed a store-bought jack pad (by Bogert?) from the local FBO, and had the same paint scuffing issues but not as bad...

I use the Bogert jack pad. I bought some 1" adhesive-backed UHMW tape from McMaster-Carr. Lined the jack pad with it. No more scuffing, and easy-off.
-DP

By the way Mike- that's a beautiful ship. Nice job, and thanks for sharing the process.

denalipilot wrote:By the way Mike- that's a beautiful ship. Nice job, and thanks for sharing the process.

I wish I could take credit for it! I'm just proud that my Dad is the kind of person that likes to "do it right, then we won't ever worry about it."

Good job! You should be commended for replacing cables. One of my "engine failures" was caused by an old throttle cable attach failing on an engine that was newly overhauled. No damage to the plane, though it took a week for my sphincter to regain elasticity.

Leaving old cables on a new engine just seems penny wise and pound foolish to me.

Looks great.

MTV

Add my drool to the other piles already listed.

Beautiful plane, great job!

Looks great Mike! I'm sure that she flies great.

A1Skinner wrote:That's great info. I have the LR tanks on my 180 as well, so I know all about leaving the inner caps on if I'm close to full. I just was never sure how much fuel it took to register on a stick due to the tail low attitude. I always figured I had about 15 gallons total if I could see fuel over the bladder at the inner caps. Pretty close guess! I really need to do a good calibration like you have done though.

It took us several hours, but it was well worth it! Plus, my dad and I always seem to have fun when we're working on a project together

Looks great!!!

The latest addition to the 185... VG's!! Still have the stock wing, but this should help some.

Really looking forward to getting up to Idaho this week to explore the edges of the envelope some more before we head to JC this weekend!

They look great and look forward to hearing how they do this weekend. What year is your 185?

Looks great! Now u just need to get ur ship over to Polson, MT to have Willie put a Sportsman on for ya [emoji12]. I'm doing that as we speak, can't say enough good things about the Stene's!!!

As a bonus, the flying and scenery here is epic. Great excuse to play in Montana [emoji106]

Sweet looking bird Mike. You did a great job.

Barnstormer wrote:Sweet looking bird Mike. You did a great job.

Nah, it's all HIS fault!! (My dad)



THIS is what I'm good at!!

Quickdraw1 wrote:They look great and look forward to hearing how they do this weekend. What year is your 185?

1977 A185F.