Apis motorglider

On May 5, 8:25*am, Mark Jardini wrote:

The trick is that the wings need to be in anhedral to fit into the
drag pins, then the tips come up to align the mains.

Similar adjustment required to rig any modern glider. With a fixed
height one man rigger the adjustment can be easily made with the
trailer ramp jack. Raising and lowering the fuselage is the same as
lowering or raising the wing tips but it has the advantage that you
can monitor the alignment while you make the adjustment.

The only issue I see is that
the toothed belt driving the prop is sealed inside the mast. No way to
change it. I hope is lasts a long time......

Can the belt be inspected? How is it replaced?

Andy

Andy

Avionic does not have a "jacked ramp". The cradle has an over center
cam that lifts the aircraft off its main wheel. Agreed, the jack would
be better for rigging purposes.

The belt can be seen and inspected through it s length. The center
portion of the mast is enclosed trapping the belt within by some mid
shaft cross sectional enclosings. I can only assume this is one of
those fiberglass impregnated toothed belts they use in cars that last
60k miles.

My guess would be you send the mast back to be opened and reclosed or
you buy a new one.....

Mark

On May 5, 10:19*am, Mark Jardini wrote:
Andy

Avionic does not have a "jacked ramp". The cradle has an over center
cam that lifts the aircraft off its main wheel. Agreed, the jack would
be better for rigging purposes.

The belt can be seen and inspected through it s length. The center
portion of the mast is enclosed trapping the belt within by some mid
shaft cross sectional enclosings. I can only assume this is one of
those fiberglass impregnated toothed belts they use in cars that last
60k miles.

My guess would be you send the mast back to be opened and reclosed or
you buy a new one.....

Mark

And for those Cobra trailers with hydraulic jacked ramps and heavy
motorgliders, I'd rather trust the hand cranked gears in my one-man
rigger or the person holding my wingtip than trust the hydraulic jack
with the weight of my motorglider while tweaking the jack height. I
slide in a triangular wooden block as a safety device under the ramp
scissors. If the jack fully collapses, I don't think the jack has the
leverage to jack up mu ASH-26E again.

Darryl

I've routinely used the hydraulic jack to align the wing pins on my
ASH-26E. And to keep the wings at a comfortable height, that means
it's operating near the bottom of its range. Really nice during
disassembly to have one hand on the jack and the other on a main pin,
then slowly lower the fuselage until the pin starts to rotate.

I did disassemble the jack assembly recently to replace an O ring in
the jack. The base plate was warped due to the horizontal force being
applied to lift the glider from a completely lowered jack.
Straightened it out in a hydraulic press, and might try to reinforce
it next winter, but it will likely last another 5-10 years if I do
nothing.

-Tom

On May 5, 11:09*am, Darryl Ramm wrote:
And for those Cobra trailers with hydraulic jacked ramps and heavy
motorgliders, I'd rather trust the hand cranked gears in my one-man
rigger or the person holding my wingtip than trust the hydraulic jack
with the weight of my motorglider while tweaking the jack height. I
slide in a triangular wooden block as a safety device under the ramp
scissors. If the jack fully collapses, *I don't think the jack has the
leverage to jack up mu ASH-26E again.

On 5/5/2010 11:09 AM, Darryl Ramm wrote:
And for those Cobra trailers with hydraulic jacked ramps and heavy
motorgliders, I'd rather trust the hand cranked gears in my one-man
rigger or the person holding my wingtip than trust the hydraulic jack
with the weight of my motorglider while tweaking the jack height. I
slide in a triangular wooden block as a safety device under the ramp
scissors. If the jack fully collapses, I don't think the jack has the
leverage to jack up mu ASH-26E again.

I routinely lower my Cobra hydraulic ramp jack to the bottom to assemble
my ASH 26 E. It has no problem raising the fully assembled glider from
the bottom to the height needed to lower the gear. I've done that for
over 400 rig/derig cycles.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (netto to net to email me)

- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Feb/2010" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm http://tinyurl.com/yb3xywl

- "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation Mar/2004" Much of what you need to know tinyurl.com/yfs7tnz

Mark Jardini wrote:

The belt can be seen and inspected through it s length. The center
portion of the mast is enclosed trapping the belt within by some mid
shaft cross sectional enclosings. I can only assume this is one of
those fiberglass impregnated toothed belts they use in cars that last
60k miles.

My guess would be you send the mast back to be opened and reclosed or
you buy a new one.....

My Nimbus 4DM syndicate has had two engine drive belt failures over
the last 8 years, one at the launch point just before the after-C of A
test flight six weeks ago. The belt was changed within a week, but
could have been quicker had we stocked a spare.

In the case of any belt-driven MG engine, there really should be a
relatively straightforward way of replacing the belt if it fails,
without rendering the engine unit unserviceable for a considerable
time. After all, preventing lands-out is the whole reason for having,
and paying for, an engine installation.

Ian Strachan
Lasham Gliding Centre, UK

Many thanks to all for the helpful comments. Let's hope JJ isn't
reading this.
Key