> RECORD BID

20 LIGHT AVIATION DECEMBER 2010

IT’S Thursday, 21 November 2010 and whilst I’m sitting on a fl ight departing Johannesburg to Heathrow I decided to write up

my Cape Town fl ight attempt whilst things are still fresh in my mind. I have aimed the article at the aviator and homebuilder, and it comes quite soon after Steve Noujaim’s report on his most excellent record success for the round trip, so readers can compare our different approaches to the trip.

I have included comments on some of the service companies I used as well as some of the kit I fi tted. I speak purely as I have found and if it helps home builders or would-be record breakers, all the better. I would describe myself fairly set in my ways as far as aviation is concerned but the development program of our Glasair opened my eyes to some of the latest technologies available, especially in relation to the engine. Mr Lycoming might make a tractor engine - but with the right modifi cations it’s one hell of a tractor engine!

STRATEGYWe decided to adopt a one-stop strategy for refuelling and the halfway point was Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. This had a higher risk

factor, but if successful would establish a record that would be very diffi cult to beat. To achieve this meant developing an extremely effi cient aircraft and powerplant combination with a range of 2700nm plus reserves, within the MTOW of 2200lb allowed in FAI Class CIb. And weight was everything! I deliberately lost 15lb (the most diffi cult part) to get down to 160lb and took no parachute, no Stormscope and minimal survival kit.

THE AIRCRAFTThe Glasair IIRG fi tted nicely into the above category - it has a huge payload, high cruise speed and an excellent, long standing reputation. I acquired an example that was built by Neil Hague in the mid nineties but had resided in Belgium for the past fi ve years or so, G-OPNH. We stripped it down in The Real Aeroplane Company hangar at Breighton and retro-fi tted new instrumentation. A Dynon Flightdeck DK180 forms the centrepiece with 2in back up horizon, ASI and altimeter. Navigation was by Garmin 430 with a backup Garmin 695 charged by a cigarette lighter plug.

The 430 was linked to an S-Tec 55 Autopilot which steers in heading mode on the DG bug

and nav mode from the info on the GNS 430. The S-tec 55 also has altitude control but that turned out to be useless with the aircraft at gross weight and the CG on the aft limit. I had to be hand-fl y for the fi rst six hours or so before it could be trusted.

Most screw fi ttings were changed for titanium ones which saved a huge weight, and the passenger seat and controls were stripped out to make way for additional aluminium fuel tanks, all inter-connected and supplying the input to the booster pump via a T-piece and fuel cock. I used the ferry tanks for takeoff because of the head of fuel they gave, and ran off all of it before switching to the wing tank.

To calculate the max allowed 2200lb, we simply put the aircraft on scales with me and my kit and fi lled up with fuel until it reached MTOW, at the same time working out the CG limits which dutifully arrived on the aft limit.

Aerodynamically I took advice from Bob McLean Gliding at Rufforth and ended up with glider type seals on the control surfaces and an incredible vinyl tape for joint sealing. The entire aircraft was highly polished and made as slippery as possible.

ENGINE AND PROPSeven years ago we took the Mew Gull to Reno and while there we received valuable advice and ideas on Lycoming engine set-ups and electronic ignition from the racers. I decided to stick with a factory-built 280hr TTSN IO-360 straight valve engine and ditched the magnetos in favour of a dual Lightspeed electronic ignition system (fi tting a single system and one magneto is totally counterproductive). We top overhauled the engine and fi tted GAMI injectors, and we fi tted a ceramic plasma coated exhaust (F1 style) which both reduced

THE CAPE RUN...WELL ALMOST!Tony ‘Taff’ Smith describes his bid for the London to Cape Town to London record... and what happened

OVER the years, people have

often asked me about how

the Mew Gull fl ies. Over the

last few weeks since my

Cape attempt, it has changed

to ‘how does the Mew

compare with the Glasair?’

Strangely enough,

although some 60 years

apart, there are some

remarkable similarities.

They are both good at the

same thing – going fast and

turning left (362mph for a

Glasair 3 at Reno this year).

On takeoff and landing

unsurprisingly the Glasair is

easier to manage as you can

see forward and steer using

the castoring nosewheel

with diff erential braking.

The Mew has its good points

too though. It tracks very

straight and can accept

a surprising crosswind

component. Also, with its

extra 30-odd horse power,

acceleration is better and

there is lots of power to go

around if you screw up the

landing approach.

In terms of outright speed,

the Mew is the winner. It

is also is more neutrally

stable and less prone to

being bounced around in

turbulance, making it a

better candidate should you

ever fl y on instruments in

IFR conditions. The moment

you mention effi ciency

however the Glasair leaves

the Mew in the Stone Age.

The MTOW on the Glasair is

2200lb with an astonishing

900lb plus in payload,

compared to the Mew Gull’s

meagre 500lb. This is about

the application of modern

composites.

Most telling is the

powerplant comparison:

just a tad less power, less

weight and nearly half the

fuel consumption using a

Lycoming. Long range fl ying

is about getting the best

out of every aspect of your

aircraft’s performance, and

speed is just one element.

The Mew Gull’s shortcomings

in these other departments

make Alex Henshaw’s fl ight

all the more awesome, and

a wonder to everybody who

has read his book.

SOUTHEND, UKSOUTHEND, UK

ABUJA, NIGERIAABUJA, NIGERIA

BRAZZAVILLE, CONGO BRAZZAVILLE, CONGO (OVERFLEW)(OVERFLEW)

EROS AIRFIELD, NAMIBIAEROS AIRFIELD, NAMIBIA

THE MEW GULL

DECEMBER 2010 LIGHT AVIATION 21

radiated heat in the cowl by 65ß and helped with exhaust gas extraction.

We chose a three-blade MT Scimitar prop for several reasons. It would be more effi cient in getting a heavily-loaded aircraft off the ground at high density altitudes. It would be more effi cient in level fl ight when heavily loaded at high density altitudes, and it was 15lb lighter than the Hartzell originally fi tted. MT sold me a prop for half-price – it is a work of art and looks cool!

A lot of people cleverer than me will tell you that a two-blader is faster than a three-blader, and they may well be right. But I seriously doubt it is more effi cient over the whole of the fl ight parameters involved here.

We fi tted a lightweight starter provided by Kelly Aerospace, B & C alternator, lightweight fuel and oil hoses by Earls Performance UK, new scats, vacuum pump and fuel pump. We decided against a backup generator for weight reasons and generally changed anything we didn’t like.

THE RESULTSI must be honest and say I did not know how this was going to work out. The MT prop was ultra smooth and made the engine sound like a turbine and when we checked back to back the GAMI injectors against factory ones they made an astonishing 1.5 Imperial gallons/hour difference and only took an hour to fi t.

The Lightspeed dual ignition system worked straight out of the box: 40,000 volts sparking for around 20ß of the cycle which the magic boxes controlled by MAP and RPM. We fi tted GKN Iridium plugs gapped at 30 thou. I said I was set in my ways and junking the magnetos came hard. Running the engine lean of peak came even harder.

LEAN OF PEAK (LOP)I had a huge shock. I’ve been running injected engines for 20 years and been doing it wrong. Here’s how it works.

You need a JPI 450 fuel fl ow meter and must have EGT and CHT indications for all four cylinders (available on the main page of the Dynon). I got up to cruise altitude, FL100 at wide open throttle. I found an rpm of 2350 was about right and SLOWLY leaned off the engine, carefully monitoring the EGT. It slowly reached peak on the hottest cylinder, which was No 1 nearest the front cowling. Breaking into a cold sweat I went further and as if by magic the EGT started to go down. This, I am told, is because fuel is no longer burning in the exhaust, only in the cylinder where it belongs. When I looked across at the JPI, I was shocked and delighted at the same time and I had to take people fl ying before they would believe the engine would run happily at 26 litres/hour. The cylinders ran cooler as less heat was taken from the exhausts and the oil temperature goes down.

How can this be wrong? OK you are losing some power LOP but we are talking effi ciency and making an aeroplane go 2700nm nonstop with reserves. I have even run at 24lt/hr and although Ts and Ps are fi ne the engine gets lumpy. A fl ow of 26-27lt/hr happily produced 175kt ground speed at FL100. This is the exact fi gure we had for Southend to Abuja with reserve fuel - it just worked!

Sitting behind the engine was a delight – incomparably smooth and effi cient. If I sit with throttle wide open and prop at 2350 I can control the power with mixture ? leaner with a tailwind and vice versa aiming to maintain my groundspeed, 175kt. This sort of economy can also be observed at low level. At 23 square you can lean off to 26lt/hr without much reduction in speed. I can’t offer a full technical explanation, it just works.

[Editor’s note: Technical debate continues to rage about the wisdom of operating a Lycoming LOP, and readers should be aware that this is contrary to Lycoming recommendations. Lycoming advises that operating LOP may have an adverse effect on the life of the engine, and could affect warranty claims. The ability to operate LOP is also dependent on the engine ignition system, the higher energy spark and increased ignition advance of an electronic ignition system facilitating such operation.]

THE FLIGHTThe 19th of October brought a French Air Traffi c Controllers strike but fortunately I had two supermen on my side, Tim Lester and Mike Woodall of Flight Assist (UK) who persuaded the French Controllers to let me go at 0909Z west around Paris due to the sporting nature of the fl ight. It was 80nm longer than my original fl ight plan but at least I could start.

Tailwinds provided a great start (26lt/hr

‘Running an engine Lean of Peak came even harder. I had a huge shock. I’ve been running injected engines for 20 years and been doing it wrong.’

Taff landing his

Glasair modded

especially for the

record bid.

➽

> RECORD BID

22 LIGHT AVIATION DECEMBERW 2010

Ready and waiting, the Glasair sits in the hangar

at Southend the day before the off . The result of

months of preparation.

Many people helped enormously to make the

attempt happen, including ATC Lasham at

Southend.

The cowlings of the

Mew Gull and Glasair...

Buzz Lightyear eat

your heart out!

How did I pee? I used a gel-fi lled bag called

Travel John and got out of my seat and turned

round to face the rear.

DECEMBER 2010 LIGHT AVIATION 23

at 180kt) and my fl ight down through Europe and over the Mediterranean was uneventful. The controllers allowed me to straighten out some of the curves as things were so quiet due to the strike.

Crossing the African coast and the Atlas Mountains went well with light headwinds (mixture richer) and on to the Sahara. My JPI FS450 worked well and proved extremely accurate (down to 0.2lt per 100lt used). I used the fuel used fi gure to switch tanks leaving just a couple of litres ? I wasn’t brave enough to let it run dry.

The last of the daylight saw me at Tamanrasset and by Nigeria the combination of my purring engine and total blackness turned me to my iPod prepared by my daughters, Katy and Sam (fi rst tune ‘All alone am I’ ? not funny!). I used a simple pocket calculator to double check my fuel usage and fi gured with 200nm to go I would make Abuja with enough reserve to get me back north to Kano, which I knew to be clear of cloud.

I arrived at Abuja at 0005Z, bang on the money, with my refuelling team from the Real Aeroplane Co poised with barrels of 100LL and a rotary fuel pump. I had used less than two barrels of fuel, incredible. Two hours later I was on my way again, launching off into a foggy black hole getting the best climb possible at MTOW with an OAT of 30ß at a runway elevation of 1200ft (you can work out the density altitude yourself!). Then it all went horribly wrong.

THE PROBLEMS BEGINThis takeoff situation is an instant point of no return. You need continuous full power (especially at Abuja that has formidably placed high ground rising to 2500ft agl at both ends of the runway). The oil temp indicator went to max and stayed there with cylinders over 400ßc so I reduced the climb rate to 100ft/min as soon as I dared. The temps took a long time to come down though, I was cooking the engine. It was still running but it was not the engine I had been so proud of coming from the UK.

There was a curious vibration, reduced oil pressure and even worse, I was around 15kt short on cruise. I have been involved in racing cars, both building and driving for the past few years, and have come across detonation problems on a few occasions, and I’m surethis was the problem. I made the decision to continue as Ts & Ps stabilised and headed south to the coast. The jury is still out on what went wrong but we are looking at fuel samples.

A couple of hours into the fl ight daylight returned, showing extensive fog along the coast, with solid CB activity everywhere (the forecast had only said isolated), although no lightning activity. So what to do?

I poked my nose into the cloud and instantly the Dynon became my world. Torrential rain stopped the ASI and started coming into the

cockpit despite the well fi tting canopy seals. And to my eternal discredit I entered a second one with the same result. This situation was surreal. Too intent to think of being scared I seemed to be totally disconnected from the outside world. My only aim in life was to maintain attitude. After another dose I headed east, inland, abandoning my coastal fl ight plan and deciding to rejoin it further south.

The problems kept coming... The Spidertrack unit died in a puddle and the radios refused to transmit. The 430 GPS stopped working and the S-Tec auto-pilot would only follow the heading bug.

Thankfully the 695 GPS continued to work, dutifully keeping me clear of controlled airspace. The next 1500 miles were solid cloud with no sign of the ground ? I didn’t care as this was luxury compared to my CB experience. I headed down to Brazzaville, then south towards Eros Airfi eld at Windhoek in Namibia, which was my planned alternate if I had run short of fuel.

The cloud slowly cleared as I fl ew over Angola and at this stage I realised my stop at Eros would be the end of my dream. Combined engine, instrumentation, radio and GPS problems meant the odds were too highly stacked against me. I landed at Eros at 1630 non-radio using the procedure on their approach plate - a total time of 31 elapsed hours from Southend and only some 3.5 hours from The Cape, despite my loss of airspeed and a 200 mile CB detour. I must say I was gutted when I made the decision to end the record

attempt there, disappointed more for my long suffering friends at Southend, Abuja and The Cape than for myself, and upset about my engine.

CONCLUSIONA one-stop strategy is possible within the rules. I had always said that my chances of success were only 50% and I haven’t changed my mind. I have also said I would give it my best shot and wouldn’t let it haunt me if I failed - and I won’t. Bad for me but good for Alex Henshaw, Chalkie Stobbart and Steve Noujaim. Would I do it again? Most defi nitely yes. It was high adventure in the purest form. Could I go through all the expense and cost again – in time as well as money? No. It took over my life for 12 months. At 64 I am content with the result and have asked the FAI to ratify Southend to Eros as a world record. After all it is only 3.5 hours short of The Cape!

POSTSCRIPTI have left G-OPNH at Eros and will fl y it back next year when weather permits. I shall probably have a bash at the Cape to Southend record. The local maintenance outfi t, run by Peter Hartmann of Aviation Centre in Windhoek, has kindly agreed to hangar the aircraft, boroscope the engine and fi x anything broken. I bought the Glasair as a tool for the job and to sell after the fl ight but I left her in Peter’s hangar with a tinge of sadness, such a great little aircraft. What’s happened to me? I don’t even like composites!

MID CONTINENT 2in ATTITUDE GYRO Excellent,

just fi t and forget.

GARMIN 695 Easy to use,

brilliant and 100% reliable

despite getting wet and, at

one time crossing Angola, it

got too hot to touch.

DYNON FLIGHTDECK D180

Brilliant, 100% reliable. Buy

the ready-made harnesses.

DUAL LIGHTSPEED IGNITION

This is the future. 100%

reliable. Fitting the dual

system transforms the engine

and is good for a 20% saving

in fuel. The only things I

have reservations about are

the connecting looms which

should really be moulded

types with cannon connectors.

Use the Lightspeed ignition

switches/combined starter

and junk the key switch. Opt

for the direct pick-up sensor

unit as this is more reliable

than the Hall Eff ect type.

BATTERY Fit a high quality

back-up battery such as Red

Top. Don’t skimp on this – a

burglar alarm battery will

not do.

GARMIN 430 The workhorse

of the GPS range. Worked well

with the S-Tec 55 but doesn’t

like rain.

JPI FS450 Excellent bit of

kit. Always made sense even

after 15 hours non-stop.

Incidentally we piggy-backed

the fuel fl ow transducer to

supply information to both

the Dynon and the JPI and it

worked!

RC ALLEN 2IN SOLID STATE ATTITUDE INDICATOR The

fi rst one was faulty, as was the

replacement – scary.

S-TEC AUTOPILOT Mine was

10 years old and no longer

supported by Meggitt. IAE

at Cranfi eld made mine work

when no one else could. My

advice is it’s false economy

to mix old with new when

refi tting? Just dig deeper!

MT PROPELLER survived the

intense rain with the stainless

steel leading edge doing a

perfect job.

HOMEBUILDERS’ CORNER

THANKS TO THE TEAMHuge thanks must go to the many people without whom a fl ight of this nature would not have been possible” • First and foremost, of course, Ann, my wife without whose constant support this project would have never happened • The Real Aeroplane Co Breighton, especially Ian Ross the Chief Engineer for his knowledge, expertise and invaluable advice, and to the volunteers who helped during the refi t • Robert Fleming, Real Aeroplane co-owner whose Sat phone and Spidertrack drowned • Chris Turner, my LAA Inspector • The Southend team: Les Clark and John Jinks, who are also ace polishers • Ian Dorling, Base Manager (and true aviation enthusiast) and his team at ATC Lasham whose high grade maintenance outfi t looked after us at Southend • The A (Abuja) team: Alan Marsland and Simon Ducker (who were going to dress up as pink bunnies and disappointingly didn’t!). Wahab Ifabiyi of Skyrouting Aviation Abuja • The Cape Town team: Ian Ross (Real Aeroplane Co Chief Engineer) and John Dixon who waited and waited but in vain • Tiann Kotze of Signature Flight Support Cape Town • Dave Butler, ace website man • Tim Lester and Mike Woodhall of Flight Assist (UK).

‘My only aim in life was to maintain attitude. The situation was surreal – too intent to think of being scared, I seemed to be disconnected’