Highest total time Legal eagle?

[Pilotjkl]

Curious  how much airtime these birds are getting

[hawkaleuge]

186 hours since Feb 2008 
4 props
2 engines - first one cracked out the oil gallery
1 crank
1 tail wheel 
1 leading edge rebuild
3 sets of landing gear 

Been a hell of a learning experience, but people that try new things have better mental retention (that's my story)
Ed L.

[Pilotjkl]

Your a real EXPERIMENTER!  that sounds like fun actually,
Thanks for sharing,
John

[Pilotjkl]

186 hours since Feb 2008
4 props
2 engines - first one cracked out the oil gallery
1 crank
1 tail wheel
1 leading edge rebuild
3 sets of landing gear

Been a hell of a learning experience, but people that try new things have better mental retention (that's my story)
Ed L.

Did you build your engine? What bore and stroke are you running? I'm building a 1/2 VW engine using the betterhalf plans 92x69, 
John

[hawkaleuge]

Both engines were from Hummel engines (scot chasler) the first one had 92 mm with the stock stroke like yours. It was real good reliable engine for learning to fly the LE.  Then the case cracked out the oil gallery.  
I got a new case from Hummel and swapped out the guts.  This one started running weird, losing power and making a lot of metal.  so I strapped it down and ran it at full throttle, 30 minutes into the run engine stopped dead.  
I sent it unopened to Hummel and Scott reported a broken crank in a place with the most meat.  At that time I got Scott to to put 94 mm and full stroke crank assembly as used in the 45 hp models.  I didn't have to much time on the engine when I shucked the prop in flight.  The long stroke engines are hard on prop connections and you need to religiously check the prop bolts torq before you fly.
I have a new prop and only a few hours on it, hopefully it will stay together for a while.

[Sparetime]

Hawk,

Can you share what you've learned about the landing gear?

Jim

[hawkaleuge]

Can you share what you've learned about the landing gear?

My original landing gear had 20 inch BMX wheels lots of spokes and bulletproof except the axle is the weak point as it is supported from one side of the wheel.
That fact combined with my inexperience to flying (only 10 hours in a Cub) proved too much for this setup.  Landing even a smige off center ie not straight to the direction of travel would bend or fold the landing gear and or axle.  This is why the LE used plastic spoke wheels they give more and keep this from happening.

After going through 2 sets of landing gear I built a jig to fabricate the 3rd set (I figured this was going to happen again) and changed to azura 6 in nylon hub wheels and increased the tubing size per John B.  Also made a sleeve that the axle slides into and cross bolted it in to increase the axle strength.  Like to think my landing skill also improved.  I never did get to use my jig again, kind of like buying insurance once you get it you never need it.  I hope.