Greetings I bought a 'vintage' sport/pattern plane and dont know what it is. I have been in the hobby many years but just can't name this one. It has a .45 engine. 50" wingspan, 13" chord at root, 10" at tip. Wing is foam core, sheeted and apparently fiberglassed, perfectly finished. Appears professionally built as does the painted finish. Checkerboard and trim are all painted. Fixed landing gear. Very thin fin, stab and control surfaces. Wing has swept LE and straight TE.
That is one of the toughest planes I ever beat to death.
Paul, wanna tell them?
I think I built 21 of the beasts and all but 2 or 3 died from an altitude of less than 6 feet because I used to abuse them around horribly doing touch and goes. I was able to get under 300 feet any way you measured it and ALWAYS below the tree line . Turn left and pull up was my 'takeoff' technique . Once in a while I would wind up inverted at 5 feet or so and still pulling, but that was only on exciting go arounds. After the 2nd bird, I stopped sanding the wing tips and just let the runway do its thing for me out of laziness. I got so good at building them that I could fly one Saturday morning the week after killing its predecessor Saturday morning. You can improve its low speed high wing loaded turns and Dutch roll by extending the rudder to the end of the elevator. As a pattern trainer the tail 'hunt ' is its only weakness.
If the whole bird has been glassed I would be astounded if it weighs in much less than 6 3/4 pounds, but expect it to be about 7 1/2 with the paint. Check to see if the rudder is straight, because if not I really KNOW that bird! All but my first two were powered by Saito 50's and my typical all up weight was about 5 1/2 or 5 5/8 pounds with 1 inch extensions added to the gear legs for prop clearance (12x6) and NO glass except for the center section.
I think you are right about being a Kougar, I actually have 2 of the kits myself. It is just SO well built and painted I did not think an ordinary human could do it. Wing looks like it came out of a mold, hinges gaps are zero, and the checkerboard is painted on!
It's ready to fly except having trouble getting the engine to run reliably. Its an Enya, and the carb seems a little strange. If I cant get it to run reliably, I'll put in an OS 50 FSR or 46AX
"Six_O'Clock_High" typical all up weight was about 5 1/2 or 5 5/8 pounds with 1 inch
Now why would someone go to so much trouble in making such a beautiful model and then put an inferior engine in it to power it? They wouldn't. Find out what is wrong and fix it. OS makes good engines, but Enya makes engines that are a cut above OS engines.
It would help if you would provide the engine model to us so we can evaluate it and make the proper recommendations. All Enya engines run great when ran on the proper fuel and broken-in properly. Some require some special treatment. We are trying to find out if this is one that requires lots of castor oil or low nitro in the mix.
The only Enya I have is a .29 air bleed carb. I bet that isn't what you have. Many times old engines have dried out or broken O rings and leak air somewhere.(carb to engine, needle in carb) Just a thought. mk
Ed's right, Enya's are good engines. I've got a 30+ year old Enya .40 that I still fly regularly and it's never missed a beat. Tell us what your's is doing.
The air bleed carb throws some people off but it's easy to deal with. At full throttle adjust the needle valve to peak RPMs then back it off a hair. See that it runs solidly at full throttle or tweak it a little more. When you're happy with the high end, throttle back to an idle and listen to the engine. Especially listen when you transition back to full throttle.
If it just dies flat when at idle it's probably too lean. If it bobbles it's rich. The same is true when you push the throttle back up. If it just cuts off quickly it's lean, if it bobbles and transitions poorly it's rich. All you need to do is adjust the air bleed screw. But you may need to adjust it a bunch, not just in 1/8 or 1/4 turns. Give it a full turn or two, run the engine again and see if it's better or worse. If it's better but not great, give it another turn. If it's worse, turn it back and go the other way. Keep a mental note of how many turns you've got on it from it's original position so you can get back if you're not doing any good.
It's easy to do, you don't even need to know if your engine is rich or lean at an idle. Just try turning the air bleed one way and listen to see if it's better or worse. If there's not much change turn it some more. If it's worse, go the other way. Trial and error will find the direction you need and then you can zero in on the best setting.
Has it been sitting for any period of time? Could the engine be worn out? Did the installation ever work? Why'd the guy sell the plane?
If the engine has been sitting around for a few years, and especially if the owner had used castor oil, everything could be fine except for varnish, and you could fix it all up by cleaning the engine and reassembling it.
If the engine was broken or worn going in, it may cost less and get you a better setup in the end to repair/renew what you have rather than changing.
If the problem is in the fuel system, or some other problem on the airplane side of the mount, you could put the World's Most Reliable Engine in there and it won't run any better than what you have now.
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