Water in Fuel
Thanks to all who fed back on my 'water in the fuel' issue recently.
Even though we completely drained the tank of fuel (through the fuel
drains)
and then refilled with clean fuel, the problem did come back, briefly, 1
1/2 engine
hours later (high rpm mis-fire). I can _still_ see a little water coming
---From main when I
drain it, and I'm going to have to exercise a precautionary flying
strategy for the
next few hours, together with regular purging and inspections.
(1 hour flow today, without problems).
As previously stated, I believe the water came from a Jerry can,
standing half full
for some time.
Terra Transceivers
------------------
A few weeks ago, I saw another posting regarding Terra Transceivers. It
was not
a flattering account of the equipment's usefulness. I too, have had
intermittent problems
with my Terra kit, with ground stations unable to hear my transmissions,
sometimes even
when I'm on the ground, by the clubhouse !
As an experiment, I dispensed with the standard ribbon aerial, imbedded
in my tail plane,
and purchased a second hand 'composite' aerial from 'Skycraft'. I fixed
it in the rear of the
cockpit surrounded by about 18 inches (radius) of aluminium foil to act
as a ground plane.
I then flew to 1800 ft on 2 successive days, (Sat and Sun) and attempted
to communicate
with a variety of local airfields. Here are the results of _all_ the
tests performed on these
days, with comments.
The 'readability' is the quality of my transmission, reported by the
ground station contacted.
1/ All my 'receives' were of adequate or good quality, except where
indicated.
2/ The results suggest that my kit is capable of communication over at
least 20 Nm.
3/ The weather on each day was CAVOK, with good sunshine, no clouds and
little wind.
Day 1 : Location : very near (well, not literally 'very near' !!) QE2
bridge at Dartford, Essex
Station Contacted Readability Distance of station (Nm)
Stapleford 5 10
Clacton 5 33
Andrewsfield 4 23
Elstree no reply 26
Also, several attempted air-to-air conversations with various
microlights, with
variable results, mostly quite poor ! (I'm not counting these, as I have
no knowledge
of the equipment used)
Day 2: Location: just south of Braintree, Essex.
Station Contacted Readability Distance of station (Nm)
Andrewsfield 5 4
Earls Colne 5 7
Cambridge no reply 25
Clacton * 5 23
Southend 5 18
North Weald 5 18
Stapleford too busy (didn't try) 20
Elstree 2 (3rd attempt) 34
* reception of Clacton's transmission was 'poor', but intelligible.
I'm encouraged by these results. If further testing is successful, I
intend to
make the composite aerial into a permanent installation.
Hope this might help some frustrated transceiver owners.
alan
--
Alan. D. Stewart
14 Goddard Way 'phone : +44 1245 264186
Chelmer Village work : +44 1473 607571
Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6UR email : alan.stewart@cableinet.co.uk
office email : alan.d.stewart@bt.com
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