Earthstar Forums

I have a Rotax 503 with stock Bing carbs. Most carburetors have float
bowls, when inverted, the floats don't work right and raw fuel floods the
engine. A flooded engine can be very hard to start.
START OF A STORY-
I don't have electric start, just a pull rope. So before trying a loop, I
made sure I had lots of altitude and was over a field I'd already picked
out to land in.
I'd tried loops but always turned them into wing overs because it just
didn't feel right. l thought maybe I was being too cautious. So I decided
to just hold the loop no matter how it felt. So I did. Up and over, past
vertical but still climbing I felt the plane drop, and my loose quart of
oil flew up an stuck to the windscreen. At the same time the engine quit.
There's a blank in my memory. Next thing I remember, I'm over my landing
field with 3000' of extra altitude. So why not try a restart? Pushed the
stick forward and trimmed for 80mph. Reached back and pulled the starter
rope again and again. With the air pushing the prop, it turned over pretty
good. Full throttle, the engine caught and everything was very very good
again.
I called Mark, he told me to check my elevator cable tension. Yes it was
too loose. If I remember right, you're supposed to measure 5lbs at full
stick deflection to push it off the stop. The next time - a full loop, no
problem Yippee!
As I was writing this I realized that I had done an inverted stall
recovery. Dang, I really wish I could remember it.

Touchwood, Alls Wells thats ends Wells. What’s the approximate radius of the Gull’s full loop? entirely in the vertical plane? speeds at bottom and top of the loop?

So reminds of Bob Hoover pouring tea in a barrel roll [and touchdown with engines out on one wheel, then the other and take off again]. Got to see to see Gulls do that someday. This is no Acrobatics, think it's part of his training regimen repeated over a couple dozen times to hard wire it into the brain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9pvG_ZSnCc <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9pvG_ZSnCc>

Er, Let me take that statement back, Alls Wells… (offtopic; recently had an insight into the Linguistics of a Civilization in early antiquity; It felt Baby Talk was their way with words in daily speak. They wrote in highly cryptic cuneiform on clay tablets even after paper was invented) Was also reminded of Kess Blaswich, Rest in peace.

Argueably the best pilot ever. He used an unimpressive commuter twin and
did a jaw dropping airshow with it.

Why do pilots not seem to follow his footsteps? raised it with Kess too, when he was totally having fun with his top speed tests some years back. only seen Mark do a tight loop in the level plane to demonstrate negligible wing flutter.

There’s a blank in my memory too, seven wakeful hours, most of it while at home with parents. Then my old man lost a minute or two of memory too, few years back, two vehicles involved. Does look like a fully aware healthy brain can switch off recording sensory inputs, especially in high mobility circumstances; and then it can erase some too to protect the mind from pain, or anticipation of. Guess it works differently then, Faster maybe, recall must have a significant time&energy cost. Use the F5 key to print a date and time stamp in emacs in text files, maintenance logs, diaries.