A couple times now I have heard that I need to be concerned with the Sling TSI s tail slamming against the ground. What can cause this is two people getting up on the steps at the same time. My Cirrus had a rubber bumper on the rear tie down. I looked at getting that exact bumper but it feels to hard to actually cushion the blow. I tried many different materials until I found the right hardness. This material is just right. It will act like a sponge and dampen some of the impact force from the above scenario. I plan to attach it with some low quality glue. It already fits on pretty tight and I want to be able to remove it if necessary.
If a tail strike happened during take off, this material would most likely not be hard enough to provide sufficient protection but it would help. Any material that would be hard enough to protect during take off would not likely protect from a stationery tip back. It if wears out over time, It is easy and cheap to replace, so no biggie if it comes to that.
I am trying to prep for paint. But I am still missing some important parts so it is a challenge. I am missing my parachute, my propeller and a bunch of interior upholstery parts. Unfortunately it appears that none of these parts will be here soon. I had to cut my cowling on speculation. I did a lot of measuring. I cut it 25mm from the front of the engine flange. So let’s hope. And 63mm from the top and bottom from the flange angled out to the outer edge of the cowling.
I also did my wing fairings this week. The Sling TSI wing fairings we’re tricky to fit around the wing. I started by slipping it over the unbolted step, then over the front of the wing and under. I had to trim some of the wing fairing on the front. I cut it back about half an inch so it wouldnt push against the landing gear. I noticed on some other slings that the fairing didn’t always lay flat against the fuselage. So I put in some extra rivnuts/screws to make it lay flat.
This weekend I am having the plane painted at my place. It will be blue with black on the leading edge of the wings. I can’t help but to think that black on the wings will help prevent ice build up. Not sure how much it will help, but it can’t hurt.
I figured I should know how to fly a TSI before I try to test pilot my own. I called around all the other build centers and TSI owners but the only TSI in North America that the FAA allows to train on is in Torrance. They operate just like any other flight School. You sign up on flight schedule pro, schedule a time, show up do your flight leave and that’s it.
I did actually have a lot to learn. The first day we did mostly touch and goes at Long Beach airport. The following days we did trips to places such as San Bernardino, flew over the shop Queen Mary. I’m used to a cirrus SR22 with 310 horsepower. That thing is always above the power curve. The sling flies like it’s always below the power curve. It is constantly closer to what I would call slow flight, Than what i would say cruise. I guess what I mean by that is, in the Cirrus you can just point the nose and go. In the Cirrus, if you want to go up (even if you’re just at cruise power) you can put the nose up and you go up. In the TSI you have push the throttle all the way forward and point the nose up to climb at all. The Sling’s cruise speed is about 40knots slower. At cruise , climb prop setting, 80% power and 5500rpm we were struggling to do 132k tas. Even after only a couple minutes of that, We had to pull back to 65% power because the egt were exceeding 1700f. I am used to 178k. But in other aspects, it’s a dream to handle. Very responsive to turns, easy to do a 360 at 60degrees and not lose any altitude. The interior is pretty tight. No extra elbow room.
After my flights I was able to walk around and look at the build center. They currently occupy half a dozen hangars. Most of the builds are done in two of them. Looking at the other build really helped a lot. I got a lot of questions answered just by looking. And found some mistakes I made. Special thanks to Shawn, the engine guy. He was very helpful.
Random info acquired that I found interesting,
Sling academy in Torrance uses 25% avgas and 75% costco 91.
Wayne’s 135wt has the Sensinch (sp) prop not whirlwind.
No one uses a nose wheel tug to move planes, they push down on the rear fairing and HS. And drag it around.
Final approach speed 75-80.
5400rpm holds level. More climbs, less drops/slows.
aileron trim really isn’t necessary. And elevator isn’t really either. It handles easily enough without them.
I am making my engine inspection hatches , latches. Not duz screws. I don’t wanna have to carry a screw driver for every pre flight. I tested this and it seems to work. But admittedly it hasn’t been air/flight tested yet. I think the pictures will convey more than my words….
This was an extremely stressful thing to do but also very rewarding. I got my little Sling TSI’s cowling fitted up and cut to the correct length. I used the whole painters tape trick to determine where to cut. It worked great. I did have to sand a lot down to make things perfect but the painters tape idea was a great starting point. I made sure to measure precisely that there was the correct amount of clearance around the propeller both front to back and up and down.
I put the top and lower pieces on the ground, clamp them together and worked my way back with cleco’s. After I knew where the cleco’s would go I removed them, attached it to the plane, and put them back on.
This whole plane build is being done entirely by myself without a second set of hands to help me. Mounting the cowling is one area that the manual specifically says to use a second set of hands. So I just pulled out ye good ole painter’s tape and used it to temporarily hold things in place and that worked great. That really allowed me to position the cowling exactly where it needed to be.
I was trying to fit the interior side panels. But they were a little too tight which would cause some bowing in the panels themselves. So I had to remove a little bit from one of the panels I peeled back the leather and cut about a quarter inch off the fiberglass. I scored it with a razor blade and then bent it and it broke and peeled right off. Now everything fits fine.
This was the first easy thing that I have done in a while. Everything else has proven to be harder than anticipated.
I installed the foam after cleaning the mating surfaces. I mocked up the location of the latches and marked them. Drilled them. Riveted then from the inside outwards. And everything worked great. They are nice and snug. I then tested fitted them against the engine and they for perfectly.
Okay so embarrassingly this took all day long. I built this little jig and added just enough washers to come out precisely to my calculated 25 mm clearance that I will need for my propeller,,, more information on my propeller to come,,,. That is 25mm between the front of the flange to the back of the spinner. Calculated at 31mm , minus 6mm.
So I was concerned that where the passengers put their feet on the rear floor wasn’t solid enough. As you can see in the picture, the row of rivets I am pointing at is supposed to have a small brace under that thin piece of aluminum that they call the floor. The brace is only about half an inch deep. I didn’t feel like it would support enough weight. Or more accurately jumping and yelling and screaming kids. So I made the brace run all the way down to the bottom. So the new thicker brace that goes between the floor and the outer skin/bottom of the plane is 65mm tall. And then at the back bottom of that skin I put a piece of foam to fill the gap.
For better or worse it is definitely stronger now.
I chose to connect my pitot heat controller to the inspection hatch, has many others have done. I considered for a long time other places inside to mount it but none of them seemed as good as the hatch itself.
I was concerned that the pitot itself would go straight in and bang the aileron pushrod. If it goes straight in it will rub against the push rod. A slight bend of the aluminum pitot pipes towards the rear is all that was required to avoid the aileron push rod.
You can also see in one of the pictures the special tool I created to help tighten and loosen the inspection hatches.
I’m quickly running out of things to do. Because there’s only so many more things I can do without having my propeller or parachute. I have a couple things I’m trying to figure out this week that will hopefully help solve that problem.
