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PELICAIY
LEAVESTHE NEST
By Barry HaleyMA 5403
The Ultruviu Pelican PI looks not unlike a Cessna
150.So if someoneis ready to go to all the effort and
expenseof building their own plane, why not go for
somethinga little more exotic, like a Lancair, Thunder Mustang or Glasair? Lots of reasons! Economy,
versatility, comfort, short field performance and float
capability are only a few that come to mind. l
startedseriouslylooking into building a kit plane in
the spring of 1993.There were many nice designson
the market but the most appealingtome was the U/trqvia Pelican PL. Whilethe Pelican Clubhadbeen
available for quite a while, the wider cabin, Rotax
l;,9
ffii-j
he'sgetting it's no wonderBarry is smiling.Pilotsat Oshawaairport
912 powered PL was relatively new in 1993. A trip to lf ith all thecompliments
are sayingthat hiscabin hasthe besrinstrumentpanel of any single vFRplane on thefield.
the Ultravia factory, then in Mascouche near Mont-
real, convincedme that the PL was the bird for me.
The cockpitlayout,visibility,and finish qualitywere great,and the friendly,
knowledgeable
staff inspiredconfidence.
I placedmy orderand requested
the
buildersmanuals
be shippedearlyso I couldreviewthemwhile awaitingdelivery.- My kit wasreadyin the fall of 1993so with a borrowedpickuptruck
andrentedsnowmobile
trailerI hauledit backto Ontario.It wasreallyexciting
gettingit all homebut theresurewerea lot of partsto unpack.The Pelican
hasa varieryof constructionmaterialsand methods.The fuselageis fibreglass,
wingsandtail arealuminum,andthe controlsurfacesarefabriccovered(newer
versionshavealuminumskins).Planningthe work for the seasons
was important.My workspaces
werelimitedto the heatedbasement,
whichwasn'taccessiblefor the largerpieces,andtheunheated
garage(or ratherthehalfthat I was
allocatedby the boss).I tried to schedulejobs like fibreglassbondingand
paintingfor the summermonthsandmetalworkfor the coolerweather.Physically smallerjobs like the tail components
panelwiring andcontrol
assembly,
surfacecoveringwere savedfor the deadof winter when the g ragewasjust
Top viev' oJ Barry's
too cold.
Ultravia Pelican PL, a kit plane designed
by Jean-Rene Lepage. The Canadian company, now based al
Gatineau, PQ, also manufactures a certified Pelican version.
The neat installation of Barry's nrbo engine go! a lot of attention during an
Oshawa MA Chapter visit prior to thefirstJlight. The project took sixyears to complete.
BUILD TIME
With smallchildren,andbothmy wife andI working, I found the buildingtook much longerthan
I'd anticipated.
My estimatedtwo or threeyears
for completionturnedinto nearlysix. About 1800
hours were investedoverall.Their new kits are
simplerthoughand a buildercould easilydo one
in half thattime if theywentwith a standard
panel,
9l2S andfixed pitch prop.Farmingout the painting would alsohelp.The filling, sanding,priming
and paintingon mine seemedto take forever.The
factory is now gell coating the fibreglassparts
though,so pinholesare no longera problem.I
used SystemThree paint throughoutand it was
easyto work with and clean up owing to being
frrUlrf
ilI
water reducible.I painted my stripes and letters on but a vinyl
graphicspackagewould havesavedtime.- The paneltook quite a
while to plan and build. While it's strictly a VFR aircrafttlere's a
that was picked.One of the
lot of capabilityin the instrumentation
first itemspurchasedwas a Rocky MountainInstrumentsmicro encoderkit. This instrumentfits in one standardpanelhole and prcslt
altitude,rateof climb andoutsideair temperature.
entsairspeed,
alsoperformsthe altitudeencodingfunctionand calculatestrue airspeedat theflip of a switch.A NavaidDevicesAPI autopilot went
in, alongwith a MagellanECIOXmovingmapGPS.The GPSoutput wasfed to the autopilot througha decoderboughtfrom Porcine
Theautopilot servowasmountedin theright wing with
Associates.
For engineinstrumentaa hatchfor removaland maintenance.
EIS wasinstalled.It's smallbut it
tion a GrandRapidsTechnologies
RPM,totalenginetime,flight time,
measures
everythingnecessary;
oil pressureand temperature,coolant temperature,voltage, two
pressure
andfuelpressure.
Radios
are ,X';tI::!#::;';y:;::X:.":#i:;#:,:::Y:,#i,:f"CHT's,twoEGT's,manifold
Terraandthe intercomis a Flightcomstereounit. ETA rockerbreak- ilrepropillerandit toolcs
tikeBarryisltyingwithiheengine
shut
of
switches.
erswereusedwherepossibleto avoidthe needfor separate
Thepanelwasbuilt andwired on a temporaryframeandthen installedin the planeasa unit. AMP connectorswereusedto hookthe
panelwire hamess
wiring runs.up to thefuselage
AMAZING PERFORMANCE
Partway throughconstructionof my kit Ultravia introducedthe PL9l4 and I returnedto Mascouchefor a demonshationride with
AndreBourassa,
their testpilot. With the Rotax914 turboandan Airmasteradjustablepitch propthe performance
wasamazing.Unfortunately,so wasthe price of the engine/propcombination.Thinking forwardto what it would do on floats,and float flying was
for choosingthehigh wing Pelicanin thefirst place,I exchanged
oneof thereasons
my 912cowl for a 914cowl andput in my order
for theengineandinstallation
kit. Installation
of theenginewasa bit on the complicated
side.Therewerenumerous
accessories
to positionand laterthe fuel systemhadto be rebuilt dueto a Rotaxserviceletter.The electricpumpswerechangedfrom a parallel
configurationto serieswith bypasses.
Apparentlyvaporlock had beena problemon a coupleofaircraft on hot daysdueto the high
suctionof the pumpswhenmountedin parallel.Oh well, betterto find thesethingsout BEFOREfirst flight. During that time I
propeller.The Airmasterpriceseemedon the high side,but thereweren'tmany
wasalsosearching
for a goodcockpitadjustable
otherbrandson the market.Thenan intemetsearchturnedup informationon the ArplastPV50built in France.ASAP of BritishCo
lumbiawasa dealerfor them,the pricewasfavourableandthe orderplaced.The prop quality wasobviousandthe grey/whitecolour
combinationmatchedmy paint schemeperfectly.- The electricpitch controlmotor is poweredthroughan ingeniouscontrolbox
that requiresonly onepianowire conductorrunningthroughthe hollow prop flange.Returnis throughthe metalof the engine.The
controlbox containsNiCadbatteriesthat normallyareon chargefrom the aircraftelectricalsystem.As soonasthe pitch adjusunent
switchis operatedthe batteriesare isolatedfrom the aircraftelectricalsystem.This allowsmotor currentto be toggledeitherdirection in orderto drive the pitch fine or course.The pianowire conductoris springloadedand hookedto a potentiometer
that in turn
connectsto a digital pitch indicatoron the panel.This is handyfor settingpitch.priorto takeoff and for quickly optimizingcnrise
settings
whenleveledout.FIRST FLIGHT
Final fit up of the wings and controlson the aircraftwas performed
in June1999. In July it wastransported
to the airporton a 'tilt and
load'truckfor final assembly.
Bill Teecameout for the final inspection. Therewasa shortlist of snagsto seeto, thenthe flight permit
was approvedby JamieAlexanderand faxed over. First flight was
August28th with Andre Bourassaat the controls,and me along for
familiarization.
Oh, whata feeling.The initial flight was30 minutes
andthatgenerated
anothershortlist ofsnags,all ofthem minor.At thetimeof writingC-GDADhasalmost30 hourson it, so specificationsandperformance
figurescanconfidentlybe stated.Acrossthe
board.all thenumbersarecloseto what Ultraviastatesin their advertising. Empty weight is 824 poundsand allowablegrossis 1400
pounds.Full throttle(ll5% power)rateof climb was 1,000fpm for
the full grossclimb test. The Rotax 914 is rated for ll5Yo takeoff
powerfor threeminutes.It took full fuel, two pilotsand 130pounds
Another top viefi taken over Lakc Sctgog north ofOshawa, Ontario
HOW TO TUNE EXHAUST SYSTEM PIPES FOR
RAA530
JuckSteete
sandbagsto get to full gross.Solo, no baggageclimb perform- ADDITIONAL POWER
anceis about 1800fom with full fuel. Cruiseis 135mph at75o/o
and 6500 feet altitude. Low power setting (55%) yields around
105mph at a fuel burn of lessthan4 US gal. per hour.Thenoise
level is very low at 55o/o,and quite acceptableat the higher
power settings.The long range tanks \\'ere not an availableoption when the wings were built so the no reserverangeis only
about550 miles.Fuel usedto datehas beenstrictlyhigh octane
Mogas as recommendedb1 Rotax. I'm uorking on adding fittingsand a pump to handlean auxiliarytank. While the cunent
range is not bad, I'm concernedabout har,ins to fill up with
leadedAvgasonceI starttaking longertrips. With an extrahour
or two of enduranceit'll be more likely that stopscan be made
whereMogas is available.Building and fly'ing my Pelican
has been a fantasticexperience.It has been made all the more
enjoyableby the great people I've met along the way; at Ultravia, RAA (both, National and the Oshaua Chapter) and
Transport Canada.Anyone wanting more information on
the Ultrovia Pelican should look at their rveb site, www.
ultravia.ca.If you have questionsfor me send lour e-mail to
[email protected]
To determine tuned pipe lengths:
enginetunedto 2200 rpm.
Forpipelengthfor 65 hp Continental
(youcanvarytheenginesizeandthe rpmfor the lengthdesired)
formula-3D 850 (50 ) -3" -3D length
2200rpm
Where850 is a constant
180 is a constant
beforeBDCthatexhaust
50 -3D degrees
valveopens
fromerhaustvalveto boltingfaceof
3" -3D distance
port( wherepipeboltson).
the exhaust
Note:Thisgivesthe lengthof eachpipein inches.Youcanterminateone pipein eachside cul lo !/2 lengthinto the otherfull
position.
fengthpipeatthe U2 distance
pipes.....
Yes,thesearelong
To determine pipe diameter:
Thediameterof eachpipeis to be calculated
so that the volume
of the pipeattachedto eachcylinderis twicethe volumeof the
cylinder.Theexactpipediameteris not criticalbut it shouldbe
close.
Diameter
for 65 hp enginesize. Pi r square-3D 2 x 700 ccvolumedividedbylengthof onepipe.
-3D 1400cc dividedby 223 cm pipe
Pi r squared
lenglh-3D 6.27802
6.27802devided
byPi -30 r squared
of 1.99835cm squareroot
of 1.99835-3D 1.41cm multiplyby2tor diameter=3D
2.82
cm -- 2.82 cm -3D L.22O2inchdiameter
( use1 L/4' piry.whichis closeenough)
In a 65 hpJodelBebethisgaveapprox.
an additional
5 hp.
Bestwishesto all,Jack
"TheWindsock"
I
SERVICE FAILL'RE REqORT From
Fuetsystem
settteme;;;;;;i rhem,y#'n.s
PhotographerDon Dutton RAA 5i,55
Photo Plane Pilot Bill Hone MA 5518
i
ThePilotof a Piper
PA-12SuperCruiser
reported
thatdururgI
flightthe enginelostpower.and an emergency
landing
was
msdg.- Aninspection
revealed
thattheglassfuelsettlement
bowlhadseparated
andwasfoundloosein thebottom
of the
cowling.
Further
inspectron
revealed
thatoneearof theslotted
settlement
bowlstem,intended
to retainthebail,hadbroken.
Thefollowing
illustration
indicates
where
thecrackwasbelieved
to haveoriginated.
Withthebailinplace,
it wouldnothavebeen
possible
to seea crackin thisarea.A closecheckof thisarea
during
scheduled
inspections
wasrecommended.
Similar
settlementbowlsareusedonmanyaircraft,
including
amateur-builts.
Totaltimeonthispartwas1,543hrs.
CRACK
BAIL
10.