Sling 4 Around the World
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Progress update - Monday 25 July 2011
Vaughan, Bearcat, Jason and everyone else who supported us at the first flights – thanks for that. Bearcat and Vaughan, what awesome shots! Vaughan, I’ve stolen the flying shot with the sun behind to put on or website. I hope that’s OK.
We did some more flying yesterday afternoon and it looks very much like the lowered aircraft angle of attack resulting from the greater wing area more than offsets any frictional increase from increased wing “wetted area”. The Sling 4 will therefore probably fly slightly faster than the standard Sling, especially at higher loads. On an initial impression the handling is very similar, though it’ll take some time before we can be certain at all weights and in all configurations. More about how she handles as we go. We haven’t yet tested her at her MAUW, but it sure feels as if she’ll perform fine right up the mass at which we intend to fly on the long, over sea legs during the circumnavigation.
This morning the Airplane Factory team sat down for a full factory and flight around the world planning session. The take-off date for Sling 4 around the world is now Saturday 6 August 2011. We’re once again going east, not west, by the original easterly route we planned, and James and Jean are flying the first half, Mike and Jean the second. Half-way point is Los Angeles, which will be the Sling distribution centre in the US.
We’ve all had a good sleep and things are getting back to normal here. Sling customers, you’ll be glad to hear that our eyes are firmly on the production ball and we’ll be testing the Sling 4 in the ordinary course in parallel to all our ordinary activities!
Cheers, The Airplane Factory team
Vaughan, Bearcat, Jason and everyone else who supported us at the first flights – thanks for that. Bearcat and Vaughan, what awesome shots! Vaughan, I’ve stolen the flying shot with the sun behind to put on or website. I hope that’s OK.
We did some more flying yesterday afternoon and it looks very much like the lowered aircraft angle of attack resulting from the greater wing area more than offsets any frictional increase from increased wing “wetted area”. The Sling 4 will therefore probably fly slightly faster than the standard Sling, especially at higher loads. On an initial impression the handling is very similar, though it’ll take some time before we can be certain at all weights and in all configurations. More about how she handles as we go. We haven’t yet tested her at her MAUW, but it sure feels as if she’ll perform fine right up the mass at which we intend to fly on the long, over sea legs during the circumnavigation.
This morning the Airplane Factory team sat down for a full factory and flight around the world planning session. The take-off date for Sling 4 around the world is now Saturday 6 August 2011. We’re once again going east, not west, by the original easterly route we planned, and James and Jean are flying the first half, Mike and Jean the second. Half-way point is Los Angeles, which will be the Sling distribution centre in the US.
We’ve all had a good sleep and things are getting back to normal here. Sling customers, you’ll be glad to hear that our eyes are firmly on the production ball and we’ll be testing the Sling 4 in the ordinary course in parallel to all our ordinary activities!
Cheers, The Airplane Factory team
Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Some more pics
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World















Cubby Aircraft Factory.
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Suppliers of Nitrate, Butyrate, Adhesive, Fabric.
Rotax iRMT certificate holder.
Cell : 072 6716 240
SACAA Approved Person 402
Email: cubbyaircraftfactory@gmail.com
Re: Sling 4 Around the World
nice to see the pics and you flying
will follow your round the world trip
Happy Gliding
Happy Flying
Alanl
will follow your round the world trip





Happy Gliding
Happy Flying
Alanl
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
I'm dying to hear more about the flight performance
Believe the incidence may help the cruise speed, which is great, but surely there has to be more... Will the MAUW still be capped on 850kg, or can we perhaps hope for a real 4 person ability...? The wings will lift 950kg I don't doubt for a second and surely a little beefier undercarriage is not too much of a challenge. This could be a complete revealation in light a/c 4 seaters perhaps

Believe the incidence may help the cruise speed, which is great, but surely there has to be more... Will the MAUW still be capped on 850kg, or can we perhaps hope for a real 4 person ability...? The wings will lift 950kg I don't doubt for a second and surely a little beefier undercarriage is not too much of a challenge. This could be a complete revealation in light a/c 4 seaters perhaps

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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Congratulations at all at the TAF! The plane is really beatiful and if what mr. Dassault said few years ago is true he will be a real pleasure to fly!
As I told you some time ago, I'll wait your return from the RWT to fly to your factory to write a wonderful article about both aircraft for the italian leading aviation magazine, you want to sell this beauty in Europe too right?
In culo alla balena, ciao!
As I told you some time ago, I'll wait your return from the RWT to fly to your factory to write a wonderful article about both aircraft for the italian leading aviation magazine, you want to sell this beauty in Europe too right?
In culo alla balena, ciao!
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Their choice of metal over composites has got the competition beat for this class of aircraft.
Well done to them
Well done to them

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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
What about considering coming down to the National EAA convention and fly-in at Wings Park, East London 6-9 Augjpitman wrote:The take-off date for Sling 4 around the world is now Saturday 6 August 2011.
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=73518
There will be significant crowds of aspirant aircraft builders who would appreciate participating in the "Sling 4 send-off".....and depart from there on the round the world trip.....Jean was at Wings Park a few months ago with a 2 seater sling..... Please give it some thought

Many of the sling builders are EAA members and we have a sling being built by one of the airfield occupants (Hennie Prinsloo)
Steve Onions
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Albert Einstein
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Albert Einstein
Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Saturday 30 July 2011 – Sling 4 ATW (“Around the World”) update from the factory
It’s the final weekend of the month and that traditionally means that the entire Airplane Factory staff complement gets off early on Friday and that no-one works overtime on the weekend. Mike, Jean, Gareth and James, however, are here putting some of the last minute touches (what Jean refers to as “tweaks”) on ZU-TAF before we really pile on the proving hours from tomorrow afternoon onwards.
With 8 hours flown we already know that she flies beautifully, but we’re required to fly 40 hours before we obtain an authority to fly from the CAA. Also, we still need to test her at MAUW, quite apart from the testing on a myriad of other systems and configurations. Some thoughts that have been taking some mind-space over the last few days include –
• Checking and rechecking the fuel system – The Rotax 914 UL engine is turbocharged and requires high fuel pressure to operate. There are two high pressure electrically powered fuel pumps and no mechanical backup. That does mean that electrical failure also results in engine failure. We were always going with 2 fuel pumps (which is standard with the engine). As of yesterday we’re also putting in another 26 Ah backup battery to increase redundancy in the event of an over ocean failure.
• We’re going east again and our routing sees various small changes as we think up new ideas. Right now it looks like Tedderfield, Durban, St Denis (Reunion), Male (Maldives), Phuket (Thailand), Taipei (Taiwan), Sapporo (Japan), Adak Island (Bering Straits, Alaska, USA), Torrance Los Angeles (California, USA), Green Bay (Wisconsin, USA), St John’s (New Foundland, Canada), Santa Maria (Azores), Dakar (Senegal), Pointe Noire (Republic of Congo), Pilanesburg (South Africa). The longest leg is Dakar – Pointe Noire at 4 200km.
• If you read Wikipedia on Adak Island, Bering Straits, it includes the lines - “Gales occur in all months of the year at Adak”, “Adak has an average of 341 days per year with measurable precipitation” and “The foggiest months are July and August when an average of 26 of the 31 days each month have fog” (we plan to arrive on about 18 August). Sadly the airstrip does not have an ILS approach, only an NDB DME, for which we don’t in any event have the instruments. We ought to be able to do a GLS using our MGL Odysseys, however. It does sound interesting with sea temperatures close to 0 degrees!
• We’ve put in two “transfer fuel pumps” to transfer fuel from the B and C “accessory” tanks to the standard “A” tanks, from which fuel is drawn for the engine. Again, there are two for redundancy, only one is needed. The standard Sling 4 tanks take 75 liters each. The B tanks take 65 liters each and the C tanks take 87 liters each. That gives a total fuel capacity of 454 liters. At 20 liters per hour, that’s an endurance of 22.5 hours. And cruising at 100 knots (185 kph) that’s roughly 4 150 km. It does mean that for the Dakar to Pointe Noire leg a little extra fuel will also need to be carried on the back seats.
• The entire trip will involve about 230 hours of flying. At an average engine RPM of 5 200, that means that the pistons will each move up and down more than 71 million times during the circumnavigation!
• With final preparations underway, we’re now even beginning to plan last minute luxury items like the iPod playlist, a small stash of good whiskey in case we have to spend a day or two at sea and so on.
• As appears from the photographs, our satellite tracking device is installed. That means we can be seen by the world even while we’re totally isolated. We have only a VHF radio, which means we have no communications with land except in the first and last hour of each oversea flight. One difference this time is that the satellite tracker does enable us to send out a series of 23 character standard messages, plus 9 characters of our own. And we can receive text messages of up to 23 characters!
• We’ve had an argument about whether to take an analogue compass – there’s an electrical compass in each MGL Voyager and, providing we’re moving, our handheld Garmin 495 GPS operates as a compass. All require electrical power, however. Finally, we’ve an old black and white LED Garmin Pilot III which uses penlight batteries. Do we bother to take a standard magnetic compass on a circumnavigation at all? What views?
In response to the suggestion that we pass through East London on the way out and visit the annual South African EAA convention – we’d love to do that, but it just doesn’t seem practical given that we need to leave from an international airport.
It does look like Mike, Jean and James will fly down together in the Sling 4 to King Shaka, Durban, from where James and Jean will depart for Reunion, on Saturday 6 August 2011. If all goes according to plan Mike will then fly the Airplane Factory demo Sling to East London to participate in the EAA Convention. We promise to make up for the absence of the Sling 4 by attending many shows after we return!
Hold thumbs , thanks for the support and please come and see us off from Tedderfield at 09h30 next Saturday if you live in the JHB area. Fly-alongs toward Durban are welcome.
The Team
It’s the final weekend of the month and that traditionally means that the entire Airplane Factory staff complement gets off early on Friday and that no-one works overtime on the weekend. Mike, Jean, Gareth and James, however, are here putting some of the last minute touches (what Jean refers to as “tweaks”) on ZU-TAF before we really pile on the proving hours from tomorrow afternoon onwards.
With 8 hours flown we already know that she flies beautifully, but we’re required to fly 40 hours before we obtain an authority to fly from the CAA. Also, we still need to test her at MAUW, quite apart from the testing on a myriad of other systems and configurations. Some thoughts that have been taking some mind-space over the last few days include –
• Checking and rechecking the fuel system – The Rotax 914 UL engine is turbocharged and requires high fuel pressure to operate. There are two high pressure electrically powered fuel pumps and no mechanical backup. That does mean that electrical failure also results in engine failure. We were always going with 2 fuel pumps (which is standard with the engine). As of yesterday we’re also putting in another 26 Ah backup battery to increase redundancy in the event of an over ocean failure.
• We’re going east again and our routing sees various small changes as we think up new ideas. Right now it looks like Tedderfield, Durban, St Denis (Reunion), Male (Maldives), Phuket (Thailand), Taipei (Taiwan), Sapporo (Japan), Adak Island (Bering Straits, Alaska, USA), Torrance Los Angeles (California, USA), Green Bay (Wisconsin, USA), St John’s (New Foundland, Canada), Santa Maria (Azores), Dakar (Senegal), Pointe Noire (Republic of Congo), Pilanesburg (South Africa). The longest leg is Dakar – Pointe Noire at 4 200km.
• If you read Wikipedia on Adak Island, Bering Straits, it includes the lines - “Gales occur in all months of the year at Adak”, “Adak has an average of 341 days per year with measurable precipitation” and “The foggiest months are July and August when an average of 26 of the 31 days each month have fog” (we plan to arrive on about 18 August). Sadly the airstrip does not have an ILS approach, only an NDB DME, for which we don’t in any event have the instruments. We ought to be able to do a GLS using our MGL Odysseys, however. It does sound interesting with sea temperatures close to 0 degrees!
• We’ve put in two “transfer fuel pumps” to transfer fuel from the B and C “accessory” tanks to the standard “A” tanks, from which fuel is drawn for the engine. Again, there are two for redundancy, only one is needed. The standard Sling 4 tanks take 75 liters each. The B tanks take 65 liters each and the C tanks take 87 liters each. That gives a total fuel capacity of 454 liters. At 20 liters per hour, that’s an endurance of 22.5 hours. And cruising at 100 knots (185 kph) that’s roughly 4 150 km. It does mean that for the Dakar to Pointe Noire leg a little extra fuel will also need to be carried on the back seats.
• The entire trip will involve about 230 hours of flying. At an average engine RPM of 5 200, that means that the pistons will each move up and down more than 71 million times during the circumnavigation!
• With final preparations underway, we’re now even beginning to plan last minute luxury items like the iPod playlist, a small stash of good whiskey in case we have to spend a day or two at sea and so on.
• As appears from the photographs, our satellite tracking device is installed. That means we can be seen by the world even while we’re totally isolated. We have only a VHF radio, which means we have no communications with land except in the first and last hour of each oversea flight. One difference this time is that the satellite tracker does enable us to send out a series of 23 character standard messages, plus 9 characters of our own. And we can receive text messages of up to 23 characters!
• We’ve had an argument about whether to take an analogue compass – there’s an electrical compass in each MGL Voyager and, providing we’re moving, our handheld Garmin 495 GPS operates as a compass. All require electrical power, however. Finally, we’ve an old black and white LED Garmin Pilot III which uses penlight batteries. Do we bother to take a standard magnetic compass on a circumnavigation at all? What views?
In response to the suggestion that we pass through East London on the way out and visit the annual South African EAA convention – we’d love to do that, but it just doesn’t seem practical given that we need to leave from an international airport.
It does look like Mike, Jean and James will fly down together in the Sling 4 to King Shaka, Durban, from where James and Jean will depart for Reunion, on Saturday 6 August 2011. If all goes according to plan Mike will then fly the Airplane Factory demo Sling to East London to participate in the EAA Convention. We promise to make up for the absence of the Sling 4 by attending many shows after we return!
Hold thumbs , thanks for the support and please come and see us off from Tedderfield at 09h30 next Saturday if you live in the JHB area. Fly-alongs toward Durban are welcome.
The Team
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
This is such an amazing achievement and I wish you every success and happy flight hours on your trip.
Just a thought... you've got a lot of fuel in the wings, but in the tail area and open wing spaces, would it make sense to fit polystyrene panels or the like for a water ditch? May just keep the airframe floating and it should not weight too much?
Just a thought... you've got a lot of fuel in the wings, but in the tail area and open wing spaces, would it make sense to fit polystyrene panels or the like for a water ditch? May just keep the airframe floating and it should not weight too much?
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Spoke to Mike and i am no 2 for a 4 seat sling kit. All the best and hope you have lotts of fun around the world.
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
James, just as a matter of interest I have the same engine and Airmaster prop setup as the Sling 4 and I have found that 4800rpm at 30" MAP (Hold Mode) gives a very nice fuel burn of 18 l/hr with very little decrease in IAS.
BTW what diameter of prop are you using?
my 2c
PJL
BTW what diameter of prop are you using?
my 2c
PJL
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RV10 Driver
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you will forever walk the earth
with your eyes turned skywards."
― Leonardo da Vinci
RV10 Driver
Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Tuesday 2 August 2011 – Clocking up the hours, writing lists and getting a US view on things
So things really are moving on - as at 14h00 today the (peerless) Sling 4 prototype has 23 hours on her airframe and Mike and Jean are off towards Durban to put on some more, test the fuel transfer systems, test the satellite tracker, do more work ascertaining exactly the best power settings for economy and generally just have a good time. You should be able to monitor their flight superimposed onto Google Earth on our website. Actually I can see them right now just east of the Wilge River!
Yesterday evening we had a great time flying a test flight and photographic sortee for SA Flyer’s Guy Leitch who never seems to be without a plan. This time he had Major Kevin “Cuda” Currie, the Air Attache for the US in South Africa, come through to test out the plane while he and John Mitchell took photographs from FBI, the SA Flyer C182.
Although Cuda’s temporarily doing a desk job here in SA (the Air Attache co-ordinates air activities between the US and the country he’s responsible for, typically military ones) he’s an F15 pilot who has seen action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite not being particularly current he flew a very tight formation with ZS-FBI for the shots. See below for the general idea. To find out his views you’ll have to buy the September edition of SA Flyer, but he certainly had a smile on his face after the flight!
All ZU-TAF’s systems are go and departure remains 10h00 from Tedderfield on Saturday 6 August. We’ll fly direct to Virginia for lunch where any interested Durbanites are welcome to come by, probably best between about 13h00 and 14h00, to have a look at her. Then the hop up to King Shaka to fuel up fully and clear customs before heading off to Reunion.
More as we go.
The Team
PS - Thanks for your 2c worth PJL - I'll test out precisely that on the next flight. The standard Airmaster prop uses Warp Drive blades and has a 70 inch diameter I think. Ours has a 72 inch diameter (ie - we've go the slightly extra length one). Hopefully that''ll also make things a little more efficient. We'll certainly have lots of time to check it out during the first few legs - the MGL Voyagers give our precise range as we fly (using fuel flow and ground speed) and we can check how it changes as we slowly change prop and power settings.
So things really are moving on - as at 14h00 today the (peerless) Sling 4 prototype has 23 hours on her airframe and Mike and Jean are off towards Durban to put on some more, test the fuel transfer systems, test the satellite tracker, do more work ascertaining exactly the best power settings for economy and generally just have a good time. You should be able to monitor their flight superimposed onto Google Earth on our website. Actually I can see them right now just east of the Wilge River!
Yesterday evening we had a great time flying a test flight and photographic sortee for SA Flyer’s Guy Leitch who never seems to be without a plan. This time he had Major Kevin “Cuda” Currie, the Air Attache for the US in South Africa, come through to test out the plane while he and John Mitchell took photographs from FBI, the SA Flyer C182.
Although Cuda’s temporarily doing a desk job here in SA (the Air Attache co-ordinates air activities between the US and the country he’s responsible for, typically military ones) he’s an F15 pilot who has seen action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite not being particularly current he flew a very tight formation with ZS-FBI for the shots. See below for the general idea. To find out his views you’ll have to buy the September edition of SA Flyer, but he certainly had a smile on his face after the flight!
All ZU-TAF’s systems are go and departure remains 10h00 from Tedderfield on Saturday 6 August. We’ll fly direct to Virginia for lunch where any interested Durbanites are welcome to come by, probably best between about 13h00 and 14h00, to have a look at her. Then the hop up to King Shaka to fuel up fully and clear customs before heading off to Reunion.
More as we go.
The Team
PS - Thanks for your 2c worth PJL - I'll test out precisely that on the next flight. The standard Airmaster prop uses Warp Drive blades and has a 70 inch diameter I think. Ours has a 72 inch diameter (ie - we've go the slightly extra length one). Hopefully that''ll also make things a little more efficient. We'll certainly have lots of time to check it out during the first few legs - the MGL Voyagers give our precise range as we fly (using fuel flow and ground speed) and we can check how it changes as we slowly change prop and power settings.
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Last edited by jpitman on Wed Aug 03, 2011 1:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Well Guys
Great to see all good news at the moment .Keep it up and the greatest off good luck for the travels.You have done it again and you never seize to impress.Great to have you guys as friends and thanks for all the help and backup with my sling 2.They talk about comparing slings with rv,s and jabbies and all sorts off things,but it is impossible to compair because of the backup and help from a tippical sout african setup.Thumbs up for TAF.
Michiel
Great to see all good news at the moment .Keep it up and the greatest off good luck for the travels.You have done it again and you never seize to impress.Great to have you guys as friends and thanks for all the help and backup with my sling 2.They talk about comparing slings with rv,s and jabbies and all sorts off things,but it is impossible to compair because of the backup and help from a tippical sout african setup.Thumbs up for TAF.
Michiel