So tell us, how do you get the fuel from the containers on the rear seats to the engine, does Jean go out on the wing and top up the tanks?
Sling 4 Around the World
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Vaughan
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Well done chaps.
So tell us, how do you get the fuel from the containers on the rear seats to the engine, does Jean go out on the wing and top up the tanks?
So tell us, how do you get the fuel from the containers on the rear seats to the engine, does Jean go out on the wing and top up the tanks?
Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Mike has posted an update onto our Latest News page at http://www.airplanefactory.co.za/sling4atw_news.asp . Also, departure to Phuket is set at 3am SA time (6am Sri Lanka local time) on the 13th of August.
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Brand Wessels
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Unbelievable - 228.28 km/hr ground speed (123 kts) at the weight they started with.... More like "sea speed" in this case...flysouth wrote:4680Km and 20.5 hrs! - why is Rotax not sponsoring this flight?
I have a new respect for the Rotax after this feat of endurance. Also the Sling4 - it is amazing that you can seemingly just keep loading more and more fuel aboard!
This aircraft and it's designers/builders keep on astounding me....
Attitude determines Altitude - in Flying and in Life........
Brand Wessels
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Brand Wessels
073 337 9154
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krjockey
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Phew, well done 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-t6DJ9H ... re=related
suppose the answer is yesPJL wrote: I wonder if the Jabi engine could have been fitted new out of the box and flown around the World.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-t6DJ9H ... re=related
Last edited by krjockey on Fri Aug 12, 2011 7:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Christopher
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
<Phaaaak, we made it!>
Not only that; but the pilot flying actually managed to park dead-centre, it seems, of the yellow spot! Pretty-bloody wonderful! GREAT job, chaps! Everyone madly proud of you!
Not only that; but the pilot flying actually managed to park dead-centre, it seems, of the yellow spot! Pretty-bloody wonderful! GREAT job, chaps! Everyone madly proud of you!
Christopher Godfrey (always missing aviation!)
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flymonkey
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
The Jabi engine would have needed its own oil tank to fuel its thirsty 100 Ml per hour consumptionPJL wrote:I think that the little engine has earnt the right to be no longer referred to as "Rattex" I wonder if the Jabi engine could have been fitted new out of the box and flown around the World.Bluebottle wrote:Well done James and Jean. What an awsome achievement. !!!
I am astounded by the performance this a/c has from the little Rattex.
Don Lucas
PJL
Over 20 hours that would mean an extra 2 Litres of W100 plus
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heisan
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
??? 100ml/hr is the service limit, and you shouldn't see that unless the engine is breaking in, or approaching top overhaul time. Otherwise, they use substantially less oil than that.flymonkey wrote:The Jabi engine would have needed its own oil tank to fuel its thirsty 100 Ml per hour consumptionPJL wrote:I think that the little engine has earnt the right to be no longer referred to as "Rattex" I wonder if the Jabi engine could have been fitted new out of the box and flown around the World.Bluebottle wrote:Well done James and Jean. What an awsome achievement. !!!
I am astounded by the performance this a/c has from the little Rattex.
Don Lucas
PJL
Over 20 hours that would mean an extra 2 Litres of W100 plus
Justin Schoeman
ZU-FSR (Raven)
ZU-FSR (Raven)
Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Friday 12 August 2011 – Going to sleep in preparation for another day’s flying
Things are looking a whole lot brighter after an afternoon nap on the back of a couple of Lion lagers each. It’s 23h45 local time already and we’re up at 04h00 time for the airport though, so we’re not exactly going to slum it out. Also, it’s Friday night and there’s a wedding going on in the hotel hall just outside our window, so we may not get too much quiet. Lots of sweet little Sri Lankan kids running around dressed in their smart saris and suits. Still, we’ve had good showers and a great local street meal and so we are at least feeling human.
Yesterday’s flight was the most intense mixture of emotions imaginable. We flew out through beautiful cloud formations on radial 010 outbound the VOR at Gillot, Reunion. They have no radar, so very soon we put Colombo, Sri Lanka in our GPS and routed out directly across Mauritian airspace, which may have been a bit naughty. It certainly focused our minds on getting our PLB’s activated if we had to ditch, as it did mean that search and rescue would have been at least 200 nautical miles off course according to our flight plan. (Though Mike did have a very good idea where we’d be). Climbing out our GPS said 2 210 nm to run and during the climb our MGL extrapolated to show that we’d run out of fuel after only 1 800 nm (and 22 hours - thankfully from one third of the way in we had at least light tailwinds most of the route and we came in after 21 hours with four hours fuel left).
One benefit of flying over the ocean with a VFR radio is there’s no ATC to bother you, so we settled into some serious music – our 24 hour around the world playlist. Of course that got our emotions flowing, so we had some serious heart to hearts and contemplated the romance of our lives as we passed over some very isolated but pretty islands, completely uninhabited, to the strains of voices ranging from Freddy Mercury to Luciano Pavarotti and Barry Manilow. (I was almost weeping to sounds of “Mandy” - Andrea, thanks for the 2009 playlist which lives on).
Sunset was glorious and we felt well set up for the night ahead. Headtorches on, PLB’s attached, liferaft and water close at hand and so on. Though we’d already been going 8 hours, we knew when the sun set we’d still be flying when it rose on the other side.
I’m not going to try and recount the night’s events now – I simply don’t have time. I do remember Jean remarking to me just after midnight, though, that we’d overcome so many hurdles during the night, that as each new one arose, he’d forget the previous ones ever existed. The main problem was avoiding towering cumulo nimbus clouds and storms. Once in a cloud, we couldn’t see embedded storms, so at times we had to fly at 1 000 ft above the sea, sometimes in the rain, to get below the cloudbase. At other times we were up in the heavens dodging, using the moonlight for lighting.
About three quarters of the way through the night the engine spluttered, cutting twice in succession. Jean was sleeping and in an instant, as he awoke, he hit the back-up fuel pump (Rotax 914 engines require high fuel pressure to operate). Our A pump had failed and now we were on the back-up B pump, planning ditching procedures. Thankfully the B pump held out all the way to Colombo. (The problem was a totally blocked filter in the A pump – they’re very fine and very small – and it was blocked with lint). Later a false ground connection sent all engine instruments into the red and again we planned our ditch in the dark. Again Jean fiddled a fix in flight, though the problem continued intermittently until landing. (And of course I’ve not had time to explain how we had to plumb in the 120 liters of jerry cans to get the fuel from the back seat into the tanks, and then un-plumb them to get the B and C wing tanks back into the system while we were going too! Jean, also the PIC, was like a machine attending to one issue then the next!).
Flying at night is hard enough anyway - with poor weather, no place to land, 200 miles off flightplan, marginal fuel supplies, a failed fuel pump and engine instruments showing oil pressure off the dial it’s a pretty exhausting ordeal. There were definitely times when we wondered what the hell we were up to. The danger with humans, though, is that we seem to forget!
Just before dawn we were able to relay a message to Mumbai through an Air Mauritius airliner, and later to Male, Maldives, via an Air France Flight. When the east began to lighten we had to overcome another final set of clouds and storms, at least this time with a little light to see the dark cloud masses by. Then ……………………………..
Ah well, that was yesterday’s adventure. Tomorrow (actually today, it’s just gone midnight!) we’re off to Phuket, Thailand. We’ll take off as soon after 0100Z (3 am SA time) as we’re able. It should only take us 10 hours and there’s a good tailwind predicted for most of the way. There we hope to take 2 days rest. Jean will give his view on things from there.
Adios
J and J
Things are looking a whole lot brighter after an afternoon nap on the back of a couple of Lion lagers each. It’s 23h45 local time already and we’re up at 04h00 time for the airport though, so we’re not exactly going to slum it out. Also, it’s Friday night and there’s a wedding going on in the hotel hall just outside our window, so we may not get too much quiet. Lots of sweet little Sri Lankan kids running around dressed in their smart saris and suits. Still, we’ve had good showers and a great local street meal and so we are at least feeling human.
Yesterday’s flight was the most intense mixture of emotions imaginable. We flew out through beautiful cloud formations on radial 010 outbound the VOR at Gillot, Reunion. They have no radar, so very soon we put Colombo, Sri Lanka in our GPS and routed out directly across Mauritian airspace, which may have been a bit naughty. It certainly focused our minds on getting our PLB’s activated if we had to ditch, as it did mean that search and rescue would have been at least 200 nautical miles off course according to our flight plan. (Though Mike did have a very good idea where we’d be). Climbing out our GPS said 2 210 nm to run and during the climb our MGL extrapolated to show that we’d run out of fuel after only 1 800 nm (and 22 hours - thankfully from one third of the way in we had at least light tailwinds most of the route and we came in after 21 hours with four hours fuel left).
One benefit of flying over the ocean with a VFR radio is there’s no ATC to bother you, so we settled into some serious music – our 24 hour around the world playlist. Of course that got our emotions flowing, so we had some serious heart to hearts and contemplated the romance of our lives as we passed over some very isolated but pretty islands, completely uninhabited, to the strains of voices ranging from Freddy Mercury to Luciano Pavarotti and Barry Manilow. (I was almost weeping to sounds of “Mandy” - Andrea, thanks for the 2009 playlist which lives on).
Sunset was glorious and we felt well set up for the night ahead. Headtorches on, PLB’s attached, liferaft and water close at hand and so on. Though we’d already been going 8 hours, we knew when the sun set we’d still be flying when it rose on the other side.
I’m not going to try and recount the night’s events now – I simply don’t have time. I do remember Jean remarking to me just after midnight, though, that we’d overcome so many hurdles during the night, that as each new one arose, he’d forget the previous ones ever existed. The main problem was avoiding towering cumulo nimbus clouds and storms. Once in a cloud, we couldn’t see embedded storms, so at times we had to fly at 1 000 ft above the sea, sometimes in the rain, to get below the cloudbase. At other times we were up in the heavens dodging, using the moonlight for lighting.
About three quarters of the way through the night the engine spluttered, cutting twice in succession. Jean was sleeping and in an instant, as he awoke, he hit the back-up fuel pump (Rotax 914 engines require high fuel pressure to operate). Our A pump had failed and now we were on the back-up B pump, planning ditching procedures. Thankfully the B pump held out all the way to Colombo. (The problem was a totally blocked filter in the A pump – they’re very fine and very small – and it was blocked with lint). Later a false ground connection sent all engine instruments into the red and again we planned our ditch in the dark. Again Jean fiddled a fix in flight, though the problem continued intermittently until landing. (And of course I’ve not had time to explain how we had to plumb in the 120 liters of jerry cans to get the fuel from the back seat into the tanks, and then un-plumb them to get the B and C wing tanks back into the system while we were going too! Jean, also the PIC, was like a machine attending to one issue then the next!).
Flying at night is hard enough anyway - with poor weather, no place to land, 200 miles off flightplan, marginal fuel supplies, a failed fuel pump and engine instruments showing oil pressure off the dial it’s a pretty exhausting ordeal. There were definitely times when we wondered what the hell we were up to. The danger with humans, though, is that we seem to forget!
Just before dawn we were able to relay a message to Mumbai through an Air Mauritius airliner, and later to Male, Maldives, via an Air France Flight. When the east began to lighten we had to overcome another final set of clouds and storms, at least this time with a little light to see the dark cloud masses by. Then ……………………………..
Ah well, that was yesterday’s adventure. Tomorrow (actually today, it’s just gone midnight!) we’re off to Phuket, Thailand. We’ll take off as soon after 0100Z (3 am SA time) as we’re able. It should only take us 10 hours and there’s a good tailwind predicted for most of the way. There we hope to take 2 days rest. Jean will give his view on things from there.
Adios
J and J
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Last edited by jpitman on Fri Aug 12, 2011 9:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Warbirdsfly
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Still hair raising and amazing!
Sounds like now is a good time for a major maintenance check of other things that could give trouble : turbocharger, springs on the exhaust, the currently working pump b, new centre section, propellor setting angle and condition to take some of the risk out that is in you hands. But Im sure you guys will.
Sounds like now is a good time for a major maintenance check of other things that could give trouble : turbocharger, springs on the exhaust, the currently working pump b, new centre section, propellor setting angle and condition to take some of the risk out that is in you hands. But Im sure you guys will.
Warbirdsfly
Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own - Chuck Yeager
In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end
Rules are made for people who aren't willing to make up their own - Chuck Yeager
In the end everything will be fine. If its not fine its not the end
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Jean Crous
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Avgas wrote:Well done.I agree on the testicles part
Then you still have guys ask about the reliability of a Rotax
Well i most certainly endorse, and agree with both of the above statements Jean and James, i envy and admire you guys.......sigh....sssiiiiggghhh.....some pilots have all the adventure
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
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WillemGouws
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Congratulations on the progress so far, we are enjoying the journey with you! Good luck gents
Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Mike just put a small update on our Latest News page after speaking to the guys when they arrived safely in Phuket...http://www.airplanefactory.co.za/sling4atw_news.asp
Last edited by AirplaneFtyWeb on Sat Aug 13, 2011 4:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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PJL
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Re: Sling 4 Around the World
Down and safely in Phuket
You guys rock!!
PJL
You guys rock!!
PJL
To invent an airplane is nothing. To build one is something. To fly it is everything. — Otto Lilienthal
"When once you have tasted flight,
you will forever walk the earth
with your eyes turned skywards."
― Leonardo da Vinci
RV10 Driver
"When once you have tasted flight,
you will forever walk the earth
with your eyes turned skywards."
― Leonardo da Vinci
RV10 Driver
