ULPower 350i/breaking the Highlander engine tradition!

[stede52]

That's a mount JA makes for the 2200, I just had to do some minor adjustments to the upper cross bracing.

Steve

[Lynng]

Looks nice. Any chance you will fly it to Sun n Fun. Long cross countries really are fun.  8)

[KevinC]

Heck yes, Steve - after all you are 'unemployable'

k

[stede52]

Flying to Sun N Fun would be a real challenge for a rookie like me , If I had someone like KevinC or GaryH (hint, hint )to come along it would be a possibility

Yes, Kevin, after a couple years of retirement, I'm definitely unemployable, and PROUD OF IT

Steve

[Escapade UL260i]

Hi Steve

Congrats on a wise choise of engines.

I am just finishing of my Escapade (  Kit 014 ) here in the UK and have fitted the UL260i engine and am now the UK dealer for the engines too.

You asked about cowls.

I modified my cowls by adding streamline  teardrop bulges to the sides ( UL Power Bulges ) I did not need to add any other bulges on the cowls to accomodate spark plus and throttle linkages and the like, thus making is a clean looking cowl.

Hopefully I have added some pics below.

Good Luck
Mark Jones

[stede52]

Mark,
Great pics and a very nice job of glassing.  I'm going to be using the Jabiru cowling because the rotax cowl is just too short for the 350 and the Just Aircraft 2200 mount. I also didn't like the big hole in the Rotax cowl but you did some nice things with it by incorporating some lighting.  I'll be doing basically the same thing as you did. I should be receiving my cowl next week so I'll post my progress on my cowl modification. Thanks again for the pictures.

Steve

[davetous]

Steve,
Could you give us more info on your new motor? Do you have an idea on GPH for this motor?
Can you keep posting photos of your project?
Thanks
Dave

[stede52]

Dave,
According to ULPower the engine is suppose to burn between 4.5 and 5.0 gph, but that seems a bit low to me for 130hp unless the fuel injection is a lot more efficient then I thing.  I"ll keep the forum updated on my progress, I'm just in the process of modifying my cowling to fit the engine, should have some pics for the forum next week.

Steve

[stede52]

Picked up my cheek cowl mold and a vacuum bagger from a friend yesterday and started building.  I'm now in the cheek cowl building business  The cheeks cowls came out great, got them fitted and ready to attach.

Steve

[stede52]

Couple more cowl pictures

Steve

[b1x4nqb]

Steve,

Having never worked with glass seriously, how does that bagger process work?  How did you get the mold in the first place?  Did you carve it out of styrofoam?  I'm guessing then that the vacuum just pulls it into the mold through a bunch of small holes in the mold once you wet it out?  Your work always impresses me!  I am really looking forward to seeing your progress on this plane.  

Thanks,
Paul, PA

[stede52]

Paul,
I have a friend who owns a 3D CAD and CNC business. I had him build the cheek cowls on the computer and cut it out on the CNC machines, otherwise I would have had to carve my own plug and build up the female mold from the plug. Bad news was that even though he was a friend it did cost me so if anyone is interested in cheek cowls let me know I've got the mold!!
The mold is made of a CNC machinable poly foam which isn't affected by poly or iso resins, very dense, heavy, closed cell foam which is used alot in building protype hardware.  
Nomally when you use a vacuum bag you put the resined peice and mold in the bag, however in order to do that with this foam mold I would have had to make the foam mold smooth by surfacing it with layers of resin a sanding. waxing and polishing which takes a ton of time.  My friend told me that I could use the bag itself as the release mechanism so I vacuum bagged the mold ( the bag sucks down into the mold ) and did the layup on top of the bag It worked great and much quicker but I will need to do some extra work in finishing the outside of the cheeks because the foam has a slightly rough surface, but smoothing that surface is not as big of a deal as preparing and polishing the mold itself.
I just glassed the cheeks to the top and bottom cowl today so I'll be spliting them tomorrow.  I'll keep the pics coming

Steve

[jak]

Steve we might be interested in a couple of sets of those at the factory. Call me Monday and lets discuss.   Jak

[stede52]

I'll give you a call Jak

Steve

[stede52]

Just finished up attaching the cheeks, now for the fine sanding, minor filling and trimming. Here's a number of pics

Steve