Hi Ross, There is a mandatory inspection of the wing bolts under the LAA permit scheme in the UK. The bolts must be pulled and checked for cracks. If serviceable they can be refitted, otherwise new bolts are required. They aren't readily obtainable so an alternative is to use studs that used to be a...

If anybody is interested I am replacing my hubs and tyres of the 'unobtainable' sort for hubs to take 400 x 4 tyres. The price for a new tyre was > £400 +VAT and no inner tubes available :shock: . I was worried that I could get stuck indefinitely somewhere away from base with a u/s tyre. I've design...

Their website seems to be working, are they not responding to enquiries?

Jim

Hi Paul, I've measured the spacer on the axle for the 3-1/2 x 4.95 hub and tyre and it is ~ 4.5mm wide. Using a 45mm wide hub placed so the centre of the wheel is in the same place on the axle as the 75mm hub to keep the bending similar, I gain 15mm each side of the hub. Maybe not so much at the rad...

Correction to post above. The standard 6 bolt bike disc will not fit as the bolt pcd is too small and interferes with the bearing housing. Rohloff discs have a larger pcd which interferes neither with the bearing housing, nor the central tube separating the flanges. The 160mm diameter bike disc is w...

Hi David, Thanks for your reply. I think I'll go for the narrower 45mm hubs. This is based almost entirely on the fact that my glider (LS4), with minimal suspension, uses a single standard Tost 45mm hub which handles even my landings at 427kg AUW, so a Nipper with suspension, two wheels and 340kg AU...

I may have the manual you require in pdf format - I'll search it out.

Jim

I've been making up some wheel hubs to be able to change my Nipper from the 3 1/2 x 4.95 tyres (made from unobtainium) to easily obtained and much, much cheaper 4.00 x 4 (even from Tost!). However I've come across an interesting issue regarding the hub sizes which I hope the forum may be able to sol...

go to;

http://www.nipperaircraft.co.uk/index.htm

who are the Nipper operating arm of Airweld.

Jim

Hi Bert, Are you trying to comply with the LAA mandatory LAA/MOD/025/003, 01 May 2014? http://www.lightaircraftassociation.co.uk/engineering/Airworthiness/AWA03.pdf I am in the process of replacing the bolts on my Nipper with the stud design supplied by Airweld. They only had a limited stock a while...

Hi Neil, I've been working on a scheme for a composite tank, also with a triangular drop to increase the capacity and to provide a sump to the otherwise flat bottom. I hadn't thought of the possibilities of a flop tube but it seems a good idea even though my VW isn't adapted for inverted flight. Bui...

Hi Neil, My concern with repairing the existing tank by doing as you suggest, de-riveting the seam and using Proseal to re-assemble it, is that the original tank would have been made before ethanol in fuel was even thought of as a good idea. In an era of Avgas and no ethanol mogas there was unlikely...

Hello Neil, I hope to be camping at the rally over Saturday night, assuming the beer festival is on again. Possibly Friday night as well. Don't bother with the tool if the bands can be fitted without it. I would have gone for the bungee mod but by good fortune managed to get hold of a ring set. Othe...

Hello Neil, Yes, I'm sad I'm not flying it but..... force majeure. If you have a tool for fitting the u/c suspension then I would be interested in borrowing it. Are you going to be at the rally? My suspension is the Neumann (sp?) bands not the bungee mod, I was lucky enough to get hold of a set and ...

Hi Neil, No, not yet. The undercarriage structure is demounted to clear up a little surface corrosion and to repaint. Everything has slowed down drastically due to unforeseen domestic commitments. I'm also changing the hubs from the 4.95 x 3 1/2 style to 4.00 x 4 . The quote I got for 'old new stock...