Bruce's Avian Adventurer

[Dave Homewood]

Yesterday Bruce Cooke took me to see the latest progress of his homebuilt Avian Adventurer aircraft. It;'s looking very impressive now in all it's skin and paintwork, and lots of innovative fittings etc. are now attached. Here are some photos:



The tail is under wraps


Bruce demonstrates the innovative door which will be great for aerial photographer or filming.


The panel


The engine


Bruce holds the tail in place


The roomy interior

[corsair67]

She's really coming together nicely now, Bruce. What type of powerplant are you using?

Where's the HUD? ;D

[Bruce]

The powerplant is a Subaru EJ20 Single cam, with an Autoflight reduction gearbox driving an Ivoprop electric Variable pitch prop. It uses the RWS (Real World Solutions) dual channel electronic ignition / fuel control unit, and running on Avgas it should turn out 150 - 160 hp at less than 20 Litres per hour.
The core engine has been overhauled but is strictly standard, however there has been some extensive modifications to the cooling plumbing and all electrics have been reworked for the RWS system. New engine mountings have been made up consiting of cast upper lugs and CNC machined lower bearers (a joint effort between Autoflight and myself) which will be attached by Cessna 152 - type Lord engine mount bushings to a steel tube mount frame. A remote oil filter and oil cooler has also been installed.
It has a "pimp my ride" paint job as Autoflight wanted a demo engine - but I also wanted something that complimeted the finish on the airframe.

[Damon]

Looks Great Bruce. Can you estimate a first flight date at this stage?

Damon

[Bruce]

sometime this summer - subject to the various suppliers actually dispatching the missing bits! It was supposed to be going for SportAvex at Tauranga but realisticly thats not going to happen
My current peeve at the moment is the horrendous timeframes involved in getting anything from NZ suppliers. I've had some dramas with the elevator trim cable and I'm waiting on a new, heavier replacement - hence the reason all the tail feathers are in pieces at the moment!

[corsair67]

It has a "pimp my ride" paint job as Autoflight wanted a demo engine - but I also wanted something that complimeted the finish on the airframe.

As long as it doesn't have gold plated grease nipples and double overhead foxtails then everything will be okay! ;D

[flyjoe180]

CKE is looking really good Bruce. No wonder you're smiling, the aeroplane is a beauty.

[Naki]

Wow - looks real nice Bruce! Hopefully I will see at Sportavex 2009.

[Bruce]

Today I managed to finish the engine build for the Adventurer - a long process waiting for parts etc, not helped by my mechanic mate who was doing the core overhaul getting a job with Mosquito aircraft restorations!.

basically, this is what I started with, a 100,000km EJ20 straight out of a Legacy Brighton - in very good condition, but I wanted peace of mind, so stripped it down for rebuild:



I'm not an engine man, so I had Dean Clarke (my mechanic Mate) put new rings, bearings, cambelts etc in it, the valves all got reground, all the good stuff...

Although the core engine is essentially stock, the external accessories have been heavily modified. A completely new wiring loom was made for the RWS control system. All the coolant pluming has bee changed around, and this meant that the fuel plumbing no longer fitted! hence that gets changed as well, same with the vacuum lines and breathers. the problem was each time I changed something, it effected something else and so on...

this is what the engine now looks like - the only things still to do are the exhausts and the wiring looms between the engine and firewall, both of which are best done with the engine installed on its mounts.



To have a traditional looking "3 hole" cowl (although each hole does different things) The induction box sits on the left, and oil cooler on the right and the coolant radiator underneath.



The radiator with its new hoses is attached to the new lower bearers - these were CNC machined out of solid alloy bar by autoflight to my design. The engine will attach from these bearers, and the new top mounts to the Tubular mount frame using aircraft type lord mounts. The oil filter has been changed to the remote mount type.



The top mounts are cast and machined - I designed and made up the patterns for these myself. They also incorporate the mounts for a Chevolet 70amp alternator. this is unregulated as it uses a Cessna Voltage regulator on the airframe which is better suited to aircraft use. Note the new lower pulley, which is smaller diameter to reduce alternator wear due to the higher RPM of a geared engine.



A close up of thenew top mounts:
Note the new filler cap on the highly modified coolant manifold.





Looking at the front RH side of the engine at the top of the Autoflight gearbox. the mounting bracket for the RH coils is visible to the left, with the breather bottle for the gearbox attached. The throttle body on the right has been stripped down and now has just a simple lever operation. there is a spacer between it and the induction manifold to keep everything inside the cowl line. virtually all the other visible plumbing is either new or highly modified!



The engine has been a bit of a major project in itself and has taken about 12 months elapsed time (although lots of other stuff was done whilst this was waiting!) I've learned heaps, which is the whole idea of building your own aircraft, its an educational exercise!. Now just waiting for bits to get the airframe sorted

[lumpy]

What ? No room for the air con pump under the cowls ? :-)

[flyjoe180]

You've claned that engine up and converted it really well Bruce, your aircraft is going to be a pristine one when you finish it. I coul never work out why such engines haven't been retrofitted to the like of C152 etc, they must be heaps lighter than the Lycoming/Continental aero engines, and a lot more versatile, not to mention economical, with fuels etc.

[Bruce]

Thats a very interesting point about Subarus in traditional factory built aircraft. Fuji Heavy industries developed the original flat 4 Subarus for use in thier own Fuji Aero Subaru trainer. The aircraft didnt sell very well, so Fuji transferred the technology to automotive use.
Modification approval for certificated aircraft is tricky, however it is very interesting to compare the EJ20 with the equivilent O-320 lycoming and O-300 continental. Weight wise there is very little to choose between all 3 engines, basic wet weight is 120 - 125kg. The subaru however is 2 litres whereas the O-300 is 4.9 litre and the O-320 5.25 Litre. The Subaru uses less than 20L fuel per hour, compared to 30 for the O-300 and 35 for the O-320. Obviously the sub runs at much higher RPM (about 4500) which some people point out may reduce engine life. However the Sub bottom end with 5 bearings (as opposed to the '320's 3 ) can cope with over 400hp in WRX config! Its a sturdy engine! Electronic fuel injection means easy starting and no carb icing as well. Not a bad comparison really....

[flyjoe180]

The O-235 on a C152 or Tomahawk would be around 3 litre then? Those who say the engine wil run out quicker because it is higher revving, do they replace their car engines every 2000 hours? As you implied, the Subaru boxer is nearly a bullet proof engine, and it's not exactly going to be running to its maximum capacity in an aeroplane. I'd like to see more car engines retroffited to light aircraft, especially those that can run on diesel/JetA1. Great work Bruce, cant wait to see photos or film of your Adventurer flying.

[Bruce]

an O-235 is 3.85 Litres. The big drawback with direct drive engines is they have to generate their power at low RPM - no more than 2700RPM. the only way to get enough power then is to go bigger!

[Simonjg]

Looks awsome Bruce; keep up the hard work it won't be long and you will be enjoying flying her.

Can't wait to see her in the flesh.

[lucasdenes]

friend
Am pilot in Brazil, and I have a Murphy Rebel airplane engine with EJ22 (Subaru), this plane was another rider, and he used ignition coils different from the original EJ22, but when these coils are not working, and I have a motor stopped plane and on the ground today. I need your help: I wonder what the ignition coils are these or kit that you used in your engine, I really liked his work and would like to share this knowledge with me, please. my email is [e-mail]

[craig]

Nice work Bruce. Could you tell us a bit of the history of this make, are there any flying here?

[Bruce]

Wow! this thread dates back a way!
Lucas, the electronics of the engine ended up causing quite a bit of drama, which took over a year to sort out. The original plan was to use a "Real World Solutions" engine controller, which used individual coils per plug (the coils were off a Chev Corvette!). I had a lot of problem getting the thing to run, and in the course of dealing with that I changed from the RWS system to the NZ made Link system, mainly because more people locally know how to tune and troubleshoot them (they are used in Rally cars). The Link uses the standard Subaru Coil pack. I havent had any problems at all with it once it was tuned and set up.

Craig, the Adventurer is my own design and is absolutely one of a kind. It first flew in march last year so its now out and about (and it should be at Black Sands, Raglan this weekend).

[craig]

What are its numbers. Stall, cruise, payload, take off performance etc

[Ykato]

were cruising over Glenview fri approx 11.30am still has a distinctive sound even with the muffler installed