Light Aviation Magazine 2023 Click on the links below to open each issue of Light Aviation Magazine from 2023 January 2023 April 2023 July 2023 October 2023 February 2023 May 2023 August 2023 November 2023 March 2023 June 2023 September 2023 December 2023

Hirth 2 Stroke Covering Letter to Owners Fuel System Inspection Checklist

< Back Engineering updates in February 1 Mar 2024 The following documents have been updated in the Engineering 'Info Library' during February. Continuing airworthiness information: Mandatory Technical Directive MTD-01-2024 issue 2 Supermarine Spitfire, geometry/symmetry checks on fin. TADS : Aeroprakt Foxbat Alpi Pioneer 300/300 Hawk Beagle/Auster Continental engines Sling 4 TSi Sonex Stolp Stardust Too Vans RV-9/-9A Vans RV-14/-14A Technical Leaflets : TL 1.10 'List of aircraft parts and materials suppliers' TL 2.12 'Replacement of lost documents' Forms: MOD 4 'Application for approval to change propeller' MOD 13 'STC installation' Next Previous

Continental Covering Letter to Owners AAN PFA 999-413 Sup 3 Approved Mogas Aircraft/Continental Engine combinations Inspection Checklist

< Back Francis Donaldson is awarded the Honourable Company of Air Pilots Sword of Honour 22 Sept 2023 This year’s Sword of Honour – which recognises an outstanding contribution to General Aviation – goes to Francis Donaldson. For more than 30 years, as Chief Engineer of the then Popular Flying Association and then Light Aircraft Association, Donaldson has recommended the issuing of permits to fly for more than 3,000 aircraft and overseen the engineering and handling reviews of around 200 different types. He stood down from his role at the beginning of 2022 but has remained involved as a consultant. Few people have been more influential to the progress and development of light aircraft in the past three decades, with an encyclopedic knowledge backed by real world engineering and flight testing expertise. Press release - Air Pilots Trophies and Awards 2023 (2) .pdf Download PDF • 167KB . Next Previous

Weight & Balance The subject of Weight and Balance covers at least four distinct procedures: weighing an aircraft, calculating its empty weight and centre of gravity (CG), establishing the worst forward and aft CG loading cases according to an appropriate design code and calculating weights and centres of gravity for an actual flight. This section includes guidance notes on each of these aspects, forms and worked examples (imperial or metric) for recording and calculating empty weight and CG, as well as worst forward and aft CG cases and an Excel based spreadsheet that makes the weight and CG calculations for you. The table on the spreadsheet is set out in the same layout as the Loading Examples tables. This spreadsheet can, of course, also be used for carrying out calculations for an actual flight. Simply input the actual weights of the items to be loaded rather than the standard occupant or maximum fuel and baggage weights. Remember, it is important to check that the CG remains within limits with no usable fuel as well as with the loaded fuel in the tanks, even though it will not be your intention of running the tank dry. The calculator generates two sets of weight and CG values for this purpose. ​ Weight & Balance arrangements for gyroplanes are different to those of aeroplanes and a special type of report is used, unless the manufacturers concerned provides their own special schedule in which case this should be used instead. Before accessing the documents below, please ensure you have read Technical Leaflet 3.16 - Weight and Balance Guidance Notes . Technical Leaflet 3.16 Other useful documentation is as follows: Weight & Balance Forms Weight & Balance Examples

Caring for your Gipsy Major - Basic Course Price Member - £200, Non-Member - £220 Duration Arrival 09:45. Finish 17:00. < Back About the Course Caring for your Gipsy Major course presented by acknowledged DH Gipsy engine aficionade, Dennis Neville. Dennis will explain the ins and outs of these vintage aircraft engines and solve those starting difficulties. Your Instructor Dennis Neville Dates To be confirmed Times Arrival 09:45. Finish 17:00. Duration One day course Venue LAA HQ, Turweston Aerodrome, NN13 5YD Price Member - £200, Non-Member - £220 Booking Telephone LAA on 01280 846 786 to check availability and/or book or e-mail.

​ LAA Member Discounts FlyBox Adams Aviation Telephone for discounted prices Air Courtage Ass urances Varley Red Top Batteries 10% Discount Po oley's Flight Equipment 5% Discount on all orders Air Team Images 20% Discount Crecy Publishing 5% Discount

We provide a system whereby members can build an aircraft in the comfort of their own home (or wherever they choose) from either a set of plans or from a kit of parts. ​ Every year around 100 newly-constructed aircraft are added to the LAA fleet, with members generally taking around 1 to 4 years to complete their kit projects. A whole range of aircraft is available to build, from single-seaters to four-seaters, aerobatic to amphibian, and WWI replica triplanes to gyroplanes. The LAA is tasked with ensuring that the designs members build meet minimum airworthiness requirements, appropriate to the type. Proposals for accepting other designs of aircraft can be put to the LAA, and a number of such types are accepted each year following a review of their airworthiness, amongst other things. This requires a member to champion the type through the process, arranging for the necessary technical information to be passed to the Engineering department and to build and test the first example. Similarly, it is possible for a member to build an aircraft of their own design. LAA provides support for this (see the Designing aircraft section), but due to limited resources only the most promising/developed designs can be advanced through the system. Building Aircraft One of the founding principles of the LAA is to provide for members wishing to build their own aircraft, either for their own education or to enable them to own an affordable aircraft. Of course, whichever type you choose it is usually possible to customise it to your liking using the LAA’s modification system. So if it’s an elaborate avionics suite that takes your fancy or an automotive engine conversion, there’s a route to investigating whether it’s possible. If you like the idea of building, but feel you lack the skills, then there are courses on various aspects of aircraft building to help bring you up to speed. Your Inspector is also a fantastic mine of information and generally will be your first port of call for technical information. Of course, the LAA also has a pool of full-time engineers who can be contacted for advice. For further information, click the button below for Technical Leaflets covering the Build Process Click here for more information

E10 Mogas From 1st September 2021, the government mandated that all regular grade unleaded petrol must contain up to 10% ethanol, rather than up to 5% as previously. In the autumn of 2021, most filling stations around the UK re-marked their E5 petrol pumps to show that they now supply E10 specification fuel, and started receiving tanker-loads blended with up to 10 percent ethanol content. For the automotive world this means reduced carbon dioxide emissions, which is better for the environment, and, arguably in terms of eco-desirability, a small further reduction in the reliance on fossil fuel. The automotive industry had been preparing for this change, and people with road vehicles registered after 2002 should be able to switch to E10 without noticing any difference. Unfortunately, the additional ethanol content is bad news for aviation users if we were to ignore the change and start putting E10 in our aircraft regardless. Ethanol is a powerful chemical solvent which can attack components including rubberised gaskets and fuel pipes, older lacquered carburettor floats and composite or plastic components in some newer fuel systems. The doubling of the concentration of ethanol in E10 compared to E5 makes it much more likely that problems will be experienced if these parts are not designed to be ethanol-proof. Ethanol also has an affinity for absorbing water, which over time can then become acidic, attacking metal components in the fuel system and engine. Even if there was a practical way to do so in the volumes of fuel we use in our aircraft, we cannot safely remove the ethanol content from the fuel because the ethanol acts as an octane enhancer, so the washed-out fuel would be left with a reduced octane value, likely to cause detonation problems. Another issue is that ethanol-blended fuel has a lower energy density than petrol, so to develop full power from our engines using an E10 fuel, we may need to richen the fuel/air mixture, for example using a bigger carburettor jet size. Owners of Rotax and Jabiru engines are probably already aware that many of these engines are supplied as being able to use E10 fuel – though with Jabiru engines, in particular, it’s far from straightforward because some of the earlier engines require cylinder head modifications and reduced compression ratio if they are to avoid detonation issues when using any form of Mogas. Jabiru also say that Mogas of any type should not be used in commercial flight schools and only at the owners own risk. Even with a supposedly E10-compatable engine, the chemical compatibility problems with fuel system components are such that the LAA does not at present approve the use of E10 Mogas in any LAA amateur-built or vintage aircraft. For factory-built microlights and factory-built gyroplanes, where LAA is not the approving authority but only renews the CAA’s Permits to Fly, owners need to refer to the TADS for the types for details of the approved fuel types, and monitor the service bulletins from the approved manufacturers for news of any updates. Where we need to be particularly careful in reading-across from (hopefully) a trouble-free transition to E10 in automotive use is the big difference between our petrol cars and the way our aircraft engines are configured. Our cars generally have submerged fuel pumps in their petrol tanks and a sealed fuel system. In our aircraft we have an open-vented tank and usually a fuel pump several feet away, often mounted in a hot area of the engine bay near to the engine exhaust, dragging the fuel through a fairly convoluted pipework system, a filter and fuel selector – all features encouraging a vapour lock - and then to make matters worse we want to climb up to altitude and operate in reduced atmospheric pressure. Modern petrol cars have a fuel injection systems rather than carburettors, a circulating fuel system designed to purge any vapour forming in the fuel line, and an ECU that monitors the engine’s parameters constantly and adjusts the fuel mixture strength and ignition timing to prevent damage to the engine – and if all else fails and the engine should ‘pink’, we can hear it from the driver’s seat and drop a gear to lighten the load. Because of the much higher background noise level in our aircraft, detonation cannot be heard and the pilot’s first indication of a problem may be when the first piston crown disintegrates, or a valve head departs its stem. In conclusion - E10 is presently not approved for use in any LAA aircraft. ‘Hoping for the best’ and using E10 fuel in your aircraft regardless could risk ruining the fuel system components, fibreglass tanks falling to bits, engine failure through contamination of the fuel or ruptured fuel pump diaphragms etc, or more serious engine damage. For most of our engines, UL91 Avgas is the best choice, but 97 octane E5 Super Unleaded remains an alternative to the now-obsolete E5 spec Mogas.

The Annual General Meeting of the Light Aircraft Association Ltd Old Warden Aerodrome Airfield of The Shuttleworth Collection Bedfordshire 20th October 2024 N otice is given that the AGM of the Light Aircraft Association (LAA) will be held in the Discovery Hub, Old Warden Aerodrome, Biggleswade, SG18 9EP at 12Hrs on Sunday 20th October 2024. ​ Nominations for Board Directors and Notices of Motions of any kind for the AGM must be received at LAA HQ, no later than Sunday 8th September 2024. Nominations must be signed by both proposer and seconder, both of whom must be beneficial shareholders. In respect of nominations to the Board of Directors, candidates must have been a beneficial shareholder continuously for at least two years and include a signed statement indicating their willingness to serve as a Director, should they be elected. ​ The AGM will provide for both in person and remote on-line participation. These arrangements will be professionally administered. In addition, those unable to attend may elect to submit proxy votes. A full list of nominations, Motions together with the proxy voting form will be published with October’s Light Aviation and on-line via the LAA website. ​ The AGM will be pre-ceded by the presentation of LAA Service, Rally Trophies and Awards to members. Following the AGM there will be time reserved for a Member’s Forum for discussion and Q&A on general matters with the Board and CEO. Light refreshments will be available upon arrival and lunch will be available to purchase in the Shuttleworth cafe. Provision will also be made for members to fly-in and visit the Shuttleworth museum and gardens – full details of which will be published in due course. ​ If you have any questions or comments for the AGM or the Member’s Forum please get in touch with us via [email protected]

​ LAA Type Clubs ​ British Rotorcraft Association W: www.britishrotorcraftassociation.org T: 07841870568 E: [email protected] ​ Pietenpol Club W: www.pietenpolclub.uk E: [email protected] ​ ​ The Aeronca Club of Great Britain W: www.aeronca.co.uk T: 01752 406 660 E: [email protected] ​ The Europa Club W: www.theeuropaclub.org E: [email protected] ​ ​ Vintage Aircraft Club W: www.vintageaircraftclub.org.uk E: [email protected] ​ ​ Vintage Piper Aircraft Club W: www.vintagepiper.co.uk E: [email protected] ​ ​ International Auster Club W: www.austerclub.org ​ ​ ​ British Women Pilots' Association W: www.bwpa.co.uk E: [email protected] ​ ​ Beagle Pup & Bulldog Club W: www.bpbc.uk T: 07985 430265 E: [email protected]