Dave Bacon has been working on adapting a starter to the McCulloch engine on my gyro ( see post of June 16).
It has turned out to be a real challenge. First of all , try as he might, there was no way that he could make the starter work with my Wunderlich Prerotator. There just wasn't room. That meant swapping the drive wheel and it's support bracket of my prerotator for a different one which allowed a smidgen more room between the wheel's cable and the fly wheel of the starter. It was cut and fit, cut and fit and finally it was all done except for finding the right length bolts to secure it. That probably means another trip to Aircraft Spruce and Specialty for the bolts .
We did turn the prop over with the starter today just because we needed to see if it was going to work and also just to hear it run if only briefly. There are folks who will say the Mac is noisy but those of us in the hangar today thought it was beautiful music when the prop turned over! It's a toss up who had the biggest smile, Dave or me or maybe even, Eber, Dave's dad .
Next weekend, Dave will do the final buttoning up of it all, then do the all important hang test to see if the center of gravity has changed because of the weight of the starter and when he gets that all done, I will have the pleasure of sitting in the seat of the gyro, pushing the starter button and having the engine come to life. Then I'll just have to go fly it ! I can't wait! Wish me a cool day with a nice breeze.
The photo above is Dave . Looks like he is about to attack the prop bolts with a torque wrench. After he quit for the day on the starter Dave just couldn't let the nice wind go to waste so he rolled his KB2 out and flew for an hour and a half or so and had a great time up there hanging on the wind. You should have seen the pride on his dad's face as he watched his son taming the breeze.
Till next time.
Marion Springer
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