Rebuilding And Repairing a Mainair Flash 2

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Rebuilding and Maintaining a
Mainair Flash 2

Following damaging the trike frame, and a tear to the leading edge of the wing, I decided to strip the aircraft to the basic components and replace most of the nuts, bolts, and wires, taking the opportunity to replace lifed parts, and completely rewire the aircraft from scratch, and placing instruments in my own preferences.

From this small image to this and back again!

Structural Photographs of a Mainair Flash 2

These photographs are applicable to my own Flash 2 462, and may slightly differ from another similar aircraft. As I found it useful to check my progress with another similar aircraft, I thought it might be a good idea to place construction photos on the web for reference
of other builders/repairers.

Additionally a SkyDrive Carburettor Heater (Water) will be fitted to
the completed aircraft, and these photographs will show the slight modifications undertaken to fit it.

The majority of the work on the trike including rewiring and repainting has been carried out by myself. (Incidently this is my first aircraft build). The remaining specialised work including rebuilding the wing was carried out by an aircraft inspector.

trike seat keel image

trike keel front image

foot throttle image

nose stub image

pod support image

seat support image

top rear leg

wheel image

low engine mount

rad mount bottom

radiators

Tip:

The coolant system of the Rotax 462 requires about 3 - 4 litres of water/anti-freeze
mix at the ratio of 50%. The simple solution to is 2 empty 2 litre Milk containers and
simply fill each with 1 litre of antifreeze, and then add 1 litre of water to each using an empty 1 litre antifreeze bottle. You have about a litre left over for future top ups. Sparkplugs should have a gap of 0.40 to 0.50.

engine baseplate

engine baseplate support

trike rear view

To change the gearbox oil use EP80W/90 for the 462 engine and fill the gearbox until the lower of the two wired screws (which should be removed prior to filling), overflows. The correct amount of oil is now present (about 300mls) approx.

fuel tap

air filter

carb heat T

T connection for the Skydrive Carburettor Heater (Water) System on the Rotax 462. One end for the Skydrive hose and the other for a water temperature sensor.

Connector at the water pump

shield

Plastic shield made from a green lemonade bottle. Unfortunately I was unable to find a clear bottle with a good stiff plastic. Previously I had a clear shield, but the clear plastic 2 litre bottles seem to have changed in favour of a thinner more flexible easily deformed container. This is not a new idea, but it is certaintly a great one (whoever originally thought of it), as even without the carb heater, I never had an engine stoppage from carb icing. The bottle had the top and bottom trimmed, fitted, and then cut to shape on the aircraft. Believe it or not, Lidl's sell a template unknown to them in the form of a Vitamin container which when drawn round, provides both diameters of the carburettor ports, making it very simple to cut and fit this shield.

Vitamin

hangpoint

wing nose

cross tubes

cross joint

inside the wing

cross leading edge

What to expect when you open your Carburettor

bing1

bing2

bing3

bing4

bing5

bing6

bing7

When it comes to connecting the choke cable, you will find this quite difficult as the soldered end does not protrude far enough for you to get hold of it, compress the spring with the bronze locking ring, and hook in the cable to its seat. In fact if you try it be prepared for the locking ring to go whizzing off into the blue yonder. The only way to do it successfully is to dismantle the choke mechanism allowing the choke handle to come right up to the cable mouth, thus giving you an extra cm of cable length to play with at the carburettor end. Using a gripping tool, hold the cable wire in front of the locking ring and advance the tool up the wire until you have sufficient free cable to drop the soldered end into the seat. Then gently retreat the tool back down the wire until the locking ring covers the seat. Next tension the cable and reassemble the choke mechanism.

Inside the Mikuni Fuel Pump
I bought and fitted a new one some time ago. This is the old one and on opening shows a foreign body inside the diaphrams. Perhaps I bought the new one just in time!

fuel pump 1