Popham Microlight Trade Show 2013

GSAL will be at Popham Microlight Trade Show from the 4 - 5th of May, come and see our Fokker Eindecker replica.  Whatever the weather it's a great event to see new products in microlight aviation with many traders presenting their wares. 

Select the link below for detail directions of getting to Popham.

Popham Airfield

GSAL Kit 105 Returns to Aston Down

 Mystery truck turns up at Aston Down on Friday the 19th?

The back starts to open up and we are wondering what is inside?

We look in the back of the huge truck and guess what an Eindecker?

Steve Duckworth arrives a few minutes later, mystery solved.  We unload the Eindecker into the hangar.

We rig the aircraft ready for a general inspection and weight / balance calculations.

Steve takes his Fokker Eindecker outside for engine runs.

The cowling is removed so all the engine instillation can be observed during the first engine run, and Steve fills up the tank with fuel.

During the first engine run George monitors the T&P's.

A view of the Eindecker instrument panel.

Steve posing with his Eindecker before his first powered taxiing.

Taxiing around to bed the brakes in, and check all the controls systems.

Steve's very first taxi on grass.

Steve looking for his first kill....!!!!

40 Hours in a GSAL Fokker Eindecker EIII

Mike Clark, sent us some pictures of his lovely Fokker Eindecker EIII, he has amassed almost 40 hrs in 132 sorties.  His aircraft is powered by a 50 hp Hirth F23 Engine and a Hercules propeller.

Here is a picture Mike took while flying, a nice view over the wing of the lovely Surrey countryside.

Eindecker Kit into Morane Saulnier Type G or H

If a Fokker Eindecker is not to your fancy and you'd rather have an allied replica, the GSAL kit can be modified reasonably easily to produce a Morane Type G, winner of the Schneider Cup in 1913 (float plane version) it was state of the art before WW1.  The Type H was a derivative of the successful G with a slightly reduced wingspan. 

This colour scheme is Belgian, they were also used by Britain, Sweden, Russia, and of course France.

 

Changes are required to the main landing gear and rudder, but the fuselage, main wing and stabilizer, are so close to the Fokker Eindecker EIII it's not worth modifying, and in any case we are not producing an exact replica.  In fact Anthony Fokker used the Type G as his basis for the  M.5 reconnaissance plane which later turned into the Eindecker EI, and that is why they are so similar.

Morane Saulnier Type H colour schemes.

LAA Article on Dave Stephens build of G-FOKR

http://www.lightaircraftassociation.co.uk/2010/Magazine/2010/March/Fokker_article.pdf

Many of the changes that Dave mentions in the article were incorporated into the UK kit plus further weight savings, which mean that all current kits supplied are at least 2 kg lighter than the GSAL prototype.  Using the Briggs V-Twin engine (which wasn't available when we started) sets the engine further back, shortening the nose cowling allowing for the use of thinner material saving even more weight.

A short movie of Dave and his Eindecker going to visit modeling buddies at there own strip.  There are some nice close up shots of the aircraft and that lovely sounding V-Twin engine.

Here is Dave's old Fokker at its new home, he sold it last year to a syndicate of four with great regret, having lost some of his hangar space.........perhaps he'll build another one day as the Eindecker Jasta has lost a great character.

GSAL The Early Days

This is the GSAL team in our workshop at Aston Down Airfield, Shaun, Robin, George, Robin is holding the gun and showing his handy work at making the bullets and feed mechanism for the EIII.

Robin and Shaun working on the EIII Stabilizer Jig on our build table.

Robin assembling the Stabilizer on the Jig, produced using a full size CAD drawing which is supplied in the UK advanced kit.

Robin is very happy because all the parts are correct to the CAD drawing and fit the build jig.

Shaun is never happier than when he is riveting something together, and in this case it was the EIII fuselage sides.  The assembly jigs were made using the full size CAD drawings supplied in the UK kit.

In very little time one of the fuselage sides was completed.

Next joining both sides of the fuselage using the CAD drawings supplied, and helped by making a false chipboard firewall.

Second chipboard firewall to help keep the fuselage spacing correct.

Once we had the tail chipboard jig in position we could then start trimming fuselage cross tubes ready for drilling, these were held in place with Cleco's before riveting.

Within a week we had the Fuselage completed.

MZ 201 Engine Installation

This is a complete MZ 201 engine installation produced by GSAL mounted on our engine test rig just before taking it outside to run and setup, this included the engine instruments.

Our customer Steve Duckworth was present, and after the satisfactory run in, he took it home and installed it onto his Eindecker airframe.

Here is the MZ 201 engine installed on Steve's airframe.  A lot of effort and time was taken in designing the exhaust installation to hide the semi tuned 2 cycle exhaust so as not to spoil the aircraft aesthetics.

Fokker Eindecker Flight Video

This US Eindecker powered by a Rotax 503, has a smaller wing than the UK version, however, we wouldn't recommend flying the aircraft with such enthusiasm.

Dave Stephens first hops to check the controls and systems before his first flight.

Dave's first full circuit on a cold January morning, all went well and the aircraft handled very nicely.

GSAL Video Compilation

 

This video compilation of a days test flying made by our friend Mike Oakley last year.

 This video complied by Mike Oakley from build images and the very first test hops to check that all the flight controls were operating correctly.

 

Above is one of our customers aircraft with a modified Briggs & Stratton  V-Twin four stroke which sounds very good, it puts out in the region of 35 hp @ 4300 rpm and is very frugal burning only 6 lt pr hr.

First Test of our engine installation in our engine testing rig, our engine is a modern 2 cycle produced in Canada by Compact Radial Engines, it is the MZ 201 with dual ignition and electric start, and produces 45 hp @ 4700 rpm, fuel burn is around 8 lt pr hr.  This engine has been developed from the more powerful MZ 202 which produces 60 hp @ 5800 rpm.  So our MZ 201 is very under-stressed and does not have the high pitch sound normally associated with 2-stroke engines.

GSAL Eindecker Test Flight

 

A view of our Eindecker instrument panel, taken at the 2012 LAA Rally.

Robin the test pilot, making three low passes for us to take some interesting photos.

GSAL Eindecker Prototype

In the picture above our test pilot Robin Morton is taxiing the MZ 201 powered Eindecker ready for a January flight last year, testing a new propeller.

This is the new beautiful Hercules propeller designed and made by Rupert Wasey, which gave a 33% performance improvement: http://www.hercprops.com

After this test flight it was decided we needed brakes for safe operation on hard runways, and we soon had a design up and running for Popham Trade Fair last year.

The lightest option we came up with were disc brakes and floating calipers, kits are now available for our builders. 

The brakes are operated by individual handles on the control stick allowing differential braking that helps turning in tight spots.