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RV-8 pandemic grounded

lucaperazzolli

Well Known Member
Here in Italy, all the airports are closed for recreational flights.

I'm one of the few lucky guys who has the privilege to reach the airport with job permission (requested here to leave home).

In this privilege, I think to protect the plane with the stuff I have available at this moment :

- remove the battery (or power cable) from the system;

- warm the engine, drain the oil, change filter and check screen filter adding a brand new oil. [oil has 4 months and 30 hours]

Make sense in your opinion putting a fresh oil into the engine (no, I've not access to conservative oil at that moment) ?

Have you some other advice ?

I think that here this situation will stand for a couple of months...at least.

:(
 
engine dehydrator

my engine closed loop dehydrator is almost ready.

the crankcase vent attachment was the tricky part. installs in less than a minute and is secure.

cap3_zpshoeekrm1.png


DSCN2880_zpstxxeuoas.png
 
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Fresh oil, top off the tanks, pull the positive lead on the battery. Sounds like a fine plan. Having said that, I haven't started my RV in two months (panel stuff) and did none of those things <grin>. Started an annual so I guess I'm working on it <grin>.

Hang tough Luke and thanks for the updates.

v/r,dr
 
Your plan sounds good Luca - I stored the RV-8 last winter for about five months at our vacation home hangar, just to make room in our shop for other projects. I flew it down, topped the fuel off, disconnected the battery, covered it up, and didn’t worry about it. It was ready to go when I went to pick it up, as soon as I reconnected the battery.

Changing the oil wont hurt, but I doubt you’d ever notice a difference if you didn’t.

Paul
 
Regarding captured moisture in the crankcase, either a single or recirculating desiccant dryer would be a great help.

I have been trying to get more definitive data 9 (and some analysis) on this and have tried a simple purge. That is, after a hot shut down, I used a mattress inflator to purge the crankcase and replace the acid air with ambient air. Ambient is far lower in moisture/lb of dry air than ambient. Calculation showed a 3 min purge would "replace" 99% of the air and a test of 3 min confirmed that.

Otherwise the engine will retain the moisture at 100% humidity. Yes, I did a confirming test on that too.

BTW- a 3 liter/min (50 gal) aquarium air pump will purge the air in 60-80 min. If you added a quart of silica gel desiccant to that flow, you would have the lowest internal humidity practically possible. Maybe a good project in the down time.

We all will eventually be exposed to this virus, so let's hope we get back to normal activity as soon as possible.
 
Too bad the airports are shut down. It has nothing to do with aircraft flying. Why put the General Aviation aircraft in the position that it has to be punished because of the virus.

I pray this does not extend to the US>
 
At least here at my home airport they try to reduce the traffic to be able to operate with less staff on the tower to be ready if someone gets the virus and thus has to go in quarantine..

Hang on Luca! If you need something I could have let me know.. Unfortunately the next Spruce is only 40km away but across the border in germany and they have closed the border :(

Also I do not know if I even could send something to you if I wanted to!

Cheers Yves
 
feel for you Luca, though in almost the same situation around here now :eek:

Buona fortuna, chi vediamo!
 
If storing a car, boat or airplane DO NOT DISCONNECT THE POSITIVE BATTERY CABLE FIRST. If you touch the wrench to a metal object while trying to remove the positive cable first you will have a direct short to ground. A massive electron flame front will happen.

ALWAYS DISCONNECT THE GROUND CABLE FIRST
 
short term(?)storage

Luca,
It is disconcerting to hear about what is happening in your country. I hope that things turn around soon.
As far as leaving your plane and engine sit for extended periods I can tell you this. Up here in Canada my plane sits from about November till April because of the cold (I am not willing to chance cracking the canopy). I generally take the battery and radios out, cover her up and leave for up to 6 months. I generally do the annual in late fall so it has fresh oil in but that would not matter so much. Fuel (100LL) is fine to leave for extended periods, but if you burn Mogas I would add some stabilizer.
 
I put my aircraft into storage twice a year for about 3 months each time. I always drain the oil and install fresh oil. I will then motor the engine with the ignition off to circulate the fresh oil through the engine then disconnect the battery, etc.

Leaving old oil in the engine allows corrosive acids to form and the by-products of combustion to settle out of the oil forming sludge. I view putting fresh oil in the engine for limited storage as good insurance.
 
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