This engine has been lacking on power for as long as I've had it. It's very evident when compared to my new DA120, this is an old V1 engine. It's possible that it's just worn out, it's got probably more than 1000 flights on it (some 3-400 of those are by my own hand).
Since I didn't have an airplane to fly today I got to work on the Yak. Anybody that knows these Pilot airplanes knows that the top of the motor box usually has an "X" pattern, after years of abuse it finally gave out so I decided to cut it out and dremel it smooth. You can also see that I just cut off the top of the smashed F1 former, the area I cut serves as absolutely no structural support for anything so there isn't any point in keeping it. When the airplane is assembled you won't notice anything. The holes that secure the cowling and the canopy hatch pins are all elongated so I am going to fill them in and glue in new supports.
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All dremeled smooth again.
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I also made a new hatch for this area, and mounted the ignition to it.
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The ignition was originally mounted just in front of the hatch.
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In the crash the plywood floor securing the tank pulled up at the cutout slots, so I glued in a new piece of 1/8" ply to strengthen the area up.
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I also removed the Fromeco Badger switch and Sahara regulator for the ignition and instead replaced them with a Tech Aero IBEC I had on hand. The red battery tray pictured above was also removed right after I took the picture. So overall I added some weight, but removed more weight. Aside from the SWB dual rudder tray, there's not much else I can remove to lighten this airplane up.
At some point, one of the SWB engine standoffs fell out of the airplane when the bolt came loose so it was replaced with a generic standoff- this was before I owned the airplane, I never bothered to do anything about it because it never gave me any problems. With this crash, I don't want to take any risks with the bolts or standoffs being compromised so I'll order new ones from SWB, and snag some new grade 8 bolts from the hardware store. I am also going to fit blind nuts to the rear of the firewall instead of using washers and lock nuts. Once the engine is bolted in I'll use locknuts to keep the bolts from backing out.
Also on my agenda is to fix the spats from being so loose. Right now they are secured to the gear legs with the axles, the axles clamp down on them to keep them in place, but over time they loosen up from the wood in the spats compressing. I plan to resolve this by bolting the spats to the gear legs using blind nuts and 3mm bolts.
I think that's about it....
