first of all, thank you very much in advance for your help, last sunday my big wish of my own plane became reality, and so I am the proud owner of a V-Max, which already has flown around 40 Hours, but is still under the certification process with the Aviation Authority.
As I am new to this topic, I kindly ask you to give me some tipps, on what to look at V-Max especially, to get in the air safely .
In this Forum I could read a lot about the Teleflex cables, on my V-Max are I think the same red ones installed for the Elevator (only one Elevator Cable installed) and Flapperons... are those the "good" or "bad" ones?
Does maybe somebody have detailed instructions what exact parts are needed to perform the "SB" with the Tube and the two clamps?
Can somebody maybe send me Pictures how the wheel pants are installed and connected, I think that would be beneficial to reduce little stones flying against the covering on a grass strip during Takeoff and Landing.
Is it still possible to order spare parts at Team (Thinking about the teleflex cables after 400Hrs of Operation)?
Thank you very much in advance. Kind regards from Vienna in Austria (no Kangaroos here ) VMAXAustria
Dear MiniMax Pilots, I have one question regarding aileron connection, can maybe somebody sent picture of how your ailerons are connected to the teleflex cables, on mine there are quick connectors in place, basically nothing bad, but they just dont look very strong. Many thanks.
I do not have any pictures but I might be able to post a plans pic showing the details. Will that help or do you have a copy of the plans (and wanting a picture of an actual build)?
Dear flydog, many thanks for your reply, a picture of the plan would we really amazing, I ordered the plans already, but I did not hear from TEAM until now.
One questions, does somebody know what exact bolts are used with the V-Max for the Fuselage - Wing connection? I ordered the plans from TEAM, but did not get it yet.
Dear MiniMax Pilots another question from me: At the Moment I am figuring out the CG Diagram stated in the POH, with higher mass the rear CG Limit moves forward, that is what I quite dont understand, as normally with other planes its exactely opposite. The Thing why I am asking is, that my V-Max is quite heavy, and according the Diagram, the cg-rang is really limited, and far away from the stated 21-30% chord. Am I right, that I can not use with 700lb the 21-30% ?
I think generally you would expect to move the c.g. forward with an increase in mass. The concern is that too far aft of a c.g. position would increase the tendency to spin, or make it harder to recover from incipient spin entry. This applies to any conventional aircraft.
My Eros was right up to the 300kg limit for the class I registered it in Australia, in fact a bit over if I flew with both wing tanks full.. The c.g. was well aft, maybe on the 30% limit, and the aircraft flew beautifully. A very docile stall, with no tendency to drop a wing (provided no rudder input was made). The pitch, roll & yaw controls are very powerful in such a low-mass aircraft, so any unwanted wing drop should be easy to rectify quickly. I had plenty of elevator authority at 30% c.g. position.
If your Vmax doesn't measure within the specified c.g. range, you should ballast it to make it so. This will probably be ballast in the tail, as the VW engine is quite heavy.
If it were me, I would fly the Vmax with some caution, until I had got a feel for its behaviour at a safe altitude. You will probably be delighted with the feel of your Vmax.
I forget the name of the pilot with apologies but he has a nice vmax with many videos on youtube.its got a 1835cc engine.he sent me the weight/balance chart.maybe you can have a look if its of any value.
Dear Minimax Pilots, thank you very much for all the help.
Finally the V-Max is nearly ready, so I wanted to ask for tipps, which are good to know for beginners:
I am flying gliders since 9 years, but am relatively new to motorized planes (except from motorgliders), at the moment I am doing a tailwheel conversion training on a Piper Cub. I kindly ask for any tipps, how the V-Max generally behaves and what is important when flying one during takeoff & landing?
fabian long ago i asked john friesen how it flew.he flew kitfox for 4oohrs. he told me it flew fine once in the air but was tricky on the ground.john is not on this group.but he is a nice chap.he might help wth answers. jhnfrsn@yahoo.com.two of his friends groundlooped it who were Citabria pilots.other chap actively flying is chris duncan.he is on weedhopper ultralight facebook group.he is very experienced.another nice chap having flying vmax is rob newall.he has videos on youtube.
The only taildragger time I had when I'd finished building my Eros was a few hours on a J3 Cub. MiniMax's are a lot livlier (squirrely) than a Cub, as they are so much lighter. So this is what I did to get to grips with the art of taildragging.
I'm lucky that my local airfield had both grass & tarmac runways. I practised taxiing on the grass runway for several hours. I started at slow speed, gradually building up to near rotation speed. At low speeds, I kept the tail on the ground, just practising keeping straight. When I had got the hang of slow speed taxiing, at higher speeds I raised the tail, and practised until I could taxi the whole length of the runway with the tail off the ground.
When I was happy I had full control on grass, I repeated the exercise on the asphalt runway. This is much harder, as there isn't as much drag on the tailwheel to keep the plane straight. But it's worth doing as some airfields don't have grass strips.
What you will achieve by spending all this time taxiing is to teach your feet to tap dance on the pedals, learning to anticipate the onset of a groundloop. I found it helpful to wear very light, thin-soled gym shoes, so that I could better feel the pedals. After several runs up & down the airstrip, you should find your responses are much quicker, almost automatic quick little inputs, keeping the nose straight. This in turn will lead to much easier landings later on.
The other purpose of extended ground runs is to fully check out the engine. Hopefully, if there are any problems they will show up while you're still ground testing.
As has been said before, Max's fly beautifully. They are very light on the controls, but respond instantly. You're going to have so much fun in your new aeroplane.
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