When I purchased N131JF from Jesse back in 2000, the fuel caps were not equipped with either grounding braid or tethers. Although the fuel caps on a Long-EZ are outside of the prop arc (and even more so since I now use a Catto prop, which has a smaller diameter but a deeper pitch than the original Performance prop), I was sufficiently concerned by reading accident reports where fuel caps had become loose and gone through the prop in flight to ask Jesse to fit tethers to the fuel caps. The tethers are triangular pieces of metal linked to the underside of the cap by a strong chain.
On Friday 3rd November, I lifted off from Lancaster Texas bound for Santa Fe en route to Escalante Utah (see Trip Report – Escalante). I fuelled the plane to 44 gallons before departure, which is the maximum amount of fuel that I can put in the fuel tanks with the plane “kneeling”.
After 40 minutes, I was at 8,500 feet about 5 miles North East of Breckenridge, when I decided to do a periodic scan of the wings. The left wing looked OK, but my peripheral vision of the right wing seemed odd…A more detailed look showed that the right fuel cap was loose. The tether was doing its job and preventing the fuel cap from flying off, but airflow had wedged the cap against the top of the strake. That was good. What was not good was a steady stream of fuel being blown out of the tank over the wing and into the atmosphere. As the fuel sloshed around in the tank, a spray of liquid and vaporizing fuel would be blown back past the prop.
I immediately cut power, and pointed the nose down towards Breckenridge Airport. Less than 10 minutes later I touched down, pulled off the runway and parked next to the self-serve fuel pump.
An examination of the fuel tanks showed that the right tank (the one with the open fuel cap) was still almost full, but the left tank only contained about 13 gallons of fuel. Because of the difference in the fuel tank fuel levels, fuel was siphoning between the tanks via the common sump tank to equalize the fuel levels (on my plane this can be heard as an intermittent ‘clicking’ sound).
The explanation for the difference in fuel levels was not difficult to work out. With the right fuel cap off the top of the fuel tank, there would be no positive pressure above the fuel via the fuel vent line (which is open to the airflow above the dorsum). The airflow past the open fuel tank was also generating suction. The result was that fuel was flowing from the left tank to the right tank as the fuel was sucked out from the right tank in flight.
I decided to re-fill the plane tanks to 44 gallons, the same level as at Lancaster. This required 17.8 gallons of fuel. Since I had been flying for the equivalent of about 45 minutes burning 8.5 gallons per hour (averaged as I climbed to cruising altitude and descended rapidly to land in Breckenridge), this would have burned 6.4 gallons of fuel. This meant that in 50 minutes of flying I lost 11.4 gallons of fuel from the open fuel tank.
Without my noticing the fuel cap being loose, fuel would have continued to escape from the right hand tank, with fuel moving from the left tank to equalize. This is one downside of a common sump arrangement. Since both tanks are linked via the common sump, I could have lost all of my wing tank fuel load, and I might also have lost the fuel in the common sump area due to the suction effect of air flowing over the strake at normal cruising speed.
It would be difficult to prove or disprove this hypothesis due to the inherent dangers in flight-testing with fuel escaping from the plane in the vicinity of the engine. However, a quick calculation shows that if I had not noticed the issue and diverted, I would have (partly) consumed and (mostly) lost all of my onboard fuel well before reaching the border with New Mexico. That might have ruined my day…
Three conclusions:
1. I failed to check that both fuel caps were secured before I boarded the plane. This item must be on the checklist and you must complete the check.
2. Anybody who owns a Long-EZ with a common sump fuel tank system needs to understand that the linkage between the tanks will result in most (if not all) of the onboard fuel gradually being lost overboard if a fuel cap comes loose or is lost in flight.
3. It is a really good idea to have fuel cap tethers. If you lose a fuel cap completely in flight, even if it does not damage the prop, you cannot really fly the plane anywhere until you fit a replacement. With my current fuel cap tethers, I was able to land, solve the problem and continue.

Those of you who have struggled with oil leaks will know that it only takes a small amount of oil leakage from around an engine to make a mess of an engine compartment; the air pressure and airflow does a great job of spreading the oil everywhere. In my case, I have been dealing with an oil leak from somewhere on the accessory case for over a year.
The oil leak was high up on the accessory case, from somewhere in the Vernatherm area of the ancillaries. However, I was not able to easily pinpoint the source of the leak. All I knew was that oil would appear at the bottom of the front of the engine, and would coat the ancillaries and pipes and also run into the P-51 scoop when the plane was at rest with a hot engine.
In the last 2-3 months the oil leak had worsened, to the point that I found 2-3 tablespoons of oil in the bottom of the P-51 scoop when I removed the lower cowling today as part of the prep for magneto replacement. That much oil in flight will slowly mess up an engine compartment.
With the Right magneto not in the plane due to a replacement process (see previous posting), I was able to determine that the source of the leak was not the Vernatherm switch (which was my initial suspicion), but it was the Vernatherm casing itself, which is bolted to the accessory case. I was able to gain access to the four bolts that hold the Vernatherm casing to the accessory case.
I found that the two bottom bolts on the Vernatherm casing were slightly loose, so I tightened then as far as I could. Only time will tell if this will stop the oil leak. If it does not, I may have to remove the casing and re-seal it. That will be a hassle since it will require the removal of the oil cooler, and possibly other engine ancillaries.

My plane has one magneto (Slick 4370 non-impulse, on Right side) and one Jeff Rose Electroair electronic ignition system.
The Jeff Rose system has performed without any attention apart from the replacement of the flywheel sensor due to vibration damage from a flight test of an unbalanced prop.
I wish I could say the same about the magneto...
I first became aware of magneto issues early last year when I found that there was excessive and slowly worsening engine vibration above 2500 rpm. The condition worsened to the point that on the return from a fly-in at Hondo, attempts to throttle up to more than 2520 rpm resulted in blurred vision when I pressed my head into the headrest. If my head was being vibrated that much, imagine how the rest of the aircraft must have felt...
After that flight, I pulled the magneto and had it overhauled by Select Aircraft Services in Lancaster. One thing I learnt at the time is that Slick keeps spare parts prices for their magnetos artificially high to discourage field overhauls. They want you to buy an exchange magneto instead. There may be a sound reason for this...remember we are dealing with a supplier whose magneto range once included magnetos designed to only last 500 hours (literally no overhaul; just throw the part in the scrap bin and buy another). As a result of Slick's parts pricing and distribution policies, Select were only able to reset internal components and replace a couple of minor parts at a cost of $175.
When I re-fitted the magneto to the plane, there was a noticeable improvement in engine smoothness. I was able to run back up to top rpm without feeling that I would need to visit the dentist to have fillings replaced. However, starting this Spring, I again noticed worsening top-end vibration. I also began to notice a periodic "miss" from the engine after I had been in the air more than 2 hours. This seemed like an issue which emerged once engine ancillaries became heat-soaked. When I flew to Rough River, the vibration, while not as bad as the 2005 vibration, was becoming more noticeable, and the canard tips were vibrating slightly at around 2450 rpm. While there is a natural vibration resonance at around this rpm in Lycoming 4-cylinder engines, this was the first time that I had seen vibration of this type from the canard in normal operations.
I also was noticing a drop of 100-120 rpm when testing magneto-only operation in run-ups. And not only but also...on the takeoff roll I would hear irregular "popping" sounds in my headset at full throttle.
Action was required.
I consulted Jesse and James Redmon. Jesse pointed out that the magneto had been supplied as part of the original engine package in 1993, with no paperwork to show how old it was, whether it had been rebuilt in compliance with FAA-PMA requirements etc. James expressed his opinion that, with 520 Hobbs hours on the plane, it was time either for a new magneto or an upgrade to electronic ignition.
While I do want to eventually upgrade to electronic ignition, this was not the time to do it either from a budgetary or time perspective, since I would also need to install a second backup battery and associated electrical wiring to support emergency operation of the ignition system on a backup battery if the primary battery and charging systems failed.
I decided to replace the magneto, and ordered a replacement Slick 4370 from Spruce on overnight delivery.
The magneto arrived in a nice fresh factory box with a date of 10/16/2006 on the side; at least some evidence that it was freshly built or rebuilt. They also threw in 2 Autolite aviation sparkplugs (although the cynic in me said that, with the cost of these types of ancillaries for aircraft, that was the least they could do...).
I pulled the top plugs, aligned the engine to top dead center and then tested the points open position with a timing light, to ensure that the engine was in the correct position before removing the old magneto. That way, there would be no chance of me aligning the engine with #1 cylinder on the exhaust cycle instead of the firing cycle. I also marked the position of the wiring harness when fitted to the magneto with white tape strips, to eliminate any possibility of reversing the harness position when mated with the new magneto.
I removed the old magneto from the engine, and then ran into the first problem. The timing gear is not included with a rebuilt magneto, presumably because different engine makes/models have different gear assemblies to mate with the drive shaft in the accessory case. You therefore are expected to swap the gear from the old to the new magneto shafts. In my case, I could not pull the gear off the magneto shaft after removing the cotter pin and securing nut. The gear shaft mates to the magneto shaft using a taper with a mating slot. Presumably years of operation had baked the join to interference fit standards.
A trip to O'Reilly's Auto Parts, $28 and one quarter turn of a socket wrench later, a "pop" accompanied the removal of the gear and gear shaft from the old magneto, courtesy of a newly-purchased gear puller. It's amazing how easy most maintenance jobs are if you have the correct tools...
After fitting the gear to the new magneto, I went through the process of pinning the magneto with the supplied timing pin (we'll return to that later...), installed the magneto and the harness to the engine and timed the magneto with the timing light. After replacing the bottom plugs and cleaning the top plugs, I tried to start the engine on the magneto.
Zip. Squat. Nada.
Hmm. Time for a think and a re-read of available literature.
Then I read a little sticker from the magneto box really carefully...the sticker states that the magneto must be locked with a timing pin before being installed. The position of the timing pin is L or R. I interpreted this to mean the position of the magneto on the engine, so I locked the magneto to R before install.
Wrong.
The sticker small print says to lock the magneto depending on the direction of rotation on the data plate on the magneto. In this case, the magneto is a Left rotation magneto. So I should have locked it using the L hole for the timing pin.
So...I went through the install process again. The good news is that the second time around it takes a lot less time.
After completing the installation and timing of the magneto, I tried to start the engine again.
This time, it fired first time.
Because it was almost dark, I scrapped plans for a full flight test. Instead I performed a run-up test followed by a fast taxi down the runway.
On the run-up, I noticed a drop of only 60-80 rpm with the magneto only in operation. On the fast taxi, the engine felt smoother, and I could not hear any "popping" sounds in the headphones.
I shut the plane down and changed the oil and oil filter. A long flight will be required to determine if the magneto replacement has cured the intermittent "miss" or the high-rpm vibration. I have a flight planned to New Mexico and Utah this weekend, so that will provide the flight test data.

Link: http://www.roughriver.org/2006/

I travelled to the Rough River fly-in as usual on Friday. A more detailed trip report and photos will appear here soon. However, the "rushes" are already up at the web site, and Bill Allen and I appear in them.
I flew on to Winston-Salem on Saturday to visit friends, and I will also write a trip report about that leg of the weekend.
As a result of this trip and the previous weekend's trip to New Mexico, I put an entire oil change duty cycle on the engine in 2 weekends, which is a record for the plane. Now it's time to fix some squawks and make some improvements (like new upholstery and baggage pods).

This weekend, Jesse and I worked on installing a replacement piece of baffling under the rear of the engine. This piece of baffling is suspended from the rear cylinder enclosure baffling. Its purpose is to fill the gap between the bottom of the engine and the rear of the lower cowling, thus sealing the area under the engine to create positive pressure.
While performing engine compartment checks for the annual, we discovered that the baffling had fractured where it was attached to the engine, which was causing it to bend backwards in flight, allowing air to pass through and out of the rear of the lower cowling. This reduced the positive pressure under the engine. On my last flight, my CHTs were 15-20 higher than normal, and the oil temperatures were 10 degrees higher than normal.
We used .025 aluminum sheet from Spruce to build the replacement baffle. Jesse created a cardboard template from the existing baffle after we removed it from the engine. The old baffle was in poor shape; it was clearly life-expired. This rear baffle does take a hammering because it has to "float" under the engine to seal against the cowling; thus it has to flex and move in flight, which eventually causes weakness due to metal fatigue.
While he optimized the new baffle template by creating a second template, I removed the silicone baffle edge sealers from the old baffling by drilling out the rivet heads. We also saved a number of small washers that are used as load spreaders for the silicone edge sealers. If you simply rivet the silicone material to the edge of the baffle without using the washers to spread the load, the rivet head will soon pull through the silicone.
We trial fitted the first and second cardboard templates under the engine several times, with and without the lower cowl being in place, to fine-tune the shape of the replacement baffling.
We then used the second template to cut a new piece of aluminum baffle using tin snips. The piece was trimmed to match the template, and then trial-fitted to the rear of the engine, both with and without the fitting of the lower cowls.
The new baffle, in addition to being riveted to the existing rear baffling around the cylinders, is also fixed in place by being attached to one of the alternator mounting bolts.
Once we were happy with the fit of the new baffling, I riveted it to the existing cylinder enclosure baffling. We also re-inforced one section that was narrow (it had to flow around the starter motor assembly) by riveting a second piece of aluminum behind it, doubling the thickness at that point.
Jesse then left to take care of other business, leaving me with the instructions on how to complete the attachment process for the silicone edging material. This took me several more hours. I was able to re-use the existing edging material.
(Hint: Use a #30 drill bit to drill the rivet holes. A 1/8 inch bit is fractionally too small, which will cause much muttering and cursing as it proves difficult to insert the rivets prior to using the rivet gun).
Once I had attached all of the edge sealing flaps, I then found that the cowling would not attach either using the camloks. The overall fit of the aluminum was too tight. I decided to complete that optimization process on Monday.
I worked for 2 hours on Monday evening on getting the lower cowl to fit properly around the new baffling.
The main challenge was on the right side, where the re-inforced section and the top right of the new baffling section were too low. This caused the cowling to be pushed to the right, which made it possible to do up a camlok on the right side, but not on the left side.
I started to Dremel aluminum off of the baffling edge, but soon realized that the tinsnips would do the trick far quicker. I ended up cutting back the descending section on the right hand side by 1/3 inch, and cutting some of the re-inforced area away, up to the attachment rivets in some cases. I also had to bend the top right hand side of the baffle forward to prevent it from colliding with the airdam lip on the inside of the lower cowling when I installed the cowling.
After 3 rounds of removing aluminum, I finally got to the point where I could do up all of the camloks and I checked that I could insert all of the cowling screws for the lower cowling.
I then removed the cowling and re-applied some RTV sealant where the baffling fits around the starter motor, and also checked and re-applied sealant to other areas that I had sealed up to stop air from escaping.
I now have a properly fitted new lower baffle. I hope that this will improve cooling effectiveness. The first serious test will be at the end of September after I have moved house.