new guy

[pbool]

arial Hello from northern Illinois, I have a bensen B8M with a rotax 503 that I have been flying since 1984. It still has the original engine and hegar redrive and both are still operating just fine. I also have a pitbull with a 503 in which I have amassed 129 hours. I have some photos of both that I will post as soon as I find out how to do so. I fly year round and have some pics of the bensen on skis. John M[IMG]jpeg[/IMG]

[Silverwing]

Kool..........

[Udi]

Welcome to the boards, John!

It is nice to see that someone is actually flying their Pitbull!!! What can you tell us about it?

Udi

[KenBricker]

John,

I'm located just south of Springfield, Ill. -- Girard. At present I'm rebuilding a Pitbull myself and would very much like to talk with you. I enjoy flying in the winter myself, better performance and usually have airport to myself.

J. Vandoorvees had told me that there was a Pitbull flying in Illinois but I never got any contact info from him. Other gyro people that I have talked with were not aware of anyone.

Anyway if possible, I would like to contact you by phone to chat. You can email me at Ken.Bricker@bunnomatic.com for getting me your phone number or phone me at 217-899-0175 in the evenings.

thanks and look forward to speaking with you,
--------Ken Bricker

[barnstorm2]

Very Cool! Please post more picts if you have em!

[pbool]

Hello, To those out there building a pitbull, The major problem I had was with the ground handling. I owned 2 Luscombe Silvaire taildaraggers for a number of years so I had lots of taildragger time. As built though, the fixed tailwheel makes it impossible to steer. I tried several mods and rather than go through the whole process, I think it would be a better idea to just give the final solutions. In short, I introduced toe-in to the axles and hooked up the tailwheel to steer with the rudder bar. I also made heel operated brakes. There also needs to be said something about the takeoff techniques. I don't want to make this a long rambling dissertation so I'll save that for a later posting. I have some photos of the way I rigged up the steering and will post them as soon as I can compress them. I have only a few pics of the bull landing and they are not the best but I'll see if I can get them on here. I am still learning to do this. John M

[chuter]

John,

Really appreciate your posts. You're the first person on the conference who is posting about actually flying a Pitbull (except for Ron A's test flight of one without the body).

It's good to get some real flying reports from someone with some hours in one.

I had heard that the tailwheel was fixed but couldn't get anyone to confirm it. I don't see how you could possibly taxi with something like that.

[pbool]

There have been some questions concerning the steering set up on my pitbull. I feel that a picture is worth a thousand words so I have compressed some pics and will post them here. The little bellcrank horizontal leg is 1.5 in long and the vertical is 2.5 in. This was my second effort and this gave me the steering ratio I wanted. This set-up has been trouble free for over 2 years and hasn't even needed to be adjusted. Next I will get some pictures of the brake pedals on here. John M

[pbool]

Here are some pics of the brake pedals. Please ignore the drippings in one of the pictures. I was fibreglassing something and some got dribbled. JM OOps, I boobooed. I forgot to compress 1 of the pics. It is the closeup with the drippings in it. I'll fix it tomorrow. JM

[pbool]

b Here is the other pic of the brake pedal. Just ignore the fibreglass drool.

[WN]

John,

You are definitely a hard-core gyro pilot. The picture of you in the Bensen made me cold just looking at it. Brrrrrrr.

I like the mods on the Pitbull, but especially the way it looks!

[pbool]

b I have gone to a different metod of putting gas in the gyros, even the bensen. With the pitbull, it is a real bear to lift a full gas can to the filler and hold it there while it empties. It is also easy to pour gas all over the cowling. I imagine there are millions out there who have been doing it this ways forever but then, I never claimed to be the fastest car at the show. JM