Some small progress has been made. I stripped all the gas related equipment out the other day. This includes the fuel tank, fuel dot and associated plumbing, gas motor (DLE-20) with ignition, both throttle and choke servos, power switches (2) and the main battery (2300 LIFE that feeds both ignition and flight gear). Near as I can figure, I am taking out 2lbs 14oz of “stuff”. So far adding somewhere around 2lbs 10oz inlcuding the motor, speed controller 6S 4000mah battery and a few other odds and ends. Even allowing for another 4oz in battery tie downs etc… would make the change in weight zero! I expect the new motor to produce nearly the same thrust and I could easily afford (at a guess) to give up 20% without losing unlimited vertical. Things are looking good so far!
As I sized up mounting the Power 60 electric motor I realized I needed to strip off the firewall doubler that had been added when the DLE was mounted and close up the hole that had been cut to accommodate that setup. With a bit of judicious application of a wood chisel I am down to the original motor box and I have overlaid the front of the box with a new piece of 1/4″ plywood to provide a nice solid platform to mount the new motor to. With the added 1/4″ of the plywood and the addition of some 1″ spacers I picked up at the Toledo show, I should have the correct spacing to get the back plate of the prop adapter outside the cowl with 1/8-1/4″ to spare. I even remembered to extend the center lines that were on the front of the motor box around to the sides so I’ll have reference marks to extend them back to the front when the epoxy dries and insure the new install is also centered! Yeah me! 🙂
Waiting patiently for the epoxy to dry now… <sigh>