Hi Terry, I don't know what your weight is but the 701 is VERY sensitive to weight. After you get used to it you will see what I mean. As for the stall speed I would expect a little more than 30 mph. Here's the deal though, the plane will not have enough elevator authority to stall the wing without power. It WILL NOT fly like a cessna. DO NOT, DO NOT approach at 1.3 stall speed unless you want to change the touch down zone elevation. The first time fly the approach at 60 pmh and no flaps and get used to it. Anything less than that with flaps and you will get quite a shock when trying to flare. I went to a seminar on how to fly the plane at Oshkosh because I was having trouble, I thought. They say to fly the approach at 55 with flaps and carry power until AFTER the flare. Make the approach steep and round it out in the flare. IT WILL RUN OUT OF ENERGY IN A SPLIT SECOND. One minute you'll be doing 60 and the next time you look it'l be 45. Let me know if I can help.
Wayne

By the way, I just realized I missed the last part of your questions. Yes I run a pump, just one. But my setup uses a ellison throttle body instead of a top mounted carb. I can takeoff without it if I use both tanks but I always land and tkaeoff with it one for safety. I would probably install a second one if you are going to use the top mounted carb.
Wayne

Your c.g. sounds good based on what I remember. Just remember to be ready to add power in a nanosecond when flaring for landing. Most people approach at idle and flare in a cessna with good results. What happens with the 701 is the prop at idle is like a barn door in front of the elevator reducing it's effectiveness. with your lighter weight it would be less of an effect i would think but others I have talked to say the same thing about flaring. If I don't have enough power for the flare I usually know it way out, the elevator shudders from the turbulence from the prop. You can feel it in the stick, like someone is back there jerking in up and down. The top window will rattle also. If I apply enough power to smooth things out and stop the shuddering the landing goes much better. The trick is getting glide path right to keep it all in balance at about 55 or 60 mph. The glide will likely be quite steep and I doubt you will be able to see over the nose so looking out the side of the windshield and down by the cowling will be the order of the day. I'm still to chicken to drag it in on the prop at 45 or 50, the landing would be quite short but at this airspeed everything would be controlled by power and a loss of it or to much of a reduction would result in a real mess.
A few other things, do not high speed taxi test. I did not heed the warning from roger at Zenith and nearly crashed. When you get ready to roll just go and rotate at 40 to 45 and climb at 55 to 60. DO NOT ROTATE EARLIER. With that huge prop and the engine power the plane will torque roll, don't ask me how I know. You need that speed for the roll authority and the plane will literally jump in the air. Do not over rotate and bang the tail, like me. When the nose starts up reduce back pressure and keep going, you have to pull the plane off the ground which makes it a sure bet to slam the rudder into the ground, it gets going probably faster than you can think at first.
Wayne

congratulations on a success full inspection, the exciting part is going to start, you will have a ball.For the first flights just fly here off and on the runway with power, that stoll performance can be explored later. Good luck, harmen van der velden

You asked for words of wisdom...
Speed = Security. Altitude = Life Insurance.
It is better to be down here wishing you were up there, than up there wishing you were down here...
Fly the plane, fly the plane, fly the plane...

In other words, as advised by others, keep the speeds up around 50kts (60mph / 90km/hr) - consider that your 'safety speed' - your 701 will forgive most things at that speed. If you want to experiment - do it altitude - where you have life insurance...

Wait for the best day. Get a good nights sleep and be very alert - airplanes love us and we love them, but they can bite if the weather gingers their tails...

Remember to always fly the plane - remain in control, look outside and peek inside - become one with the machine and fly together...

Enjoy and then write about it!!!

Terry, thats pretty wild, I was just emailing you about your engine. Yea the plug location will be affected by the plugs temp. They tell you to put it nder the top center head stud but that is the coldest part of the head, you need to know what the hottest part of the head is doing to prevent valve damage and the head from becoming brittle and failing. The sensor i am using is a standard 14mm plug sensor but I put it under the outside head stud which is near the place vw engineers put it. My engine is doing great. I've really been flying a lot since the weather cleared up down here. If I can be of help let me know. I have been there and done that, I've got the t shirt and I KNOW what did and did not work for me. : -)
Wayne

Hello Terry, wanted to touch base with you and see how your engine is doing. Hows the temps and performance?? Wayne

I really don't have any words of wisdom on the flaps other than to say put em in and see what happens. On mine it changes the deck angle some and makes it harder to flare. I'm glad the engine is working for you. Be sure to keep me informed about the performance. Curious. Wayne

Hi Terry, I saw where you have a heavy wing. check the rudder rigging. I had the same issue and it was the rudder. it wanted to roll not skid. try it sometime. keep the stick neutral and put in a little rudder.
Wayne

Your belts breaking really worries me. I have not broken a belt but they only last about 10 to 15 hours and I'm running a Powerfin. The guy in arizona put on new belts and one broke on startup also. He runs a warp drive prop. The dude I was telling you about in Ft Wayne Indiana had an engine lock up before he had 2 hours on it made a forced landing. One belt was bkoke and the other flipped off I think. Larry blamed it on them not putting oil in the engine but there is no way it could have run nearly 2 hours without oil. The front oil seal was bad and oil was coming out the front of the engine. The owner told Larry the belts failed and wiped out the seal and thats what caused the siezure. He off course dis agreed and said they did not put oil in it. I don't know. I do know that a engine failure here in west virginia will result in a loss of the plane so I am taking a very hard look at where to go from here. Wayne.

You can buy the belts at NAPA or some other industrial supply house. I just keep them in stock 4 or 6 at a time.

Good luck. I run the lighter flywheel also. Tim Coffman in Arizona was running the heavy flywheel (looked like it in the pics he sent me) and he had the flywheel come loose from the crankshaft. He was just using the stock 4 dowel pins so if your crank and new flywheel is not 8 doweled I would look into doing it. Just something to think about. The thing bothers me is the harmonic whiplash that goes through the drive train, then all the way through the crank to the back of the engine to transfer that energy to the flywheel. Lots of twisting motion going on there. I thought that is why the idler is there, to relieve that whipping action if needed. I've run mine without the cowling and the idler really shakes, I mean SHAKES at certain rpms. I have a power range that I must run, idle to about 2400 and from 3750 and up. Anything in between and I can feel it banging that idler around, the vibration comes through mount and I can feel it in the pedals. Thanks for keeping me updated, if I can be of help let me know. Wayne

Terry,

The Raven Suzuki 1.3 is installed and running smoothly. The prop is on. We removed the rudder so we can get it in and out of the garage easily. I will be doing ground running and revising the cowling over the winter and should be flying as soon as the runway dries up in the spring.

Phil

We must be working on the same wavelength! I was thinking of you this weekend. I was wondering if you were flying yet, everything is going fine for me. Currently doing the condition inspection.
How is it going? Is the engine doing well?
Wayne

Terry,

 

I'm just waiting for the snow to be gone and the ground to be firm to take my plane to Bowman Field. The engine is installed and running. I have some ground running, minimal cowling work, and taxi tests to do before I put the wings back on, do the weight and balance and get in the air. Once I do the W&B I can determine where the batteries need to be located.

 

Phil

Good news! Glad you are getting to fly. I have been flying when I can, I have 53 trouble free hours on the engine so far. Took the plane for it's first overnight camping trip last weekend and all went well. I'd like to see a video of your strip when you get a chance. Keep in touch.

Wayne

Hi Terry, thanks for asking about the plane. The plane is still in pieces in the hanger with no engine. I will not put the Vw back on it, I feel the good lord has kept me safe long enough and I am pushing it to go back with the vw. He might just give up on me! I have spent 10,000 dollars on this thing and still have nothing, this money would have gone a long way towards a rotax, I am unwilling to spend another thousand, a months worth of work and have the case crack again. I might not be so lucky next time and loose the airframe or worse.. I was never thrilled about the performance, the useful load or the reliability so I have made the decision that I will install a rotax or nothing. looking at the economics of the vw and rotax, the vw has cost me 10,000 dollars and I got 148 hours out of it for a cost of 67.56 per hour. I could have spent 26 thousand and at that same 67 dollar figure the rotax would start saving me money at a 384 hours. There are literally thousands of 912 out there that have gone well past that with nothing more than oil changes and plugs. even if you figure that the engine has to be overhauled at 1000 hours it still beats the cost of the vw in my experience. Good luck with yours, I hope it works out. Please keep in touch. by the way, I have all my stuff for sale, the rid rive, cowling etc, CHEAP!
wayne

Good Morning! Thanks for the headsup on the engine. I got an alert from Barnstormers this morning. I have ordered a complete firewall forward kit from Zenith, expect it in about 4 weeks. The engines are down a little bit now so I went ahead and did it before the price went back up. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm just 25,650 dollars deeper in debt now.