All of you gentlemen are extremely helpful. :)

Excuse my ignorance (with all my novice questions), but this website is truly a great resource to not only network with other aviation enthusiasts, but mainly to transfer knowledge and experiences between one another!

Thanks Mike for sending me an excerpt from the Hanuman manual regarding bungee chord installation.

To conclude, the cord has a 10mm? diameter indefinitely, or is this speculation?

>From the above, each piece will be 5 feet in length, subsequently 20 feet total of required cord?

I just sent two more requests to Randkar France website (using two email addresses) in efforts to purchase the chords from them - and to access additional pages with a custom username and password.

Justin

---

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Michael Coates <mcoates@...>
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2021 7:36:25 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [XAIR] X Air Hanuman bungee cord rear landing gear and sail cloth

?

See answers in red

Justin Gregoris wrote on 21/11/2021 9:58 am:

I have attached a picture of the email I tried multiple times and still no response.

Moreover, on the Randkar France website, the bottom right-hand portion of the Hanuman page shows a yellow-boxed section - I tried to sign up and register to access that area and still no response from a representative, in hopes to grant me access through that area.

The Hanuman manual doesn't specify how to install these bungee chords either.

Do I lift the rear section of the airplane and landing gear off the ground, so the rear gear drops and becomes fully extended? Then, it looks like I get my centre length of about 2.5 feet and start from the middle of the bungee chord length - start wrapping around one bolt or the other? With or without applying tension/force as I lay the bungee chord??? it is pretty simple to do and it doesn't take long. You need to pull the 2 wheels together. You can do this is someone suggested earlier using a ratchet strap between the 2 wheels, tighten it up a couple of clicks and roll the airframe backwards and forwards a few metres that will allow the undercarriage to come together and repeat this a few times or alternatively, lift the aircraft off the ground and the same thing will happen, the wheels will come inwards but the ratchet strap is a good idea and it is quick and easy to do

Or, do I just keep the entire plane on the ground and start to install the new bungee chord around one bolt or the other?

I am also concerned this bungee chord shipping and customs and duties and length of time to ship will be more or double the cost of the actual material itself... What's so special about this bungee chord, opposed to any other cord that I can acquire locally???? the cord that you can acquire locally is not the same standards and this is why you see a lot of aircraft sitting on the ground with the undercarriage spread, this is because they are not using the right bungee, the stuff you get from hardware supplies is not the same product that is what X-Air are using. It is significantly softer and stretchy and just doesn't have the strength that the X-Air bungee has. Alternatively, you can purchase bungee cord from Aircraft Spruce???? ??? but it mentions it is not FAA approved and may not be suitable for experimental aircraft it may or may not be suitable for the purpose. I would always recommend to a customer just to purchase the proper stuff from X-Air

P.s. thanks Mike for sending me those 3 pictures!?

Justin

---

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Michael Coates <mcoates@...>
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2021 6:13:44 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [XAIR] X Air Hanuman bungee cord rear landing gear and sail cloth

?

Justin Gregoris wrote on 21/11/2021 6:10 am:

Thanks for the guidance. Are you able to show me a picture of your setup? What kind of strap do you use between the two landing gears? Is it the exact same bungee cord making model has the bungee cord being used for the actual gear itself? And what is a clearance from the strap that goes between the left and right gear from the ground? So far, I have not had good luck with getting information from the France or Indian email. No one has answered my emails and the telephone numbers are quite foreign to me so I will more than likely be ordering the bungee cord off of Amazon has it will take only 10 hours to arrive at my doorstep. When I take off the OEM bungee cord, I can use a outside caliper tool to measure the total diameter of my existing bungee cord and then lay out each side to determine the appropriate length.

---

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Bernhard Svavarsson <bern@...>
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2021 12:08:39 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [XAIR] X Air Hanuman bungee cord rear landing gear and sail cloth

?

Hi

Buy the original bungee from factory or dealer.I bought mine from Randkar the main dealer of xair aircraft in Eirope. I use strap between wheels to pull the wheels together - thigten the strap by lifting one wheel at time. This procedure is two mens job.
----- Upprunalegt skeyti -----
Frá: Justin Gregoris <jgregoris789@...>
Til: [email protected]
Sent: Sat, 20 Nov 2021 14:45:08 -0000 (GMT)
Efni: Re: [XAIR] X Air Hanuman bungee cord rear landing gear and sail cloth

many thanks.

I will look for 10mm total diameter bungee cords at about 5 feet long - giving a total of 4 pieces at 5 feet long each and 10mm diameter chord.

Justin
________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Steve Rance via groups.io <steve-r@...>
Sent: November 20, 2021 9:36 AM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [XAIR] X Air Hanuman bungee cord rear landing gear and sail cloth

Yes weight has to? be off wheels otherwise you cannot get enough stretch to do the the turns, you have to have a half turn so you end up with loop each end, I was referring to 4.5 half turns, I may be wrong each turn elastic is stretched to almost max so a helper would be good. Another problem is tracking. If you have toe out, by pulling aircraft straight on surface watch if wheels start to splay out. May be a sigh of bent axles. I have seen several examples. Sides of wheel should be at right angles to ground. Tracking can also be checked using two long beams and tape measure.

On 20 Nov 2021 12:38, Justin Gregoris <jgregoris789@...> wrote:
Many thanks Steve!

My recently purchased X Air Hanuman/Hawk is 2009; going on 13yrs old. It is red exterior but with only 146hrs on airframe and Jabiru 2200.

The Dacron still looks good, I'm no expert but looks like a solid 8.5/10.

Always stored inside hangar and still is.

When I google "Dacron", I don't get much Info with regards to specifics. I lost a piece of paper from the original owner, with make and model of exact covering but I thought it said not to exceed 1000hrs of direct UV exposure.if I do the math, plus 5-10%, I have about 400/1000 UV direct UV exposure.

I heard about spraying some kind of exterior household paint, but I think I'd need a spray gun with a fine tip/nozzle to prevent dripping and have to calculate how much more weight I am adding to the plane. If I had to make.my own colour choice, it would be matte grey or matte green, almost like an aggressive military look on a somewhat 'cute' looking plane.

There are currently some areas on my Hanuman whereby the covering looks like it should have been stretched tighter, to give it a better look.

Based off the year of my covering, it is viable to try and apply a heat gun to the covering, in efforts to create a tighter look and feel? If so, how exactly do I tighten this covering? What's the procedure?

Moreover, with reference to the bungee cords, you are saying each side to be 10mm thick diameter bungee chord by about 5 feet in length, and to achieve 4 laps or turns around each bolt?

Do I have to use a car jack to lift the rear of the plane in the air to allow maximum sag/stretch, and then wrap the bungee chord as tight as I can around the bottom and top bolt on each side, 4 wraps for each bolt?

Thanks again,

Justin
________________________________
From: [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of Steve Rance via groups.io <steve-r@...>
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2021 6:40:42 AM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [XAIR] X Air Hanuman bungee cord rear landing gear and sail cloth

I did own a XairH called Hawk in UK. Very nice aircraft but I considered the main undercarraige to have poor geometry. I measured my old bungee at 1460mm x 10mm over the loops. It needs maximan stretch (4 1/2 turns from memory) on all 4 to avoid aircraft sagging and that can be a struggle. I tried using 12 bungee I had to install longer bolts to accommodate the thicker bungee. Worked OK for a while but the bolts bent under the strain so reverted to original. I found using original bungees they had to be so tight that they were at their limit of elasticity.
I bought the cord from ebay but had to experiment with length to get the best fit.
I tried some years ago a uv treatment for Dacron. I cut 2 new blue samples and pinned them to board, left in sunny position all summer, treated sample No. 1 every month 2nd was untreated but half masked from sun. After 8 months the treated sample had faded same as no. 2.
I was in France years ago and a French flying Instructor told me his Dacron covered planes were all sprayed with polyester paint on exposed surfaces from new and they were left outside all season and appeared in good condition fabric wise. No real answer other than to keep it in hanger when not flying and you could get 10 years use. Some colours are more prone, blues, reds etc. Whites probably better but I have no data.

Steve



On 20 Nov 2021 04:22, Justin Gregoris <jgregoris789@...> wrote:
Good day everyone,

Does anyone have specifications of make and model and size needed for each rear side of the bungee cord landing gear as well as installation instructions they can send me or describe to me please?

Also, what is the make and model of the sailcloth? How many years or hours is it good for and how many hours is it good for in direct exposure to UV sunlight?

Any uv protection sprays I can apply to it, that also clean it? I heard Lucas Slick Mist is a great product?

Your help is greatly appreciated, as always.

Justin

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With regards,    Michael Coates

AU +61 7 5522 0583
USA +1 213 984 1237


PIPISTREL AIRCRAFT DEALER OF THE YEAR 2012
Winner of the EAA August Raspet Award 2012
PIPISTREL AIRCRAFT DEALER OF THE YEAR 2017

mailto:mcoates@...

skype name:   xcomavionics

Please note: because of the volume of e-mail we are now receiving our replies are
done using voice recognition software in an effort to speed up the reply process. 
Sometimes the voice recognition program inserts silly words or doesn't actually
do what it is meant to do.  Occasionally these mistakes get through our quick
proofreading of each e-mail sent, so please accept my apologies if the odd mistake
gets through.

Legal Notice: The information contained in this email is confidential
and intended only to be read by the person(s) to whom it is addressed.
No one is authorized to copy, use, disclose, distribute or rely on this
information for any purpose whatsoever. If this communication has been
sent to you in error, please email the sender and delete the message.

"Amateurs practice till they get it right;
Professionals practice till they can’t get it wrong."

-- 
With regards,    Michael Coates

AU +61 7 5522 0583
USA +1 213 984 1237


PIPISTREL AIRCRAFT DEALER OF THE YEAR 2012
Winner of the EAA August Raspet Award 2012
PIPISTREL AIRCRAFT DEALER OF THE YEAR 2017

mailto:mcoates@...

skype name:   xcomavionics

Please note: because of the volume of e-mail we are now receiving our replies are
done using voice recognition software in an effort to speed up the reply process. 
Sometimes the voice recognition program inserts silly words or doesn't actually
do what it is meant to do.  Occasionally these mistakes get through our quick
proofreading of each e-mail sent, so please accept my apologies if the odd mistake
gets through.

Legal Notice: The information contained in this email is confidential
and intended only to be read by the person(s) to whom it is addressed.
No one is authorized to copy, use, disclose, distribute or rely on this
information for any purpose whatsoever. If this communication has been
sent to you in error, please email the sender and delete the message.

"Amateurs practice till they get it right;
Professionals practice till they can’t get it wrong."