A Welcome News Blog – Aeromarine-LSA

I just returned from another road trip. First 14 hours Tampa to Dayton to pick up a Merlin to transport to our Alabama build center, then 14 hours Dayton to Alabama, then, after a few days, 8 hours to Tampa. And Builder Don drove 9 hours each way from NC to AL so we could work together on the Merlin builds.

We have been upgrading the Merlin wing fuel tanks to accommodate the new internal fuel pumps. This is the best solution by far. But it also required modified wiring harnesses and new fuel circuit boards and programming. We finished the mods on one Merlin, but the weather has been terrible due to the tropical storm stuck in the gulf. That cleared up enough and Paul reports that the first flights this morning were great!

Don has been busting butt getting wiring harnesses redesigned and fabricated. Paul and his crew have been pulling fuel tanks and making the retrofit. My work has been making sure all the avionics, fuel pumps, and any missing components are getting stocked up. Now we finally know what exactly our builders and aircraft in our build program need so I can get on with fulfillment. I will be working with each customer to confirm what is needed and how to sort the fuel system upgrades. And the builds in our assembly shop are going very fast. We will get a lot of Merlins flying in the next few months. Finally! I have already stated my underestimate of the new engine development, but it will be well worth the wait I trust. The Vtwin performs at least as good as the HKS. Paul was very impressed with his first Vtwin flights this morning and the flawless running of the Vtwin. Paul and his crew will be flying dozens of hours on several Merlin’s soon.

Plenty of Merlin’s getting finished!

Builder Don taking a LOT of his build time off to complete the Merlin avionics. His Merlin is nearly ready to fly.

I started to write a manual for the fuel tank upgrade. After making a few of the upgrades we decided that it will be a challenge for most builders to complete this work successfully. The best solution is for us to make this action in our build center. We have already done a few. We have the proper fuel tank sealants, and we can pressure check for leaks. As it is best to remove the tanks for the upgrade, we suggest drilling out the rivets and sending us your tanks. We then return them ready to rivet back in. I will prepare instructions.

This is what an Airworthiness Certificate looks like in Saudi Arabia. It is the first one. Not just for the Merlin, but for any E-AB aircraft. Congrats to Muneer and his first flights and making history in Saudi Arabia!

Here is a photo of the inventory sorted per aircraft customer.

Quick hits:

The TrueLite kits ship soon. But our Dayton build moves to Alabama due to winter.
The electric motor has arrived and is being installed to the Merlin Lite. I will fly to CZ to flight test it next month.
I will inspect a couple Merlin’s now nearly ready to ship along with the Merlin Lites just prior to Christmas then order the container for January shipment. I am tempted to offer only electric power on the Merlion Lites. What say you?

And for your viewing pleasure, moving the Merlin amphib out of the New Carlisle hangar in Dayton. Winding down operations there and at South Lakeland as our work now centers in Alabama. We will still have the R&D shop in Dayton as our military work continues. That work supports our aviation habits as well as the war on terror.

CHEERS

CHIP