| Name | Mike Borgelt |
| Address | P.O. Box 7474 TOOWOOMBA, MC QLD 4352, AU |
| Airport | |
| Phone | 61 746 355784 |
| (please contact the webmaster to receive the email address of this builder.) | |
| How to contact best | |
| Homepage | www.borgeltinstruments.com |
| Callsign | VH-BDW |
| S/N# | 104 |
| Project Status | flying |
| First Flight | |
| Pilot | |
| Last Update | 2002-11-04 |
| Remarks | My wife, Carol, and I own BD4 #108. VH-BDW. We bought it 5 1/2 years ago with
670 hours on it and have put another 350 on it. The ship came with a 1950lb gross
weight placard which we stick to. It allows me, Carol, 90lbs of baggage and 8 hours
fuel so that's good enough for us. We have the original short wing and get 48 to 50
knots power off in landing
config. Powerplant is a Lycoming O320 with a fixed pitch prop. VH-BDW has a total of 68 US gallons of fuel (260litres- which is the measure we use here of which it is placarded as Useable 250 litres). Last year on our transcontinental trip we flew from Kalgoorlie to Ceduna in 5 hours and 5 minutes and still had 105 litres in the tanks as measured by the calibrated dipstick -enough for another 3 hours. We mostly cruise at 68-69% power. The first time I flew the BD4 it was with the co owner at the time. I wondered what I had got in to. A couple of weeks later I got back in to the thing alone and did about 6 landings and felt a whole lot better about it. Not long after that Carol and I did our first long trip in it with my then 75 year old mother in the back seat and we all had a lot of fun. I've now got about 350 hours in it and feel right at home. Carol has no trouble flying it either - she has 52 hours logged officially and about another 200 actually flying the BD4 and a Nimbus 3DM two seat sailplane. The BD4 sure teaches you about rudder co-ordination. With its light and effective pitch control, heavier ailerons, adverse yaw and not a lot of directional stability the BD4 actually flys very much like most modern composite sailplanes. I improved the handling by re-rigging the ailerons correctly and doing the rudder throw mod with later design bellcrank in the rear fuselage. |
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Images
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After putting on the RV6A nosegear during the engine overhaul.
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Articles
| Using a Van's RV6A nosegear | |
| Fuel cell sumps and drains | Stream lined fuel sumps and drains. |