Light Sport Aircraft survey

Jim,
I appreciate your comments. Obviously, we think the airplane is a
winner or we would have bought a different one. Would you mind
expanding on your comment a bit? I don't have any experience with the
Jabaru but I have flown a lot of airplanes with the 4-stroke, Rotax.
In one form, it is a FAR33 certified engine. I hear people make
comments like yours and I wonder what the reasoning is behind it. I
have found the 912 to be a good engine.

What engine would you prefer? We could put a O-200-LS in the airplane
but it would cost about $6,000.00 more and your useful load would drop
to 460 pounds. Fuel consumption would go up about a gallon per hour.
In 1600 hours of personal flying, the only in-flight engine failure I
ever experienced was on a Continental engine.

Regards,

Rick Pellicciotti
Belle Aire Aviation
LightSportFlying.com

"rpellicciotti" wrote in message

Jim,
I appreciate your comments. Obviously, we think the airplane is a
winner or we would have bought a different one. Would you mind
expanding on your comment a bit?

See my post, and the other posts from other people. They all raise (or
most, anyway) some good points.

As far as the 6 thousand, I could live with that. The useful load is a
problem, but that is tolerable, too.
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:
"rpellicciotti" wrote in message


Jim,
I appreciate your comments. Obviously, we think the airplane is a
winner or we would have bought a different one. Would you mind
expanding on your comment a bit?


See my post, and the other posts from other people. They all raise (or
most, anyway) some good points.

Actually, those points that have been raised are not so good, because
they don't jive well with what we're seeing out in the field with these
motors.

The Jabiru in particular is actually working out _very_ well locally,
which is a kind of nice surprise. We have a few of these flying in our
area and the results are actually very good. A friend of mine is using
one on his 2-place kolb and it may actually outlive the airframe itself
I think the motor is now at 400 hours or something in that region and
it continues to give the owner very low maintenance service.

I personally don't like the 3300 typical rpm and thus the teensy prop,
but I can't argue with the performance of that plane, even in climb.

The 912, well, its record is even longer and it's also known as a very
reliable and long-lasting motor (there's even a certificated version,
the 912S I think it is).

As far as the 6 thousand, I could live with that. The useful load is a
problem, but that is tolerable, too.

The continental and lycomings are good motors, but needlessly expensive
and heavy choices for light a/c with the 912 and now the Jabiru as
reliable options. That's why we're starting to see these motors used on
an increasing basis........

LS
N646F