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PaulJ

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  • Location
    Cape Bridgewater
  • Country
    Australia

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  1. Mate, I have a perfectly good example to sell. It's a reluctant sale as I'd like to keep but can't afford to hanger two planes; the Jabiru and the Tyro. Rotax 503DCDI Great little flyer 10-3654 is at Portland and reasonably priced. Paul
  2. Mine is plan built, not by me though. The difficulty now is that the fuselage spar isno readily available anymore. I visited me Eastwood in 2016 and he had material in stock, however he'd had to buy in bulk for it to be produced. Used aircraft come up in Australia for reasonable prices. The exchange rate is favorable to you guys again.
  3. Howdy Everett, I'm a Tyro MK2 pilot flying under and behind a Rotax 503. An easy to handle aircraft the scarcity of which surprises me. However in a conversation with Mr Eastwood last year he explained that the Tyro was developed in a period when one could not sell ultralight aircraft. People purchased his plans and made minor changes during construction before registering as their own design and build. Therefore there are derivations not registered as Tyros. With the 503 the Tyro is off the ground in a jiffy and gains height at an impressive rate. I fly in a coastal region with some gusty winds which unsettle me at times. Despite my occasional trepidation or regret at having terra firma further from my tyres than I wanted, the Tyro just bounces along. Often when I've cut short a flight due to my discomfort in the conditions I feel compelled to convert my full stop to a touch and go completing several circuts. The Tyro does in fact do as the website says 'handle strong winds' (not exact quote). Fuel; I've 29 litres, would prefer 40 or 50. Visibility excellent. Can take a rough landing, though I did have to replace or straighten a couple of crush plates on the axle a few times when I started out. My poor technique to blame. I'll see if I can get short video up if you want. I recommend these as a great recreational aircraft for those who aren't chasing speed. Though 60 to 65 knots is not to be scoffed. Paul
  4. Tyro mk2. However my belief is that the fan will always trump free air. Cheers
  5. Hi Baron, I've experience with both free air and fan on a 503 and would not go down the free air path again. The primary reason relates to on ground movement where a long transit from hangar to threshold and the start of my take off role caused over heating and costly engine damage when relying on free air. In my case early in my flying hours, the cylinder head bolts snapped and the piston destroyed the cylinder wall at 1500 feet elevation plus 3 miles after take-off. This was enough prompting to make me seek the advice of Eddie the Expert, Gary at Bert Flood Imports. No matter how cleverly I framed my question to trick him into endorsing Free Air, Gary seemed to frame his response the same (and I'm paraphrasing here), "the fan is of part of the 503 for a reason you idiot". Also he seemed to suggest that fuel mix, fresh fuel, good filters, guages, plugs and all else per Rotax operators manual contributed to good safe performance. Strangely, since operating with the fan and factory cowlings, the overheating issue has resolved. If the relatively minor amount of power expended to drive the fan effects your aircrafts overall performance a motor upgrade may be required. Many pilots operate with free air with no problems. Of course there are generally many solutions to engineering problems, however Rotax built in a solution for temperature issues and trying to reinvent the wheel so to speak is a waste of energy which adds to down time and cost; that's my experience. By the way, it took a couple of rebuilds before the message finally sank in. Cheers, Paul
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