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Project Karatoo and hello from Brisbane


justinjsinclair

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Hello, Justin from Brisbane here. I have purchased a broken Karatoo and will spend the next few (5-10) years getting her back in the air.

 

It had a bit of a oops in Tara and will require a fair bit of love and attention to get her airworthy. My good mate Ed and I will spend many an evening in the shed tinkering away.

 

It came with a 12 hour old 2300cc VW and Bolly reduction drive. It’s got overhauled bendix mag, carb, twin plug heads and new alloy case, I am not sure if we will use it yet, certainly it will do to keep costs down but I care about reliability more than anything else.

 

The aim will be a minimum cost build with minimal instruments, only a compass, ASI, Alt and engine instruments. A WAC chart will do for navigation ?

 

I can’t find a Karatoo build topic on here so I guess this will have to do.

 

I am putting stuff up on YouTube for people to see what we are up to, it’s on the link below. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/justinjsinclairspacer.png

 

have a great day 

 

Justin

 

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5C9D9CF5-F962-4666-AF52-DDBD28C2999A.thumb.jpeg.6641b5928ce5b8e78d5653618c216c7f.jpeg

 

 

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G'Day Justin, the vid is posted but I don't guarantee that it will be accessible (not a highly able tech head). The plane is lovely but originally had a Subaru EA81. It was too heavy and so we changed to a VW. Have had good results in my VP2 but ran out of enthusiasm so Karatoo is not operational. Lovely to fly when we put 20 hrs on it 15 yrs ago. It was an original plans built A model not the C that you have.

 

PS. It plays through something called TWINUI on my desktop. AVI file (27.3 MB)

 

 

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Hi Don, I could watch it on the PC so it must be a anti apple thing. I noted that it was direct drive, this one has the reduction drive so maybe a few more HP for takeoff. It looks like it had longer legs as well. I like the shaking video, I shake like crap around running props too ???

 

where is your Karatoo now ?

 

 

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Hi Don, I could watch it on the PC so it must be a anti apple thing. I noted that it was direct drive, this one has the reduction drive so maybe a few more HP for takeoff. It looks like it had longer legs as well. I like the shaking video, I shake like crap around running props too ???

where is your Karatoo now ?

Worked fine on my Mac

 

 

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G'day Justin, our J6 is in a shed at our strip with the wings off. I would like to find a keen enthusiast like you to take it on as a project. I'm old enough to enjoy the flying I do but don't have the time at present to re-engine it and sort it out. We built the wings with a full D-box and have a 20l tank in each wing. The cabin has much more room than the Kitfox or Avid Flyer.

 

 

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Hi Don, 

 

athat’s always the issue, trying to find someone who will finish or love it. ? all of the people who have the passion haven’t the money or the time. Every second forum writer will tell you they want it for $250 but when it comes time to cough up and pick it up they wont show, I have a mate who is just like that, he is as poor as a church mouse and couldn’t afford the gas to pick it up let alone re-engine it. 

 

I didn’t pay Gary much for the wreck but it won’t cost much get it flying in $$$ but I think there will over 1000 hours or work in getting it back in the air. That’s why we will stick with the VW at the moment as $8000 for a Rotax is a lot of money. That pays for lots of gliding for me. This is my other baby 

 

5FE5CA9E-BDAC-4CBC-977F-80419CAA0C32.thumb.jpeg.850c95f49bf51fe4bfdc690250ecea56.jpeg

 

 

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$8000 fr a Rotax?.....where can I get one ?

 

Sorry Just being facicious ...I just picked one up for a rebuild for a new one I am going to build. Just remember when you do pick up a used engine that is not out of hours you need to make sure the gearbox is serviced . This one I just picked up yesterday has clocked 2000 hrs..the gearbox was overhauled at 1000 hrs..so during this rebuild with a big bore jit also the gearbox needs to be done as well. Some people forget about that

 

 

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G'day Justin, Is that a Hornet? Nice looking ride whatever. I had a Volksplane VP-2 for 11 yrs. I ended up with a 2l Aeropower which I EFI'ed with original VW Bosch Jetronic hardware scavenged from a 1600 TS and a Haltech ECU. It never let me down over 550hrs. It would climb out at 3600rpm and then cruise at 3100. Don

 

 

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It’s a SZD55 which is the modern version of the Polish built Jantar, Hornets are hard to find now. A bunch of new guys started a comp down at Leeton called F1.0 it’s a handicapped HP race format aimed at older gliders. It’s very popular so all the older gliders are snapped up. Modern gliding is very different now, most have double GPS, moving map with airspace, ADSB, ect ect. Say mate of mine has done Kingaroy to Benalla in a day. Most days the minimum speed is 100kph with the guns doing 140kph. Down south they go faster and further due longer hotter days, but we still can do 3-500 in winter in Qld.

 

This is my panel

 

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