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kgwilson

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Everything posted by kgwilson

  1. kgwilson
    I've been using 4 litre plastic oil containers to store 2 stroke whippersnipper & chainsaw petrol for at least 30 years & none have ever leaked or deteriorated. I replace with a new one when they get dirty or I find dirt in the bottom of the container. The only problem is the sidewalls are thin & they will expand if left half full or less in hot weather as the contents evaporate. In Summer I don't keep them absolutely airtight to prevent this happening.
  2. kgwilson
    I thought you would know this as a 912 ULS exponent. To develop the full 100HP cool air is required to feed the carburettors. There is plenty of comment out there in google land. Rotax will not provide any guarantee of 100HP unless their genuine airbox is fitted.
  3. kgwilson
    If you want 100HP then the airbox is required. The exhaust system including muffler is included in the weight of all Jabiru engines as well as the airbox, and Ram air ducts. Air cooled engines don't have radiators, liquid coolant or associated plumbing. Both types have oil cooler radiators & associated plumbing. The point is the quoted weight of a Rotax 912 ULS is a long way short of the finished installed weight compared to that of most air cooled engines.
  4. kgwilson
    When it comes to weight of an engine quoted figures never seem to be the installed weight. The Rotax 912 ULS is quoted at 56.6 KG. But you have to add the exhaust system, water pump, oil cooler, oil tank, radiator, pipework, liquid coolant and airbox (if you want to get 100HP) which takes the total to over 90KG. Air cooled engines usually have the exhaust sytem included and don't have all the additional things required for liquid cooling.
  5. kgwilson
    Jabiru doesn't make many of its own parts other than what Ian Bent (Camit) used to make with the CNC gear he had which jabiru bought when Ian went in to receivership. Like most manufacturers these days they purchase components to their specification from specialist suppliers around the world. A lot of these are in China of course. A friend ordered a new 3300A engine after his old one suffered a major prop strike as it was cheaper than a strip & repair & also 2 generations newer. The problem was none were available for several months last year as quite a few components were in short supply after nothing was made for ages during Covid. Eventually things started trickling in again and the last major component was the crankshaft & he finally got the new engine about 6 months after the order. The days of Holden, Honda and Kubota parts etc are long gone. Jabiru has produced close to 8,000 engines to date split fairly evenly between the 4 & 6 cylinder versions.
  6. kgwilson
    The thing is that you are talking chalk & cheese here. Car engines are heavy & rarely run at high RPM and if something stops you pull over & ring NRMA. New innovations get thousands if not millions of hours testing before they are unleashed in to production models. The scale of production is thousands of times greater than for aero engines. And guess what there are still problems. We constantly hear of recalls due to a fault showing up. Start using them in a racing environment & reliability goes through the floor. Aircraft reciprocating piston engines are built light for a good reason, so the aircraft can get off the ground. They have another dimension to deal with depleting air density often with very large temperature variations very quickly. They are run at full power not long after startup every time and then at around 75% of power for most of the time.
  7. kgwilson
    I think it is theoretically possible, but there are so many parts that would require complete replacement and the cost of restoration would far outweigh the value of the finished product, plus there is that niggling thought that something was missed and continues to corrode.
  8. kgwilson
    Thet were originally built as Hang Glider tugs as far as I know. Try contacting the HGFA as they may know of oeners/locations.
  9. kgwilson
    EFI in motor vehicles is very reliable these days & almost universal & presumably why it is now in many modern piston aircraft. Aircraft engine development and innovation has always been at the extreme end of the conservative spectrum with some very sound logic. If it works & it ain't broke, don't fix it till something else turns up that is better but more importantly, as or more reliable.
  10. kgwilson
    I reckon the perfect landing is when you are fully stalled when the wheels grease the ground. You don't want the aircraft to keep flying. You will still have rudder authority until steering/ differential braking takes over.
  11. kgwilson
    You were a lot fussier than me. I didn't undercoat internal surfaces & was not prepared to use Alodine which is extremely toxic, but I did use an etch primer on both surfaces where there was metal to metal contact once all the rivet holes had been drilled & the clecos removed.
  12. kgwilson
    20-30 feet was my estimation of height when the yoke was pulled right back. That was when the left wheel was about equal with the horizon. On closer inspection I reckon about 18-20 feet. Anyway it worked out that on touchdown with the sea she had the least amount of forward speed and descent rate. Faster and it may have nosed over. Slower and with increased vertical speed the wheels would likely have dug in more quickly and may have also nosed over. Even the ABC couldn't help themselves with a witness statement. "When it nosedived, that's when I started screaming". When was that? Once the wheels were in the water stopping most forward momentum, the tail came up & settled down in less than 1/2 a second.
  13. kgwilson
    With only one door on the RH side of a PA28 you need to get your passenger to unlock the top latch as you can't concentrate on the landing approach & do this as well. Then unlatch the main door lock. There was little swell so that was a bonus but landing along the swell line is the recommended and best way. Fully stalled from about 20-30 feet, the prop stopped windmilling & a perfect ditching was executed. This should be incorporated into a ditching training video. Hats off to you Michelle Yeates.
  14. kgwilson
    Crikey Jabiru 230 prices have increased a lot since I last looked. That was when they were around 120K.
  15. kgwilson
    There is no doubt that the 916 will be far more fuel efficient and use ULP. While Rotax quality is very high the real issue is the exhorbitant cost of everything Rotax makes.
  16. kgwilson
    The Lycoming is a bit heavier at 268 lbs compared to the Rotax at 190 lbs but that doesn't include the oil tank, radiator, hoses or liquid coolant. TBO is 2000 hours for the io-320 A,B,D,E & F models & 1800 for the C model. Of course the Lycoming is 5.42 litres whereas the Rotax is 1.35 litres in cubic capacity.
  17. kgwilson
    When I decided to build an aircraft back in 2010 I tossed up between experimental GA & RA. RA won on simplicity, self declaration of medicals, overall and on-going cost. I have now let my Class 2 medical lapse & technically can no longer fly in to or land at controlled airports. I still do with the approval of the controller. I used to fly 1970s Piper Archers & Cessnas. I now fly my own bulid 2015 modern aircraft that is cheaper to operate, has better performance but only has 2 seats. The number of times all 4 seats of the Archer were filled way back when I can count on my hands. Getting back to Bankstown, it seems to me most new pilots, even those with an Aviation career in mind start with a RA pilot certificate so the amount of ab initio training in GA is noweher near what it used to be.
  18. kgwilson
    The price of a new 916is is $US49,500.00, thats $AU73,832.00 at todays conversion rate. I can't see too many being installed here. The buy price today (AUD or USD) is around $75,000.00, then there is freight & duties. Then it has to be installed. I reckon the final cost would be about $90,000.00, not that far short of a brand new base level Jabiru 230.
  19. kgwilson
    I was driving and heard the interview with the pilot on the radio yesterday. When he said the trim pushed me nose first in to the ground (or words to that effect). I said out loud "absolute BS". He has made up a story to make it all seem plausible. There is no way in the world that the trim in a recreational aircraft is ever able to overpower a pilots input. The original report is pretty right. Flying low to the ground doing a beat up of the film set & hit the power lines. It is that simple.
  20. kgwilson
    The black ones are the only sort to buy. They have a conductive carbon pigment in the plastic so they are not susceptible to static electricity. Details attached. MR FUNNEL AUSTRALIA SAFETY INFO FLYER.pdf
  21. kgwilson
    As far as I know it only happens for single seat BFRs.
  22. kgwilson
    A good reminder why you should make sure there is nothing that can interefere with controls even what you are wearing. Of course he was way too low with no chance of recovery if something went wrong as it did.
  23. kgwilson
    There is no such thing as a Justice System, there is only a Legal System.
  24. kgwilson
    The suction cup is fine so long as there is not much if any curvature of the acrylic surface and the acrylic has no scratches on the mounting location. The cup must be kept very clean but never moistened. Mine has never fallen off.
  25. kgwilson
    It isn't meaningless to me. I don't care about range so long as I can see anything in my vicinity and whether we are likely to be in conflict.
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