Well our school's new Jabiru 170D is finally in the hangar - after a wait of several months for the 'D' series to be certified..
4 of us made the trip to Bundy this week to collect her. We took the J160 up and left it with Jabiru for its 1000 hour top overhaul. (It has done brilliant service, with no issues at all in its 992 hours and 3,472 landings.) We also took up one of our J230s for company.
Picked up the 170 on Thursday and a quick (5.5 hours) trip back to Bathurst, with no fuel stops. Averaged 102 knots and 15 litres per hour, with some bursts at full throttle.
Photo (attached) shows the main changes - a 230-sized front cowling (4 cyl motor set well forward to assist CofG, and no big ventral fin (the best feature of the D model). Not so obvious is the much fatter tail fin - assists with directional stability.
It is brilliant to fly; doesn't drop the tail when fully loaded and landing is so much easier that the 160; just round out, pull the throttle back to idle and it just settles; no heavy thunks onto the strip, even with inexperienced pilots. On Friday we put 3 low hours students in it for circuits, with a stiff x-wind - and they all loved it.