bstrachan

It scares me to death to think about all the airliners flying around with Ipads in the cockpit. Those things are not meant for aviation applications. "junk" is a word that comes to mind.

Rotax builds a fine engine, no doubt about that, but in my personal opinion, their documentation and support sucks. I guess you can't have everything.

Recently my buddy Rex noticed oil pressure fluctuations on his brand new Rotax 912ULS. He has the Grand Rapids Technology EIS and the housing of the oil pressure sender on his new engine is physically different than the VDO I have. However the pipe thread that goes into Rex's oil pump LOOKS the same as mine.... today is the first I'd heard that Rotax had changed this pipe thread. I'm not sure I believe this, in fact. Whatever, I removed the "new style" sender from Rex's brand new 912 and screwed in a small mechanical gauge which is 1/8-27 NPT. Went right in, didn't leak. Also the VDO sender (P/N 360-004) is 1/8-27 NPT, says so right on the package. (I keep a spare on hand, I've had to replace a couple of these already. If you mounted the sender remotely as the instructions tell you to do, rather than screwing it into the oil pump the way Rotax does, the sender might last longer.) Long story short, I attach a photo of the 360-004 sender and the 1/8-27 NPT mechanical gauge screwed into a 1/8-27 NPT tee fitting. Note that this is the exact same mechanical gauge that was temporarily installed in the new 912ULS, and the VDO sender is an exact replacement for the one in my 2006 912ULS. From all the above, I conclude the female thread on the Rotax 912 oil pump, old (my 2006) or new, is 1/8-27 NPT. Take it for what it's worth. BTW, VDO is very adamant that the 360-004 IS NOT FOR AIRCRAFT APPLICATIONS. Good old Rotax.

I took a puddlejumper from Perth to Bunbury about 30 years ago... the Bunbury airport was pretty primitive back then... looks like progress has come to Bunbury ;-)

If your cooling system is working fine and the old cap is holding pressure, why change it? You probably know, the reason for pressurizing the cooling system is to raise the boiling point of the coolant. Take a look at this article Things you should know about coolant | hellafunctional As long as you have the correct mixture of "antifreeze" and water your .9 BAR cap should be fine. So why did Rotax recommend the change? You'd have to ask Rotax. Good luck in getting any info out of them. "If it aint broke don't fix it"

My A&P told me to make sure the vertical card compass was shock mounted as vibration will destroy them. I used some soft rubber washers to isolate the mounting bracket.... it's been in there for years, no problems. You will love the VCC, it is so much nicer than the old whisky compasses.

I have the GRT 2000 EIS in my StingSport.... works great, and although I love round gauges I have to say the GRT EIS is a much better approach. It scares me to think how many people are flying around with Ipads. They are not intended for aviation use and as this post attests, they are prone to crap out at the worst possible moment. If you want a really nice GPS, investigate the Ifly 740 from AdventurePilot. Brilliant bright display, easy to use, well supported, does everything but make you a cup of coffee.

I had this issue, drove me nuts. Turned out in my case, the mic was overdriving the transmitter input. Some radios have a MIC GAIN control which is usually a screwdriver adjust potentiometer that you can access after pulling the radio out of the panel. My Icom radio has an AGC (automatic gain control) on the mic input so no joy there. I finally found the mic on my headset had a tiny gain adjust screw under the muff on the mic where you couldn't see it. I turned the gain on that all the way down and that fixed it. Later on, I replaced the ANR headset that came with the airplane with a David Clark passive headset..... wouldn't fly without it. Good luck with your problem!

I'd be glad to post in the "welcome pilots just landed" forum if I knew how to find it Barrie Strachan USA