madhatter

The 1675 is the factory recommended weight. The J430 has been around for a long time.

Going ELSA voids the liability for Jabiru which I am willing to do. I guess the answer will come soon as the rule will be finalized next month. I think the 230D is a great aircraft but at this time the LSA payload is one of the worst of all LSA aircraft. With two 175 lb people you can only have 14 gal fuel and nothing else.

The 230D has a design weight of 1675 lbs. but is limited to 1320 to meet LSA requirements. If a 230D is built as a kit the owner has the option for 1320 or 1675. The 230D was built as a 4 seater (J430) but restricted to 2 seats to fit LSA.

One of the reasons I bought the 230D is I was told by the distributor that when MOSAIC was completed it was his information that the gross weight would be allowed to increase. I hope this will be the case as my empty weight is 883 lbs. To be legal at this time my fuel load must be minimal. If Jabiru doesn’t do this , then I feel that Jabiru will not survive in the US. MOSAIC allows the manufacturer to make this decision for LSA and ELSA. If Jabiru does not do this then that tells me that Jabiru does not support their past sales and there will be no trust in future sales. Just requiring a new purchase for the weight increase will not do it. Also the added issue of the crankshaft problem does not help. I hope this is not the case. I have asked Jabiru au but received no response. Just my opinion.

Empty weight of 230D is more like 380 kg

I will purchase a new engine and install it myself. It could take up to 2 years to get my crankshaft changed as I have less than 50 hrs since new. A lot can change in 2 years and I need to get this done. I will sell the engine once it's done. I am disappointed in the fact that I just bought a new engine and now have this issue. Jabiru is a small company and this issue will be very expensive for them so I understand.

All I am looking for is to get the crankshaft installed correctly by competent individuals. I spent $28,000 on a new engine installed by the Jabiru distributor when the aircraft was purchased. There was a serious installation issue found after I received the aircraft which I corrected. I've been in this industry for a long time and people make mistakes, we all do. My only disappointment is that with the low total time they would not exchange the engine. Other than that I am ok.

My opinion on the Jabiru engine is that it is a very well designed engine. Most new engines require a lot of time to perfect them, no one is immune from it. Continental had many years of problems with the IO520, Lycoming took about 20 to 25 years to perfect the LTS 101 turbine, I was there in the beginning and saw many test cell failures, many were catastrophic, one on my watch. Rotax and Continental both had crankshaft issues recently. Jabiru uses some existing automotive parts wth great success. I don't think they are going cheap, just smart.

They cover everything except transportation. I suppose since they are not as large as other primary engine companies they don't have the resources to exchange engines. However I would think it to be more economical to exchange low time new engines. It would be more economical if sending engines to those who could do their own installations.

Jabiru will install the crankshaft but this takes time. This is at the distributors shop. I would rather get an exchange engine and not have to deal with any possible rebuild issues later. I had a significant issue with the current engine when they installed it.

I recently purchased a gen 4 3300 however it now requires a new crankshaft. The engine only has 37 hours total time. I requested an exchange engine but was turned down so it will be torn down to correct the issue, very disappointed in Jabiru over this. I will incur a lot of expense and down time because of this, if this was Lycoming, Continental, or Rotax it would be exchanged. I can install it myself, I've been maintaining aircraft for 52 years. Even with this I am impressed with the 230D aircraft. On another subject: I believe the new E-PROPS propeller being developed would be a game changer on a Jabiru. I was able to perform an analysis on Flight Design with an E-PROPS propeller which resulted in it being approved for all FD aircraft in the US. The performance increase is substantial for cruise speed, rate of climb, vibration, etc. The other important aspect is it has a very low moment of inertia which is less than half of that on the fiberglass prop for the 230D. This significantly reduces the gyroscopic forces on the crankshaft. The E-PROPS propeller and spinner only weighs about 5 lbs. If Jabiru doesn’t approve the use of it within a reasonable time I will convert to experimental and document the analysis like I did with Flight Design.