Modest Pilot

I would check the wheel alignment. It's not particully easy as it varies with load and rebound etc. It seems best to bias towards toe-out if in doubt, several reports say that the aircraft is a bit squrrelly with toe-in. On the 200 series check the forward aft bias, the four seater wheels are shimmed about 60mm further rear than the 2 seaters. Forward seems to be better with the two seaters tending to a more forward CG. (most of the time) Thought long and hard about toe brakes, There's not much room to work in and you lose legroom. To be honest I don't use the brakes much above 20kn, I fitted Trelleborgs all round, mainly for burr resistance, landing with a flat tire might be not be much fun on a runway. Still doesn't solve things if you hit a soft patch on one side during T/O landing. (Lots of sandy runways in S E QLD) "Oh and don't forget to keep flying the aircraft right down to taxi speed!"

Was at the Jab factory a couple of weeks ago talking about this and that with Rod. He pointed out that to get meaningful figures when comparing similar engines you need to get a Manifold Pressure guage. And yes it's O K in an L S A model!

We use a piece of 3/8" steel about 2" wide by 4" long with a lip on one end. A 5/8" hole is drilled close to one end. The hole is used to bolt the metal to a cheap trolley jack. This is used under the end of the u/c leg; the flange stops it slipping off! The trick is to bore the hole so the jack just clears the wheel, other wise the jack tips up. Still works O K if you get it to far out but it's a nuisance if you are trying to use it by yourself.

A word of warning, the Sensenich W64ZK51G is designed around the U S A's L S A speed limit of 120 knots (it's a bit fine for the J230D I use 56" but a 53" is available). Jabiru sell a range of Sensenich wooden props with pitches more suited to Aust. ops at a very reasonable price. They will L S A approve them on all but the J160.

The higher 230 wings aspect ratio is probably more efficient. The 250 has a lower stall speed. The 230’s ailerons are not as effective. We recently flew a 230 and a 250 from Gympie to Atherton and back. The 250 gets off the ground a little faster. Climb rate about the same. The 250 needs a least 100 more RPM to keep up with the 230 in cruise and burns around 2 litres an hour at this setting. The higher you get the more this difference becomes apparent. Coming home we flew the Ayr-Gympie sector (523nm via the inland route), at the same fuel flow and the 230 came in 18 minutes faster.

Keep the prop horizontal not vertical when not in use. Stops moisture build up in one blade. Cover doesn’t hurt outside probably over kill in the hanger. Read the bursts on the Sensenich prop site.

I have 3.5mm plug input for my MP3/CD on my XCOM. Its via the headset plug on the MP3. A cheap portable mini FM radio sounds better through the input socket than the radios own speaker. Handy for local and boating weather.

Flew over Hedlow 3 weeks back looked like gliding was still in progress.

First the rubber leading edge showed a very thin flakey layered look then a section about 25mm flew off in light rain. The prop man that repaired it (Licenced Guy) noted that the pitch varied 1-2 deg. on the same radius side to side. It required 35 gram on the spinner to balance (dynamic); may have been the repair. Interestly the prop pitch check varied with use, the guy figured the wood was to soft and the blades to thin at the ends. I might add it is LSA and this was the third prop fitted before Jabiru were satisfied it was acceptable.

I go along with most of what Brentc says in his early post. However not the comments on the Sensinich Prop. It's better balanced and less flexable than original Jab wooden one. I thought the rubber leading edge on the Jab prop might be better; sadly this is not the case; it's hopeless in even light rain, I speak from bitter experience, also for some reason they get a lot of stone damage on the back of the prop. The Sensinich seems to tolerate moderate rain (2200rpm)

Seems high for 90 hours. Both my engines with around 100 hours burn 22ml-25ml per hour. Maybe your engine failed to break in and will need a re-hone and another break in. The other thing is that a number of engines had oversized flanges on the barrel nuts that tends to distort the barrels. If just one of the plugs is oiled this could be the problem. My 2200 goes best with the oil on the bottom of the dipstick. The 3300 seems O K at the half mark. I wouldn't start a long flight on the bottom mark, you just have to accept it's going to chuck oil into the bottle.

Or next time you could get an X-Com radio. The price is about the same and the VOX interphone seems to work much better. Any old Mp3 or CD seems O K, instant cutoff if the radio receives a transmission, pilot isolate and inter com off swt etc. It's transmit power is also slightly higher. Not against Microair; I have two; the X-Com just works better.

The floats on our J230D's are attached to the wing guages. eg: within 4 inches. But check yours as Jabs are always being upgraded/changed. I don't think you can trust dip sticks much on the J230s. Even 1/2 deg lateral makes a difference and fore and aft level has an effect. Maybe if you carried a laser level it would be O K.

Differential brakes on my J230 would be nice, I believe Jabiru have had a look at it but it's all to hard. Any ideas? Having landed with a flat main ( western burrs) it's possible to stay on the strip but diff brakes would have been nice; probably safer to find a grass field. In the meantime I've gone for 10 ply tyres.

You may be able to get a tyre shop that does Go Kart tyres to balance them. The local Cooper dealer can do it, strangly the only small wheels I saw there were off Ride On mowers. Watch out for racing lawn mowers in Cooroy!!!:big_grin::big_grin:

From memory this procedure came in with demise of 87 oct Avgas. The engines didn't take kindly to 100 LL. and this helped with lead plug fouling.(it actually has quite a lot of lead) Seems that it was the start of lots of new problems for the engine; (some may have been design features remember the 0-320 HAD!); fouled plugs, sticky valves etc., at least they fixed the the front crankshaft seals; what a mess that used to make.

These fastners are O K but can easily come out if any corrosion present on the screws. Hint: Use dry lube and SS M4 screws. Carry a tube of Super Glue and a few spares.

I would use Champion anti-seize sold by Aircraft Spruce. It's T S O'd and has a history going back many years. The gasket is probably more important for plug heat than heat sink paste. Don't reuse, consider anealed copper washers; available in various thickness from Champion USA. The thread should not protrude into the combustion chamber, and with plug ring type thermo couples (CHT probes) gaskets of the right thickness should be used to set the plugs.

My 3300 burns 22ml per hour, compression tests 80/74 cold. Gympie-Narromine-Ballarat 7hr 50min oil goes from half full to low mark. (done the trip twice) Anything over half full and it starts chucking it out into the bottle. If you are burning more than 50ml an hour I'd check the compression. A J230 went thru Gympie recently it was burning 80ml an hour on a new engine, turned out that a barrel bolt was pinching a cylinder, easy fix.

Out of Bundy you have the option of crossing the ranges near Gayndah then just west of Dalby to Moree and on to Narromine. If the weather is good Bundy, Gympie, Watts Bridge, Gatton, Moree is more scenic. Pit stop at Moree (fuel, BP card or agent 20 min callout) after about 3 hours then a less then a couple of hours and overnight at the Caravan Park cabins at the airport at Narromine. ($55 clean Air/Con, fuel at Aero Club cash or credit card) Direct Mangalore about 3 hours. Going over or close to Moree keeps clear of the hills.

Sonex 19.4657 Gympie QLD.

Anyone know if you can get someone in Australia to mold a new Sonex canopy. The orginals are to brittle and crack in time. The new one's have 25% more plastizer and are reasonably priced but freight works out at around $1000. 1 or 10 the freights about the same. We need 2 in S E QLD so if anybody else is interested it may a worthwhile importing. RSVP

If you fit an Aerocarb I suggest that you encase the throttle cable in tubing as it feels soggy and the carb has a tendancy to jam at idle. If this happens you have two options; Stop the engine reposition the throttle and restart; use 2000rpm on approach with full flap if the throttle jams go back to T/O flap and you should make the touchdown point OK. Use lubriplate grease on he slide on your annuals; better still use the Sonex Lever Throttle that pulls rather than pushs to open! Don't even think of an Aerocarb without an EGT gauge.

Can't see it, the first thing to go would be the 12% wing chord, and 10-15kn of cruise speed. I love my Sonex but an hour under the bubble it the Aust. summer more than enough! For X-country work the high wing J230 wins everytime.

Broadly, in turbulance the faster the TAS the rougher it feels and the lighter the wing loading the worse it feels. As the 45 Kn stall limit applies flaps down in Australia it might be possible to have a high loaded wing flaps up with large triple slotted fowler type flaps to meet the stall limit. Don't hold your breath waiting for an aircraft from Europe or the USA; their stall limit is flaps up!