Thirsty

Have fun Tim and looking forward to a fly. I highly recommend loxton as well, been there a couple of times, a very friendly mob.

Agreed. We learnt a lot from this and I'd like to share all of that so hopefully he'll be cool with sharing.

Fuel exhaustion. There are extenuating circumstances but I'll check with the guy who was flying it before I blurt it all out on a public forum. I'll see him tomorrow.

Sorry been busy working on it! Damage is not quite as major as fi rst thought. Lh rear wing mounting point in wing was pulled out. Lh flap was damaged but repairable. Various stress marks on the lh wing and at various points on fuse, all repairable. Front windscreen and lh rear window gone, to be replaced. Nose gear is fine but due to the glass mount bolted to the firewall came away and was destroyed. Prop was destroyed. That's about it. We'll be starting the glassing work tomorrow and should have it flying again in a few weeks.

Hey Tim, I agree with your cfi, you'll be right doing it on your own but if you decide you need a pax I could probably arrange something. I'm heading over to Melbourne on the 13th so would need to be back by then.

Agreed, my next aircraft will be a tail dragger methinks.

Aircraft was collected yesterday by the owner. I didn't go in the end 'cause they left Adelaide at 5am and there's no way I'm getting up that early! The damage seems to be limited to a broken windshield, prop and badly bent nose gear. I'll know more once I get up there but that won't be 'til Saturday at this stage. As soon as i get any more info I'll pass it on. I'll also post some pics over the weekend. If I can get the pilot to write a report I'll post that as well.

Cherk, the yellow arc on these aircraft start at 90 knots and that speed is achieved at about 2600 to 2700 rpm. All good in smooth air to run higher than that but in bumpy air ( which is most of the time in my experience) you should stay below the yellow. That's the problem with the lsa.

We'll be collecting the plane on Wednesday so should know more then. The engine was running very, very nicely so yes, it's a pity. More questioning of the pilot leads me to think there isn't as much damage as first thought but time will tell. The trouble with these lsa 55's is that we can only use the prop that jab supply and running any more than about 2700 rpm gives more an 90 knots so we really have to run them slow, no choice.

Yep well aware of this. All of the jabs I fly have been repaired in their lives. We'll see what happens.

We had a tail wind most of the trip and the sister ship 0949 landed back at wentworth with approx 15 liters on board after flying the exact same route. These jabs use about 12 liters per hour and hold slightly more than 60 liters. We run them at quite slow revs due to the 90 knot vma limitation hence the low fuel usage. We'll know more once we get it back and have a good look over it. Don't really want to preempt the post accident inspection just making some guesses based on what we know at the moment.

Yeah they are great little Aircraft. The one that went in was 5678.

Nothing to do with not wanting the story to come out. Here's what happened. The Aircraft in question was being flown from lake mungo to wentworth at 1500 feet agl when the engine stopped for reasons unknown (though based on what the pilot said it sounds like a fuel issue of some sort). The aircraft was put down on a small salt pan and during the landing the aircraft impacted some saltbush which bent the nose gear and flipped the aircraft over. The plot and pax got out with nil injuries. That's all thats known at this stage. Hopefully we'll be able to retrieve the aircraft during the week and I'll post the results of the inspection once we find out what happened.

Wasn't an instructor, he was a pilot who flies with RPA.

Oh yeah, it wasn't mechanical failure based on what the pilot told me. Sounds like fuel exhaustion or some sort of problem related to fuel.

It was one of the lsa55 from rpa. Not sure yet what made the engine stop but it was put down in the scrub and flipped over on landing. Pilot and pax both fine with nil injuries. Aircraft maybe written off. More to come.

In my experience a brand new battery helps jabs start good. We had problems til we fitted a new battery and always start the engine cold with full choke and absolutely no throttle. I hate to think I'm telling you to suck eggs andrew but this worked for us.

What!!!! What happened to the j170 John?

Eric Jabiru don't mind at all if you call. Just ring and ask for someone in the engine area.

TP I think if I asked two people at Jabiru then I'd get two different answers. I use the W100 because I have a good cheap supply of it. If the Multigrade is the way to go (and I'd get confirmation from Jab first) then I'll probably change. I just want to use what's best for my engine.

I agree TP, it's crazy to have different dipsticks out there and we shouldn't have to wind the thing in to check the level. Having said that Jab are not alone, my CBR1100 needs to have it's dipstick wound in to check the level so Honda do that too for some reason.

Hey Bob, is this written down anywhere? I'm asked all the time about this and I am telling people to carry the paper copies 'cause I've not seen it written that we can use electronic versions.

I rang Jabiru about this as well and when I told Mark (who seems quite knowledgeable) in the engine shop that I use W100 he said that's fine. Most others I know who run jabs use the Multigrade and I'll probably switch to it as well at some stage.

Eric ring Jabiru and get the answer to this from the manufacturer. You'll get 20 different answers here as we all have our own understanding of how things should work. I called jabiru when we bought our 160 and was told to keep the level fairly low on the dipstick which you'll find most jab owners on here will do also. The jab manual isn't very helpful in this regard either but it does talk about levels.

I got my TD endo a few months ago on our GR582 Lightwing and I find I am agreeing with David - I probably prefer flying the LW now as opposed to the Jabs I normally fly. There is definately something about the TD that makes the whole thing a lot more fun. BTW - RPA at Murray Bridge have the LW on line at present so any Adelaidians can come get the endo!