Ian West

I am thinking about buying an Avid Flyer built in the early 1990's with a Jabiru 2200, 80hp. Should I have concerns about getting parts for it in the future or anything else. It seems to be a good plane in good condition.

Hi Mikkie - Westy here.I have an early 2200cc Jabiru engine ( generation 1 with solid lifters) - this has been a great engine and has never given me an ounce of trouble. Like Richard I change out the filters, oil and plugs at the appropriate intervals. Engine parts are available through Jabiru if needed.

 

I have my Jab on the market as I haven't the time to fly these days - if interested see For Sale on the Jabiru site. Registration 55-3261

 

Regards

 

Westy-3261

 

 

Good day all, I recently had an incident which resulted in an engine out on a Rotax 912. The cause was a possible blockage on one of the in-line filters feeding the left-hand carb.Can anyone give me good advice on good quality gauze type filters to use? Seems the local AMO used the normal automotive type plastic filter (paper elements) which might have proved to be faulty. I fly an average of 80 hours per month and need the most reliable filter system available. Fuel is filtered through a Racor system when re-fueling. Look forward to hearing from you folks.

Hi Bush PioletAn inline glass filter that allows sediment and water to settle out and can be easily taken off and emptied out if necessary are the best. These of course must be located in an easily assessable place.

 

The real issue is the quality of fuel being put in the tank.

 

I have two plastic Gerry can containers that are not used for any other purpose - all fuel from these go through a Mister Funnel which removes all sediment and water - this allows for clean fuel going into the tank.

 

If purchasing a second hand aircraft my first job would be to drain and clean the fuel tank or tanks, change fuel filters and start the a fuel practise similar to what's stated above.

 

Good flying

 

Westy-3261

 

 

Seems to me the two big contenders for LSA are the Rotax 912 and the Jabiru 2200. What are peoples thoughts on the two? My own thoughts are these:Rotax 912 seems to have a great reputation for reliability and have quite a few years up their sleeves for fine tuning the design. Jabiru have had some hiccups not long ago but hopefully reliability issues ironed out .

Gear drive apparently adds quite a bit to the cost of the Rotax 912 and I suppose means more parts to wear out. Direct drive on the Jabiru might mean higher fuel consumption inherent in slow-revving design?

 

Again with simplicity the Rotax seems to have more parts associated with oil and water cooling. But then that seems to me the partial water cooling would reduce the amount of shock cooling on long descents.

 

Jabiru I imagine should be a fair bit cheaper, being of local manufacture. And it would certainly be nice to buy local.

 

I think if all things were equal I would prefer a direct drive engine, but of course all things aren't equal. Cost, reliability, simplicity. Different amounts of each in those two motors.

 

Discuss!

Hi allI have always been a fan of slower revving engines - less wear at 2800 RPM than at 5500RPM and do like a direct drive as stated there are less moving parts and of course the weight consideration. I have a Jabiru early LSA that has the generation 1 engine which has never given me any trouble or cause for concern. This engine has the solid lifters and there has never been any through bolt issues with this generation 1 type. I am not sure whether the later 2.2 engines had a higher compression rate that might have been causing the older sized through bolts breaking. Any way I have had over 500 hours of trouble free operation on this engine.

 

Regards

 

Westy - 3261

 

 

This was me. It happened yesterday. I’ve often seen these type of reports and wondered what lay behind the hype and the sensation. I’ve tried to keep and open mind but now I I think I better understand the forces at play.My incident was all over the media, especially here in The Territory. My wife and I were described as an ‘elderly couple’ who had astonishing luck to survive after undefined engine problems... Yep, we were called ‘survivors’ of a crash, with the image of our inverted plane all over the media.

I couldn’t really explain to my non-flying colleagues at work, but I want to run over what happened and how I feel about it here, in the hope that somebody will either learn from it or perhaps relate to how deflated I’m feeling. My wife is just plain cranky at being described as being aged ‘in her fifties’ by the media, a complete fallacy. .

 

Here’s what happened.

 

We were flying back from Crab Claw to Batchelor at about 2000 feet because we had just come out from under the 2500 ft step into G class airspace. That’s much lower than I would normally fly over bush but I had just given a 10 mile inbound and we could see home. The aircraft had been flying for over an hour and had already taken off twice that day. All indications were normal, and the motor was running fine but suddenly it seized. The prop jerked to a stop, and we were whistling through the air in silence, a fat barrel-shaped glider. Aviate, Navigate, Communicate, I trimmed for best glide. Had a glance around and then called ‘Pan’ on the Batchelor frequency, describing my engine failure and location. I tried to prime with the fuel pump and restart but something told me the engine was completely broke. Most concerning, we were over extensive woodlands and hilly terrain, no roads or anywhere to set down. But we always lookout for places to set down as we fly, and we had already discussed a couple of spots earlier during the flight.

 

Together my wife and I spotted a small clearing a couple miles away, to the north but it looked awfully far. I trimmed to stretch the glide as best I could, keeping an eye on the ASI knowing that 50-60 would give me my best chance. I gave a radio call of where we were heading. My wife’s instructor was somewhere around doing training and called back that the message had been relayed to Brisbane Central. We also heard a couple of other voices responding and relaying our message. Oddly enough that was really reassuring to know that our situation was known, not that it was much help for our immediate predicament. Dunno how long that glide lasted, in my perception it went on and on, reluctantly trading height for speed to stay away from stall. We just made it over the edge of the clearing and as I got over the last of the trees I put out extra flap and floated down to make probably my best landing that day, but into shoulder high spear grass. That grass slowed us down pretty quick, but as we decelerated on our landing roll our wheels started sinking into the bog. And we pitched forward, not at high speed, but enough to flip the aircraft onto its back.

 

The roll happened quite suddenly and was quite diseorientating, but my ‘elderly’ wife proved remarkably spritely and called “right, everybody out!” We scrambled out of the aircraft into the bog. We were shaken, but we were otherwise unhurt.

 

An R44 tourist flight was overhead in about ten minutes as we were trying to ascertain our damage and how we might get out of the swamp. The pilot landed and told us help was on the way and he would return after his tourists were unloaded. Top bloke! But within 30 minutes the CareFlight guys arrived from Darwin and extracted us, the pilot being very careful not to set down in the bog. They were fabulous, and really pragmatic about the incident. They ferried us back to Batchelor where they checked us out, I spoke with AMSA and gave a report to the Cops. We drove home that night still rather bemused by the whole experience. But our confusion was nothing to what we experienced this morning seeing our story all over the media this morning with it’s bizarre inaccuraries and sensationalism.

 

So tonight our beautiful aircraft lies inverted in a swamp and we’re waiting to hear from our insurers. Yes we are lucky, but we worked as a team and flew the plane to the ground a long distance without power. My wife who is undergoing flight training herself was calm and reassuring, and her amazing competence was infectious. She made me a better pilot. This sounds crazy, but I’m so glad she was with me through it. Shes gonna make an awesome aviator.

 

In 13 years flying, I’ve had an emergency landing before, but in the circuit, where it’s fairly clear what to do. This was different.

 

So why did the engine seize? Had I preflighted and pulled through the prop on the radial and managed the oil? Yes I had, but unfortunately on these radials it’s possible a bent rod could go undetected for weeks or months before it cuts loose. It’s really hard to tell without opening the engine and I had no reason to suspect that anything was amiss. The aircraft follows a regular maintenance schedule to GA standards. When we get the aircraft back it’ll be interesting to see what happened.

 

This can happen to anybody, quite unexpectedly. You never think it’s gonna happen to you. Walking away from this was testimony to some great instruction and sound advice I’ve received over the years. I hope I never have to apply that knowledge again.

Well done NT5224 ( and passenger) - not only did you Aviate as required but most importantly you shared your experience with all us other pilots. Aircraft looks to be still in good shape so hope you get it back in the air soon.Regards

 

Ian

 

 

Hey Guys ,I am look at purchasing a Jabiru J120 / J160.

 

I was wandering of someone could give me a good guide on maintenance costs say on 100 Hours of flight?

 

Servicing ?

 

100 Hourly cost ?

 

Per Hour Cost ?

 

Average insurance cost?

 

Anything i am missing ?

 

PM is welcome :)

 

Cheers ,

 

AZNA

Hi AZNA

I have a ST Jabiru (55-3261) it is an earlier model of the J120

 

Have owned this aircraft for 7 years. This aircraft is very cheap to run - 15lt of mogas 95 or 98 rom

 

per hour. Oil changes every 25 hours about $40. Biggest cost for me is insurance around $800 per year.

 

I do all my own servicing so labour cost isn't an issue.

 

If you are looking for a cheap first aircraft this one is for sale as I haven't the time to fly it enough.

 

If interested email me at [email protected]

 

Regards

 

Ian

 

 

Hi all

 

Just decided to get back on the site - i live at Dongara in WA - 360k north of Perth.

 

Certainly do not fly as much as I like - have to work unfortunatly.

 

I fly a Jabiru SK LSA 55-3261 -which I flew back from Boona in QLD some 4 years ago.

 

She is a nice little craft - not my ideal aircraft but hey you fly what you can afford.

 

I am considering putting a VG kit on 3261 - would be interested in hearing from anyone who has done similar.

 

Cheers for now

 

Westy