well my 582 has always been upright (installed at the factory) so i really don't get the inverted thing
Kiwi (legendary Drifter Hero of Flying Tigers fame) recently upgraded his 503 (inverted) to a 582 - and he inverted that too !!!
never really got that but he know more about Drifters than i will could ever hope to accumulate
his Drifter is a real low weight machine, no electric starter etc - when he tours (he's been to Avalon from YBOA) his toothbrush is sawn in half to save 10 grams !!!!!
btw, on the subject of engine failures, Kiwi says:
"there are only two kinds of Drifter pilots - those who have had an engine failure, and those who haven't had one - YET!!"
Kiwi walks with a noticeable limp, courtesy of the kind of event referred to above
which is why i practice engine failure drills just about every time i fly
every time i start to relax and think "gee, this is nice" i automatically pull the throttle and find somewhere to put her down
right down to 100 feet, to make sure ima doin it right and not taking the option at 500 feet of "yeh i reckon i cooda made that paddock ok"
on another tangent, have yous een the stuff on the 'web about fitting Suzuki 3 cylinder motors to trikes to replace 582s?
also popular (in Europe and Canada) is the BMW R1000 conversions - now that gives me a woody
problem is it would cost about the same as the value of me Drifter ...
cheers for now
BP
sorry, forgot to mention:
i've had two prop encounters of the nasty kind
one was an instructors seat cushion - he forgot to take it out of the back seat when he got out and i went on to do some solo work)
the other was part of an exhaust spring - now i make sure my red silicone gunk (and safety cable) is set up so that if a spring breaks (and they do, regularly) the prop will be OK