Outback

Gee this is a great way to spend Christmas Day. Our beloved Jabs seem to have a very clouded future. Just a quick question on the Instrument...Does it apply to ALL Jabiru engines? I have a VH registered, Experimantal catagory Jabiru (J430) and the pilot has a PPL.

I have the Trio autopilot and altitude hold in my J430. It took a while to get the calibration settings right, but both have ended up excellent units. The auto pilot deviates from the track by only a couple of degrees and the altitude hold is generally within about 30 feet of the selected altitude. The service from the local agent (Jake Jansen) and Trio US has been first class. Garry

John, I fitted the deflectors from left over fibre glass from the J430 kit on cyl 3 & 4 (the hottest) and found the CHT temp reduced by about 15 deg on those particular cyl. I recall that before the mod cyl 3 hit 180 deg on climb out in summer while cyl 6 was only 150 deg. My temps are pretty even now...around 155 deg in cruise at 2850 RPM. cyl 6 is still the coolest. If you are only monitoring cyl 6, it would be interesting to move the sensor to cyl 3 for a comparison. Hope this helps. Garry

I fitted the Patroney ground adjustable 3blade carbon prop to my J430 and its VERY very smooth. People have commented it sounds like a turbo! After 50 hours theres hardly a mark on it & thats operating from a farm strip. Speed can be a bit subjective because it depends how much pitch you wind in. When first installed my TAS was only 107kts at 2850 RPM. After a pretty course adjustment, the TAS increased to 128kts. I now have the pitch set to get a TAS around 123kts...and the ground run and climb out is still excellent even with MTOW from a damp grass strip. So with the smoothness, the flexability to select your TAS and the ability of the prop to handle some rain without damage, I'm very happy with the investment. Garry

For your interest Guy and Phil, I have restored everything to "standard", apart from the 1.2mm choke jet and the J430 starts instantly at 1 degree every time. Before the choke jet was drilled out the engine refused to start until the OAT was about 6 degrees. I have the original battery, (3 yo), the standard plugs have been regapped back to the normal .25mm and the original starter solanoid has not been changed. One thing that maybe helping is that I have a small solar panel keeping the battery charged all the time, it is always around 12.4V at start up. Still, it made no difference until the choke jet was drilled out. So, in my case, it ended up a cheap, quick and permanent fix. Hope this may be of assistance. Garry

My J430 has always started straight away from day one, October 09...that is, until last week at 9:30am following a big frost with the OAT 4 deg, despite good battery & cranking, didn't look like starting. At 11:00am with OAT 8 deg started fine. I contacted Jabiru and was given the following hints: (assuming battery & cranking OK) * Make sure hot engine close-down is at no more than 850RPM and throttle stays in that position until next start. * Make sure choke cable has full ON movement at carby. * Regap plugs to 20 thou * Only use specified oil (15/50) * Drill out choke jet to 1.5mm I only had a 1.2mm drill to drill out the choke jet. The engine fired up after about 2 revolutions yesterday morning with OAT -1 deg. Still had ice on the wing. I then "borrowed" a 1.5mm drill and drilled out the jet further. To-day with OAT again at -1 deg the engine fired up again with about 2 revolutions. It is necessary to push the choke in straight away. If others are interested in doing the above use the 1.2mm drill because the engine runs roughly on idle for about 5 minutes with the 1.5mm jet. Smooth at start up with 1.2mm. Hope this is interest. Garry

Good news! Problem solved. Firstly, I agree with Modest Pilot that from my experience too most J230/430's have some degree of vibration in the ailerons (more than any GA aircraft I have flown). So the changover point from a "vibration" to a "flutter" is pretty subjective. Jamie and Rod at Jabiru were very helpful and supportive (as they were during the construction phase) and after consideration suggested: 1. Carry out the 4mm adjustment to the ailerons as per a previous post. This pre-loads the ailerons and they are now drooped down below the flaps. 2. Place tape between the trailing edge of the wing and the leading edge of the aileron. This prevents airflow in that gap that can create vibration. This gap was pretty snug. 3. Pull the cables tight in the cockpit where they come through the wing to take up any slack. Tie them together. Mine had about 10mm of movement in the wing. 4. If the above dosn't fix the problem, put a small tab pointing down on the ailerons. Well I didn't have to do step 4. On 2 test flights to-day in calm conditions then moderate turbulance, the ailerons didn't move in straight and level flight. There was no vibration/flutter at all at any time, inputs were smooth...and no, the airspeed was not reduced by lowering the ailerons. Thank you for all the responses...they were appreciated. Garry

Thanks Tomo, but the problem is still not solved. I just pointed out what has been done to resolve the problem. I'm currently waiting for more information from Jabiru. I'm told that VH-BNP (the Jab they use for publicity etc) had the problem and it was necessary to put some small trim tabs on the ailerons to load them up. Gee, I am impressed by the response to my problem. Again, thanks to you all. Garry

Thanks to everyone who have replied. Both ailerons are now drooped as per specifications. Jabiru told me to place a straight edge along the underside of the wing and the trailing edge of the aileron and there should be a 4mm gap where the trailing edge of the wing meets the leading edge of the aileron. This is to pre-load the ailerons. It looks a bit strange to see the ailerons drooped below the flaps. The cable has no slack in the wing, the bellcrank is free and there is no restrictions anywhere in the system. I do have a Patroni 3 blade ground adjustable prop and have checked that each blade has exactly the same pitch. Garry

Have any other Jab owners experienced aileron "flutter". In my J430 I find the ailerons vibrate in mild (actually very mild) turbulance. At times times this flutter is quite violent and takes a fair bit of holding by the control stick. My ailerons are set correctly as per instructions from Jabiru. The trailing edge of the ailerons can be moved about 4mm while the cockpit end of the cable hasn't moved - this is due to slop between the inner and outer sections of the cable. I hope it not cable ware as the aircraft is virtually brand new - only 35hours. Any ideas? Garry

Hello Geoff, Jamie at Jabiru said that their US Distributor found that a small deflector behind the overheating cyl did reduce the temperature of that cyl by about 10 degrees C. I used a piece of fibre glass about 25mm in height left over from the kit, shaped it so fitted inside the top of the air duct enclosure, then angled it to about 45 deg, then placed it at the rear of No.3 cyl and secured it by using a 2 pack high temperature compound "borrowed" from a local engineering shop. The only downside is that the compound is black and this can been seen from the outside of the air duct enclosure. My No.3 cyl temp dropped by about 15 deg C and strangly, didn't seem to have any affect on the temp of No. 5 cyl - right behind No.3. Hope this is of some help. Garry

Hi Dave, My son and I have recently built a J430. It took 18 months to build and everything went pretty well. Jamie at Jabiru was always helpful. We found the biggest job was the finishing prior to painting (sanding, more sanding, filling etc). Our plane has now done just over 26 hours and is ready for the first maintainence, so its a bit early to report on the engine as we still have the run-in oil in service. CHT on No.3 cyl was redlining on full power in climb - Jamie recommended a small fibre glass deflector in the air-duct ram enclosure to direct more air on that cyl. This worked fine bring the temp down about 15 degrees into the green. Apart that that small issue we have found the engine just great. The plane itself is a pleasure to fly. Coming from GA and heavier planes I thought the J430 was a bit "twitchy" at first and my first few landings were shockers. However you soon get used to the characteristics of this light and responsive aircraft. Hope this is of help. Garry

The local tyre service balanced the 3 wheels with his normal wheel balancing equipment but there is still a small vibration just after getting airborne. I just pull the brakes on for a second and the vibration disappears immediately - I guess that means the nosewheel is balanced OK. Garry

Just a quick update. I've had the 3 new 10ply tyres on for almost 4 months now, with over 20 take off/landings from a farm strip. No puntures at all. The tyre wear is minimal - most of the small external "tits" from the moulding are still there. In fact the tyres still look brand new, apart from 100's of catheads projecting! Thanks to everyone for their advice, the 10 plys ended up a great investment. Garry

Firstly, thanks to Jack & Andy for your advice...I'm now running all 3 tyres at 26PSI and getting much less vibration on the ground, and the tyres still have the appearance of 35PSI. Re JR's posting, I've noticed a vibration just after take-off. This is obviously the wheels spinning out. Putting the brakes on stops the vibration immediatly, so the wheels do need balancing. I've contacted the local tyre service who claim they can balance these small wheels. Will let you know. Cheers, Garry Coolah NSW

Fitted the 3 new 10 ply tyres to-day. No issues, no mods needed on the spats. The 10 ply tyres are 1.6kg heavier (each) than the 6 plys, so the extra weight is about 5kg. Just a question to Jack & Andy. Using the recommended tyre pressures for the 6 plys results in a much rougher ride from a farm strip than the 6 plys. There is no "bottom bulge" in the tyre at all. Are you running the 10 plys with lower pressure? Many thanks, Garry Coolah NSW

Hi Chris, after only 25 hours with my J430, I have already had 2 punctures (from catheads/bindi's on farm strips) so I ordered 3 x 10 ply tyres yesterday. I used the source from Brent on this thread...they were $88.00 ea. The first flat tyre was at a remote strip, and it wasn't much fun improvising a jack, getting the wheel and tyre off and then finding someone with a patch. It took almost a full day. I couldn't beleive how thin the 6 ply tyres are. I know this doesn't answer your question, but to let you know (from my experiece so far) that theres a fair chance of a puncture when operating from farm/grass strips and the inconvenience spoils your day. I will let you know how the new tyres work out. Garry Coolah NSW

Having just test flown my J430, I'm finding the throttle control (on the panel) not too smooth when changing power settings. I've adjusted the tension and its still pretty jerky. Maybe I'm just used to the vernier type in a previous GA aircraft. Just wondering if anyone has installed a vernier throttle on the Jabiru. I see they are available from Spruce. Garry

Thanks Geoff, I'll go ahead as per your suggestion. Cheers, Garry

Firstly, many thanks for the response to my original question. I can now go ahead with confidence that others have been down the sanme path. Geoff, I don't seem to be able find your original thread/photo. I can't find the word-search function on this site. Perhaps you can point me in the right direction. Again, thank you. Best wishes, Garry.

I'm about to connect a carbuettor ice sensor to the Bing carb on a Jabiru 3300 engine. The sensor supplied is about 4mm high, 3mm wide and 2mm thick (it looks like a FET transistor). The problem is: where and how is the sensor mounted on the Bing carb. Any ideas would be appreciated. Garry

Firstly, many thanks to everyone for your great response to my original question. This Forum REALLY works. A couple of questions...Brentc, when fitting the carbon prop rather than the Jab timber unit, did you require any special adaptors etc. or could it be just fitted on directly. Also, you mentioned that your carbon prop was "remotely approved"...pehaps you could expand on this. Modest Pilot, I take your point about rain and the timber Jab prop. What sort of problems did you have? Again, thank you everyone for your input. Garry

I am in the process of building a J430 (up to the painting stage) and would be interested to learn if any J430 owner has installed a 3 blade metal prop in place of the 2 blade timber prop supplied with the kit. I'm told that the 3 blader is smoother (less vibration), much more acceleration at take off & climb out and increases cruise speed by about 5%. Any thoughts? Garry

I have been a member for some 6 months now and reminded every time I log on that I have not posted a message in Just Landed. Congratulations Ian on the new upgraded website. It is great. Like alot of members I'm from the GA fraternity, now venturing into the recreational flying ranks. I'm currently building a Jabiru J430 and found the Jabiru forum on this site very valuable. Garry Connelly Coolah NSW