eightyknots

Unfortunately, a BRS would not have saved the two POB on this Cessna yesterday: Two dead in Feilding plane collision - national | Stuff.co.nz

My Ga training - Lesson 2[/url]

Hi Tomo,

You say "Lesson 2" and you're already doing solos?

I hope to start PPL training in August. I had a meeting yesterday with the CFI and she said that there would be a quite a number of lessons before I could solo.

Well done Tomo

I read on an American site once that changing from one brand of paint to another saved 35 lb (more than 15kg) in paint weight. I'd rather use the weight saved to carry another 20 litres of fuel!

Does anyone have any comparison data for the durability and weight of paints suitable for ultralights?

Hi all have some good news, Have a new addition to the family I would like you to all meet Mason Derek Lewer, Middle name after a friend who passed away not long ago ;)

 

Born on the 24-06-2010 at 0427 with a MTOW of 6 Pound 12 Oz (Which is what i weighed)

 

Bubs had a slightly bad start but is now home doing great with mumvand will not need any further treatment. Will need to get a baby seat into the Zenith ASAP.

 

I have been following your Zenith 601 "baby" until I found out about Mason. He was born on my son's birthday.

I trust everyone's well.

EFI and ICING

As you can see its a very basic system but to get it to work correctly the fuel maps had to be set up accurately. This was and is a very difficult job and engine failure can be the result of wrong mapping. Once the maps are set up for al load and RPM condition the air fuel ratio will not vary regardless of conditions because the ECU corrects for the load,temp and atmospherc changes. All I know is my Jab is a pleasure to fly climbs at 2000ft/min cruises at 115Knts indicated at 2600rpm. VNE(132knts) can be achieved on climb.

I was wondering if your system overcomes icing problems as well? (of course it can't be carb icing because there isn't one!).

Also, have you approached the Jab people to see if they could use the system? My feeling is that EFI would enhance the product and they may be pretty willing to talk to you.

Hi Jeff. It seems as if Aeroprakt have lost interest (for technical reasons or perhaps other reasons) in keeping this useful option.

Thanks.

Sales pitch or facts?

You'd like to think that ICP have done the "near impossible" and produced a slightly heavier, a wider and longer aircraft with a higher cruise speed and lower stall speed. AND, that all this is based on accurate measurements compared to the previous model(s).

Perhaps those flight test figures are available somewhere? Maybe someone has done those checks for personal interest?

Weight of long battery cables

Mark,Re the battery, the manual is quite specific in regard to the placement of the battery in the XLVG.

It must be in the back.

 

Some of the earlier/other models were different as is evidenced by the alternative battery location inside their front left fuselage.

 

The XL is a different aircraft; longer and with a different engine mount etc, etc.

 

Mate, every XL built so far has been spot on with the battery in the back.

 

Ron.

I was wondering about the longer nose of the XL, whether the extra weight ahead of centre would need to be compensated somehow.

It seems a shame that that would probably add a few kilos in extra battery cable ...not to mention the penalty of the additional voltage drop along 4-5 metres when starting the motor.

I wonder what else could be moved to the back to balance the aircraft? I think I would prefer the battery close to the motor as in the VG (non-XL)

Bicycle "lid" weight question

Hey Mark, don't ever feel anal about fussing about weight of your finished aircraft - it's REALLY important. Every once counts. So many make the mistake of adding weight and then are disappointed by the performance.

JG

I was wondering if you could tell us how much extra weight would be added for your unique bicycle lid?

Also, are you planning to offer this as an add-on kit to other Sav owners at some stage?

Hank

This looks great! Any details such as POB, amount of fuel, etc?

I have the plans for the 750 in my hot little hands, and the tail-kit is on the way!Steve Bell and I had a conversation and the short story is no problems with RAA rego

There's not a lot of activity in the Foxbat A22 section of this site. Perhaps everyone is flying them so often they have no time to write about it?

Chad, I look forward to hearing about your experiences :-)

I take it, with no one replying to my question about the folding wing option, may be no one who reads these posts has one themselves? When I first read about them, I am sure that the folding wing was offered as an extra. Does anyone know of other owners of Foxbats who have them.

I had a good look at the specs for both the Savannah VG and XL and something seems a little strange. The XL is wider, longer, faster (in cruise) and slower (in stall) ...all at the same time! All this is achieved without any reduction in landing or take-off roll.

It is interesting to look at the comparison, using the specifications from www.icp.it:

........................ UNIT.... VG.... XL

Length................. metres.. 6.25.. 6.60

Weight................... kg .... 282 .. 286

Width.................. metres . 1.05 . 1.18

Maximum speed........... km/h ... 192 .. 198

Cruise speed............ km/h ... 173 .. 177

Stall speed, no flaps... km/h .... 59 ... 57

Stall speed, full flaps. km/h .... 55 ... 49

:confused: Does anyone know what 'tricks' ICP employed to achieve beneficial increases in all directions (except for a small 4kg increase in weight) without smoke, mirrors, or magic carpets?

More to the point: do the XL specifications stack up in practice?

Also, are there any disadvantages in having an XL rather than a VG?

Has anyone seen a Foxbat with the folding wing option? If so, how did you find the ease of use?

I have the plans for the 750 in my hot little hands, and the tail-kit is on the way!Steve Bell and I had a conversation and the short story is no problems with RAA rego

For instance, Zenith gives the weight of the plane to be 775 pounds. On different websites I read that 750 with paint and an egine weighs around 805 pounds which is 365 kg. This only leaves 179 kg for fuel, some luggage and two POB.

This is where things go wrong for me because I also wanted to add extras such as long range fuel tanks and the folding wing kit. Once that has been done and the tanks are full, there's no room for a PAX whatsoever.

Please let me know if I have made incorrect assumptions.

(One possible weight saving could be to have no slats (subtract 13 kg) and add some stolspeed VGs (add 100 grams).

Fellas, Fellas, Fellas,This started as a nice tribute to the wonderful little Savvy and has instead become a tribute to galvanic action.

 

The Savannah is safe, robust, fun to fly, easy to build, cheap to build and fly and dare I say very good looking. Repeat good looking. I think so anyway.

 

Loved your report Maj and totally agree the seats are our Achilles Heel.

 

Mark

My Brother and I are starting down the path of a building a STOL aircraft (kit). Has anybody had a look at the CH-750 and the legalise of getting one registered with RaAus.760kg rule and home built? 1320 pds or 1230pds as a 600kg. We are both fairly large blokes - < 110kg and need something that will perform fairly well in hot weather. The six cly jab option looks interesting.

 

Gibbo

Now, if you had fitted long range fuel tanks....

"The exception was one guy who was a building designer, who said he thought it was worth upto $5000 to him to look that much better."

There is the old adage: "beauty is in the eye of the beholder". The Savannah S appears to have a more 'feminine' look. I think I like the looks of the original Savannah better but that's me. What do others think?

I wonder if the rounded fuselage would use less metal and wouild therefore make the Savannah S a little lighter? Does anyone may have some exact figures on this?

The thing that concerns me the most is flying performance. I read somewhere (perhaps on a Zenith site or forum) that the 'slab' sides of Zeniths, Savannahs, Bingos, etc help enhance the plane's stability compared with rounded planes. Has anyone else come across this theory ...or found this out in practice? HINT: anyone who flies round and square cross-section fuselage planes may care to comment.

I also wonder about the lack of luggage area: is the Savannah S with only a small luggage space worth it for an extra $3,000.00?

In my Tornado the water radiator is duplicated in the cabin space just beyond my feet. I can switch the fan behind it, or close the water off. I certainly need it up around the Snowy Mountains.Jack. :thumb_up::thumb_up:

If so, I am interested how much extra weight this would be: any idea?

I think people who buy Savannahs and Zeniths usually are not highly excited over the looks but tend to focus more on utility and function. One thing I don't like about the looks of a Savannah is the 'corrugated iron' look of the fuselage ...something not found on the Zeniths.

However, I get the impression from a number of Zenith pilots that they don't enjoy the fuselage oil-canning.

And yes, Walter, one reason why I would be unable to get a CH-701 is the height restriction. I'm about 6' 4" and I could not go for a ride because the owner thought that the headphone band would scratch the plexiglass roof. I have heard of a seat-lowering mod but apparently the tall pilot feels like they are sitting on a nearly flat floor which is uncomfortable for anything longer than 3/4 hour.

John, at Stolspeed, has done some tests on the Savannah VG wing (new profile) and the old Savannah wing profile with the slats removed. There seems to be no benefit in going to the new wing profile at all.

I have been a passenger in John's plane (no slats, old profile) and it is truly awesome. I don't think there is any performance lacking whatsoever.

The Hoerner wing tips have the same effect as extending the equivalent 'blunt' wing by 150mm. There is effectively no extra weight.

The thing with wing tips is that there is effectively an upturned wing with the issue of added weight. Is it worth it?

Perhaps JG3 is running tests on wing tips while we are still only talking about it :-)

I would imagine that the rounded fuselage would use less metal and should make the Savannah S a little lighter. But, how about flying performance? Don't the 'slab' sides of Zeniths, Savannahs, Bingos, etc help enhance the plane's stability compared with rounded planes?

Three thousand dollars more and only a small luggage space: is it worth it?

Hi Ron,

I was wondering if you could give us a run-down of your experience with building the XL? I am still tossing up whether to build a Zenith or a Savannah and I'd like your idea of how well it goes together.

I heard from an owner who built a Savannah about 5-6 years ago that the build manual was written in half-intelligible Italian-English and "the only way to complete the plane was to ignore most of what is written and just study the drawings well". Is this still the case?

There's always 2 sides to the story and 2 ways to look at this! Whilst I do like the Rotax engine, I need to come to the defence of the 3300 as I've never in my life heard of these 250 hour stoppages! One of the biggest problems is user error, installation and maintenance.Let's compare:

 

912 80 HP, 4 Cylinders, 1.2 Litres capacity

 

912s 100 HP, 4 Cylinders, 1.4 litres capacity

 

914 115 HP, 4 Cylinders, 1.2 litres capacity

 

RPM Continuous ~ 5100RPM

 

MAX continous power for 5 minutes only

 

Gearbox that has to be treated well to prevent rebuild

 

Water and Air Cooled

 

Lots of extra plumbing

 

Runs on any fuel

 

Requires cylinder de-coke every 400 hours when on Avgas

 

Requires 25 hourly oil changes on Avgas

 

Very expensive parts (valves $280 each)

 

Dual carbies are sometimes troublesome to balance

 

Complicated and expensive electronic ignition

 

Jabiru 3300, 120 HP, 6 cylinders, 3.3 litres capacity.

 

RPM Continuous ~ 2850RPM

 

Runs on 95+ octane

 

Runs happily on Avgas with no extra servicing required

 

Parts are cheap (Valves are $45 each)

 

Single carby, no balancing issues

 

Simple alternator and regulator with distributors

 

Direct drive so no gearbox overhaul cost come rebuild time