gofastclint

yeah, the RE5 was a cool bike. I love Wankel rotarys, would love to see more of them in aircraft.

For experimental Jabiru pilots I think it would be a good idea to use aftermarket components to rebuild your engine as more time and development goes into these specialty parts making them a safer option over standard and in some cases, the parts can be cheaper. These are the manufactures I would use for a Jabiru build, as they have a very large range of parts, a good reputation and are commonly used in tough builds: CP Pistons, Carrillo rods, Ferrera for all the bits in the head and a set of ACL bearings. With these components you can reliably get 500hp out of a 2.2 liter 4 cylinder with boost on pump fuel, so I know they will last for ages turning out only 100hp.

That would be like breeding a race winning greyhound with a fat staffie lol.

Sounds like someone needs a hole punched in their licence.

A bloke I went riding with about 6 months ago had a water bottle that was in perfect as new condition. He said he gets massive offers for it all the time. The thing looks standard on the out side but underneath its had a full port job and gives all the new bikes a run.

A mate of mind is a cop and he told me that there is lots of dole budgers, junkies and pot heads on the island and that contributes to a very high crime rate. Maybe that is why the hangar is so cheap.

From what the Maj said, they perform well. I wonder if those 2 he mentioned at Hedlow Field are still flying?

I've given many a Kawasaki hell over the years and they just keep coming back for more. Could you imaging if a Japanese manufacture came on board with a four stroke four cylinder like the 912. 5000 hours then you need to inspect the air filter lol, maybe not but I recon they would give the traditional aero manufactures a rude wake up when they instanly became half as good as the competition.

I was looking at parallel twin two strokes and I found that parallel two stroke twins with a 90 degree crank as opposed to a 180 degree crank last longer and also deliver power smother. for this reason the worlds most advanced two stroke parallel twin features this layout, the KTM 250 Moto GP engine. the site quoted "The 90° layout in a parallel-twin offers a reduction of peak rocking-couple forces of 31%" that's huge! I can see this translating to a longer gearbox and prop life in the Rotax. there are many places that costom make two stroke twin cranks to any specs and you will need to modify the electrical system, but 31% reduction of peak rocking force, I bet that would save alot of components in the long run. the site I got the details from is great, the guys involved are two stroke specialists and one is a moto GP engineer. The Two-Stroke Shop 2-Stroke Shop TSS500GP engines TSS500LC

If that's the case the consumer of this product would be home builders with new kits or people due for an engine replacement in private use aircraft. While we are talking schools, I wonder what percentage of Jabiru aircraft are used in schools vs that of private use.

any pics of this 1 seat plane?

Sorry Brent '~'

I recently heard on the grape vine that Stiffie has been talking with Kawasaki about a new engine for the Jabiru. Does anyone have any light on this?

I bet you could get some great last minute tickets to Abu Dhabi.

I would much rather watch a Cassutt race around the Red Bull pylons than a full aerobatic half million dollar aircraft. I love the small budget racers, as it allows people who possibly have more skill but not so much money the chance to shine. look at F1 and MotoGP, there are no rich old people racing as they are over the hill and some 20 year old can do it better. If they used a similar formula to the Reno F1 aircraft with possibly a different wing, it would give so much more pilots the opportunity to race.

Not made by Jabiru, a separate company that has noting to do with Jabiru, for the experimental market. It could come as an engine mount and cowling kit. I never hear any one speaking ill of the Jab body but the engine is often rubbished, I bet there is many people out there who love the Jab body but prefer the Rotax engine.

I recon it would be a good idea for someone to make an engine mounting kit so people who want to power their Jabiru's with a 912 could simply order it.

Dude. Your plane is so cool. It would be like seeing someone in an M3 on their L plates.

By less money, I ment the fuel and maintenance. But your right, the Cessna does have an engine wont pop feel about it.

I hope introducing all these aircraft to the RA market will create a price drop across the board. I personaly wouldn't want one, as Seb mentioned, a Jabiru will fly faster for less money.

With regards to a 5 cylinder engine, it has a secondary balance issue that causes it to have a slight vibration. A 6 cylinder of the straight or horizontaly opposed configuration has no ballance issues making it a smooth running engine. That is why a V12 can have any Vee angle and still run smooth as it has theoreticaly 2 straight 6 motors that are balanced perfectly sharing the same crank.

http://www.polenspecial.com/ What a top looking aircraft, 500kmph on 180hp and its all metal! I wish it came as a kit. What are your thoughts gentlemen?

I guarantee if the Jabiru aircraft came with a Rotax option they would sell more, they have the runs on the board and have a lot of happy customers. I prefer the gearbox over direct drive any day, people will tell you that there are more things to go wrong with a gearbox but with direct drive, if there is any balance issues with the prop the crank will be effected more and the inertia will always transfer the load onto the one side of the crank that is hevier, with a gearbox the load will be spread out over all different points on the crank due to the gear ratio being different from 1to1. From another direction, if you had 2 identical spec engines. same bore, same stroke, same bearing area but the only difference being 6 cylinder and the other 4 cylinder like an EJ22 and an EG33 from Subaru. the EG is just an EJ with 2 extra cylinders. The 6 would always last a lot longer due to the balence of the crank. In a 4 cylinder engine every 180 degrees the pistons are all totally stopped, this never happens with a 6 and as such the engine runs a lot smoother, this smothness adds to engine, gearbox and prop life. If I was a manager for Rotax I would push for a 912 with 2 extra cylinders. oh yeah!! Like the Maj said, "back the Aussie products when you can, but a spade is a spade"