Subaru to Rotax

[Slyfox]

Just might be something simple like, power to the guage . I believe two wires come in from the engine, than power and it should work.

OK, I just looked in the rotax heavy duty maint. manual and the tach runs with two wires. The bl/ge wire and the ws/ge wire. those go to the tach and I would think the third is power . Now your saying what are rotax's codes for the wire colors. I got those also. GEt this, the bl = blue ge=yellow and ws = white. Those wires come off the back of the engine where all those sensors are off the crank. I believe you should have had a wire harness with connector for install, just take that harness and run it right to the tach. Hope this helps.

[wannafly]

tach is now working...did some full power run ups...everything seems in order...now wait for the wind and rain to go away and its test fly time

[wannafly]

everything has been checked and double checked...the weather for sunday looks like the day...forecast is 13 degrees C or 53 F for my american friends and light winds
heres hoping for a banner day

[DesertFox4]

The very best of luck Mic. Hoping everything goes as planned. Remember you are a test pilot again. Expect anything. Most of all expect a very quick take off.

[wannafly]

Well I finally have some results for you. The test flight went on sunday morning. The temp was a cool 40 degree F, field elevation is 1750. The results were absolutly totally off the chart. Your words of caution were right and I could not have been more surprised. After numerous run ups and systems checked again it was off to the taxi way. When I did my first full power run up with out it being tied to the truck I realized the incredible thrust. Oh boy is this amazing. I could only hold it for maybe 10 secounds and it started to roll forward and I could not hold it any more.(Guess the brakes will need an upgrade next) So off to the runway and with 4200 feet of run way did some taxiing. Idle is set at 2000rpm and with 2500rpm I could get the tail up and 35 mph...wow. So off to the far end gather my thoughts and wits and slowly advanced the throttle. At 3500rpm I felt it skip and thought this thing wants to fly and I just started my roll out continued on to full power and it wanted to go up so up we went. In moments I looked down to see 60mph indicated and a rate of climb at 1800 fpm (Yes really). My coaches on the ground told me what ever you do not cut power until you are at or above cicuit height. So I kept it at 5500 rpm and 16-1800 fpm till 4000 ft. The plan was to level off there. I pushed the nose down and in a heart beat I was at 110mph. Tryed to trim it out but was not used to seeing the nose that low in level flight and with out realizing it continued to climb to 5000 feet. At this point I'm thinking ..How am I going to get down? It just wants to go up. More trim and then it hit me The flaps. I did not use any on takeoff but I can push the lever past 0 and so I did and this helped big time to level off. I would say about 25% negative flap(this may be my new 0). At this point my rpm are up to 5800 so backed off the throttle to 5500 rpm. Cruise is showing 110. then two up clicks on the IVO medium rpm drops to 5200rpm and I am at 120mph. I did a few more curcuits and the head temp stayed at about 150 and oil temp at 200. Oil presure was good so I did a power off stall to see what had changed in the stall department incase it was way differant from what I was used to and I would know it ifit happened while trying to land. Nothing changed in stall, a basic slight shake and nosedip and forward stick, full power and flying again with only 2-300 feet lost. So into the curcuit I go and pull back to 4000 rpm; not coming down fast enough, 3000rpm...ok thats better dropping about 400 fpm. Turn my base leg and look for the runway. Where did it go? At 110 mph it does not take long to be 4 miles away from the runway. Amazing but will have to get used to the extra speed. At about 1 mile final I see that if action is not taken I will have to go around, so idle down to 1800 rpm and side slip to make sure I hit my mark which was the wind sock about 500 feet from the end of the run way. I thought I hit mark but when I leveled off and flaired it just kept floating. Look down and I still was at 70 mph.oh oh good thing I had 4200 feet of runway. I just waited for the speed to bleed off and greased it on(not really...when I touched I am used to dropping the tail cause the heavey engine would keep the nose down...not now...up I went a little power and let it settle again, this time kept the tail up..and it stayed down)
I flew 5 years with the subaru power and knew the flight charactoristics pretty good but am definitlly going to have to relearn them with 50+ less pounds.

So that is my first 45 minutes behind the 912S in my Kitfox IV Speedster and all I can say is UNBELIEVABLE. Will continue to refine and tweek and figure out how to land. Tomorrow I will check it all out again and head off again. The results are not final but it is definitly encouraging.

Thanks everyone for your advise and words of wisdom...words can not explain the excitement I feel ...it is way to cool to be able to enjoy the privelage of flying

[Slyfox]

When I went from the 912ul to the S, I got quit the suprise as well.

On landing there are two things you can do. One, back off the idle 1/2 turn on each carb.

When you do this, you can pull the throttle back on final and slow it much better. The only thing now is as you touch down you need to add a little power so you don't get the chuggle in the engine. Takes practice but well worth it.

The next thing you can do is run with full right rudder, level wings over the numbers down the runway until you hit about 60mph. Than straighten and touch down. I do this quit a bit.

Have fun learning your new machine, she is now a winner.

[Slyfox]

OH, here is another suggestion. When you go into the pattern. Pull back the throttle until about 4500rpm and than flatten the prop. Watch the rpms and you will know when this is when the rpms go up and stop. Now you can lower the idle and feel the plane slow. If you do what I suggested on the idle, you can really slow er down. Than if needed, you can push in on the right rudder and run it level and over the runway about 10ft off until you reach about 60mph, than straighten and land it.

You now have an aircraft that is fun.

Oh and if you want to fly around slow, do this. Pull back on the idle to around 4500rpm flatten the prop all the way. Than increase the idle to about 5200 and now you can fly all day long at about 83kts. A great speed for low and slow and playing around.

Now when you take off, be careful, if you do a normal take off with full power, you might overrev. So watch your rpms when taking off. To fix this, just hit the switch for the prop and course it out just a little and keep the rpms at 5800 until you level and than take it down to 5200.

have fun, I know you will.

[wannafly]

here is a pic of my Kitfox. Will try and get some engine shots and post them as well

[DesertFox4]

Mic, good report. Sounds promising so far. You now have the best weight to power ratio possible on a Kitfox short of bolting a jet engine underneath.
I've considered it. Kind of a mini Jimmy Franklin set up. Rotate, then straight up out of site. 600 lbs of thrust would be exciting. Would I need a twin engine rating?

Mic, try 1/2 flaps on take off when you feel comfortable. My normal take off now utilizes 1/2 flaps for max performance.

Do you have an electric trim tab on your elevator?

Also noticed the negative flap setting comment. Interesting as I could go to negative in cruise if I remove a temporary stop on my counsel. I've never tried it yet. Was told that in cruise it will improve speeds a little. Also was warned not to try to take off with negative flaps deployed. I heard some years back we lost a Kitfox that tried to take off with the flaps set to some unknown degrees of negative. Does anyone know of this? Just wasn't sure if I remembered that correctly. Maybe some of you have tried it and it's not a problem.

[wannafly]

Steve

Yes I have an electric trim on the elevator but I had run out of travel which is close to 1.5 inches both ways.

As far as the negative flap I will do some degree measuring and see what it says. In flight it looked like the flaperon was parallel with the bottom of the wing. I moved it back to zero for landing and have not gone back to check the angle at the negative position.

Also noticed on the turns at the higher speeds that I only needed to think about moving the stick and it went. Before I had about 1 to 2 inches to make it move into the bank.

I have not done a secound flight as it decided to go winter on us(snow, rain, wind) and they say till friday so maybe saturday we can try again.
I'm just like a kid with a new toy at Christmas.