Rotax 583 powered KR2

[Henni]

Hi all,

So these hang glider pilots tell me: When you put your microlight away because of the wind, we take out & fly our hang gliders.

Well, one day the wind was REALLY blowing. I had someone grab the upwind wingtip of my MXII every time I wanted to make a turn on the ground. I literally took off in three feet or so. The wind was so strong that I could fly backwards if I wanted to.

So I fly up to this favourite hang glider spot. When I came there, all the gliders were lying on the ground, triangle bar folded in with rocks packed on top of the wings to prevent the wind from blowing them away.

I slowly approached the cliff, not knowing what to expect. Whoa!!! What lift close to the edges!!! I finally cut the engine completely and was doing ridge soaring with my single surface, high drag two seater microlight.

Every time I soared past the hang glider ramp, I shouted: Come you CHICKENS!!! Every now & then a brave soul would get a helper to hold onto each wingtip of his glider, stand on the ramp, make a few half hearted attempts at jumping, step back, fold the triangular bar in, put glider back on ground with rocks on top of it.

This went on for a full 45 minutes after which I started the engine and flew back to where I kept her. That was the ABSOLUTE last snotty remark I've EVER received from those hang glider pilots again.

Cheers all,

Henni

[Henni]

Hi all,

Used to fly my MXII into strong dust devils. When going in & out of these, it throws one nearly completely out of control. However, once inside the lift is very hard to describe! Even with those high drag single surface wings. Whoa!!! What a ride once inside one of those!

I used to do this often. One day, the owner of the strip where I kept her, told me that he would not dare fly his twin Baron in these on purpose, how could I do it with my microlight?

Another incident, I was flying very, very high & saw the King air way, way below me flying & eventually landing, feeling so superior because of my much, much higher altitude! When I landed & parked my microlight, I asked the onlookers if these pilots were aware of me flying so high above them.

They said yes, the Kingair pilots told them that they saw the pappa charlie. When they asked them what that was, they said: The piss creek off course. Not good for my over inflated ego at the time at all.

Keep well all,

Henni

[Henni]

Hi all,

So I take one of these hang glider pilots for a flip in my MXII. As we flew over one of these mountain ranges, the Vbelts started slipping. I could not throttle back too much as we were surrounded by mountains. Then they gave up completely and torn itself to shreds.

My passenger turned completely pale. I told him that we would be okay, and that no matter what happens, that he should keep his hands and feet clear of the controls.

I put us down between all those boulders without so much as a bent tube. He later told his fellow glider friends that I could come wake him up in the middle of the night to come fly with me and that he'll go with without hesitation.

Yes, I most certainly had my good share of forced landings in my various microlights over all those years, a good many of those caused by slipping or shredded Vbelts. Those were the days before the Rotax gearboxes, so most modern microlight pilots will have no idea of these sorts of mishaps. Today the only thing they need worry about is a broken crank. The rest boil down to human error.

Keep well all my flying friends,

Henni

[Henni]

Hi all,

So someone asked me to fly to his place to come braai with him. He never told me his runway was an uphill one. On my approach, I realized that I have to fly in this landing and not try to flare at all. He was amazed at my safe landing.

After braaiing for a bit, he said that he's going to take one of the guests for a flip in his microlight and that I should join them. They flew rather low, I stayed 500 feet or so above them. During our trip, we flew over a quarry. He dove into it, stormed the other side and only just managed to pull out of it.

When we landed, he said: You are a chicken hey. Why don't you fly low with us. I explained to him that I'm always on the lookout for a place to land should the engine quit. He explained that engines do not just quit for no reason at all.

Later the afternoon, he took someone else for a flip and asked me to tend to the braai. When they did not return in an hour or so, I took off, looking for them. Eventually I found them next to the wreck, full of bruices. I landed in a field closeby and asked him what happened.

He explained that they stormed some trees, flying low, and just as he pulled up, the passenger had a fright and bumped the kill switch to the off position with his elbow. The top of the trees grabbed the landing gear, flipped them upside down and they fell to the ground like that, happy to be alive.

One gent once told me: Son, you get old pilots and you get bold pilots. You do not get old bold pilots.

Keep well all my flying mates, hopefully I can post some more progress pics soon. I'm out of materials required for the build and hence my slow progress again. My Rotax 583 comes with a Cheetah engine mount and even a nose gear mount and I would be stupid to fabricate those myself. Thus I have to wait awhile before continuing with the engine and nosewheel installation. I need proper thin ply to flare the window sills into the fuselage and I need oregon or spruce strips to continue with my canopy. Hence all the blah blah over here.

Is the 582 mounted upright or inverted in the Cheetah?

Cheers all,

Henni

[Henni]

Hi all,

Just found this link. Very, very impressive! Hard to believe that so much power can be had from such a small engine.

For now I'm happy with my choice of the Rotax 583. I think it's going to be good value for money. Off course it's not a four stroke Rotax, but then also so is not the price. At the moment it's the most power for the least weight and also for the lowest price. Someone in my shoes cannot ask for more...

Keep well all my flying friends,

Henni

[Boet]

Hi all,

Just found this link. Very, very impressive! Hard to believe that so much power can be had from such a small engine.

For now I'm happy with my choice of the Rotax 583. I think it's going to be good value for money. Off course it's not a four stroke Rotax, but then also so is not the price. At the moment it's the most power for the least weight and also for the lowest price. Someone in my shoes cannot ask for more...

Keep well all my flying friends,

Henni

Vir daardie enjin sit ek pen orent regop. Waar kan ek meer daaroor uitvind??

[Henni]

Hi Boet,

I suppose one can contact Rotax direct. However, you'll remember reading in a link that I've posted over here that Rotax reps called a 583 engine in an award winning microlight an "illegal" engine. I suppose it might not be good for the sales of their four stroke engines. They must once again be embarrassed by what their two strokes are capable of...165hp from something that is nearly identical in dimensions to a 582! They should really push these engines for aircraft purposes also instead.

I can see one thing though, soon the big guys like Lycoming and Continental will be forced to re-think their current strategy as lighter is proving to be better in our day and age. Look at our own Sling as an example. If you follow the link I've provided to my contribution about it on AVCOM, you'll notice that it is currently busy outselling just about anything else despite the price. Light is better!

Sorry about the english, but many builders from all over the globe are also following over here.

Cheers mate,

Henni

[Henni]

Hi Boet,

I've found this link for you. It should be a good start.

From:

http://www.snowmobile.com/news/brp-intr ... -1151.html

According to BRP, this lightweight two-stroke engine uses sophisticated electronic injectors and a powerful central computer to deliver major improvements in performance, efficiency and ease-of-use.

BRP first introduced the E-TEC technology in its Evinrude outboard engines in 2003 and subsequently won the Clean Air Technology Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Adapted later on for Ski-Doo snowmobiles, it was first brought to the market in 2008 with the Rotax E-TEC 600 H.O. engine. Since then, it has become the industry’s best-selling 600cc engine and has won numerous industry awards.

Cheers mate,

Henni

[Henni]

Hi all,

At last!!! Some progress again. Started with the engine mount today.

Keep well all my flying friends,

Henni

[Giarc64]

Hi Henni

Just my 2 cents worth.

U need to place fireproof material on the firewall and then place your steel sheet and cut out to shape of the firewall . The engine mount must be mounted directly onto the firewall with AN bolts and have steel plates behind the firewall in the cockpit to act as crush plates.

Have a look at what I did

http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB3/download/ ... &mode=view
http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB3/download/ ... &mode=view






Cheers
Craig

[Henni]

Hi Craig,

Yes, I agree. When done I'll unbolt everything from the firewall and put this stuff behind it. If you look at my pics of the Sling, you'll notice that they use some stuff that's glued to the firewall. I'm going to find out what is is and try this as a first option.

I can no longer wait till I have the required material to build. I've done nothing for nearly three weeks as a result of this.

Keep well my kind friend,

Henni

[Henni]

Hi all,

Making some steady progress again. Just two more holes, then I can start to hang the engine. I cannot make the bottom compression tubes before I hang the engine. It needs to fit somewhere between the exhaust, carbs etc.

Keep well all my flying friends,

Henni

[Henni]

Moderated by Henni...

[Beenaroundabit]

Hi all,

Success at last!

Attempt no.5

Note, this was nearly 35 years ago. I was stupid & would NEVER recommend this to anyone. In the meantime I received full training and a valid license. Don't threaten me as a result of this story!

Well, this was the beginning 1980's. I managed an hour and a half of official flight training at the old Barragwana airport. Now I motivate someone to buy a Quicksilver MXI microlight from America.

When the box arrived, I helped him to assemble this thing in his front yard. It came with flying instructions, and I told him the little that I knew.

Well, it sat in his garden for three months. He was too afraid to do anything with it. So he asked me to take it to my plot and to store it there for him, which I did. I said to him that if he EVER wanted to sell it and would accept three monthly payments, that I would take it from him. He would however not consider at the time.

One day he phoned me out of the blue and informed me I can buy the aircraft from him under those conditions. Boy, I did not wait, but took off early from work & drove straight home. I assembled everything in a jiffy and took it to an open field on my plot. It was just big enough for a qualified person to fly from without any room for error.

Told my wife I'm just going to taxi it around a bit & that I would not try to fly it. In the middle of this field was a small trench. When I went over it for the third time, I did not feel it & new I was almost flying & pulled back on the stick. In the air we went.

The last thing my instructor taught me was stalls, & that was all I had on my mind. So I sat as quiet as possible whilst waiting for this thing to gain some height. When I reached roughly 1000ft (I had no instruments), I levelled off & decided to see how this thing stalls.

So I cut the power completely & yanked the nose up to about 45 degrees. Boy, did that thing go into a snap stall! The next thing there was nothing between my face & the ground, & before I knew what was going on, I let go of the controls & grabbed a tube to each side of me.

There I sat, frozen solid in that position. The aircraft dove, picked up speed, pulled itself out of the dive & after a few oscillations was flying level again. Yet, it took quite a while before I could let go of those tubes & concentrate on flying her again.

By now, my wife was going crazy on the ground. She called every neighbour to come and help. When I approached for my first landing attempt, there were already quite a few cars that arrived to watch all of this commotion. I had to land between a water tank & some out buildings and because of a cross wind, found that rather hard to do. Well, to cut a long story short, I landed on about the 5th attempt, safely by the way without bending anything.

And that my friends, was how I started & finally succeeded in my craving for flying.

Keep well all,

Henni

And here are some very faded photos of that very MX1...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/on4f617cmpnph ... t_FAVP.jpg

[Henni]

Ha my friend,

Sure brings back some fond memories. Tx for sharing.

Henni