Jabiru Falke
We now have our Falke back with its Jabiru 2200 conversion and the aircraft
is up to our expectations. We have needed some minor adjustments.
[Is that the royal We, Macca?]
We get a sound 500 ft/min off the ground measured with a logger and
this aircraft will take a worthwhile 190kg pay load with 1 hour of fuel
At this stage we have no plans to fit a glider towing hook to this aircraft
but will think about it for our second Jabiru falke which will be when
we have saved up the $A20,000+ for the conversion
This present conversion took Mike Burnes longer than expected as we
had the latest Jabiru Falke with bigger finning on the head and larger
carburettor. Thus cowlings had to be modified as did the sealing of the
top chamber as the previous Falke conversion was for Bob King in Tasmania
and used an earlier engine. This change by Jabiru has resulted in lower
CHT temperatures of 160 deg C even in the climb and oil temperatures can
be kept well below 100deg C so long as you do not do prolonged climbs.
The best way to really keep temps under control is to give it to it a bit
of a rest at 1500 ft AGL then it seems to be right from there on to whatever
height you want.
The only real problem has been our standard Jabiru exhaust was a poor
fit and too much exhaust gas leaked into the engine compartment.
I think when Rod Stiff of Jabiru sees my photos he will realise we really
did have a one off bad system. We plan to visit our local aircraft welder
for a relative minor mod which should make it better than the original.
Jabiru Motor Falke Installation |
We did not receive the Jabiru tacho sender unit through a misunderstanding.
Mike Burnes adapted a pick-up based on the generator, and thanks to a filter
made by Bill Riley we have a perfect VDO tacho which is better than the
standard Jabiru installation. Also we did not use the Jabiru regulator
but chose the Power Mate by Claus Grimm which he designed for the Rotax.
Many years ago I fitted one to our PIK20E replacing the original Rotax
$A15 bit of junk regulator. The result was the battery immediately lasted
5 years instead of the previous one year and zero electronics problems.
Ignition noise using a Microair radio is absolutely zero and is much better
than most Jabiru Aircraft I have flown in. I am trying persuade Jabiru
that they should consider using these two mods on their standard aircraft
installations and they are listening.
Recently I visited the Jabiru engine factory and all I can say I was
most impressed with what I saw. I have visited the Sauer factory
in Germany (they make very light weight B and C Falke engines based on
the 1991 VW transporter engine) and a friend of mine did 2 weeks
doing an engine course with Limbach in Germany. All I can say the
Aussies (perhaps I'm biased) lead the Germans in both production techniques
and quality control. When it comes time for a new engine the fixed
overhaul of $A2500 sure beats the German costs of about DM14,000. I could
only say I am impressed with my dealings with Phil Ainsworth, Rod Stiff,
Debbie Potter and all the Jabiru team.
My only criticism is the prop will only stop in the one position (horizontal)
and just can not be stopped in the vertical position which is where I like
to have it in the thermals - less turbulence perceived, better thermal
climb.
Perhaps for the future a little more thought could be put into the choice
of prop as we have a fairly standard propeller. Also recently I looked
inside the cowl of Cessna 414 and I was most impressed with the streamlined
up side down airfoil section under the top edge of cowl. I gather
such a mod gives 10% to 15% or so increase to airflow through the engine.
This possibly should be thought about on all towing aircraft as knocking
5 deg C off the CHT can only help as most damage to aircraft engines is
done from shock cooling from high to medium temperatures.
So you have it on the Falke-Jabiru. I recommend this conversion - please
ask if you want more details.
McPhee.
[Translation by R. White]
Jabiru-Falke MkII
Jan 2004
This is a the photo of the rusted tube which was missed by all the experts
while the old paint was there but in fairness after it was sandblasted
it was looked at while upright on a falkelift. This rust was from outside
in and was caused by the mudguard being glued on with Q-cells etc and then
the water lying in the bed so formed. Also it is not a really important
tube but it is rust. There were about 4 or 6 other such stressed
tubes (all bottom diagonal down the rear of fuse) and all these were found
by the welder. He missed there up the front 40cm behind main wheel.
My thoughts would be at either 30 yearly or 40 yearly or when refabric
tales place on Falkes/K13/Bergfalkes consider a sand blast and paint with
2 pot zinc chromate etc followed by 2 coats of polyurethane.
Jabiru Service Bulletin JSB-012-1
The Jabiru Service Bulletin calls for aninspection and re-torque of
the flywheel bolts.
http://home.online.no/~michel/Flywheel
Have a look - a few photos save a thousand words
As you may know there is a service bulletin to check these bolts each
100hrs (from memory) which is a bit of a pain but it has been the cause
of many Jabiru engine failures. The new models have a stepped bolt
I think so the check is no longer needed. McPhee.
During the Second World
War the Germans experimented with military gliders (as did several other
nations), and one model developed was an enormous transport, intended to
deliver troops or equipment silently to a battlefield. The sticking point
with gliders, of course, is how to get them into the air, and the usual
solution is for a tow-plane to pull them aloft. There apparently was no
plane adequate to tow this monstrous glider, however, so they developed
a very dangerous technique using three planes harnessed to one glider.
The term for this arrangement was a 'troika-schlep'.
From A
Word a Day |
