Frugal flying

LDJones

LDJones

Touchdown! Greaser!
Gone West
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
10,998
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Twin Cities, MN
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Display name:
Jonesy
Since taking on several Light Sport students from a good friend and fellow instructor currently battling health issues, today I took our Jabiru up to play a bit. Slowing her down to "loitering" mode dropped fuel burn to a pretty frugal 1.6 GPH burn rate! Sure, we were only going 57 kts, but if you're just loitering for sightseeing purposes, the slower the better! Turned into the wind at 3,500' my gound speed was a whopping 23 kts.

What a fun little airplane to fly!

20121230-185758.jpg


http://www.mnaviationpro.com/2012/12/30/economical-flying-in-jabiru-170sp/
 
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Try soaring sometime. You wont believe the fuel burn!
 
Is that one of Hummingbird's planes? I took my written there. :D
 
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My CTSW burns about 3 gallons an hour of auto premium at 80-85 knots. Even at 100 knots, it can often get better mileage than my car.
 
wby0nder said:
Try soaring sometime. You wont believe the fuel burn!
Click to expand...

Been there, done that, glider-rated. Had 3.5 hours on one flight in my own SGS 1-23....although had way too many "Tow to altitude, release, look for lift, found no lift, returned to airport" flights!

When I factor in the tow costs, the Jabiru is still cheaper to fly! Now, if you live near some good ridge lift, and had a winch, that might be different!
 
It is so hard to find out anything about the J170. Everyone seems smitten with the J230! But the larger bird does not have adequate useful load for two real-sized Americans plus reasonable baggage for a long weekend (2.5-3 hrs of flying per segment). The 170 offers a truly useful load.
Now the big question--would you judge the 170 reasonably comfortable for the type of flying I described? The Mrs. is not going to travel in agony.
Thanks for whatever insight you can offer.
D
 
I gave up on the idea of packing my wife into an LSA. A local sightseeing trip is possible, but truly no LSA can offer the useful load to make it a cross-country airplane with our baggage requirements. Looking at a 1950 Bo now, owner of which decided to go LSA due to medical issues.

I know one guy whose wife travels with him from Tennessee to Arizona in a Sky Arrow, which has one of the worst useful loads across all LSAs. It's a heavy airplane that has a Part 23 version in U.S. (very rarely found these days), which the manufacturer decreed to have a smaller gross weight. Still, I don't think they fly in overgross. She just packs light and probably makes a use of washing machine in hotels where they stay.

BTW, Jabirus are temperature limited. Probably not the best airplane if you're anywhere near west TX. Could work in Houston, perhaps. Also, J170 uses the 2200 80 hp engine (rated 85 hp now by bumping RPM). Again it's something more suitable for Houston than Midland or Armadillo.
 
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saintlfd said:
It is so hard to find out anything about the J170. Everyone seems smitten with the J230! But the larger bird does not have adequate useful load for two real-sized Americans plus reasonable baggage for a long weekend (2.5-3 hrs of flying per segment). The 170 offers a truly useful load.
Now the big question--would you judge the 170 reasonably comfortable for the type of flying I described? The Mrs. is not going to travel in agony.
Thanks for whatever insight you can offer.
D
Click to expand...

I find it very comfortable (5'11", 210 lb) and the owner (6'2", 190 lb est.) has flown it with his wife and baggage from MN to TX more than once. They love traveling in it.
 
LDJones said:
Since taking on several Light Sport students from a good friend and fellow instructor currently battling health issues, today I took our Jabiru up to play a bit. Slowing her down to "loitering" mode dropped fuel burn to a pretty frugal 1.6 GPH burn rate! Sure, we were only going 57 kts, but if you're just loitering for sightseeing purposes, the slower the better! Turned into the wind at 3,500' my gound speed was a whopping 23 kts.

What a fun little airplane to fly!

20121230-185758.jpg


http://www.mnaviationpro.com/2012/12/30/economical-flying-in-jabiru-170sp/
Click to expand...

I like the warning for passenger sticker. Nice...
 
What's the Warning Light illuminated for?
 
tsts4 said:
What's the Warning Light illuminated for?
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Low fuel because we didn't increment the fuel totalizer on the last fill. You'll see the gas gauges show half tanks (18 gal) while the totalizer shows only 2.1 gal.

Edit: Of course, even with the errant total it's showing 1 hr. 18 min. Of fuel remaining at this burn rate.
 
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