Remos here I come!

RalphInCA

RalphInCA

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RalphInCA
I am scheduled to do a check out in our club's Remos G3 next Tuesday.

Looking forward to it! :yes:

Will be a nice change from the 172 I have been flying. A little cheaper too.
 
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They are nice birds a tad, "heavy" compared to a lot of LSAs, but still sporty. You'll love the Rotax 912s and the heat for winter flying.
 
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Rotax, yes, it is a great engine.

But every training center that I know of that bought Remos planes sold them already.
The biggest problem is the nose gear is too weak for a trainer.

Look up FAA ASIAS reports and you'll see lots of Remos in accidents resulting in nose gear collapse. That said, you can enjoy the plane so long as you know it can't take the moderate amount of nose wheel abuse that traditional trainers can.

It's not a Remos specific problem as much as it is an LSA specific problem. When you take a lot of structure out of a plane to meet weight limitations, you accept the fact that it is not as strong as a traditional plane and work within those limitations.
 
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As a prior sport pilot and LSA owner, I would say I agree at least partially with the nose gear weakness comment. I would say however, it can depend on the plane. Also on the comment about them being heavier.. in the club I belong to, they had three Goboshes, a Remos, and a Piper Sport. The Remos had far more useful load than any of the others.

As for the Remos itself. You may enjoy it, I know friends who do enjoy flying them. I got checked out in the plane and never flew it again. I really disliked how it felt in flight. It felt sort of flimsy in flight. My CFi who did the check out said she thought it was hard to get to land well. She had a ton of hours in LSA's instructing and flying. I noticed that when you get near to landing the wing on that plane just wants to abruptly stop flying. It was noticeably harder than my Gobosh to land well. Again, just my limited experience with that plane.

I too own a Rotax and I do like the engine. It takes getting used to the higher RPM's if you haven't flown behind one previously. I have flown one for almost 400 hours and on cross countries of over 3000 miles and not had any issues.

Carl
 
Rotax TBO is 2,000 hours, but many are still running strong after 4,000 hours.
 
The club in tug with has one of these. Never flown it but it looks pretty high tech sitting on the ramp. The whole LSA fleet looks so small to me. Just don't feel confident in something that small. Honestly the Remos makes a 172 look like a Boeing 747...
 
Rotax just had a contest to find the highest TBO 912 engine. IIRC the winner had over 6000 hours with no overhaul. The prize was a new 912iS fuel injected engine to replace the high time engine.
 
bullwinkle said:
Rotax just had a contest to find the highest TBO 912 engine. IIRC the winner had over 6000 hours with no overhaul. The prize was a new 912iS fuel injected engine to replace the high time engine.
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Nice! Try that with a Lycoming or Continental.

I really wish Rotax would have brought the 6 cylinder to market as an experimental. They would have sold a butt load of them. 250 HP.
 
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You'll have fun in the Remos. The problem with Remos hasn't been so much the plane, as the company. Many changes of ownership, financing, management. Just recently did German equivalent of bankruptcy. Spent a bunch of money on advertising and PR, at the exact wrong time.
 
My Dad has a GX and I really like the airplane. It has nice control harmony and has just the right balance of lightness to stability. I find it easy to land. I have flown several different aircraft with Rotax 912s and they run very smooth. The only thing I don't like are the Bing carbs but Rotax has now come out with fuel injection. Don
 
philiplane said:
The biggest problem is the nose gear is too weak for a trainer.
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We had a Piper Sport leased to us for training. We found this to be the case with this plane as well. The nose gear broke twice in about a 4 month period during heavy summer training period. Great little plane otherwise, but not meant for flight training.
 
I never flew it, but the FBO I fly with used to have a Remos GX for rent. It looked nice on the ramp and everything, but my instructor didn't like flying it. His complaints centered on the high approach speeds (I think 10 kts faster than the Sportstar they have) and the very abrupt stalling characteristics.

Almost had a serious emergency once when an instructor was up with a student and the back window popped out. Dinged the vertical stab but not enough to cause any serious issues thankfully.

Few other guys loved flying it with the doors off though.
 
First flight today. Went well, except slight problem keeping it straight on take off. Need to get more used to judging how much rudder application I need on take off.

Other than that great flight great airplane.
 
Make sure you get a good check out,the Ramos is a great airplane,but it is a light sport. Won't take you long to learn proper rudder pressure.
 
RalphInCA said:
First flight today. Went well, except slight problem keeping it straight on take off. Need to get more used to judging how much rudder application I need on take off.

Other than that great flight great airplane.
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Its exactly the same as any other plane.

Less than too much and more than not enouth :yes:
 
Rotax Love

Cpt_Kirk said:
I don't think I've ever seen those two words in the same sentence.
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Really? Everyone I know who has them, loves them with the possible exception of the first few injection motors.
 
Regarding the burp. Simply doing what my CFI taught me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
RalphInCA said:
Regarding the burp. Simply doing what my CFI taught me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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In a rental situation a burp is called for, otherwise you couldn't accurately determine the oil level.

If you own the plane you really only need to know that there is enough oil, too much can be determined at oil change. Enough can be seen on the dip stick without burping, at least most of the time.
 
CharlieTango said:
In a rental situation a burp is called for, otherwise you couldn't accurately determine the oil level.

If you own the plane you really only need to know that there is enough oil, too much can be determined at oil change. Enough can be seen on the dip stick without burping, at least most of the time.
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Huh...I always burp mine.
 
RalphInCA said:
Regarding the burp. Simply doing what my CFI taught me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Mechanics always burped ours prior to flight, but it wasn't uncommon for us to fly them 8-10 hours nonstop. So having enough oil was nice.
 
I can't wait to tell my non flying friends that I have to burp the airplane I fly. That'll amuse them for sure.
 
I usually burp mine, but if I'm pressed for time I just pull the stick and check the level. If the level is on the flat part of the stick I know there is enough and burping will only raise that level. If it's not on the flat I burp away to confirm the level.
 
Just finished my second flight in the Remos. I think I am finally learning to land the thing. :yes:

The trick was to leave just a tiny bit of power on during short final and feeeeeeeeel my way to the ground during flare.

I *think* the reason I need a little power is that there is not much weight, so pitching for airspeed is not as effective when simply gliding in.

I could be wrong, I am sure fellow POArs will let me know. :redface:

.... And before I get chastised for depending on power to land, I know this is bad form and will continue to work on not needing it. :D
 
I don't think there is anything wrong with a little bit of power still in on landing. I have over 400 hours flying LSA's and I land with power sometimes, as required. They are not the same as flying heavier planes and they take what they take to get nicely down to the ground. Glad to hear you are having success.

Carl
 
Energy management is harder because you retain so little energy. You can run out of stored energy in a heart beat.

To land with flaps and a closed throttle is like playing chicken with the ground. You want to come out of your round out very low and then bleed off speed while your just inches above the runway. If you can maintain 1.3 Vso till you are under a wing span in height you probably won't need power.

It takes a whole lot more feel.
 
In general, I frown on power carried into the flare as unnecessary.

It can be a bandaid to cover up a skill that needs a little honing. It also adds a variable, power, that need not be dealt with if you're already at idle at 50-100'.

Fewer variables = better landings, in my experience.

I'd suggest getting good at power off landings, with a CFI if necessary. Maybe fly a bunch with the power to idle abeam the numbers.

It's required for Commercial applicants, and for good reason, I think.
 
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FastEddieB said:
In general, I frown on power carried into the flare as unnecessary.



It can be a bandaid to cover up a skill that needs a little honing. It also adds a variable, power, that need not be dealt with if you're already at idle at 50-100'.



Fewer variables = better landings, in my experience.



I'd suggest getting good at power off landings, with a CFI if necessary. Maybe fly a bunch with the power to idle abeam the numbers.



It's required for Commercial applicants, and for good reason, I think.
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I agree, and, like I said in my most recent post, I plan to wean myself off of the need to carry power.

I just found it useful at this early stage at getting used to this very light airplane to have a little power on short final.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
evapilotaz said:
What the heck is burping the engine and the purpose behind it. Please enlighten me.
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The Rotax oil level is checked from an external oil tank and not from the engine itself. To best determine actual oil available to the engine, you need to return oil to the tank.

You do this by pulling the prop through in the normal operating direction several turns, until you hear the engine "burp" (it's actually more of a wet gurgle). That tells you you are pumping air and there is no more oil to be returned to the tank.

The oil level is considered adequate if the oil falls on the flat portion of the oil tank dipstick. Many times this is the case anyway, and burping will just raise the oil level on the stick. Occasionally if you check a cold engine the oil level will not quite be up to the flat of the dipstick, and then burping is required to get an accurate level.

Most flight schools and trainers teach that you burp before each flight to get an accurate oil level, but it's not really necessary most of the time.
 
I like burping my engine. Makes me feel closer to the plane. Kinda like I once felt when my son was a baby.

I also give it a pat as I am doing my preflight.

I don't talk to it though.

I'm not crazy.
 
RalphInCA said:
Just finished my second flight in the Remos. I think I am finally learning to land the thing. :yes:

The trick was to leave just a tiny bit of power on during short final and feeeeeeeeel my way to the ground during flare.

I *think* the reason I need a little power is that there is not much weight, so pitching for airspeed is not as effective when simply gliding in.

I could be wrong, I am sure fellow POArs will let me know. :redface:

.... And before I get chastised for depending on power to land, I know this is bad form and will continue to work on not needing it. :D
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If you need power to land, it means you need a steeper approach to land power off. It's just a matter of trading gravity and kinetic energy for mechanical energy. If this is your first experience with a very light weight aircraft, one of the things you have to get used to is that you have less inertia so the window of time that the flare-landing occurs in is narrower, start flaring later and settle on sooner. Once you get the feel for the difference in the tempo of the process, things will tighten up even better.
 
I found the flaps in GX very effective and it was easiest to land flaps 15 at first so you don't bleed out the energy so fast. It also makes instructor less apprehensive, because with full flaps 1) you have to flare rather late and he/she does not know if you're about to wheelbarrow it until it's too late, 2) you inevitably have Gs put on the wing and come close to stalling in flare, which means you'll land on the nose just the same. So don't try to win a Valdez contest.
 
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