I bought a 2 place PPC in 1997 and went the BFI route because my then 9 year old daughter wanted to fly with me. Since then I've logged over 1400 hours, became an instructor examiner, and cut my machine back to a single place ultralight when the FAA rules changed. My daughter soloed when she turned 16 and is now a proficient pilot. I live in a great part of the country for flying and it's still good fun. One of the great advantages of a PPC is you can store it in the garage and haul it around on a small trailer. That makes it convenient to see different parts of the country without having to fly there and deal with weather, accommodations, etc.. The engine is a Rotax 582 that is still all original except for the gaskets required to disassemble and check it out every few hundred hours. This is me flying over the Sisters Mtns near my home.
How many hours are on that 582? I'm actually liking my 503 a lot. I was worried about I reliability and and all that stuff but this one hasn't missed a beat. I keep a close eye on CHT and EGT. I've also done lots of reading on the differences between running a 2 stroke and a 4 stroke. The 503 in mine just turned 163.7 hours this morning after a 1.5 hour flight to the east. I was up around 8000 feet today. I needed to be at 7 k to clear the mountains before the desert then went up to 8k when I turned around and headed back west. It lost a little climb performance at that altitude. From 7 to 8 k I was only able to make about 350 FPM. Sent from my iPhone
Over 1400 hours on my 582. Most ultralight pilots would say the 503 is the best ultralight engine, period. A friend of mine has over 1200 hours on one with zero problems. Rotax recommends a total rebuild on their ultralight engines every 300 hours, including a new crankshaft! Main things with the 2 stroke engines is to keep them lubricated, keep the moisture out during storage, keep the temps in the proper range during flight, and a good warm up before take off. I have an EIS with all the temp probes but really the only one I watch is the EGT. I've been up to 15,300' in my PPC, about 11,000 in the pic above. My friend Bud Gish set the official PPC altitude record a few years ago of over 20,000' using a 503 engine. Most fun though is flying at 10' to 100'. One way to make a bit of money with an ultralight is to sell your own aerial photos for magazines, calendars, etc.. I've made a few bucks that way over the years.
Save your money on those plug wires.Unless a rat chewed them up.Never seen any go bad.Not sure,but I think they are solid core.Like I said,never replaced any. If things work out,Iám coming to the States next summer and ride a bike cross country.I plan on stopping in Bend and look up a CFI named Robert Hendricks.I want to fly a trike in as many states as I can.I have done 18 so far. In 1986 I stopped in Bend to get some pictures developed and started talking to the owner about flying.His name was Dave Parker.Turns out he bought and sold airplanes and was going up that afternoon in a Tiger.A kid who worked for him and his girlfriend went with us.I remember she drove an old 356. We flew around the Three Sisters Range.Beautiful country. Looks like a lot of people are starting to mix their oil a little richer than 2 percent.Like 40 to 1 instead of 50 to one.I like the oil injection but some people think its just another thing to go wrong.I know they use less oil and the plugs last longer. But you can also say that plugs and oil are cheap compared to a new motor if the oil injection fails. Those are some nice pictures Hugemoth.
Racing old road race Yamaha two strokes we'd go down to 24:1 or 20:1. Rings sealed better, and when you closed the throttle entering a corner they wouldn't seize like the guys running lean would.
Rotax uses dykes rings which might be the reason they stick easier.If we run that rich,20 to 1 ,they would stick.I wonder how much the oil has changed.I still reminder the smell of the Blenzoil. The 447 and 503 are piston port.The 532 and 582 are rotary valve.They all use the same muffler for two cylinders.Its not an expansion chamber. But we only turn 6800RPM at the most.Its set up to last for hundreds of hours.And its almost always under a load.They came from snowmobiles with holes in the pto end to mount a gear box.With gear ratios from 2.5 to 4.1.Some gear box { the E box } have e start built in.The C box can be fitted with a clutch which can work out good for floats.The B box is the plain jane.Just like in a boat ,you don't want to spin the prop too fast.About 1500 to 2300RPM. Before Rotax came along people were using engines like the Yamaha 100cc at 15 HP.Some early MAC 101 were using props that bolted straight to the crank.They were so loud everyone hated them.Before gear boxes everyone used beltdrive reduction.Some times up to five belts to keep down on the slipping.Now anything using belts use cog belts.Belts are cheaper,quieter,lighter,and smoother.The prop turns the same direction as the engine.A box is opposite.But stronger and less maintenance.Uses 90 weight gear oil. The sled motors came with Mikuni carbs and Nippondeniso CDI.They both said they would not have anything to do with Ultralights.Thats why we have Bing model 54 {36mm}carbs and Ducati dual ignition.Even though its called a dual ignition,it can have one part fall and take out both sides.Early ones were single plug with points. People pass out when they here the price.A 503 with 50HP,B gear box,ready to run is about Five Thousand Dollars.A 65HP 582 with E box is about nine thousand.The four cylinder 1200 four stroke,80HP is almost twenty.The newest 1350cc four stroke 100HP FI is close to thirty.The turbo 115HP is mid thirty's. The two strokes weigh 100 to 120lbs.The four strokes about 160lbs. Ready to run,no prop.
The boots on the coil ends are starting to crack and come apart. So I guess I'll just replace the boots. The engines are pricey. I was looking at HKS700Es. New 10 grand used for 5 grand. Then started looking at BMW flat twins lol. There seems to be a few folks using Geo Metro/Suzuki I-3s. Sent from my iPhone
It's pretty difficult to beat the power to weight ratio of the Rotax UL engines. 2SI and Hirth engines have been unreliable and still can't match the power/weight ratio of the Rotax. The HKS is a nice looking engine but they don't seem to put out the claimed horsepower. I've flown one and it seemed to have less power than a single carb 503. A friend of mine has a Metro 3 cyl engine with a planetary gear box. Heavy and low power but low fuel burn and reliable. Don't know about the BMW but have seen trikes powered by them. I've also seen Generac and Honda V twin powered "ultralights" but again a low power/weight ratio. Even saw a Harley powered one. Lots of vaporware engines out there that claim they will have a high power/weight ratio but they never materialize. Buckeye even had a jet powered PPC but the fuel burn was terrible.
What he said.Hard to beat a Rotax.I have flown a HKS on a trike.No ass.I love everything about it but not enough power.Although they are a good fit for some light three axis like yours.Flew in a Flightstar with one and it did fine.Matching the prop makes a big difference.And the company stepped up when they had some early valve problems and replaced some motors.HKS is big in the import car performance market.They have a new turbo 80HP. Never flew the GEO four cylinder but the three is underpowered.My friend had one of the first Raven Redrive pusher belt redrives.Great fuel burn,less than 2 gallons an hour,but heavy and weak.On the same trike a 503 was stronger.I want to try the four cylinder. Flew one Hirth and it ran good,lots of torque,nice sound.But they don't have a good track record.Cracked gearboxs. The BMW I flew was very heavy,but it was the old air head.About the same performance as a 503.The new ones look good.Lot more power and lighter.And they should last forever.Different final drive! At the end of the day its hard to beat a Rotax.
Had a lot of fun there today. There were two Trikes there when we showed up around 11AM but they took off as soon as we had parked on the ramp. Other than the Trikes we appeared to be the only Ultralights there today. The little planes were real popular. Matt and I probably spent more time talking about our birds than out walking around looking at other people's birds. Total round trip time was about 4.8 hours on the Hobbs meter. And wayyyyy too much fuel burned. One thing I really liked about this event was they were welcoming to EVERYONE. We had e-mailed to make sure up front that Ultralights were welcome to the event. They not only invited us in they encourage even insisted we make the fly-in. Big thanks to Ambar Mote for the invite and the welcoming upon our arrival. And to all the ramp workers and young volunteers from the (jr?)ROTC there directing ramp traffic and getting everyone parking spots. At Hemet-Ryan getting fuel. CDF sent out a OV-10 Bronco two tankers and a UH-1 while we were there fueling up. Gotta love the sound of a big radial. The Flabob Express A recently completed full restoration OOOOOOO CANNNNNADAAAAA!!!! More pictures and hopefully video coming soon.
Got to admit,one of the things I miss most,besides fishing,is the fly-ins. How many gallons an hour are you burning? Four and even five are normal with a 503.Check your main jets and see if they are stock.Lots of sites have the jet chart from Rotax.If you keep it off the main jets and on the needle it will make a big difference.It comes on the main jets around 4800rpm. No matter how much more the big planes cost,they still don't have as much fun as an ultralight!
I am PPL/IFR and flew a Cirrus for a few years as part of my job. I had a C172 for a number of years. After flying to the mountains, Bahamas, FL Keys etc. we found that we used the airplane very little and the cost to go somewhere, was pretty steep. After having spent many nights in crappy little towns around the US, waiting for weather or parts, I kind of got my 10 years of GA flying and don't do it much anymore. I am curious about the UL side of things, I live in FL and I guess there is a bit of this in Central FL. The idea of something low and slow that I can maintain etc. is appealing, is there and advrider for UL guys?
I learned to fly trikes at Herlong Airport in Jax. Might be more ultralights in Florida than any other state.Where do you live?
I burn about 4.5 to 5 GPH. Not real sure I could get mine to run at 4800 revs and keep a decent airspeed. Me and my buddy usually cruise between 5500 and 5800 revs. I guess the ADV equivelant website for UL guys would be homebuiltairplanes.com or the eaa.org forums. Sent from my iPhone
Just cruising around in the sky my PPC burns 2.75 gallons per hour with the Rotax 582, of course my air speed is only 30 mph.
Love this thread. I almost bought a Flightstar a few years back. I wonder if the guy still has it. I'm a Commercial SE/ME with CFII and I really would love to just chase cows or meander along a river at 30'. Damn you for posting the pics. At the risk of a hijack, I have a bit of input you gearheads may want to ponder. Back in the 80s I wore out a Yamaha R5C and then picked up an RD400 that was hopped up. I managed to seize it up a few times WFO above 120 mph and had a five gallon bucket full of pistons for my efforts. To avoid seizing it I disconnected the oil injection and started running higher quantities of oil. I stumbled across Golden Spectro and seemingly solved my problems. One day I was at a dealership picking up a gallon of the oil and an older guy behind the parts counter took interest in my RD400 (they were somewhat rare by then - or at least you didn't see them every day). He came out and looked over my bike and I told him my stories. That's when he set me straight on two stroke lubrication. Warning: This goes in the face of much that we think we understand He told me my problem wasn't lack of oil, it was from running lean. I argued that all engine failures can be traced to lack of lubrication. He said that's true but when an engine is running extremely lean the temperatures go so high that there ain't enough lube on earth to solve what is about to happen. Further, and perhaps most interestingly, he flipped on a light for me (and the reference to running "rich" oil caused me to recall this). You see, when we run higher quantities of oil we are displacing that amount of gasoline which aggravates the lean condition instead of making it better. The jets don't know what fluid is running through them, they just meter the total amount. The bike doesn't run on oil, it runs on gas. He looked over my bikes equipment and sold me a set of 180 main jets. Told me to hook the oil injection back up (it was not known in real life to ever cause a problem) and not screw with it ever again. He was right. I ran the living crap out of that RD for another year and never had another seizure. I've never run more than 50:1 in any two stroke since then and haven't had a seizure of any kind in 25 years. Now off to scour the ads for a UL.
St. Augustine. Fly from SGJ. I adjust aviation insurance claims, so my enthusiasm for owner flown transportation is a bit jaded. On of these with a BRS chute is interesting though....
