IBob

Good to hear about Reg: I think I was the last NZ kit bought through him before we got our own agent. Reg was great to deal with, and certainly on those occasions when I needed his expertise. FWIW I bought August 2015, at which point the basic S kit in Australia was A$35K incl tax..........

Hi Skippy, as noted by several above, and also in the 912 manuals, the standard Rotax VDO and 4-20ma sensors are not interchangeable, due to different thread sizes. As for who might supply an alternative 4-20mA sensor, the answer is any one of many manufacturers of pressure transducers. And 0-10bar is one of the standard sizes. However there is a very big 'but': quality and associated price vary greatly. The Rotax transducer operates in a fairly hostile environment, with heat, engine vibration, perhaps also pulsing from the oil pump. And in my experience (I have fitted hundreds in industrial refrigeration settings) the only way to find if a given brand will prove durable in that sort of application is to try it. If my 912 had a VDO unit, I would be inclined to live with it, while also keeping an eye on it. If it had the later 4-20mA unit, I would expect it to be trouble free, as Rotax seem to have gone to some trouble to arrive at a durable solution.

Yes. For oil pressure Rotax shifted from the VDO type, which is a voltage output, to one which gives a 4-20mA current output. (4-20 also being a very common industrial standard for various types of sensor). So the instrumentation has to match which type you have. The VDO type units do seem to fail fairly regularly. The 4-20mA units are proving more reliable.

That's fine for setting, KG. My point was it's hard to check the gap with a regular steel gauge, as it sticks to the magnet and feels like a snug fit regardless.

Have you checked the ignition coil gaps? I have seen that make a big difference on a Rotax that had poor starting. Needs to be checked with a non-ferrous gauge, either that or no-go for next gauge size up, as regular feeler gauges stick to the magnet, feels like snug fit even if it's not.

Maybe ask JG at Stolspeed if anyone has put VGs on a 601HDS?

Absolutely. I'm one of those. And while I'm glad I did the build...one of life's special experiences...my energies went into that instead of flying. Go flying, Baz!

But you're only working two of those at any time?

Blueadventures, the standard keyswitch setup in the Savannah does two things: 1. Turned to On, it provides power to the various instrumentation.* 2. Turned further, it also operates the starter solenoid, with the usual spring return to position 1. *I opted to fit a separate switch for power to radio and transponder, allowing me to switch them on after engine start, and off before shutdown.

Not for too long, we hope..........)

The Savannah has separate 'mags' switches: not part of the keyswitch.

Interested to know........why?

As I recall, the RAT is not armed to deploy until the aircraft is in flight mode...that is, when the weight comes off the undercarriage. It looks as though that is when the RAT deployed: as soon as the wheels left the ground. Which would indicate that the condition/s to cause the RAT to deploy were present at time of rotation.

It's a slab-sided aircraft, I find I like layouts that reduce that slab-sided appearance. Most schemes don't do that, and some even emphasise it. For me, ZK-JUG works well:

Hi Marty, I started off colouring in side and top elevations, as you have. But I have seen aircraft where it looked okay on paper, but really didn't work on the aircraft. I think part of the problem is that we almost never get to view the aircraft directly side on, or directly from above. What we get instead is all sorts of 3/4 views, (typically from just below wing height in the case of the 701 or Savannah). What I did in the end was search my aircraft type on line and study all the pics for colour layouts that I found I liked. Once I had arrived at a layout (in my case a very simple one), I then sorted out the colour. I'm not good at visualising these things: I found this a much better way to come at it.