Sport Pilot Talk

So I finally found and bought an airplane! It's a 2007 Skyranger Classic/Rotax 912 ULS. There's a 1700 nm ferry to get it home, which I'm looking forward to.

Any Skyranger knowledge/experience/war stories/tips & tricks greatly appreciated!

Congrats - Happy and safe flying

chicagorandy wrote: ↑Sun Apr 10, 2022 8:56 am Congrats - Happy and safe flying

Thanks!

Any Skyranger owners out there? I notice that many of them have a ventral fin, and the one I’m buying doesn’t. Does this make a significant difference in lateral stability? Is it a potential safety issue?

I’m inputting the Skyranger W&B into ForeFlight. With full fuel, 2 x 180 lb pilots, and 35 lb luggage, it’s right at the weight max (which is fine), and right at the aft CG limit (which I don’t like). The CG gets marginally better with fuel burn. I suppose this is the problem with the fuel tank being well aft of the empty-weight CG.

What’s the best way to address this? I don’t really want to add weight to the nose, but maybe there’s not a better way, and I don’t like taking off with a partial fuel load for cross-country flights.

I had exactly the opposite problem with my Bristell taildragger, Ham. The fuel tanks are in the leading edge if the wing. So, you can load up the plane to gross, starting out well within the envelope. Then if you fly off all the fuel (landing on fumes), your CG moves behind the aft limit! I didn't consider that a safe condition, potentially making stall recovery impossible. So, I ended up attaching two ballast weights to the gearbox. I'd rather give up a little payload than allow the plane to fly itself outside of the envelope.

Thanks, Paul.

It is starting at the aft limit, and gets better with fuel burn. I suppose that’s OK.

I may need to add another step to stall recovery: ‘Everyone lean forward!’ I could stand to lose 20 lbs, too!

It is certainly better to be in the envelope and move closer to the middle while in flight, than to be in and move out during flight. I wouldn't be to worried being at the aft end of the range, as long as you are within the range. The airplane will likely be slightly faster, and I have found that they often land nicer with aft CG.

Thanks. That’s good to know!

I actually bought a 2007 Skyranger Classic about a year ago with a partner. It needed quite a bit of work (replacing fabric, engine work, etc.), but we're almost ready to fly it now. It has a Jabiru 2200 engine. Let's keep in touch. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of these planes in the U.S., so I'd like to be able to reach out to other Skyranger owners about things like maintenance, qualified CFIs, sources for parts, etc.

Great to hear from another SkyRanger owner! PM sent.

Off to Kentucky next weekend to pick up the SkyRanger and fly it back to California! Excited and apprehensive at the same time… especially about fuel prices!

Any cross-country tips, tricks, war stories greatly appreciated.

There's a guy at my airport who also owns and flies a SkyRanger. He also had something to do with importing or distribution if I remember correctly. He said they built about 20 of them back in the day. It has a 912UL on it and I just fabricated a new instrument panel for it to update all the old steam gauges to "suedo" glass. He installed the iLevel 3AW which is a remote mount unit that talks to his panel mounted iPad Pro for a display. It's a pretty cool setup. The plane is quite light with a pretty good useful load. It's also fairly quick for a bush plane with the 912.

Nice panel!

"Off to Kentucky next weekend to pick up the SkyRanger and fly it back to California!"

Any updates?

About a third of the way back. Now in Chanute, Kansas, waiting for tomorrow’s storm to pass through. Learning lots, like how to land a 600 pound plane in 18G22 winds!