Sport Pilot Talk

2009 Jabiru J230 Light Sport Aircraft...

I have owned and flown a 2010 Jabiru J230-SP for six years. ("SP" = Australian kit assembled by Jabiru USA).

What would you like to know?

Since this is an old post and I happen to be looking for a second aircraft. I will ask, How does the J230 fly? What would you compare it to? Any bad habits or traits? How does it handle grass strips? How is the Jabiru 3300 for Maintenance?

Before anyone asks, nope no intention of getting rid of my Ercoupe. Just looking for something more of a cross country bird.

That's what I was wondering as well ... I know of two Jabiru servicing centers .. one in Mt Vernon IL and another in Tennessee ... how far do you have to travel to take the engine for servicing ?

Thank you for responding.

I was flying a low wing Evektor and had to move to the high wing Jabiru. I like the space of the Jabiru and the Y stick. I feel it is easily controllable as I am right handed.

I found that steep turns (45 degree) were much easier in the Evektor. Also, power on stalls are more controllable in the Evektor.

I realize it is a different plane, but does high wing vs low wing make that big of a difference?

joey4420 wrote:Since this is an old post and I happen to be looking for a second aircraft. I will ask, How does the J230 fly? What would you compare it to? Any bad habits or traits? How does it handle grass strips? How is the Jabiru 3300 for Maintenance?

Before anyone asks, nope no intention of getting rid of my Ercoupe. Just looking for something more of a cross country bird.

If you want cross country , go for the private certificate and get yourself some kind of RV ... no LSA plane will improve significantly on Ercoupe speed - yes, CTLS or Sting or Jabiru can give you 110 or so knots vs Ercoupe's 95 knots but that's not much of an improvement - RV will give you something along 140-150 knots.

Warmi wrote:

joey4420 wrote:Since this is an old post and I happen to be looking for a second aircraft. I will ask, How does the J230 fly? What would you compare it to? Any bad habits or traits? How does it handle grass strips? How is the Jabiru 3300 for Maintenance?

Before anyone asks, nope no intention of getting rid of my Ercoupe. Just looking for something more of a cross country bird.

If you want cross country , go for the private certificate and get yourself some kind of RV ... no LSA plane will improve significantly on Ercoupe speed - yes, CTLS or Sting or Jabiru can give you 110 or so knots vs Ercoupe's 95 knots but that's not much of an improvement - RV will give you something along 140-150 knots.

I think your numbers are shy for the CTLS, and over optimistic for the Ercoupe. I think the speed delta will be just north of 40 mph. between the two.

P2008 turbo/Astore turbo are 125-127 knots true down low.

sportflugzeug wrote:Thank you for responding.

I was flying a low wing Evektor and had to move to the high wing Jabiru. I like the space of the Jabiru and the Y stick. I feel it is easily controllable as I am right handed.

I found that steep turns (45 degree) were much easier in the Evektor. Also, power on stalls are more controllable in the Evektor.

I realize it is a different plane, but does high wing vs low wing make that big of a difference?

A little late to the party but to answer your question...

The only difference between a low wing and high wing is that your blind area changes. The differences you noted are due to the different handling characteristics of those particular airplanes and to some extent the pilot. What I usually see if a power on stall is pushed to its conclusion is that most pilots do not use enough rudder to keep the ball centered near the end. That results in a sharp roll at the stall break into the opposite direction of the ball.