Sport Pilot Talk

Am a sport pilot with one wife and two 40+ pound dogs.
Our Skyranger ELSA has plenty of payload capacity but barely baggage capacity or configuration for an overnight daypack.

Was Looking at jabiru J230 and J250 as They have both space and loading allowance to easily permit the two 40+pound dogs in back behind pilot. Most LSAs not so.
(There is also the Storm Rally LSA. But AFAIK it's an unsupported orphan and only about five or so even exist.)

My question is are there any other LSAs that sort of have behind the pilot capacity or even a huge luggage space with 80+ pounds allowable?

Alex

Of all the SLSAs out there, I would say the Jabiru is the best suited to dog hauling.

I take my pooch everywhere I go in my Tecnam P92 Eaglet. Lots of room behind the seats. I have a milk crate sized box with a blanket behind the passenger seat and she lies on that or jumps up onto the shelf by the rear window. I also have a short leash hooked to the the rod that controls the flaps so she can't jump up front.

Vashon Ranger has lots of room in back

The Ranger does have a lot of room in the back I will say. I just wish it had a real aircraft engine in it.

The Zlin Savage Norden can at least fit one! https://youtu.be/p-9-lDetmuo

Type47 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:37 am Vashon Ranger has lots of room in back

Sadly, although I think the Vashon Ranger is a cool concept, the useful load would be pretty sketchy for two people and even a single decent-sized dog, much less two dogs totalling 80+ lbs... The claimed useful load is only 445 lbs, and it's probably a bit less in "real world", once you include the weight of an extra quart of oil, and other miscellaneous items you keep in the plane all the time. With full tanks (27 gallons / 162 lbs), that leaves only 283 lbs payload. Load up you dogs (you said 80+ lbs), and you're down to about 200 lbs for pilot and passenger, combined...

I keep thinking about how much more useful that plane would be with a Rotax engine, and at least extra 50 lbs of useful load.

If you only fill the tanks to 15 gallons (2 hrs + 1 hr reserve), you'd only have 275 lbs for you and your wife. Perhaps workable for some couples, but would limit where you could go without having to stop for fuel a lot.

For your mission, either of the two Jabiru models would be a better fit. Both have large baggage areas, though the J230D stands out, having a normal-sized door and a huge volume. (It's the same cabin as the 4-place version they sell in Australia, and also available as a non-LSA-eligible kit here in the US.) You can read more about the Jabiru airplanes on the US Sport Planes website.

Scott Severen is "the man" when it comes to Jabiru aircraft in the US. His contact info is on their website as well. He is a pretty low-key, non-pressure type – easy to talk to. He had one of each model (J170D and J230D) parked in the hangar where I took the Light Sport Repairman - Inspection course. All the attendees were impressed with those airplanes. They were really nicely finished, and had large baggage areas (especially the J230D, which was positively cavernous). I was impressed!

Hi Campbell!
You wrote
"...take my pooch everywhere I go in my Tecnam P92 Eaglet. Lots of room behind the seats..

I had a Tecnam Bravo for a while. I believe the inside layout is similar to your Eaglet..And adequate room for a two medium size dogs.
But if I remember right the stated weight limit for that back baggage area was about 45 pounds.
Otherwise it would be on my shortlist.

I looked up that spec for your Eaglet and I read "44 pounds/20 kg of weight."

Are you pushing past that with your dog? No balance or weight related issues?

Alex

Hi Jetcat...

You wrote
"The Ranger does have a lot of room in the back I will say. I just wish it had a real aircraft engine in it. "

I flew one for About 20 minutes once.
I liked a lot of things about it. Apparently really solid engineering and finish. Like that it’s all metal. Like that it is apparently well supported. And given the price new LSAs fully loaded are selling for these days <sigh> consider it almost “bargain priced.“
I found the control Responsiveness and feel a bit sluggish and a tad delayed Compared to the crisp instant response and authority of the stick in my Skyranger. To be fair I only flew it 20 minutes so I suppose I could get used to that

But, although I am fairly biased toward Rotax (their engine..not their customer unfriendly non-existant corporate support) I wonder what you have against the Ranger's Continental O-200-D?
Here's Vashon's pitch on it: " It provides a 70+ year history of performance and reliability, with readily available parts and service support. This engine was specifically designed to be lightweight at 199 pounds, dry weight. The O-200-D produces 100 HP as a result of higher maximum rpm."

Alex

Skyranger22 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 1:47 pm "This engine was specifically designed to be lightweight at 199 pounds, dry weight. "

As compared to 140 pounds for the Rotax 912ULS, I think it's a bit of a stretch to call the O-200D lightweight.

Thanks all for your input.

And particularly for bringing up the issue of the total useable load.
Although me and my wife are not heavy (one of us 140lbs the other sometimes as high as 180 fully clothed*) with the dogs that’s 480+ with the dogs before personal baggage and fuel. Add 120 ponds for, say, 20 gallons if fuel and that’s 600 pounds. That probably knocks everything but the Jabiru out of the picture.
(In reality the J230 is engineered for a useful safe load approaching 800 pounds. That's on account of it essentially being a J440 ...MTOW 1675lbs...with the back seat removed. AFAIK no other LSA approaches that.)

Alex
* we don't fly naked in the winter.

Skyranger22 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 1:26 pm Hi Campbell!
You wrote
"...take my pooch everywhere I go in my Tecnam P92 Eaglet. Lots of room behind the seats..

I had a Tecnam Bravo for a while. I believe the inside layout is similar to your Eaglet..And adequate room for a two medium size dogs.
But if I remember right the stated weight limit for that back baggage area was about 45 pounds.
Otherwise it would be on my shortlist.

I looked up that spec for your Eaglet and I read "44 pounds/20 kg of weight."

Are you pushing past that with your dog? No balance or weight related issues?

Alex

Ooops, I didn't think about the 44 pound limit for the baggage area. My little pooch only weighs 14 pounds and I usually fly solo with her. She will probably get left on the ground whenever I take a passenger but that will be post-COVID.