removed subaru?

[Wayne G. O'Shea]

-----Original Message-----
From: Wayne G. O'Shea <oifa@irishfield.on.ca (oifa@irishfield.on.ca)>
To: LisaFly99@aol.com (LisaFly99@aol.com) <LisaFly99@aol.com (LisaFly99@aol.com)>
Cc: murphy-rebel@dscol.com (murphy-rebel@dscol.com) <murphy-rebel@dscol.com (murphy-rebel@dscol.com)>
Date: Friday, October 15, 1999 7:55 PM
Subject: removed subaru?


Regarding removed subaru!

I bought this aircraft as salvage after it was flipped on floats! Engine had been removed etc.along with panel instruments etc.
From what I know, as the original builder lived close by, the subaru was originally supplied by Formula Power. Unhappy with this set up the engine, ross redrive etc, then went to Crossflow Engineering in Palgrave, Ontario for redesign and installation at a claimed 180HP. The aircraft was stalled in slow flight trying to avoid a boat that crossed the path of the aircraft causing the right wing to drop and contact the water. It then cartwheeled and ended up inverted in the water. The only injuries to the owner and his wife were scraps on their knees from contacting the underside of the panel, when they went inverted! Says something for the aircrafts crash absorbtion capabilities and luck!

The owner claims he had full power in and was still only a few feet off the water(still in ground effect). I don't know how you can stall a rebel while in ground effect(as it will fly in g.e. at around 20mph) let alone with 180hp kicked in! Many say the Suburu does not develop enough torque when behind the power curve(ie: when in slow flight and asked to get going) I imagine the power had been pulled back on first sight of the boat as a natural reaction, then full power pushed in to try and manouver. Even if he was carrying a quarter full of water floats(an extra 450lbs) a rebel will still climb out at over 500fpm with 150 hp(don't ask me how I know, my licence cost too much to get!) So with a 180hp he should have had no problem. I wasn't there, so this is all theory!

I my personal view, I prefer to install Lycomings(in 1650 gross) or Rotax 912's(in light rebels) as I have never had a problem that caused fear by either engine. When I decide to get a day of flying in, I want to do exactly that, fly(not tinker). On the other hand, anyone I know of personally, that flys behind an auto conversion with a redrive, spends 90% of their time tinkering and the other 10% of the time flying in fear. This is just my view, but I know of very few success stories for sustained continuous enjoyable flying with an auto conversion. Dave Bangle is your best bet that I know of, as he has lived the story from the melted bungees of Oshkosh 95, to as far as I know a very successfull go at the Suburu conversion business. The Suburus generally are over 300lb when complete and then there is a radiator etc. to contend with. Thats alot of weight on the nose of the rebel. An O-320 weighs around 248lbs and is ready to go.(I just weighed my O-320-C2A at this weight). The O-235C I replaced weighed 228lbs. The flywheels(starter rings) were 5 lbs and 7.2 lbs respectively, thus a 17.8lb increase moving up to the O-320. So Suburus are a minimum of at least 50lb more and not as simple to install.

This is why it's called home building! You can weigh all the options and decide to install what ever you want! If everyone was like me sticking with WW2 technology the world would get pretty boring!

I have the logs for the aircraft at my work shop and will see if the model is spelled out in the airframe log(I don't have engine logs).
Will get back to you early next week. (if I go there on the weekend, my boss(read wife) will shoot me)

Best regards, Wayne