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Hi, my name is Klaus Truemper. This blog reports some ideas  about maintaining and flying a small airplane. Everything is based on experiences with my Zenith 601HDS, N314LB with Rotax 912 engine.

The blog has been running since 2005. I have flown my plane for more than 25 years.

The posts are listed in four sections: Most Popular Posts, Rotax Engine, Maintenance and Tips, and Piloting.


Most Popular Posts


Testing Rotax 912/914 Generator and Voltage Regulator/Rectifier

    












Rotax Engine








Synchronization of Rotax 912 Carburetors




Wrong Oil Pressure of the Rotax 912/914 Engines 


Electric Fuel Pump System for Rotax 912


























Repair/Maintenance and Tips


































Piloting

















































































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Popular posts from this blog

Testing Rotax 912/914 Generator and Voltage Regulator/Rectifier

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Our original installation of the Rotax 912/914 r egulator/ r ectifier. 24 years later, the two brown wires on the left were replaced by yellow wires of a new stator, see photo below. The Rotax 912/914 electrical system may fail unexpectedly. I t happened to us once at a really inconvenient time : S ee Rotax Goes South As We Go West . Most likely the electrical failure is caused by the voltage regulator/rectifier.  To ver ify this , we now carry in the plane a small multimeter that measures AC/DC voltage and resistance and use the checklist below. The checklist assumes a standard installation as described in the Rotax installation manual Section 24-00-00, without additional external generator, and that the voltage is not in the normal range. Want to learn more about flying?    My book Lessons from Piloting for 45 Years  covers close shaves over more than four decades involving thunderstorms, mountain weather, faulty runways, equipment failures, and mo...
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uAvionix TailBeacon: Installation and Testing

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TailBeacon of uAvionix mounted on rudder of Zenith 601HDS The uAvionix TailBeacon is a low-cost device that satisfies the ADS-B Out requirement kicking in on January 1, 2020.  The TailBeacon piggybacks on any Mode C or S transponder, and thus avoids purchase of a much more expensive ADS-B transponder.  There are two TailBeacon versions: the TailBeacon TSO for certificated aircraft and the less expensive  TailBeacon  EXP for experimental aircraft.  We bought the EXP version for our Zenith 601HDS, N314LB. uAvionix also offers an alternate ADS-B Out module: the  SkyBeacon .  It uses similar technology, but is installed in a different part of the airplane. Details on this below. T here are two versions: TSO and EXP.   This post covers why we selected the TailBeacon and how we installed, tested, and evaluated it using the  FAA ADS-B Performance Report. It's easy to adapt the process for installation of the SkyBeacon. Want to le...
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Rotax 912 Engine: 2,500 Hours in 29 Years (achieved in 2024)

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Rotax 912 engine The  Rotax 912 engine  in o ur plane, a Zenith 601HDS, has reached an important milestone. Over the past 29 years, it has run 2,500 hrs without major repairs. Zenith 601HDL, N314LB It's appropriate to reflect about this performance and muse how this is possible. After all, when we bought the engine, in 1994, the suggested TBO was 1,200 hrs.  Since then TBO has gone up, first to 1,600 hrs, and more recently to 2,000 hrs. Of course, those increases apply to later engines, not to our early model. Let's see how the engine performs after all this time. Want to learn more about flying?    My book Lessons from Piloting for 45 Years  covers close shaves over more than four decades involving thunderstorms, mountain weather, faulty runways, equipment failures, and more. Learn key strategies for coping with these dangerous situations.  They include two tools called Sully's Rule and Forecast Evaluation. Performance afte...
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