Looking beautiful in the air after a 10 year build (off an on!) by Krishna Parikh in Australia.
This one is from an early, DG built, kit.
It is the first Twister to be powered by a Rotax 912 engine.
Empty weight 290kg. Cruises at 130 kts burning 18 litres per hour.
Swinging a huge Hercules prop - 69 inches in diameter.
This is the first Twister to fly in the Southern Hemisphere.
I wish Krishna many happy hours of flying fun.
It must be a new record? 6 Twisters in one place at once.
Photos were taken at Paderborn Haxterberg earlier this year.
I hope we can have a big dedicated Twister get together next year.
Turboprops were, for a long time, like blue moons in light aircraft, you rarely saw one.
Things are changing and there are more and more coming onto the market. To date this offering from Heron Turbines, in Greece, is the best fit for a Twister, if you can live with the 40 litres per hour fuel burn...
Weight is just 40kg dry, Power is 130shp - not sure what height that power is rated to but the service ceiling of the engine is 28,000 ft and finally the price. At Oshkosh they are offering a show price of just $35,000 USD (£28,700). This is around a third of the price of the Turbotech from France (see blog post from September 2021). Turbotech's price has gone up and is now around 90k Euros when I last checked.
Read more here: https://www.kitplanes.com/heron-turbine/
and here: https://www.heronengines.com/
In February I flew over to West Wales to visit UL Power UK's (Metal Seagulls) new hangar and get a service and annual inspection done.
I had for some reason thought that my compressions were down and so ordered 3 new cylinder heads to replace the same as I did previously with cylinder number 3 when it's exhaust valve/seat was leaking.
As it turns out I needn't have worried as a compression test (when warm) revealed that the compressions were all good - virtually the same as they were at 200 hrs.
So I did the service myself and Jonathan Porter of UL Power UK did the annual inspection.
There were strong winds aloft as we had a series of storms during February, this made for a slow trip over but a rapid one home with a ground speed of 171 knots at 7,650ft.
 |
| Passing Talybont Reservoir - which we walked to in July 21 from our rented canal boat nearby. |
 |
| Pendine Sands. Location of the World Land Speed record in the 1920's. |
 |
| At Metal Seagulls, UK UL Power agents. First things first a compression test while the engine is still warm. |
 |
| The results, which are virtually identical to that at 200 hrs. All is well. |
 |
| Hooning back at great speed. 171 knots! |
I finally decided to take the plunge and buy a Lithium battery.
The best and safest choice is an EarthX, which is built to aviation standards and has good self protection.
The model to go for is the ETX900. It has the required amp hours in case of Alternator failure with the UL engine the battery is then the only thing providing a spark to the engine (through the coils), so it must have a decent capacity to enable you to get back on the ground in 20 mins or so before the voltage drops too low.
The price is a bit eye watering but the weight savings are great. Roughly £100 per kg saved! The old battery was 7kg and the new one is just 2.2kg.
Just as well I changed my battery as the old one was weeping. See pics below.
The old battery was the one I bought in Toronto, Canada in July of 2017 so it has served me well and was due for replacement anyway.
I noticed that the new battery holds its' charge much better when the engine is at idle - when coming back into the circuit and setting up for landing.
The dimensions were only slightly different in one axis to the old battery so I took up the space with blue foam.
 |
| Old battery - located under the baggage tray in a special recess I made. |
 |
| Weeping from the old battery, just as well I changed it. |
 |
| New battery in place with the blue foam as spacers so it doesn't move about with the cover on. |
Sergio - of UL Power Spain made a short video about my plane at AERO. Enjoy.
