A 100 HP Rans S-12? Not a Glasair 3.

I know.

I quickly searched for all experimentals with two fatals in takeoff, climb, maneuvering or "other" phase of flight in the last 5 years, and that was all I could come up with that seemed close. (I seem to recall this accident happened "recently", so that's why I restricted to 5 years.) It was also a very manual search process, so subject to lots of possible errors.

Hi Rob

Any link or info about the location of this incident or the aircraft registration?

Is your flying buddy sure it was a Glasair? I'm aware of numerous Lancair fatals in Australia, but no Glasair fatals.

"Cheap"? If you can find me a cheap GIII, I'd appreciate it!

OK.

So, Todd, are you buying one? Come on over to the dark side...

I'm really loving my experimental. After 22 hours of flying it, and after getting my new ADS-B dual band receiver connected to both the iFly 720 and the GRT HXr, I'm feeling like I'm ready to head out across the country.

Our hangar commune had G-III sn around 3000. I think some of the later ones had
improvements. This one -- N1ML -- was a Lindy winner as well. Its forte was speed--
220kts on 13gph all day long. Stalls, loops rolls, all very nice. It had the short wing and had the shilotte of a Mustang.

All in all, it was a highly UNimproved airplane, though.

Annoying things:

1) took hyd pressure to keep gear locked down. Fixed on later models. Can't insure this config anymore.
2) fuel went thru whole wing... you sat on fuel. There were a lot of little compartments and it took forever to fill it. It took forever to get all the leaks out of the tanks during construction.
3) Back side of power curve was so steep that if you got slow even 300hp wouldn't power you thru to the other side. A later owner knocked off a main gear due to this at Whiteman Air Park.
4) At climb speed the nose attitude was such that really hot air from the oil cooler poured in the naca cabin vents -- a treat in the summer
5) The whole thing was an insulator. You couldn't make as strikefinder work in it. You could hear static zapping around even in the VHF comms when going over 120 kts. Holding your hand up in the windshield when near tstms caused long arcs to your hands. Disconcerting at night.
6) When cruising over 120kts in rain, you would strip paint off the leading edges. The layup in that area was just soft enough to give a little and enable this.
7) The hardware on the LH elevator wore out rapidly like our BE LH trim tab actuators.

Turning onto an ILS at 180 and slowing on a constant 3 degree descent to 95 kts over the fence never failed to thrill. The smell of rubber as you touched in a 30kt x-wind in flawless alignment always put a smile on. My kid's hockey bag would just fit across the luggage compartment so we went to more than a few youth tournaments at 220kts.

I learned to climb high using the excellent climb to improve the odds in a forced landing situation and not wind up like the Southern KitCraft Glassair enthusiast who was killed when his quit. It's a lot of energy with nothing to dissapate it.

Airplanes are such compromises. That's why you need so many of them!!

Bill Hale

The static problem alone is why I would favor a carbon Lancair over the G3 any day of the week.

Just saying, very low time and the price is right.

Greg,

What is it?

Turbine Legend omgfghnfcbnjgfdvbggbbjju

I want one painted like an air tractor.

Greg,

Where do you see it listed for sale?

Looks like there will be a whole slew of new turbines based on a new design from the Czech Republic. Check out this turbine RV10. http://www.turbinesolutiongroup.com/tsg_RV10_kit.htm

Adam - The TP100 sounds good, but 241 HP is pretty weak for a high performance airplane and .82 BSFC is not exceptional for a turboprop. It is exceptionally light, though, and that is a real plus.

It would be nice to see this engine make 300HP or so.

FWIW, historically small and relatively low cost turbines have poor fuel specifics (efficiency) and short lives. Don't know if this one fits that description but chances are it does.

This is data from a few months ago:
List price: 85K Euro = $115K
130HP at 12K ISA Temp will burn about 52 Kilos per hour.
130HP at 12K ISA Temp will have a BSFC of 0.88 (assuming I calculated it correctly)

Tim

Tim,

Thanks for the data. That is no deal to me. You can build one heck of an IO-580 Lycoming that will make 200 HP at 15k for under $50k. It will do a BSFC of .40 or less easily. Granted, the turbine is cool, but $100k+ for a low-power, fuel sucking, and unproven turbine is nuts.