Hi Russ - welcome to the SportCruiser Community here - Do you currently own a SportCruiser / PiperSport? Looks like the number of our planes around will be about to shoot up with the recent Piper deal...
We've got a client here in the UK who is also switching from a Lance to the PiperSport - the Lance is a great plane, but if you fly for fun rather than needing to do continental hops, then the PiperSport will give you a lot more smiles per dollar.
The Pipersport should have quite a big presence at Sun'n'Fun, and the first deliveries are being made there to new owners as well. Certainly, if you've not yet flown the plane this will be a good chance for you. Coming from a Lance I'm guessing you'll find the much lighter stick takes a little getting used to, but keep the inputs small, and you'll be used to it in about 20 minutes from past experience.
You asked about max RPM on the Rotax - generally cruise in the SportCruiser / PiperSport is comfortable between 4600 RPM (economy cruise in no rush), through 4800-5000 RPM, which are more typical cruise power settings - 4800 does us fine, where 5000 RPM is a slightly 'fast cruise'. NB if you have the fixed pitch prop (3 Blade Carbon Ground Adjustable), then you can alter the pitch to work well with your length of runway avilable, and flight preferences. We find 17-18 Degrees seems ideal for average conditions. The Rotax is a good strong engine, and if you look after the engine and change the oil regularly, you will get many hours out of it - I know one Rotax 912ULS on 4000+ hours now and going strong - most private planes don't get that many hours though (100-150 hours per year seems average).
If you want best performance and economy, then your prop setting slightly coarse might be a good idea. Fuel burn would be more reasonable doing this, It is also kinder to the engine to run below max continuous RPM, which is indeed 5500RPM (5800 RPM can be used for takeoff for 5 mins max).
Ben Fitzgerald-O'Connor
Mar 26, 2010
Ben Fitzgerald-O'Connor
The Pipersport should have quite a big presence at Sun'n'Fun, and the first deliveries are being made there to new owners as well. Certainly, if you've not yet flown the plane this will be a good chance for you. Coming from a Lance I'm guessing you'll find the much lighter stick takes a little getting used to, but keep the inputs small, and you'll be used to it in about 20 minutes from past experience.
Regards
Ben
Apr 6, 2010
Ben Fitzgerald-O'Connor
You asked about max RPM on the Rotax - generally cruise in the SportCruiser / PiperSport is comfortable between 4600 RPM (economy cruise in no rush), through 4800-5000 RPM, which are more typical cruise power settings - 4800 does us fine, where 5000 RPM is a slightly 'fast cruise'. NB if you have the fixed pitch prop (3 Blade Carbon Ground Adjustable), then you can alter the pitch to work well with your length of runway avilable, and flight preferences. We find 17-18 Degrees seems ideal for average conditions. The Rotax is a good strong engine, and if you look after the engine and change the oil regularly, you will get many hours out of it - I know one Rotax 912ULS on 4000+ hours now and going strong - most private planes don't get that many hours though (100-150 hours per year seems average).
If you want best performance and economy, then your prop setting slightly coarse might be a good idea. Fuel burn would be more reasonable doing this, It is also kinder to the engine to run below max continuous RPM, which is indeed 5500RPM (5800 RPM can be used for takeoff for 5 mins max).
Hope this helps.
Regards
Ben
May 31, 2010