Earthstar Forums

I forgot to add a take my little fold up chair as well.

Jim, you have really got me drooling, looking forward to the trip up
to Santa Margarita this Saturday. I'm sorry that I had forgotten
whose name to attach to that "no subject" posts describing your
California to Florida trip in a Gull2K!! That was one of the posts
that really started to whet my interest in the Gull2K. I hope that
you are still liking that HKS engine that you got with your Gull2K? I
am not planning on any trips that long in the immediate future, but I
would like to perhaps get around California, Nevada, and Arizona,
with a similar amout of baggage to what you described. From looking
at pictures of the Gull2K, I assume that you must be putting most of
that stuff in the area immediatly behind the seat and under the
center of the wing. It looks like that area should be pretty safe,
weight & balance wise?

Thank you Jim & you too Ron!

--Dave

Hi,

I fly a single seat J. The single seat Thunder Gull is no doubt in my mind
the best flying UL you will likely ever find. It is very agile and quick,
but stable. It handles turbulence well, is fast, does not require a lot of
power and fuel. Looks great. The rugged landing gear will be appreciated if
you have to make a forced off-field landing.

The Odyssey is reported to fly quite well, but I have not tried one. In my
opinion single seat flying is by far the best flying, no one to please but
yourself, go where you want, when you want. It is probably true that most 2
seat planes are rarely flown with more than the pilot anyway. So you are
just lugging around extra weight and more drag most of the time, giving
away performance, and all at a higher price.

Regarding wing removal for storage in a trailer between flights, I don't
think it is very practical. It takes awhile to do it, you must be very
careful every time. It takes at least 2, preferably 3 people to remove and
install it. The long wing is awkward to handle and you could easily be
overwhelmed by a small gust of wind at the wrong time. Or sooner or later
someone is going to drop one end. In any case you will end up with a
crunched wing. Probably better to just tie it down most of the time. A
hangar is by far the best answer. With the 20 foot wing on the single seat
J or Gull 2000, it can often be squeezed into a hangar along with another
plane.


Regards,
Jerry

That is what I was hoping to hear!!
The 2.2GPH sounds really great, so I expect that I will go for the
HKS as well, if Mark still offers it on the Gull2K. I realize that
the up front cost of the HKS is about double the 503 cost, but I seem
to recall a discussion on the Yahoo UL engines group that the
lifetime costs work out more nearly equal. That is is you follow the
maintenance and overhaull schedules for both engines. The Rotax
schedule calls for decarboning intervals, seal replacement, and
crankshaft replacement that are not supposed to be necessary on the
HKS. That is why I was curious about your experience so far with the
HKS.

> That's where most of it goes, slid around in all those little
spaces,
> but don't forget that area between the stick and the rudder pedals -

> I put a nice little gym bag and flight bag in there - my legs
> straddle it quite nicely.

Since I am only going from photos so far, that was an area that I had
not thought about. Thanks!

> Have fun on your trip to Marks and say hi to him for me - See if he
> still remembers me.
>
OK, I will definately try to make sure that I tell him that "Jim C"
from February 2002 sent me. :-)

Regards & thanks,
--Dave

Jim, doesn't the gym bag between the stick and rudder rest upon the control
cables? Don't you wory a bit about control cable interference?

George

I just noticed something Jim...33 mpg * 2.2 gph = 70 mph. Is that right?

George

Yes Dave,

You certainly gave this site a little boost.


Willy

> Jim, doesn't the gym bag between the stick and rudder rest upon the
control
> cables? Don't you wory a bit about control cable interference?
>
> George
>

No, the bags sit between the control cables in the middle - there has
not been any interference. I am not sure now that I think about it,
but maybe there is a difference in the 2K and the J models where with
the J the cables are closer together - I'll have to look next time I
see a J model now that you bring that up. I also have the BRS up in
the nose. I don't put anything on top of the control cables or where
they will interfere with them.

--- In ThunderGull@yahoogroups.com, <george@t...> wrote:
> I just noticed something Jim...33 mpg * 2.2 gph = 70 mph. Is that
right?
>
> George

Actually that has been around 85-90 mph @5200 rpm - This seems to be
the sweet spot for my G2K and where I usually put my throttle
control. It seemed earlier on that I was around 2.4 gph at that same
speed, but the 2.2 gph has been my average this year to date. At 60-
80 I am more like 1.7 - 1.9 gph @4600 - 4800 rpm, and more like 2.4 -
2.6 gph @5500+ at 95-100+. I've got more than 150 hours on the engine
now and it seems to be breaking in and getting better with age. My
503 did the same thing - I started off around 3.6 - 3.8 gph and once
the engine got over 100+ hours on it, it seemed to settle down to
between 3.1 - 3.3 gph. Not overnight, but over time. Maybe I just
got smoother with the controls over time.