Bought my first airplane. Evektor Sportstar

Spent 3 nights at the sellers house, great guy. Insurance wanted 5 hours, weather was pretty sucky first couple of days, was able to get 1.5 hours in on the 2nd day, weather eventually cleared up on the 3rd day and was able to do a 3.5 hour cross country to knock at all of the hours.

I flew it home (2 hours) to KLZU, coincidentally, on my birthday.

Some things have already broken, but otherwise I'm a pretty happy camper.
Trim indicator went out after the conditional inspectional, then the transponder seems to have failed, tower told me they lost my mode-c.

 

Congratulations on the Evektor! Beautiful bird! And the seller sounded like a great guy to let you camp at his house to transition and burn off the 5 hour minimum. (Most insurance seems to want the 5 hour transition training.)

Sorry to read about the trim indicator and the transponder - wondering if you have tried on the ground? Is the transponder on its own circuit breaker and have you cycled that?

 

Nice!!

Can you tell us a little more about the plane - engine, performance etc?

 

I took a demo flight in one several years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it! Looks like a good example as well. Congratulations !

 

Congrats on the purchase.
Sorry that those components are having trouble...but I will say, that's some darn nice access to the avionics.

 

Rotax 912 ULS 100hp
Cruise at about 94knots
Climbs to 10,000 feet quickly, 1200fpm climb rate at 3,000msl with full fuel (30gallons) plus another 200lbs for me and my bags.

I’m planning on installing a Dynon D100a I picked up on eBay in the empty slot and having an avionics shop install an all in one ads-b transponder instead of doing the wingtip option.
​

 

Very nice! Congratulations on your new ride, and a belated Happy Birthday.

 

Beautiful airplane! I hope to one day own a modern LSA like this, I think they are a great deal and very capable performance.

 

Congrats! Light Sport planes are getting better all the time.

The 912 is good powerplant and very reliable.

 

Just curious, SLSA or ELSA?

 

Factory built SLSA converted to ELSA

 

Good deal!

Do you have your repairman's certificate?

 

I do not

 

That's the way to go!

 

Not difficult to get and you probably already have it on your radar ...

 

Totally thinking about it. I’m only 23 so I have a lot of time to figure things out.

 

I took my Zodiac SLSA experimental and then took the 16 hour Light Sport Repairman - Inspection course from Rainbow Aviation (now located in Kingsville, MO) in 2016, and then got my LSR-I certificate from the local (Oakland, CA) FSDO. I've been doing my own maintenance and annual condition inspections ever since. If there's a task I don't feel competent performing, I have a friend who is an A&P/IA who supervises me so I know how to do it myself the next time. I actually enjoy doing the maintenance and inspections almost as much as flying.

 

The guy who sold it was a professional car/body specialist in a previous lifetime and repainted the plane and did a great job. Exterior looks brand new. Inside does date the plane, leather seats still in good condition. All my flying up to now has been on glass panels from the Dynon D100 to the Skyview system and the Garmin Split screen in the Cessna Skycatcher.

 

Just to clarify for those who get confused by the term "repairman certificate": The 16 hour course allows you do do the annual condition inspection on an ELSA you own. It is not required to have the certificate to do your own maintenance; anybody can perform maintenance on an experimental whether they have the repairman certificate or not or whether they built it or not.

 

I bought my first plane and 26, and my first experimental at 28, so you got me beat! Congrats, looks good!

 

Hi Sam, congratulations on purchasing your aircraft! I was following your progress before and after you made it back home. I'd like to check out the plane some time and would like to join you on a "test" flight....gas and a lunch are on me. Please call me when you have a chance. 678 431-6322

 

Congratulations, Sam!
Nice looking airplane.

Concur with all the others on obtaining your Repairman Light Sport Inspection - Airplane certification (the 16-hour course). Rainbow offers it every April in Apopka, Florida. Recommend you sign up early though, the class fills up quickly.

Unless you are already a member, recommend these light sport forums:

sportpilottalk.com
ctflier.com
scflier.com
rotax-owner.com
forum.flydynon.com

Have fun and keep it safe.

 

Congratulation Sam!
I can’t think of a better birthday present.

have fun

gary

 

Congrats Sam, have you checked out Sport Pilot Talk forum yet?

 

Previously posted that and others.
See above.

 

Had some bad luck this weekend.

 

Wow blew put the exhaust. How much heat damage around it? Were you flying when this happened?

 

I was cruising at 9-10k feet over the Smokie Mountains. It happened over about 5-10 seconds, engine started running rougher and rougher and the sound got louder.

I reduced power, tried carb heat put the throttle back in. The engine wanted to stall at full power. Wasn’t sure what was going on. Was super worried i wasn’t going to make it to an airport. I looked for a place I could put it down but there was pretty much only forests.

I looked for an airport and turned around and landed at West Carolina Regional.

I am grateful to the guy who gave me a 3 hour ride home. Now begins the logistics of getting it fixed and getting back up there to fly it home.

 

You are fortunate that there wasn't a fire! Great job of flying the plane and getting it on the ground.

 

Wow, sounds like a scary experience, I'm glad you handled it so well and no one was hurt!

 

Wow, sounds like you handled that well! How many hours are on the engine?

 

What a perfect example of "aviate, navigate, communicate" in that order, Sam. Congratulations on your clear thinking and getting on the ground at an airport safely.