Ok, now I can hear the question "What do you have to do with this lot Mr Photographer?"
I have been watching all of this at a distance, actually not much of a distance after the plane moved from Kittyhawk into one of my hangars at Rhino Park. I even tried the plane on for size once!
See, my 1.95m fits nicely into the Savannah!
I have always considered the Savannah good value for money and a great fun plane, often when I was flying somewhere I looked down at a little bush strip or open piece of ground thinking I would love to land there, if only I had a nice STOL plane like a Savannah!
Well, I had a plan, one afternoon, over a few beers, Johan and myself made a deal, the Savannah will get a nice 0h 912EX and I will become a partner in the plane. Now the fun started!
The first thing to do was to rip out the Subaru (or "boat anchor" as Agent called it). We needed to find out if the engine mount on the plane was purpose build for the Subaru or if it was just modified from the original.
The plane with the Subaru removed, the ugly radiator scoop underneath the plane still needs to be removed at this point.
We were happy to see that the engine mount was the standard one with only two plates changed from the Rotax installation. All we had to do was replace the plates with one's suitable for a 912. Easier said than done....
The (very helpful) local agent did not have stock of these plates. We then decided to have the plates made locally but nowhere in the building instructions could I find a drawing or dimensions for the plates. I mailed the Savannah factory in Italy but they never replied! Eventually I managed to find the dimensions after looking at numerous photos and measuring the plates on a flying plane. With the help of Andre (who runs the workshop at Rhino Park) we finally managed to have 2 plates made, there was hope.
While all this was happening I went ahead and did a conversion onto the Savannah with Fred at Springs. It went well, it must be the easiest plane to fly I have ever flown. Now I was really excited, I want to fly the baby
Johan and myself decided we need to set a target to get the plane flying, the decision was made to try an get it ready for the annual "Bush Pilots Fly-inn" run by CC at Barberton. Maybe a bit ambitious but worth a try.
Other than the engine transplant we also needed to do some work on the instrument panel, we need to replace some of the engine instruments and install the IC-210 radio. A few small fixes, like a door not closing correctly also had to be done.
The instruments panel as it was. The "out of order" instruments will now work again as they were intended to be Rotax instruments from the factory. We will replace the instrument panel with a nice new one made out of carbon fiber.
To be continued.....
