Congratulations !!! Enjoy the shit out of every moment !

Make any and every reasonable course deviations to stay within walking distance of well traveled roads. Even if it adds an hour to your flight, as long as you have the fuel range to do so then it is good thinking to be near the roads on a ferry flight in a brand new (to you) aircraft.

By far the primary task you have is to get the airplane home safely, so you can then sit down and figure everything out. Any sightseeing, comfort, visiting friends off-course, or personal enjoyment MUST take a back seat to safely and efficiently completing the ferry flight home without any damage or wear on the aircraft. No matter what you were told, you will not know what you have until you get it home and are able to study it and inspect it... especially with an experimental.

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@ DrifterDriver... ( and others) ,

Fabulous " Flugzeug " !! . Congrats on acquiring a plane that just oozes with "kool plane" mystique.
Two quickie questions for bogans like me...

# 1
Since you looked around a bit, I was wondering what are some of the other options from other manufacturers for buying a modern " Storch replica ", either in full size or 3/4. I guess the 3/4 scale ones are all designed to be LSA such as the Slepczev replica model.

#2
I was curious how the 3/4 LSA Storch compares to the kinda sorta maybe similar Just Aircraft Super STOL-XL, aside from tandem vs side by side.








They both look like aerial pogo sticks. Anyone care to comment and compare the two planes re STOL takeoff / landing, slow flight, slow maneuvering, and stall characteristics. I bet the new upcoming Rotax 915 at 135 HP would add some spice for sure. I hope this is not thread drift; mods feel free, if so, to delete.

So DrifterDriver, when are you going to bring it to the states and show it off at the HS fly-in?

Anyhoo... congrats on getting a new-to-you plane, have fun and fly safe.

The Storch has a 60" wing chord, the SS around 45" due to constraints of the wing folding thing. The video shown earlier in this thread is noteworthyI believe as it depicts super good slow MANEUVERING not just a stabilized straight in approach to a high AOA landing, like shown in the SS vids.
DD , it looks like they have faired out that ( inherently) draggy gear as much as possible, cool. That long of gear so far below the cg means even more payback in slicking it up. Those side windows must allow great viz straight down (almost), nice.

Well, how far have you made it?

Well guys sorry it took so long to get on top of this, Im now back safe and sound but just didnt have time on the trip to keep this thread up so Ill fill you in on how it went!

so after getting to know the storch a bit, we got up and going at about 9am the next day. Just a short hop to Proserpine.









here we landed at my good mates great little strip known as 'Heathrow' (he and his wife are english). Boy his got some great toys! such a stunning spot!

[img]https://www.backcountrypilot.org/images/originalphotos/4213/4876/28e53f48775b700a16d821af.jpg/img]

Landing at Heathrow.....all I got time for tonight guys! more to come tomorrow!

getting grass in the wheels before getting on the ground, nice work, glad to hear it made it home incident free!

Ok, so a bit of free time so more on the trip! that night evening at heathrow we went out and landed on a non accessible beach so "cab sav" and "noodles" could have there first date on the beach as the sun went down! wasnt a bad way to celebrate a new plane!

on the Thursday we got away reasonably early heading south bound for Dingo Road house. so first step was to head was over the ranges to the Town of Nebo for a quick leg stretch. then was the next leg heading south of the flat country of the Darling downs for Dingo.

Heading for Nebo










Heading for dingo





However 3 miles out of Dingo I ran in a spot of bother. My engine started splatting. it would stil run yet kept acting like it was going to quit. My passenger who is also a flyer and a retired aircraft mechanic and alot more experienced than I thought we would be fine to make it to the field. but what I saw around me was the last of the good paddocks under me, and 3 miles of tiger country in front of me to the strip. I decided to land on a nice little driveway right next to the road and assess the problem! the problem appears to be (and while we have the plane flying now we still havnt actually found the cause as such, so Im replacing all fuel taps, filters and lines to be sure) that one tank isnt draining properly. We where running on both tanks which is what is recommended in the storch manual but one wing tank was found to be empty and the other still half full. it appears that once the right wing wad drained, the left was still feeding fuel to the engine but not as much as it was asking for. We checked all the breathers ect. The fella who runs the road house and who flys aswell was more than happy to run 20 liters out us, then give my passenger a ride into town, I then took off from the paddock without any issue and landed at the airstrip out the back of the road house where we stopped for a great lunch and a refuel before headed for old station. while here we also pulled off all the fuel lines, blew them out, checked the fuel taps ect to.

the outfield landing site




At dingo Road house

Great write up so far!

My right tank drains faster than the left in both, so I usually just run left or right to keep the tanks even.

Your one wing tank emptying faster then the other is real common in many aircraft, BUT IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR ENGINE PROBLEM! Assuming the plane was originally setup correctly that is, with proper sized fuel lines (1/4" ID is plenty for the Rotax) on EACH tank. There is also no way you are going to run out of fuel, until both tanks are exhausted. One tank emptying first is a non issue.

My S-7S is typical in that the right tank will empty before the left, I don't care or notice, and I sure can't feel it in the stick. Chasing the level of the two tanks around by constantly switching tanks is not needed with your plane, and has been the result of many fuel starvation accidents. It's needless busy work. Look at it this way. Your on the ground, engine stopped. You disconnect the main fuel line at the firewall, fuel will continue to run out until BOTH tanks are empty, one tank going empty sooner will not cause the other tank that still has fuel to somehow not drain. It's really no more complicated then that.

Go by the recommendations of the builders of the plane, ignore CamTom12 (sorry Tom, but have you ever just turned both tanks on and flown until the one is empty, try it, it won't quit!), and all the others that will chime in saying how you have to juggle the tanks, it's not required. Some will try and "fix the problem", thinking it's an obstruction in the vent lines or whatever, the most generally accepted reasoning is it's the different airflow on the wings caused by the rotating prop blast, or maybe it's the Coriolis Effect, doesn't matter because it's not a problem. FWIW, I've been flying for the last 20 years with no wing tank valves, both tanks always ON just a main shutoff . The only reason I stress this so much is that you must have had some other issue, it shouldn't have been the tank unbalance issue IF the plane was set up correctly to start with.

I'm leaving aside the whole argument that some do it for possible fuel contamination in one tank, but they somehow have good fuel in the other, or the ones that take off on AV gas but cruise on Mo gas, for your plane and mine, keep it simple and both tanks ON, and just use the one tank that empties last as the one you pay attention to.

wondering why i cant post a reply in this thread... i had written about 15 lines, but when i hit reply.... permission denied..
but this post works fine... weird.

Carby ice? (again if i write any more i get permission denied)

courierguy wrote:Go by the recommendations of the builders of the plane, ignore CamTom12 (sorry Tom, but have you ever just turned both tanks on and flown until the one is empty, try it, it won't quit!)

No offense taken. My scenario is a bit different in that I can carry over 180 lbs of fuel per wing. And it's really easy to remember to switch tanks every 30 minutes or so as I continually watch my fuel anyway. So I swap tanks. Just a technique. I was just sharing for a different perspective.

What type of fuel are you running Timbo? Just curious.

I was looking at all the openings in your cowling and thinking, "wow, I bet he doesn't have any cooling issues" (which many cowling designs give cooling problems for Rotax engines) and reading what Ultralights wrote about carb ice I began to wonder......

I know, Rotax engines are supposed to be immune to carb ice but with that much airflow in and around the engine (and the openings around the carbs in the cowling), the residual heat that normally keeps the engine free from carb ice issues may be dissipated to the extent that you are no longer "immune".

Just a thought.

I have had carby ice in my 912, fitted with rotax airbox and not pod style carburettor filters. after a long descent at reduced power from 9500 ft to sea level on a warmish summers day. i didn't know it was carburettor ice until i lifted the cowling off and saw frost and condensation on the exterior of the carburettor. i thought i had a loose plug.. the first and only time i have any icing issues with the 912. maybe because its so rare, we assume it doesn't happen.

Tim, many years ago I had a similar issue in a gazzelle (nose wheel kitfox) I was ferrying to a maintenance shop. Like you I landed in the last field before tiger country, then I used an empty oil bottle to drain fuel from the full wing and pour into the empty one. I finished the trip and told the engineers what happened and they explained that they just recovered another one from a field with the same problem. The aircraft has a non return valve fitted to the tank outlets to prevent crossfeeding. One of the valves became stuck or partially blocked. When the good tank emptied, there wasn't enough flow from the blocked tank to keep the engine running causing a forced landing. They got on the ground all right and tried to troubleshoot. The engine started and ran fine, even at high power. They tried to take off from the field but had a second engine failure shortly after, this time they bent the plane. It turns out the the gazelle has a header tank. After the first engine out and while they were on the ground the header tank slowly filled up. While they were ground running and taking off they were using fuel from the header tank quicker than it could be replenished.

Tim, that looks like a fun airplane you picked up. I bet you're stoked!

Tim, that looks like you had a great trip and the new plane looks like it will fit you well.
Thanks again for the awesome time while I was over visiting.
Flying around with you and meeting all your friends was a great highlight to the trip.