I have a friend that is looking to build his own airplane. I was talking to him about the S-7. Can any of you guys that have one give me a little info?

When you go X-country what cruise speed do you use for planning?

Anybody use a Jabiru engine?

Pratically speaking, how long should it take a couple of experienced builders to put one together?

Thanks!

I don't have the details, but there is a S-7 for sale on Barnstormers that has the Jabiru engine in it that was put on buy the Jabiru guys in Shelbyville TN. A great airplane, and flies really well. Ben would have numbers if you are curious enough to call him.

KB

PAGING courierguy!!!!!
Maybe Greg Swingle will speak up too.

The S-7 is a fantastic plane. My current is my second.

A good expectation for cruise is 100mph at 4.2-4.5 gph with the Rotax 912S. You can pitch your prop more for cruise and maybe make 110, or burn more fuel, but I think it's pretty much a 100mph airplane.

It's a 1000-1200hr build, give or take a couple hundred hrs. You can buy the quickbuild (covered and even painted already), which will knock a good chunk off.

Don't have any experience with the Jabiru, but can tell you that I love the Rotax. It's a great motor, and they just upped the TBO to 2000hrs. It's efficient, smooth, and reliable. Burns no oil. Pretty much maintenance free for the most part, and burns premium autogas.

Ed Snyder at Sport Planes Unlimited in AZ has built a number of S-7's and -6's with Jabirus and would suggest talkig to him. [email protected]

Also as courierguy demonstrates so well, its a great STOL plane. It won't haul what a supercub will, but it is a performer. You don't see many for sale, because I think most folks don't want to let go of them!

I am sure courierguy will also weigh in - another repeat offender - he's built 2 of them!

Some pics of my plane

Great article in this months Kitplanes Magazine and it even features our beloved GREG SWINDLE-OHIO BUSH PILOT EXTRAODINAIRE. Don't fly one my self but they do look like fun.

as a Jabiru owner, I am biased, but I LOVE the 3300 Jbiru engine. It runs like a top, is smooth, sounds really good, is light, and really is designed to be easy to maintain. Always check the mission profile, as there are differences between the two engines that need to be considered, such as the prop RPM. The Jabiru being direct drive, redlines the prop at 3300 RPM, necessitation a smaller prop disc, compared to the Rotax with the gear reduction. The Rotax runs at a higher RPM, but gears the prop down, allowing a longer prop. There are inherent advantages to both.
(I vote Jabiru, but everybody knows I'm biased.)

KB

Well, you have two guys chiming in that are on their second Rans S-7...that shows we either have a total lack of imagination or we REALLY like the plane, Emflys sums up the basic facts accurately. I'd add: take the factory tour, sure you have to go to Kansas, but it will give you a warm fuzzy feeling about what is backing up the design. Little things like the same guy, Steve, is THE GUY working the parts department, for 15 years that I know, maybe longer. Not until you buy into a kitplane company that moves, changes ownership, goes titsup, or just turn out to be good plane designers but terrible business people (which sums up most of them) can you appreciate that! Building time is a tough one, I keep track this way: at the end of the building day I think back, knock off the time spent pondering the instructions, looking for misplaced tools, correcting my screwups, daydreaming, drinking coffee etc., and then log that "corrected" time for the day. 500 hrs will get it built, the finish paint job on top of that. Any add ons/mods will add more time, I have about 1000 hr in my build, simple paint and panel but a few mods that took longer but made it unique to me.
As to the STOL characteristics, one of my favorite things to do at one of the bigger fly-ins, like Arlington, where I usually base out of the ultralight strip, is slow fly with the slowest thing up, say a single surface Quicksilver, and then keep slowing down until they can't fly as slow as I can, except for those damn powered parachutes I can outslowfly about anything out there, I can land it that way too. I cruise 90 to 95 at less then 4 gph, can cruise faster but use more fuel, and thats with 26" Airstreaks.

Sure look like a sweet little plane. What kind of load can you haul/fit? A couple 250 pounders and some gas or not a chance?

Thanks for the information guys! We are closing on finishing up the Zenith 701 project and that got my friend interested in building. He had a Pacer for a number of years that was a real nice flyer and he has a gorgeous Champ right now but would like an LSA taildragger that can fly backcountry. Obviously the S-7 fits that to a T!

Pearseed wrote:Great article in this months Kitplanes Magazine and it even features our beloved GREG SWINDLE-OHIO BUSH PILOT EXTRAODINAIRE. Don't fly one my self but they do look like fun.

Aw, you beat me to it. How's the bearhawk coming along?

Just started into the S-7 Article in Kitplanes, which is all about builders experience with the S-7. All of the builders featured in the article decided on the Rotax. If I recall correctly, Jabiru doesn't have a firewall forward kit for the 3300 yet.

The Highlander is also featured in the latest issue.

What kind of load can you haul/fit? A couple 250 pounders and some gas or not a chance?

Take a look at this web page. http://www.landshorter.com/page5.html Joa Harrison is an S-7 Builder, Engineer at Quest Aircraft (Kodiak), DAR, purveyor of the Landshorter VG's for experimentals, and a big guy. Here is his comment on 2 big guys in the S7:

"My father in law (below) and I were literally the two biggest guys to climb out of the smallest plane. I'm 6'7" and 265# and Jack is 6'6" and around 230#."

Correction, the Jabiru 3300 does have a firewall forward kit for the S-7, check out www.usjabiru.com . The plane for sale is the one in the video and pictures. There is no doubt that the plane is capable, and the two that I have flown are pieces of art.
Do I really sound that annoyingly pro Jabiru?
Guess so...


KB

tejasflyer wrote:Correction, the Jabiru 3300 does have a firewall forward kit for the S-7, check out http://www.usjabiru.com . The plane for sale is the one in the video and pictures. There is no doubt that the plane is capable, and the two that I have flown are pieces of art.
Do I really sound that annoyingly pro Jabiru?
Guess so...


KB

Got the article in front of me now. "... rejected the idea [installing a jabiru 3300] because RANS does not provide a mount for it. He didn't want to design and build one, and possibly have to modify the cowl." The article goes on to note that Jabiru does sell a FWF kit for the 2200 engine and uses standard RANS cowling.

So... I'm guessing that the FWF kit for the 3300 was made available after the builder put his together OR there is a mount that RANS needs to provide. I haven't built anything so it's all rocket science to me and the article wasn't clear on that point.

I would think the Jabiru 3300 would turn the S-7 into a literal rocket ship. Nearly double the horsepower from what the plane was originally designed for.

I've been looking at trying to buy an older RANS S-7 (AW of 1998) that has been sitting for 6-7 years. Last annual was in 2002 from what I can ascertain. Engine hasn't been run in many years, but the plane has been hangared. Tires are flat, OLD gas in the tanks, throttle lever is stuck, no brakes, etc. The plane will require a very thorough going over and replacement of all hoses and cleaning of fuel tanks, carbs, lines, etc. Owner landed in a crosswind and bend the landing gear (scared him)....which has been fixed, he has not flown it since the damage was fixed. The owner can't decide on a decent price (he first expeceted to get $50K) so I am still trying to deal with him. He seems to think it is still worth what he paid for it when he bought it. I think he paid around $38,000 and that is the last figure he quoted me after the initail figure of the (laughable) $50,000!! Spoke to Randy S. at Oshkosh and he suggested the plane should have a value of $18-25,000 tops in its present condition.

If you are wanting to buy one already completed S-7, there has been a similar model to the one I am looking at listed on Barnstormers. I believe it was listed as a 1998 Model, 84 hrs. TT(?) that was recently completed, mounted on Lotus floats. The asking price was $38,000 (I may be wrong). It was located in Ontario, Canada.

WW