To fly a 2-stroke in an aircraft reliably, the pilot needs to be on-top-of the fuel and oil consumption on every flight so that a problem can quickly be detected BEFORE the engine is damaged or you are unintentionally on the ground. I'm primarily talking to those with an oil injection pump and tank, but if you premix in the can, you should still know your exact fuel consumption per flight. You just won't have to track oil consumption separately.
I was trained in Army Flight School and keeping a flight logbook FOR THE MACHINE is nothing new to me. I suggest everyone do it...especially if the aircraft has a 2-stroke. Be tailed and specific. Have columns for flight time, fuel at preflight, fuel added, fuel at landing, oil (oz.) at preflight, oil added (oz.), oil at landing (oz.), CALCULATED fuel consumption rate, CALCULATED oil consumption rate, and PERFORMANCE EVALUATION COLUMNS (covered in the next thread).
If you don't ENJOY the sport of detailed record-keeping, you cannot expect reliability from your 2-stroke. You will just be rolling the dice and accepting that you will be taking the wings off one day at a remote location to get your plane back home. Personally, I'd rather FLY IT HOME and be able to add another flight to my stack of "I've never had a Rotax let-me-down" flights. Keeping great records gives you a memory aid to reminisce about remarkable things you have done and is down-right fun.
If I can find the scanned pages of the flight log for my first Mini-500 I flew in the late 90's, I'll post them here as an example.
I have to say, that grayhead 582 DID put me on the ground temporarily once, but it really wasn't the engine that did it. I had a plastic PVC coolant TEE that cracked in flight and all my liquid coolant sprayed out and I had to land, fix it, and continue my flight.
I was trained in Army Flight School and keeping a flight logbook FOR THE MACHINE is nothing new to me. I suggest everyone do it...especially if the aircraft has a 2-stroke. Be tailed and specific. Have columns for flight time, fuel at preflight, fuel added, fuel at landing, oil (oz.) at preflight, oil added (oz.), oil at landing (oz.), CALCULATED fuel consumption rate, CALCULATED oil consumption rate, and PERFORMANCE EVALUATION COLUMNS (covered in the next thread).
If you don't ENJOY the sport of detailed record-keeping, you cannot expect reliability from your 2-stroke. You will just be rolling the dice and accepting that you will be taking the wings off one day at a remote location to get your plane back home. Personally, I'd rather FLY IT HOME and be able to add another flight to my stack of "I've never had a Rotax let-me-down" flights. Keeping great records gives you a memory aid to reminisce about remarkable things you have done and is down-right fun.
If I can find the scanned pages of the flight log for my first Mini-500 I flew in the late 90's, I'll post them here as an example.
I have to say, that grayhead 582 DID put me on the ground temporarily once, but it really wasn't the engine that did it. I had a plastic PVC coolant TEE that cracked in flight and all my liquid coolant sprayed out and I had to land, fix it, and continue my flight.
