LAA Jabiru Engine course 19/2/2011

The LAA Educational Trust (LAAET) is the charitable arm of the LAA. The LAAET is a new Charitable company set up to ‘advance the education of the public in aviation, in particular the design and construction of aircraft, aircraft systems and the operation of aircraft’.

I was invited to attend as a guest at the Jabiru engine course run by Roger Lewis with the assistance of Dave Burnett and his wife Jennifer, on the catering.

It is a whole day course and I was able to make the afternoon session, after the provided lunch which consisted of a delicious warming soup and a choice of fish pie or meatballs and pasta followed by apple crumble and custard!

Now I've always been into taking things apart to see how they work and most of the time I can get them back together! 

Why take the risk with your engine when you can go on one of these courses and see Roger do it in front of you and at the same time, ask questions and get advice on 'tricks of the trade'.

Actual hands on with demonstrations of procedures using an engine on a test rig were backed up with clear Overhead projection presentations showing every part of the Jabiru engine.

Roger had a few homemade tools for jobs such as tappet screw adjustment, valve collet removal, valve depression tool to help with reassembling heads on engines with hydraulic tappets etc.
Over the years, Jabiru have made many changes / improvements to the engines and many of these changes were pointed out and discussed. Not all the changes have been totally successful and there have been trips back to the drawing board but I believe it is important to know 'your' engine and have the best advice on how to run and maintain it. Knowing the tell tale signs of a problem is a valuable skill, detect a problem on the ground, not in the air!
If you own and operate a Jabiru engine and certainly if you intend doing any maintenance work on it, in my opinion, you would be well advised to attend one of these courses.

Vic Leggott

 

LAAET Courses

Jabiru Engine course