Cheetah Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) aircraft review, power and handling, Cheetah light sport aircraft review and pilot report.
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Cheetah Lightsport aircraft power and handling. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Power for the Cheetah XLS can be supplied by a variety of engines. The base model is the Rotax 582, twin cylinder, two stroke liquid cooled engine of 65 hp. It can also be powered by the Jabiru 2200 four cylinder, air cooled, direct drive aircraft engine, which the plane flown for this flight report was powered by. The Rotax 912 80 HP, and the Rotax 912 S 100 HP four cylinder liquid cooled aircraft engines. Over the last decade or so the Jabiru series of aircraft engines has steadily been making a name for itself in the ultralight, experimental amateurbuilt and light sport aircraft industry. Jabiru currently produces two engines a 6 cylinder 120 hp, and a 4 cylinder 85 hp. Over the years I have had an opportunity to fly a number of aircraft from powered parachutes and trikes on up to fixed wing aircraft powered by Jabiru's. I have never been disappointed with the power of the six cylinder Jabiru 3300, but have been less than impressed on a couple of occasions when flying on the 4 cylinder 85 hp Jabiru 2200. My feeling is that larger, heavier ultralight or light sport aircraft with a lot of drag are not well suited to it, while lighter, aircraft likes trikes, and powered parachutes or more streamlined composite aircraft seem to be right at home with it. When I initially contacted Midwest Sport Aviation about doing a flight report on the Cheetah XLS I made them aware of my past experiences and asked if they had a Rotax 912 powered craft that we could fly. They replied that there were a number of reasons that they had chosen the Jabiru 2200. They sited the initial purchase price of the engine allows them to offer one of the lowest priced aircraft on the LSA market. The hourly operating costs are either below or very close to any other aircraft engine available, with TBO times equal to all of the other engines, and rebuilding costs coming in at roughly half that of the nearest competition! They also indicated that they did not have any "worries" about me reporting on the performance of the Jabiru 2200 in the Cheetah XLS! Ground handling for the Cheetah XLS is via direct steering to the nosewheel. The unit flown for this report had drum, cable operated brakes, with the activation handles on the joy stick. Both brakes are activated at the same time. The system also has a parking brake. Throttles are located on the end of the right and left arm rests. The flap handle is centrally located on the cabin ceiling. It uses a center joy stick, with a Y style stick employed for training. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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