The Jabiru J250-SP is an Australian designed Light Sport Aircraft (LSA). It is often sold in kit form, but for the American LSA market it is factory built (in the US).

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Jabiru J250-SP

My dad and I started looking at LSAs at the EAA Airventure (aka Oshkosh) in the summer of 2006. Dad has always been interested in flying and has accompanied me almost everywhere in the last few years. He never got around to getting a pilot's license, but the new Sport Pilot license is appealing to him because of the reduced medical and training requirements. Sport Pilots are limited to 2-person, 1320 lbs airplanes that go no faster than about 120 kts.

We looked at several airplanes at Oshkosh, then in August of 2006 we went to an LSA convention in Minneapolis. We were able to fly the Evektor Sportstar and CTsw shown below.

Evektor SportStar

Flight Design CTsw

We had avoided the high-wing designs at Oshkosh, thinking they'd be difficult to get in and out of. But the CT wasn't too bad, so we began to revisit the high-wing options. The advantage of the high wing is that you have excellent ground visibility. Since this is mostly a sightseeing airplane, ground visibility is a great feature. Second, the low-wing designs all used a bubble canopy that acts like a greenhouse and cooks the occupants of the airplane. The high-wing airplanes have the wing above the cockpit, allowing you to sit in the shade.

One of the high-wing airplanes we had previously dismissed was the Jabiru J250-SP. It wasn't able to be at the Minneapolis show due to weather, so we made arrangements to fly to the factory in Shelbyville, TN to check it out. There we were able to see the whole process of how they are made and were able to go for a ride in a J400, which is a very similar airframe but has 4 seats instead of 2.

A number of things caused me to think the Jabiru would be a good match for us. First was that I had settled in on a high-wing design. The low-wing airplanes really, really look nice but from a practical standpoint of being able to show your passenger their house or other features on the ground, and for being able to withstand the summer heat in Iowa, the high-wing design really made more sense.

The other significant issue was that the Jabiru was simply more stout. We had noticed on the CT that if you lifted the end of the wing it would flex or twist. Not so with the Jabiru. And the landing gear on the Jabiru is more sturdy. This is because the airplane is designed as a 1600 lbs kit but is de-rated on paper to the 1320 lbs LSA limit for the USA market. We had heard some horror stories about CT landings in which the gear buckles if the plane is heavily loaded or landed hard. The Jabiru design stands up to this kind of abuse.

Custom Instrument Panel. Click for bigger image.

Another factor that tilted us toward the Jabiru was the customizability afforded to us by having the plane built in the US instead of Czechoslovakia or some other distant location. While in Shelbyville we were able to meet with the painter, the upholsterer, and the guys who would be building our airplane. Over the fall and winter of 2006 we were able to work out a custom paint scheme, custom leather and suede interior, and design a custom instrument panel that incorporated the equipment we wanted in a custom layout. We paid a little extra for that convenience, but it simply isn't available with most of the other LSAs that are on the market.

Our J250-SP, tail number N57CE, has the following equipment and features:

• Airframe
  • Custom Lexus Blizzard Pearl paint with DuPont ChromaLusion Absolute Purpleen accents
  • Lighting package for night flight
  • Custom leather/suede interior
  • Rosen visors
  • Tanis engine heater
• Avionics
  • Dual Grand Rapids Technology Horizon Sport EFIS displays
  • GRT EIS six-cylinder engine CHT/EGT monitor
  • GPS with moving map
  • Garmin SL30 Nav/Com
  • Garmin GTX-330 Mode S Transponder with traffic
  • DigiFlight TruTrak Auto Pilot
  • PS Engineering PMA 3000 intercom with stereo music input
  • Bose jacks
• Specifications and Performance
  • 115 KTAS cruise
  • 35 gal usable fuel, 5 gallons per hour, 7 hours endurance
  • 486 lbs useful load; 766 lbs using 1600 lbs gross
  • 564 lbs cargo capacity with room to do it (CT can carry the weight but has nowhere to put it)

We flew the Jabiru back to Iowa in early April 2007. It has been a blast to fly. Look for pictures in the Photo Album section of the site in addition to those here.

Ernie and Craig