| We then take a couple of hours off and then run ground school from 1 p.m. until 4, break for an hour and then fly until dark. With weather, aircraft servicing, mechanical break downs etc. we generally average about 4 hours of flying a day for 10 days with two students, which was the case here. The first thing that anyone should do before they fly any plane is a preflight. On a plane that is several years old, that you haven't been "up close and personal with," don't know the builder, or it's history, you do a pre-flight as if you know someone has purposely sabotaged the plane. Since we were on straight Full Lotus floats we were able to bring the plane up onto shore, by just pulling it up out of the water. But when we did we heard the sound of water moving in the floats. Removing the bladders we found over 10 gallons of water in the bladders! Full Lotus recommends checking the bladders on a regular basis, with that amount of water in them I would suspect they hadn't been inspected in years. Doing a preflight on the Rebel proved to be very easy. You can get at the top of the engine by just pulling two piano hinge pins along the sides of the cowl. But for a thorough pre-flight, you  have to remove the prop. Once the prop is off it will take you about 10 minutes to remove the cowl. Now everything is out in the open and easy to inspect and or repair. A couple of items that required replacement were the two rubber intake sockets used to connect the carbs to the intake manifold. These have been updated a couple of times by Rotax, and the ones on the plane were showing signs of cracking. The motor mounts rubbers were also cracked, and were replaced, but after 400 hundred hours of running over several years you would expect this. We also updated the oil dipstick to the newer style. The new dipstick allows for more oil capacity, and the alloy used in the metal lets the oil stick to it, giving a better reading. One of the throttle cables was showing some signs of wear and was replaced. All of the spark plug caps were loose on their wires. This is something that I have seen a number of times. All you have to do is screw them back onto the wires. In some cases you might have to nip a little off the ends of the spark plug wire to get them to bite in again. Glancing at the starter I could see it was and older model which has a hard time turning the engine over in cold weather. Checking with the owner he indicated that the gear box had been updated with a slipper clutch. Without it the 912 S really thumps and bangs on start up and shut down. If buying a used plane you should check for these two updates. He also had the stator unit updated. Together these three updates cost close to three thousand dollars! So if you are looking at buying a used plane with a 912S you should check to see if they have been done. Checking the radiator expansion tank it is covered in a white sandy film. An indication that the engine had been run hot, and overflowed. The coolant level appeared to be okay. (Rotax has updated the radiator cap the older caps were approximately 14 lbs. the new ones are closer to 18, which helps eliminate this problem.) One thing that I did notice, that came back to bite us later was that there was only one ground cable running from the battery to the engine. You should have two one running from the battery to the engine the other running from the battery to the airframe. The ground wire had been crimped and separated from the cable. This left us grounded for several hours one morning while we searched for the problem, and finally found and fixed it. The next problem was water in the gascalator. After draining it several times, and still finding water we drained and flushed the tank. There is also a drain in the tank, so the previous owner must have not known what it was for, or wasn't checking it regularly. Moving on to the control systems in the cabin. Everything is out in the open and easy to inspect. The flaperon handle is located in the center in the ceiling between the two seats. The dual sticks and their linkages are all out in the open, as are the rudder cables and guides. Proceed along the leading edge of the wing, quite a bit of paint was peeling off it. In checking with Murphy they indicated that this generally occurs if the aluminum has not been properly prepared before priming and painting. They also recommended the use of Sherman Williams paint called Jet Glow which is used by Boeing. Walking around the tips we check out the strobe lights and move on to the trailing edge. The control surfaces are the only part of the plane that uses fabric. All of the hinges are out in the open and easy to check. You then move down the rear section of the fuselage to the tail section, and continue on to the other side. Once finished with the plane you then do a preflight on the floats. Checking the air pressures in the bladders, the stiffener tubes, mounting hardware etc. Murphy's website indicates that two twenty-two U.S. gallon fuel tanks are standard on the Rebel. For whatever reason this one only had one tank in the right wing. To fill the plane you really need a ladder to reach the tank. To fill it you climb up on the ladder, and have someone hand you the fuel can. Lay it on the top of the wing, and then using the "Super Siphon" siphon the fuel into the tank, making SURE to ground the plane FIRST! Note: While flying I didn't notice that having only the one tank effected the plane regardless of how much fuel was in it. But we did have a problem when we stalled the plane which may have had something to do with only having fuel in the right hand wing. To get into the Rebel the pilot unlocks his door with a key. It opens forward, he then makes sure the seat is all the way back and climbs in. Once in, he reaches over and unlocks the other door. The other pilot can now open his door and get in the same way. On floats you climb up onto the float, then use the step on the float mount to climb in. Seated you reach down like you would in a car, and adjust the seat. You can then close the door by pulling it in, pulling the locking mechanism forward and releasing it. With the door locked you can release just the top half of the door and it will flop down and rest on the outside of the lower door panel. But if it doesn't clip into the  little retaining fitting, when you apply power the upper door on the left hand side of the plane will bounce up and down from the prop blast. We will be using standard aircraft style headsets which plug into sockets on the left and right hand side of the instrument panel. These have a volume control on the ear piece. They are also connected into the radio and are voice activated. We have life vests on board. A paddle within reach for each of us. Our seat belt and shoulder belts done up. We go over the emergency procedures one more time incase we have to exit the plane in an emergency situation. The plane is in the water, beside the dock with the nose facing out. To start the engine, TURN THE FUEL ON, bring the throttle right back to an idle. Apply the choke (the choke WILL NOT WORK if the throttle is above and idle). Make sure there is nothing in the area in front of the wing. Yell clear prop. Wait a second in case someone is in the area! Once everything is clear, use the key to crank over the engine. The 912S will crank about three or four revolutions and then spring to life. Now let it idle for about 30 seconds and then slowly release the choke. While the engine is warming up take a look at your instrument panel, and check your rpm, water temp, EGT's, oil temp, and oil pressure. Because we are on water it is going to be difficult to bring the engine up to operating temperature. So we will warm it up as we taxi out to the main lake. As we break free and into the water reach forward and just in front of the dash you will find the retract cable for the water rudders. Pull it forward and then  release it. Now to get to the lake we will be using, we have to travel through a very narrow and shallow canal. The wings tips will in some cases will be inches away from the trees on the bank. So we will have to stay right down the center line of the canal, which will be a challenge with the three S turns. As we exit the canal, the plane suddenly comes to a screeching stop!! With the low water table we are lodged up on top of a rocky shoal. If we were on any other type of floats this would be a problem but with the Full Lotus we just apply power and climb over it! We are now out into the main lake. It is about three quarters of a mile wide and 3 miles long with two islands one half way down to the right and another about three quarters of the way down on the left. Let's taxi down to the southern tip and get ready to take off. We have been taxiing for about 7 minutes now, the engine temps are up and were facing into the wind ready for take off. Bring the engine quickly up to 3000 and do a mag check. Everything is clear in front of us. No boats, canoes, fisherman or swimmers in the area, and no boats have traveled in the area that we are going to be taking off in. Retract your water rudders. Reach up and deploy two notches of flaperon. Set the electric trim to neutral. Pull the stick back to neutral and then come back about another inch. Now apply full power, see how the nose of the plane comes up, gently come forward to neutral. The plane is leveling off. Now you need to "FEEL" what the old girl is telling you. At about 45 mph she begins to feel light on her feet and is ready to lift off! Gently back on the stick, there you are airborne. Now keep it in ground effect and let her pick up a little speed. You are at, 65 start a nice gentle climb out! What the hell!!!! The engine is quitting! Drop the nose a little, DON'T TRY TO START IT! Land straight ahead! Level her, she how she floats in ground effect, don't come back on the stick so fast, okay she's back down on the water, use the stick to keep in on the step as long as possible, it is slowing down, just release pressure see how it settles in. Now what happened? The fuel shut off is TURNED OFF not ON! We ran out of fuel. This is something you will have to be conscious of in the future. The fuel lines from the tank to the engine apparently hold enough fuel to run the engine for over seven minutes. If we had not taken as long as we did to get out from the other lake we would probably have been airborne just approaching the end of the lake! Turn the fuel on. Bring the throttle back to an idle - it is still sitting in the full open position. Apply the choke, check out the area and crank her over again. Taxi her back to the end of the lake and let's try this again! Back on the stick one inch past neutral. Apply full power, gently forward on the stick, she is on the step. Hold it there, pick up speed. You're at 45 mph lift her off. Pick up speed in ground effect, you're at 65 start a nice gentle climb out. you're up to 70 drop a notch of flaperon, you're at 80 flaperons to neutral. Keep her climbing at 80, your VSI is reading just over 600 feet per minute. The instrument panel is easy to view from either seat. Oil pressure is steady at 65 lbs, oil temp just over 230, water temp around 210 F. Voltage gauge just under 14 volts. Climb out by circling the lake. The safest place for us to land is back on the lake so lets not get to far from it until we have enough altitude to make another stretch of water. Visibility is good over the nose. The side view in not bad, and with the top of the doors open you can stick your head out and look back. But overhead could really use a set of sky lights. It would also brighten up the cabin. You are at 1800 feet, make note of a couple of land marks for navigation. Otherwise you won't know one lake from another when you get 5 miles from here! See the mine smoke stack over on the right, the rail yard on the left. We are dead center of them, and we are the only lake within that area with a small island on one side and a large island on the other. There is also only one road coming in from the main highway to the lake. This old girl really clips along on only 100 HP. 5,000 rpm gives an honest 85 mph. Cabin noise is a little noisier than most but the only time you will notice that is if you remove your headset. Remember setting the trim to neutral for take off, well once we disengaged the flaperons, the plane has been flying hands off with no pressure at all on the stick. Let's set up for a little cross country. Remember fly with enough altitude to make a safe landing. This means you won't be able to fly in a straight line, or "as the crow flies" but rather in a zig zag pattern from lake to lake. Climb out to around 3,000 feet as you're flying. This old girl really likes that 80 to 85 mph range for just about everything. See how the stick has a nice positive feel to it and the ailerons are very effective and require very little input. Aileron pressure is very comfortable, and gives great feed back. We are at 3,000 feet, set up for a 180 degree turn to the left. Check out the area first, now feed in a little left rudder, now co-ordinate with very, very, light aileron input, continue to look out the front left as you come around. You are loosing altitude, see how you're airspeed is picking up. Apply a little back pressure on the stick. You're just about to the 170 degree mark start feeding in opposite rudder, apply a little aileron, you're there. Now do one to the right. Again clear the area. Apply rudder, co-ordinate with stick, a little back pressure. See how it looks like the wing tip is planted and the plane is rotating around it. This old girl almost flies herself! Let's see how stable she is. Trim her for straight and level flight at 85. Push the stick forward and release it. It made one small oscillation and then returned to level flight. Pull back and release. Same thing. You could almost fall asleep in her and she would continue on for over 4 hours with the 22 U.S. gallons of fuel we have on board. But you lost nearly 500 feet in that first turn. Climb back up to 3,000. Let's see how she handles a stall. Level her off. Start coming back on the power. Use the stick to keep the nose level. 80, 75, 70, 65, see how you have to dance on the pedals to keep her straight, 60 mph feel the shudder in the stick- holly crap! She dropped off to the right, forward stick and left rudder, we dropped about 75 feet. I wasn't expecting that! Climb up to 3,000 again. Level her, bring the throttle back, at 80 deploy one notch of flaperon. Use the stick to keep her level 75, 70, 65, 60 keep dancing on the peddles, stick shudder 55 - DAMN she dropped off to the right again! Climb out one more time and lets try it with two notches of flaperon. 75, 70, 65, 60, 55, 50, keep dancing, shudder - 45 - there she goes again off to the right. Editors Note: Normally in stall the plane should drop it's nose, and with forward stick and application of power will start flying again within 50 to 100 feet. A plane dropping a wing is a cause for concern because it could lead to a spin. We've been gone for about 30 minutes let's head back. What do you mean - which way is BACK! Find your smoke stack, you know it is south of where we took off from. Now find the railway yard. Set up and fly along an imaginary line between them until you come across a long skinny lake with two islands on it. Remember when lost or confused -go from known to unknown. Ah - I see you found home. you're still at 3,000 were about 5 miles out, bring the power back to idle and see how well this old float plane glides. Keep her at around 80 mph. Coming in like this with the nose dropped a little the visibility out the front is like looking through a big picture window. Now set the little island on a spot on your windshield. Keep your stick steady, see how the island keeps dropping and then disappears off the bottom of the windshield, that means we are going to be high if we keep coming in at this attitude. If it was rising on the windshield it would mean we are going to be short. Rather than deploy flaperon let's see how she handles a gentle side slip. Apply a little right rudder, now feed in just enough stick to keep the plane flying forward as if it was attached to a steel cable. She does that really nice. Straighten her out. From 5 miles out and 3,000 feet we have traveled over 4 miles with the engine at an idle and still have 1800 feet of altitude! Okay we have used the downwind leg to check our landing area. Deploy a notch of flaperon and enter base. you're on base apply a second notch of flaperon. Notice how the first notch really didn't effect the plane, but the second has raised the attitude of the nose. Maintain 65 mph with the stick, as you get closer to the water you're going to enter wind gradient which will mean we have to compensate with the stick. 100 feet, 80, 60, drop your nose a little, 50, 45, 40, 30, 25, start to level her, 15 level her, 10 use the stick to hold her off, you can hardly feel her touch. You're on the step play with the stick to keep it there as long as you can! Beautiful landing couldn't have done better myself, you two were meant for each other. What do you mean you want to do some more? You have, run your plane aground, had an engine out, got lost, stalled a plane three or four times. Okay one more circuit. You know the routine. While we are climbing out there is a couple of things you should know. First when flying on floats have more power than you ever think you're going to need. For this plane the way it is constructed 100 HP with the two of us on board and one fuel tank you have a good combination. More fuel, amphib floats, and you will be using a half ton truck to do the work of a one ton. When flying on floats have 30 to 40% more floatation that what your plane will gross out at. Believe it or not your plane with the two of us on board, floats, float mounting hardware, radios, paddles, etc comes in pretty close to 1400 lbs. We are flying on 1650 floats, which are sitting low in the water. That is why in rough conditions the floats dug into the waves and started to submerge, rather than ride up on them. It is also why they went under water, when we backed the power down too quickly. With the aluminum float system from Murphy Aircraft built for this power and weight you will be off the water in about 8 seconds at gross, in about 300 feet. But what you give up in performance you get back in durability, with the Full Lotus system. We're at 3,000 feet. Now what I want to do is set her up on high downwind. The lake is nearly 3 miles long so we will just sit about 800 feet off the shore line for our circuit. We will turn base deploy out flaperons, coming in across the bottom of the lake and then turn in on final. You ready? Then level her off and bring the power back to idle. Now reach over and turn the ignition off. See how quiet it is? Now turn the switch back so that when we go so start it you just have to hit it. Now concentrate on your landing. See how nothing has changed. She still flies like an angel. I can't believe how well she glides, considering you have the floats and all the mounting hardware hanging out in the wind. You're coming through the 2,000 foot layer, feel the turbulence. 1500 feet time to turn base and deploy flaperons, 1000 feet turn final. Okay fire her up. What do you mean she won't turn over! Then forget about the engine and concentrate on the landing. You already know you don't need an engine to land! Steady now just keep the nose pointed down in that nice glide angle, like the plane is on a cable. If you glance over at the air speed you will see it is a constant 65 mph. 50 feet, 40 feet, 30 feet, 25 start to level, 15 level, EASY - too FAR back on the stick. GOD we popped back up to 15 feet, we are going to hit a TON! What? We should have thumped into the water after stalling in from 15 feet. But the floats took the hit instead of us. Either get your paddle out and get out on the floats, or call on the radio for someone to pull us in. Did I mention that the plane should have two grounds running to the engine. So if one fails the other will still allow you to use the electric start. | 
