Paul,

    I visited the Sadler Aircraft display at the Light Sport Aviation
Expo in Sebring, FL and have some data and pictures of the Vampire
airplane.  The show was on a very bad day weather-wise.  The sky was
overcast and there was a light drizzle in the morning.  Later it was
near fog conditions with ceilings below 800' - not a good day and the
show attendance was very Spartan.

    I spoke directly with Mr. Sadler and asked him specifically about
the final drive.  He was very open and answered my questions, but showed
me noting other than the outside of the airplane, even though I was the
only person asking any questions.

    The engine and drive-line were not open (/as you can see/); but
were, instead, enclosed in the fuselage.  There was a fairly large
access door on the left side, 6" or so behind the back edge of the
canopy opening.  The door was secured with a few dozen screws and I
didn't ask for it to be removed - not that they would have accommodated
that request anyway.  Besides, the drive-line was well back of the
opening and likely pretty dark with only one cover removed.

    The following is what I learned from Mr. Sadler:


    *VAMPIRE SPECIFICATIONS:*

              o The PSRU is a spur gear arrangement
              o The PSRU provides a 2:1 reduction (/the actual numbers
                were not quoted/)
              o The engine turns 6000 rpm and the prop turns 2000 rpm
                (/these were quoted numbers/)
              o The engine employed is a Rota_Max_ 2-cyl rotary
              o The 3-bladed IvoProp is 62" in diameter

    There was little in the way of documentation and I only came away
with a small (/4x9"/) flyer.  On the flyer, they claim to use a Ro_tax_
912 engine (/incidentally, almost all of the LSA airplanes at the show
[and there were tons of 'em...!] employed the Rotax engines/).  Mr.
Sadler told me that the engine was a Rota_Max_ (/I'm certain I heard him
say Rota_Max_ and not Ro_tax_ - maybe this was an error on his or my
part...?/)

Just FYI, at Oshkosh the Vampire was right behind the Rotamax guys, and
everyone said he was using their engine.

Keith Wood

              o The PSRU provides a 2:1 reduction (/the actual numbers
                were not quoted/)
              o The engine turns 6000 rpm and the prop turns 2000 rpm
                (/these were quoted numbers/)

I am not doubting you Jack that this is what he said :)
Things are not making sense here.

Paul Lamar

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