Photograph:
Ravin Aircraft 500 prototype ZU-CTW (c/n 1) in South Africa (Ravin Aircraft)
Country of origin:
South Africa
Description:
Four-seat light touring aircraft
Power Plant:
One 194 kw (260 hp) Lycoming IO-540 six-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine
Specifications:
- Wingspan: 10.4 m (34 ft 2 in)
- Length: 7.42 m (24 ft 4 in)
- Wing area: 14.6 m² (157 sq ft)
- Max speed at sea level: 389 km/h (232 mph)
- Cruising speed at 75% power: 343 km/h (213 mph)
- Optimum cruising speed at 75% power at 1,981 m (6,500 ft): 364 km/h (226 mph)
- Stalling speed clean: 121 km/h (69 mph)
- Stalling speed with flaps, undercarriage down: 103 km/h (64 mph)
- Range with 10% fuel reserve: 3,701 km (2,300 miles)
- Fuel capacity: 605.6 litres (13 imp gals)
- Empty weight: 850 kg (1,870 lb)
- Loaded weight: 1,620 kg (3,564 lb)
History:
The Ravin 500 is an all-composite four-seat light aircraft produced by SA Ravin Aircraft of Pretoria in South Africa. The aircraft was designed by Jan Troskie, a mechanical engineer who, for a period, owned a Piper Comanche 260C and enjoyed its good flying qualities and performance. He contracted Francois Jordaan, who had built a number of aircraft, including two Lancairs and two Papa 51 Thunder Mustang kits, to help him design the Ravin 500.
The aircraft has been produced in kit form and available in two models, the 500 with the IO-540 engine and the 300 with the IO-360 engine, driving three-blade Hartzell propellers. Attention was paid to the placement and design of the engine air-intake so that the propeller is able to transmit pulses of high pressure air directly into it. The aircraft is slightly smaller than a PA-24 Comanche. Entrance is via an upward opening gull-wing door on the left hand side and seating is for four. Development took almost two-and-a-half years and first flight of the prototype (ZU-CTW) was made on 15 September 2002, being followed by ZU-SBC (c/n 2).
Development of the type has continued, one (ZU-RMM) being fitted with a 224 kw (300 hp) engine, and another being fitted with a fixed undercarriage, fixed pitch propeller, which first flew in January 2007. First of the type seen in this region was imported in 2009, this aircraft (c/n 0705016) being placed on the civil aircraft register as VH-LST in Albany, Western Australia on 13 July that year. A further two kits were subsequently imported. VH-LST has been noted operating from Serpentine.
Another example has visited this part of the world. This aircraft ZU-XML (c/n 0905021) operated by Troll Air and powered by a Lycoming IO-540-D4A5 engine left Capetown, South Africa on 14 July 2013 on an around the world flight, being noted visiting North Shore aerodrome near Auckland on 1 May 2014 and being noted at Ardmore, Lord Howe Island and on the east coast of Australia, including Bankstown, NSW during its flight.