The internet is a wonderful thing. In mid August 2000 just by chance looking at the SportFlyers classifieds I spotted what appeared to be a great deal. A low time Pulsar in like new condition for a very reasonable price. I decided to contact the seller as once; a deal like that won't last long.

Having discussed the plane via e-mail and telephone with Jim Hughes, the owner in Muscatine Iowa, I knew it was worth serious consideration. Buying a plane is always full of trepidation. On one hand it's love at first sight and on the other you realize that your life is at stake and emotion has to be held in check. A full inspection of both the plane and its records are always necessary and that can only be done in person. So I called on some good friends. One is John Burleigh, an aircraft mechanic with an Inspection Authority rating, and owner of a hand rebuilt Cessna 172. He could provide a critical eye toward the condition of the plane and its records. He would also provide the ride up to Iowa in his Cessna. Another key player would be Chris Frank, a highly experienced commercial pilot familiar with small planes such as this. He would fly the plane back from Iowa with John and I flying in the 172 close by. I would play the role of worried investor bankrolling the whole affair.

Once all the ducks were in a row a weekend was set for the trip to inspect and quite possibly return with the pretty little bird from Iowa. Saturday August 26, 2000 was the day. Before dawn the three of us met at John's hanger at Clover Field in Houston. The weather report was good but there were some showers popping up in Missouri. We were planning two fuel stops before reaching Muscatine Iowa. The dawn leg was to Texarkana and was cool and uneventful. The heat and haze started to build and the next leg was to a little place with cheap gas called Salem Mo. The unattended airport there had a self serve pump for AVGAS at $1.65/gal. (a bargain for the summer of 2000). Fortunately we only ran into a sprinkle or two over northern Missouri before arriving at Muscatine on the Mississippi.

Jim Hughes came out to the airport to meet us and provide ground transportation, (for the entire weekend no less). Jim is fanatical about maintaining his plane and it showed. The eight year old paint job looked about a month old. John and I looked over the plane as Jim explained the finer facets of operations. It was obvious this would be a superb plane to own and the test flights that followed showed that it would be an even better plane to fly.

The Pulsar is a pure sport plane. Very clean in design and very simple in implementation. The 500 pound plane slips quickly through the air on the power of a Rotax 582 two stroke engine. I have some experience with 582s as I have a Rans S-12 with that same powerplant and flew it all the way to Leadville Colorado and back without a hick-up. With the right care and feeding this engine can be a strong, reliable powerplant.

The next morning we got up at 5 AM and found ourselves at the airport shortly after dawn to see fog and low ceilings. Our departure would have to wait. This was also the moment of truth, as I handed Jim a check and he signed over the plane to me. Suffice it to say that this can be an emotional experience.

Weather reports indicated Iowa was under low ceilings and would take some time for it to lift. So John, Chris and I cooled our heels at the Muscatine terminal for the rest of the morning. At this point it was obvious we wouldn't be making it back to Houston that day. After taking lunch we finally decided the weather was good enough to make an exit. We took off at 2 PM and proceeded down the Mississippi. It was marginal VFR for a while but eventually we made it past the front and it was clear and very hot the rest of the way.

That weekend saw record breaking heat over the middle of the country exactly where we were flying with surface temperatures around 110F and temps aloft of about 90 at 4500'. The low air density presented a problem for the engine. The carburetors were jetted rich for the Iowa climate and under the new conditions we were flying in the engine was running very rich. Too rich actually. Mid-range power was OK but at climb power the rich main jets dropped the power off significantly. Chris reported difficulty maintaining a constant RPM. We pressed on and eventually arrived at Hot Springs, Arkansas around 8:30PM. This would be our overnight stop with a plan to make the quick flight down to Houston in the morning. The Hilton had a special deal for pilots and we enjoyed the nice rooms and allowed ourselves to sleep in a bit in the morning.

Hot Springs was the first place where we had to use AVGAS in the Pulsar. The air temperature was in the 90s and rapidly rising. We took off toward a midway fuel stop in the little town of Center, Texas. (No where near the center of Texas, but go figure!) After topping off the Pulsar there with more 100LL we departed for Houston. On climb-out Chris noticed a momentary drop off of 500 RPM and then another one soon after but ran well when he leveled off. By this point we are on full alert and steered toward US59 and Nacogdoches to be near a strip if an emergency occurred. Passing over Nacogdoches he noticed another engine speed drop, this time of 1000 RPM. That did it for me and I instructed Chris to make towards Lufkin/Angelina Co. airport already in sight.

After making the precautionary landing we pulled the cowling and the spark plugs to check for lead fouling, (our best guess as to what was happening). The plugs didn't look that bad but we decided to pull the head and inspect more closely. Sure enough there was a significant lead deposit, and this was after only two hours of flying on 100LL. Cleaning the pistons and checking the rings would take the better part of the afternoon and without a full set of tools it was something better left for another day. We arranged to put the Pulsar in an old hanger and the three of us left for Houston in the Cessna. It was 5pm, very hot and we were tired and hungry. About 1 hour later we landed at home base - Clover Field in Houston without the Pulsar. Pilar Burleigh, always the gracious lady, had sandwiches and beer for these three hot smelly guys.

After more thought John and I concluded that the whole problem may have been the rich mixture the plane was laboring with. My experience flying all the way to Colorado and back mostly on AVGAS with my 582 powered S-12 convinced me that lead build up like this doesn't happen that quickly unless the combustion temperatures are below normal. Fitting the main jets with the leaner 155 size might just raise the temps enough and do the trick. Regardless I was going to replace the fuel with unleaded.

Lufkin is about two hours by car from Houston so I planned to make a trip up the following Friday to clean the pistons, re-jet the carb, syphon out avgas and replace with high octane unleaded, reassemble and test the Rotax engine. Having reassembled the engine the last step in torquing the head resulted is a stripped cap nut. Damn, 8mm cap nuts don't grow on trees ya know! Alas the engine run-up would have to wait for another day. Fortunately I own another 582 on my S-12 so it was a simple matter to scavenge from it to finish the Pulsar and get it home. (Kinda like stealing from the poor to give to the rich but oh well.)

Sunday was that day. I drove Chris back up to Lufkin and after torquing the nut properly it was time to run up the engine and watch the temperatures. Ah yes, the leaner jets worked wonders. The temps were up where they belonged and the engine no doubt would generate more power. On to the flight test.

After lunch Chris took the Pulsar aloft for some laps around the pattern to make sure everything was in tune. Like day and night; this bird was flying stronger than ever with no roughness or power drops. Finally, it was time to fly the plane down to its new home at La Porte Municipal Airport near Houston! Myself, I had to drive the two hours back to find out how it did, wondering all the way. But when I drove up to the FBO there it sat, perched on its landing gear as pretty as you please. Whew! Eight days after departing Iowa it was finally in the hanger here in Houston.

I'm sure I'll have a blast flying this little number all over Texas and beyond. I can't wait. Thanks Jim for letting me take the reins of such a beauty. I'll take good care of her.

-Robin Friedrich

A gentleman named Jim Hughes back in 1994 was considering building a Pulsar kit plane. While talking with various builders to gather insights into the effort, he ran across David Bailey who had just built his Pulsar. At the time David was in a position where he needed to sell the plane. After seeing N410DB, Jim decided that he couldn't do a better job than Dave on his own so he offered to buy the plane outright.

Jim flew her for six years logging nearly 300 hours. It was my good fortune to have seen Jim's for sale ad on the internet in mid August 2000. Jim is a fanatic about taking the best care of his plane and it was easy for me to decide on buying it. You might say it was an "imPulsar" buy!