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I bought a Grob 109 B from Jim Fangman. I ferry it from Michigan to SC this past weekend. Here are few pictures. Yes, this is mine...good by savings! Stopped in London KY. Beautiful Morning picture Flying over Mt Mictchell In NC 6,684 feet tall, we flew over at 9500. My home lake Murry Lexington SC near Columbia CAE, we were on the look out for the big boys...did not see a single one. Now at its new home in Owens Field KCUB in Columbia SC.

Much like you shouldn't go immediately to take off power with a cold engine, you don't want to abruptly shut down a hot engine. Throttle back and let it cool down at idle for 5 minutes. I even do this with the Rotax 912s in my Ximango. New heads are expensive. Flying around with the engine at idle for 5 minutes is not. When you shut down a hot engine at altitude you're blowing cold air on hot cast metal. This is begging for uneven cooling which will eventually lead to cracks, usually in the front cylinder heads because that is where the coolest of the cooling air goes first. So, go to idle for a few minutes, let the engine cool down slowly through airflow and oil temp, then shut down. I let my oil temp drop to 160F before I shut down my Rotax. If you don't have wet heads you might want to let it cool down a bit farther. As my granny used to say "Better to hold the phone than have a kidney stone".........

An older gel coat finish (S/N before 121 or so) would definitely be heavier, but not 50 lbs heavier. However, little things do add up rapidly. As an old EAA councilor once told me "Son, take care of the ounces and the pounds will take care of themselves". What you probably should do is weigh the airplane and verify the numbers. It's a very simple procedure. Look for it in the manual. That much of a discrepancy would concern me. WRT the designation for a "motorglider", the FAA refers to them as "Powered Gliders" in an Advisory Circular entitled “Powered Glider,” (AC) 21.17-2a. This AC states three requirements to be certificated as a “Powered Glider” under FAA regulations: First, it may be either Single or two place (no two place back seats). Second, the maximum gross weight is limited to 850kg (1874 lbs), and third, the wing loading (weight/span) loading must be no more than .62 lbs/sqft. In addition to AC 21.17-2a, FAR 91.205 lists the requirements for engine monitoring. The requirements laid out in AC 21.17 were adopted by the FAA in 1984, nine years before the EU was even formed. These requirements come directly from the FAA, not the EU. FWIW, many authorizing agencies around the world reciprocate with the FAA regs. In the case of Brazil, ANAC, the Brazilian FAA, adopted our FAR's verbatim with little deviation, with one of those deviations being the gross operating weight of the Ximango (depending on how it is registered). The 2500 lb weight limit comes directly from Claudio Vianna, the owner and Chief Engineer of Aeromot, as well as several of his junior Engineers and the factory test pilot. You will find this designation on the various Type Certificates. The Ximango has been used for a variety of missions, not just as a motorglider. These include coastal patrols, wildlife patrols, police surveillance, primary trainers for the USAFA, and for oil/gas/mineral exploration. The Ximango platform (fuselage and inboard wing sections) were used in the Guri (AMT-600), a primary aerobatic trainer used by the Brazilian Air Force, 28 of which were manufactured. Equipped with an IO-360 and constant speed prop, the Guri is a 180 knot aerobatic airplane. The Guri was also manufactured with an 0-200, fixed pitch prop and fixed gear for a domestic basic trainer. I saw seven of these when I visited Brazil and the Aeromot factory in 2010. Here's a photo of the civilian version of the Guri:

Thanks for the suggestion. I figured it out and successfully repaired it. The trick is to use a 6mm ball hex socket, a universal, and several extensions to reach thru the inspection opening then the second set of hands undoes the nut which is tucked in the welded box at the bottom. I found the internals so packed with grit that the cam could not push the spring off the stop since it was packed behind the space the spring should move into. The bearing surfaces were pretty well chewed up, A good cleaning and lubrication solved it. Bob