Larry,

Admittedly, our S7 has a higher than average empty weight at 886#; however, I have never been concerned about that since I can still fly with full fuel, my wife and 140# of camping gear and food on board. I just try to stay out of the donuts.

Regarding your questions, our 912ULS came with the newer version of the starter, but not the soft start. Not too long ago I ended up replacing both modules due to a cut in problem (not that rare on the Ducati modules made during their transition issues back when my engine was made). The new modules came with the soft start feature which is nice; but I regard the soft start feature as "norwegian proofing" (which I can say since my last name ends in ...son) since a person can avoid the kick back issue with proper starting procedure anyway. With the soft start a person can mess up the starting procedure and get away with it.

The airplane does have a cross tie which allows a person to start on either or both batteries; but I have never used it for starting on both batteries. The cross tie feature would be real handy if one of the batteries died out in the boondocks but that has never happened.

FWIW - the airplane always gets preheated if the ambient temp is less than 30 Degrees F so I can't say how it would behave at 10 or 20 degrees, or less, since I have never done that.

The airplane starts just fine down to 30 degrees F. and there is little reduction in cranking speed (hardly noticeable). Since I haven't had any experience with the standard version of the starter, can't say how that would behave under the same circumstances.

If a battery can supply all the power needed, the starter might be the limiting factor on starting RPM. If a jump fixes the starting RPM issue - probably more of a battery issue.

Possibly others can chime in if they switched the earlier version of the starter for the newer version.

For the record, I don't want to steer you away from other informed battery choices, just trying to relate what my experience has been.