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#1
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In article , Lakeview Bill wrote:
Just out of curiosity, why do you dislike the Rotax? I would suspect lack of support from local GA facilities - the 4 stroke Rotaxes and the Jabiru are not particularly common in the US so few mechanics will be familiar with them. Other than that, they are decent reliable engines. -- Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net "Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee" |
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Dylan Smith wrote:
In article , Lakeview Bill wrote: Just out of curiosity, why do you dislike the Rotax? I would suspect lack of support from local GA facilities - the 4 stroke Rotaxes and the Jabiru are not particularly common in the US so few mechanics will be familiar with them. Other than that, they are decent reliable engines. Those engines seem to have a bad reputation in the U.S. They are seen as cheapo engines for people who can't afford "real" engines from cont or lyc. One flight school I know of had diamond katanas with Rotax engines and only got 900 hours out of them despite regular use. I don't know how typical that is, but you often hear stories like that. Maybe it's the Avgas we use over here (it certainly isn't good for small continentals either, but like you said those can be fixed by just about anyone). Not having owned or maintained an engine myself I don't know but I do know their reputation is not good here. For example one of the new companies (I think it was Liberty) was initially going to use a Rotax and got no interest, changed to a Continental and now are taken more seriously. |
#3
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![]() Those engines seem to have a bad reputation in the U.S. They are seen as cheapo engines for people who can't afford "real" engines from cont or lyc. One flight school I know of had diamond katanas with Rotax engines and only got 900 hours out of them despite regular use. I don't know how typical that is, but you often hear stories like that. Maybe it's the Avgas we use over here (it certainly isn't good for small continentals either, but like you said those can be fixed by just about anyone). Not having owned or maintained an engine myself I don't know but I do know their reputation is not good here. For example one of the new companies (I think it was Liberty) was initially going to use a Rotax and got no interest, changed to a Continental and now are taken more seriously. I am fairly familiar with the Diamond/Rotax issues. The engines are not bad. Whoever said that there are support issues was spot on. Whether this will change with Sport Pilot remains to be seen. There are several aspects of the Rotax engines that the average Lyc/con AP will set precisely backwards without proper training and support. Neither of which has been forthcoming from Bombardier. |
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