Light Sport Aircraft survey

"Lakeview Bill" wrote in message
. ..
Just out of curiosity, why do you dislike the Rotax?

How shall I count the ways?

They require their oil, their oil filters, their everything. You pay dearly
for this.

They always have seemed to be temperamental. Everything has to be just
right, to be even close to reliable.

See above. If everything is not just right, they are not reliable. I know
the 912 and 914's are not 2 strokes, but what pieces the 2 strokes are. I
know, some will testify that they have never had a minute's problem, but
there are more out there that have. My gut, and my but says to not trust
them. I don't and I won't. Gut means a llot, to me.

They don't sound "manly" enough. Kinda like a sewing machine, compared to a
Harley. Airplanes are supposed to be "cool", and they aren't. :-)
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:
"Lakeview Bill" wrote in message
. ..

Just out of curiosity, why do you dislike the Rotax?


How shall I count the ways?

They require their oil, their oil filters, their everything. You pay dearly
for this.

They always have seemed to be temperamental. Everything has to be just
right, to be even close to reliable.

See above. If everything is not just right, they are not reliable. I know
the 912 and 914's are not 2 strokes, but what pieces the 2 strokes are. I
know, some will testify that they have never had a minute's problem, but
there are more out there that have. My gut, and my but says to not trust
them. I don't and I won't. Gut means a llot, to me.

I have to disagree with your assessment of the Rotax 2-strokes here,
it's just not informed. I've owned 6 of them over the years (just now
got #7 delivered a few weeks ago), 5 503's and a 2 447's. I have
hundreds of hours in front of/underneath Rotax 2-strokes at this point
(500 hours as a rough guess) so I've gotten to know some of their
strengths and weaknesses.

The chief strength of the Rotax 2-strokes is the field experience
available. We know how to install them, prop them, jet them, load them,
maintain them and what parts and peripherals to use with them. This is
the _#1_ strength of the Rotax - it's not so much that it's such a
superior design (it's not much more than a snomobile engine with a
beefed up bottom end and slightly different metallurgy in certain places
like the pistons), but again it's field experience we have available for
setup, installation and running that really makes them reliable.

They are also the only 2-stroke on the market that can really do
continuous high power for hundreds and hundreds of hours without failure
(provided it's installed, setup and run right, of course).

The chief weakness is probably the same as for all 2-strokes; they can't
handle a lot of abuse such as lean running, underpropping and so on.
They also require more frequent maintenance (typically for leaking seals).

But the truth is, the rotax 2-strokes are very reliable, long lasting
engines.

I know a lot less about the 912, since I've never owned one, so can't
comment on those (I don't know of any rampant reliability problems with
them, though, from the fairly numerous locals who fly them).

They

don't sound "manly" enough. Kinda like a sewing machine, compared to a
Harley. Airplanes are supposed to be "cool", and they aren't. :-)

I kind of like the scream of a 2-stroke rotax, but that might just be
because I'm used to it. OTOH, the coolest sounding is the merlin in the
P51.....

LS
N646F

"Morgans" wrote in message
...

They don't sound "manly" enough. Kinda like a sewing machine, compared to
a
Harley. Airplanes are supposed to be "cool", and they aren't. :-)

Yeah Jim. Know just what you mean. There I was, out in the desert slogging
along in my "manly" sounding Ducati when a rice-burning Yamazuki screamed
past me. . . again. Three 33-1/3 mile laps. When I pulled into the pits, the
winners had already packed up and gone home. But that Ducati still sounded
cool. POS!

Rich "Pass the Sake" S.

"Rich S." wrote

When I pulled into the pits, the
winners had already packed up and gone home. But that Ducati still sounded
cool. POS!

Yeah, but you were doing it in style. Cool counts!

It is already a given that sport planes are not going to be fast. Might as
well get the cool quotient up there! g
--
Jim in NC

In article , Morgans wrote:
They always have seemed to be temperamental. Everything has to be just
right, to be even close to reliable.

That certainly doesn't hold true on the 4-strokes. The 4-stroke Rotax
(914UL, the turbosupercharged engine) seems to be pretty robust. In
particular, temperature control is FAR better because it's mainly
thermostatically liquid cooled, so there are fewer concerns over the
engine cooling too fast in a descent or overheating in a climb.

They don't sound "manly" enough. Kinda like a sewing machine, compared to a
Harley. Airplanes are supposed to be "cool", and they aren't. :-)

They sound manly enough to me. They certainly FEEL manly enough when you
push the throttle all the way through to get max boost from the turbo.
Once in cruise, getting 50nm/gal (no wind) in the Europa is nice too.

--
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"

"Dylan Smith" wrote

In
particular, temperature control is FAR better because it's mainly
thermostatically liquid cooled, so there are fewer concerns over the
engine cooling too fast in a descent or overheating in a climb.

Are you 100% positive about the thermostat being in a 914? I know it is
water cooled, but I could have sworn that someone recently said (in a
different thread) that there was no thermostat.

I'm glad you feel warm and fuzzy flying a Rotax. The 912 and 914 could be
great, but with all of the other (IMHO) pieces of work Rotax has produced, I
have no faith in anything with that name of it. Sorry, but not my butt!
--
Jim in NC