Microlighters

Hi All

I just can't keep my mouth shut any longer and after hearing rumours of guys wanting to sell their beloved planes unnecessarily because of the new 300 hour crank replacement I want to share something here. Engines have their specs and when purchasing an engine one should weigh up those costs - initial and maintenance.

This is NOT the end of microlighting and NOT a sales pitch!!

I know of atleast 2 other people working on engine alternatives in addition to mine – My alternative – I have spent the past year and invested a lot of money in this project and I do believe that I have an engine that is a viable alternative to other engines currently used on microlights and small aircraft

Does that mean the laws / manuals will suddenly change? (300 tbo)

When I got into microlighting I got involved with the idea of changing my engine IRRESPECTIVE of current legislation - see my old posts. Before I even had my license I knew that my engine would be coming off. Infact I removed my 582 many many moons ago before the current confusion even took place. My manual said TBO at 300 and spark plugs CHANGED every 15 hours. I respected that and did as it said. When 293 hours came, the engine came off. It served me very well and performed as it said on the "box", I also had great service from the importer.

Current legislation aside - I, for myself - wanted a cheaper, more fuel efficient engine from the start, without sacrificing realibility.

What I can say is that I believe I've found a REAL alternative, not only for trikes but 3 axis Savanna types too.

All are 4 strokes and come in Normal Aspirated and Turbo flavours, most will have fuel injection and be altitude compensating - no more jetting issues.

My personal favourite is the Turbo charged 90hp+ version (some installations have 240hp). This means in Gauteng on a NORMAL morning the DA is easily 7500ft+ instead of me suffering about 30% power loss I would have sea level power all they way to 12000ft.

TBO's are expected at 1000hours and are comparatively cheap. The turbo might have a higher TBO. Fuel burn on the turbo can easily be 5l/h at a leisurely 60mph or 10 l/h on faster type aircraft not bad for an engine capable of 1400fpm climb. No it's not a diesel...atleast not yet

Costing is hopefully going to be very competitive – And with the various engine options i.e. normally aspirated or turbo-charged, there will be an engine to suit most budgets.

At this time I can not mention brands or names and would be grateful if those that do know me, respect that.

I do apologise for the somewhat secrecy I have had to maintain but I've invested massive amounts of money and even 5x that in time and phone calls, so please respect me for that a little longer .

Paperwork takes time and should yield results.

Don’t sell your planes or get despondent guys – Not only me but also Zulu1 are working VERY hard on alternative engines.

I will share more details with you as soon as I can, and the people that know me, know that I am no "bull-####". I love this sport and I do believe that the engines I will be marketing will give everyone a cheaper, more powerful alternative to what is currently available.

Right now I see the biggest problem being - mindset.

As I mentioned above this is not a sales pitch. There are people - my soon to be competition too - that are working on alternatives. Which ultimately means more choices for you - the pilots.

Hang in there

Great news DF!

Keep us posted! I noticed somewhere there is a guy with a 40hour 582 that want to sell it before this 300hr thingie trips him up!!!

Nice one DF.
I agree that we should not over react.

Looking forward to seeing your new creation.

Ahh - The cat is out of the bag

I feel like a catholic priest who listened to one of his parishioners confess to doing the "funky chicken" with Charlize Theron!! - You wanna
tell all your friends all the nasty details but you are sworn to secrecy
-Damn!!

Respecting Dieselfan's wishes, all I can say is I have seen the engines in the workshop and they are what we have been waiting for.

The particular engine Dieselfan happened to be testing on the workbench at the time I was there will kick 912S butt, confirmed - And will cost considerably less. There are also smaller models that will easily compete with 582, but cheaper and with a decent TBO - And it is 4 stroke

I have watched Diesel poor endless energy into this project for a year now and I reckon we are about to see something very special. Dieselfan has made a study of small aircraft powerplants and after he invested massive amounts of money and time into this project, I cannot wait to see it "launch" - Excuse the pun

My lips are sealed as to any other details

D

The only problem I have with these non-aviation solutions is the dependency on a battery to provide 12V to the electricals of the engine. I have seen fuel injected engine go suddenly quiet . instant silence. the VW type motors do the same thing, loose the power link and a sudden silence is experienced to say your prayers in.

In all my planes I have had battery problems, so they do happen. Thank God only radios etc died and not the engine as well.

Diesel fan......... eventually.. he he he, when you start releasing your stats, the way we fly our toys will be changed forever ........ i believe new VSI`s will be on everyones xmas lists soon.

Halleluuuyaaaaa , you must feel alot better now DF!!
Yes guys i can confirm what both DF and Big D are talking about, i for one am VERY excited about this little baby, as DF would know.

Morph with every new venture there are bound to be stumbling blocks (as DF is experiencing) but with an open mind and the will to succeed anything is possible.

There is no way in h#ll that Rotax can be the ONLY decent microlight engine supplier in this whole HUGE world. Other engines must work too! Dont get me wrong nothing against Rotax but having such a limited choice is a no no for me.

Song and priase to all those guys who are willing to go out there and take a chance.

Also intensively investigated alternative power plants and are amazed with the choice available. 80% of the alternatives are cheaper than current Rotax`es in SA. The TBO and especially the crank spec`s are better than Rotax.

No agent means no spares, etc. but it takes 3 days with DHL to get it here.

Seriously looking at replace for my current Rotex. Will fllow DF`s pots closely.

Pleeeez, pleeeeez, let this not be Hirth or Simonini...........

They perform so well on the test bench, they look so good, their stats are exciting, but, put them onto a microlight and they are rubbish.........

Heck, Dieselfan, I am keen to see what you have, if it is not one of the above.........

Cheers.

David

Morph wrote:The only problem I have with these non-aviation solutions is the dependency on a battery to provide 12V to the electricals of the engine. I have seen fuel injected engine go suddenly quiet . instant silence. the VW type motors do the same thing, loose the power link and a sudden silence is experienced to say your prayers in.

In all my planes I have had battery problems, so they do happen. Thank God only radios etc died and not the engine as well.

there is always a way to solve a problem the way we are doing it is the simple dual system and that means two injectors,filters fuel pumps prefilters ( and in my trike two pickups ) and two AGM batteries the nice thing about this is that with the flick of a switch you do a full service on the fuel system and the AGM batteries were made to give a warning unlike the lead or gel batteries ( thanks for mil-spec ) they might be a bit more but they are a lot better are the trips we do it is good to have a second battery.

so one must just think it through and it can be just as good as the old carbs and the fuel injected engine are not the same as in the olden days they have come along

carbs also have there problem

Great news DieselFan !!

If you need a testbed airframe or a "Beta" user let me know, would love to help.

Will also have a nice workshop/factory complete with tooling available soon if you need it.

Keep up the good work !

Fly safe,
Rudi

Well done DF, you go for it...I predicted the demise of the two strokes as obviously did DF, my reasons were for not for the crank as I never actually thought of that rule but for the emission control rules in the rest of the world.

I have since sourced a turbo for 600cc motors from Oz if you need one..

I have sourced a twin fuel injection system from jhb, a four cylinder has double so can sort out a two cylinder x 2 if you need one..

The exhaust that was made for my motor is designed by the street racing fraternity if you need help..

I have a very switched on foundry and pattern shop in our industrial site if you need castings, they make manifolds for Alpine and these are exported to the USA. As well as various bellhousings, gearboxes etc. if you need resources..

So we can share resources if need be, my aerie will be back home soon and then we make the manifold patterns. Slowly testing each part piece by piece..

The HKS generates sufficient power to run itself BUT I may install two batteries anyway 1 for each system, not got there yet..thats a easy sort out. Two solenoids to start and then each fuel pump, ignition system and so on, not an issue.

I have sourced a replacement LED light array for the landing light, this is from a Spoornet signaling arrangement and will allow the motor to run itself reducing current draw.

Just keep plodding on.

We will both need help with paperwork at some stage..

If nobody does anything then nothing gets done...

Zulu1

Thanks for the comments!

Morph
Some very valid questions. After sim alternator failure, I've personally witnessed that the engine can from a fully charged battery run at cruise rpm for more than 1 hour without any problems from the fuel injection. It will cause problems below 10v - around 9.6 is deadstick time. In this instance I'm talking about one of those SMALL alarm type batteries too.

Your voltmeter just becomes an extra instrument as opposed to EGT's. You can make double of everything but you still have one prop and one engine...it's about defining what is enough and what is reasonable.

LamercyFly
You forgot one...

and
Bugger DD you got me (not)...now as a matter of interest why not the Hirth, Sim?

This is also the precise reason I've "played" with almost 5 different brand engines and over 7 variations within those brands and had access to test data of even more. Website vs REAL LIFE...and what I ideally wanted. I drew up a list of various engines (there's loads), then short listed those of interest and based on owners reviews / experiences shortlisted those I could buy and test - even if they're a write off. Out of those I settled on what I think and tested to work best according to MY criteria. What's worse is for each variation there's LOADS of prop brands and models within each brand not all work the same

I did not do this at first with the idea of a business venture and am glad I didn't. I undertook this as a learning experience and to find myself my ultimate engine. This allowed me to keep an open mind and be honest and objective about the setups I tested. I'd like to keep it that way and advise people on what choices there are. The tough part now is that stating facts or findings can easily become construed as competitve "hatemail" or degradation although those that know me know I will state negative findings about my own stuff too.

Remember there's NO PERFECT engine. You match to your needs.

Mine were

- SEA LEVEL power no matter where I go - it gets scary when you calc just how much power is lost...sometimes better you don't.
- Cheaper to fly overall, this means spares, fuel, alles. I've lots of friends outside the community who want to fly but can't afford it and what they could afford would drain their accounts quickly or mean they'd fly so little they'd be a hazard to themselves.
- Less to worry about and tinker with including tinkering LESS often.
- Thermal shock, must be water cooled.
- Fuel injection, I've read of some carb heating setups failing - carb ice. This can also happen on FI but less often by design but I doubt it's called CARB icing?

I'm not going to mention reliability as it's an obvious one and I did have that previously so why settle for less?

Lastly I can vouch HP is over rated - Torque is overlooked. It's like the Ghz wars on CPU's AMD vs Intel AMD eventually marketed as this chip is a 2Ghz but PERFORMS like a 2.6. I feel similar with these experiments.

For me I've found my solution, I hope it will meets yours.


Phew finished typing then saw your post Zulu1! I will most likely make use of some of your contacts . If it can be produced cheaper and with more / same reliability why not! My chats in the past with you and your low fuel consumption definitely played a role in getting me started

PS Don't rule out 2 strokers just yet...I've got my hands on a most interesting 2 stroker which should surpass current emission controls and well lets just say so far it's quite impressive just not readily available.

Diesel-fan, I seriously hope you have put your money into the Smart Diesel motor. If you have not yet, you have 275 hours left on my 582 before I am coming for one.

I hate suspense.

DieselFan & Zulu1

HP sells engines - TORQUE wins races! This was a saying of a friend of mine that took his own life over the Christmas period. He was a fundi motorcycle tuner / racer and ebbed so much reliable performance out of the race engines he did!

All I can say is we all await the culmination of your projects with major anticipation.

The world is full of extremely resourceful people and not to mention those on this forum!

I like the SMART idea...

or some kick ass diesel tourque

http://www.eco-motors.com/Index.htm

...... and for the turbine junkies - check this one out :

http://www.zenithair.com/misc/turbine-power.html