on 11/11/04 8:21 AM, Alan Burrows at alan@kestrel-insurance.com wrote:
>
> Fred
> I don't want to start a war or anything here. So I will qualify this by
> saying THIS IS PURELY MY PERSONAL OPINION...having flown several
> versions of Europa with all three rotax engines I chose the 914 turbo.
> In the last 2yrs it has behaved perfectly and always had an excess of
> power for almost any situation. I cannot rate it high enough. I do not
> know of anyone who has fitted it having anything but praise for it. Now
> that says it all to me. The guys who recommend other engines don't
> usually have a 914 themselves so cannot really appreciate the brilliance
> of this little engine. Fit the 914 you will be glad you did..!
>
> Alan
>
Alan,
Fear not!..my war-mongering antennae are focused elsewhere...and I value all
personal opinions, especially from someone w/ 2 yrs experience with which to
back them up. I freely admit that my decision to buy the Europa was strongly
influenced by its being mated with a state of the art certificated engine
(i.e., the Rotax 912S/914). Nonetheless, as a FWF-less builder, I've been
troubled by the numerous reports of the need for frequent tweaking of the
Rotaxes as well as references to weaknesses (the standard starter motor for
example) and costly fixes.
When this current thread began, I forwarded it to Alex Bowman thinking that
he might have some info which would be pertinent to answering the question,
"What engine for my Europa". I've encouraged Alex to join in the discussion,
and since he is not (to date) on the Europa-List, I posted his message at
his request.
As I've previously posted, I met Alex at the Arlington Fly-In this year and
was quite impressed with the quality of his overall aircraft and both the
aesthetic and the seemingly simple, robust, and bulletproof engine
installation...these are of course only opinions, expressed from a lawnchair
(not the cockpit) by someone working steadily on his airframe with all
options open as to powerplant.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Fred
A194
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