S_P_2015_04_

FOR RECREATIONAL PILOTS. Sport Pilot^47

FEATURE STORY

No one else in the world had ever used this

engine and it wasn’t really available yet, because

the boys at Rotax were still ironing out a few wrin-

kles. The Airplane Factory had not figured out

how to install it yet. Also, it wasn’t like a Continen-

tal or Lycoming where fuel injection, at least from

a pilot’s perspective, was a fuel pump switch in

the place of the carb heat handle. In fact this

engine turned out to be everything we pilots had

been crying for since the Wright brothers.

What I didn’t get was that the 912is is con-

trolled entirely by computer. The drawback

of course, is that it needs electricity. No one

thought to mention that when I ordered the

engine. It took me a while to let go of the secu-

rity of my trusty old magnetos, the way a baby

finally parts with a dummy. But I was won over

by the fact that that the engine has two alter-

nators which automatically back each other

up in the event one fails and that the battery

can provide electricity for a while even in the

unlikely event of a dual alternator failure. Inter-

estingly, the alternators are not belt driven, but

are driven directly by the crank and they run

submerged in engine oil.

I took delivery in November 2012. The

512nm delivery flight to home took 4.5 hours

and I burned just 60 litres of fuel. That’s got to

be some kind of a record.

Gone were the days of stressing about stu-

dents running out of fuel when flying into head-

winds or getting lost on their solo long navs.

We put 100 hours on that little plane in the

first three weeks and then one Sunday morning

an ab-initio student on a solo navex had had an

engine failure. The nose wheel had collapsed

in soft sand, but except for that, and the prop,

there was no damage. As it turned out, the

clamp that held the fuel line to the engine wasn’t

up to the three and a half bar of fuel pressure

and the hose had become disconnected. It was

an installation problem, not an engine problem.

It cost hardly more than the excess to repair the

damage and so I didn’t bother the insurance

“the

912is is

controlled

entirely by

computer”

Slings ready to go to work