Sport Pilot Talk

srhalter58 · Joined: 15 Nov 2010 Posts: 21

I was just talking to Remos to add a quick drain oil plug and an oil heater. They said they would create and approve the LOA with the required technical information, but they would be a fee to do so. Is this pretty common?

Thanks

3Dreaming · Joined: 10 Jan 2010 Posts: 301 Location: noble, IL USA

srhalter58 wrote: I was just talking to Remos to add a quick drain oil plug and an oil heater. They said they would create and approve the LOA with the required technical information, but they would be a fee to do so. Is this pretty common?

Thanks
That is pretty normal. The heater should be no problem, but if they ask Rotax about the oil quick drain they will likely say "No".

drseti · Joined: 28 Nov 2009 Posts: 1390 Location: Lock Haven PA

srhalter58 wrote: they would be a fee to do so. Is this pretty common?

I have received three LOAs to date from Evektor. There was no charge for any of them. However, in all three cases I sent them detailed engineering documentation of what I wanted to do, so there was no research required on their part. They simply replied the next day, with the required LOA attached to an email as a PDF.

If you want to install the Reiff preheater, their documentation is pretty good, and Remos will probably approve it. The oil quick-drain would be a Rotax issue, and this is normally not something Rotax approves (for good technical reasons). Remos will not override Rotax on this, and may well charge you for checking with them and getting an answer you don't want to hear. So, my strategy would be to get the preheater documents from Bob Reiff, submit them to Remos, and forgo the other mod.

It also may help to draft what you want the LOA to say, in the proper ASTM/FAA format, and ask Remos to simply place it on their letterhead and sign it. The more of their work you can do for them, the less they're likely to charge you.

srhalter58 · Joined: 15 Nov 2010 Posts: 21

I was 50/50 on the quick drain anyway, just from a safety perspective. I do need to come up with some pre-heat option due to living in the wonderful garden state of Wisconsin!

roger lee · Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2011 4:51 pm Post subject: LOA Charges

LOA's used to be free with many companies, but pilots wanted to make too many changes to their aircraft and sent tons of LOA's their way(too many company man hours). So now you do see companies charging from $50-$150 for an LOA (some are still free). It depends if any engineering thought for the approval needs to be done and to make sure it is legal in some circumstances.

As far as engine heaters.
If you only want warm oil and warm the bottom of your engine then Reiff will work. I was designed with a wet sump engine in mind and not a Rotax. Reiff spent all of ten minutes making it half way work for a Rotax. Reiff has a little warming pad on the oil tank and one on the bottom of the block. It was set up for a different engine.

If you actually want to pre-heat your engine in cold country then Tanis is 10 times better that a Reiff. Tanis set their pre-heater up just for the Rotax. Yes it cost more, but it does what it's supposed to do. Tanis heats the entire engine block, heat soaks the engine parts and pre-heats the oil. You can go out on a zero degree morning and the engine will already be 75F. Tanis pre-heats all 4 cylinders, the oil tank and the engine block. I have installed several of these and seen the results first hand. Absolutely no comparison to Reiff.
Watch the Tanis video on the Rotax website and it will give you a pretty good picture of what it does and how well.