Rotax Line Maintenance Course

[jnmeade]

I just got back from a two-day Rotax Line Maintenance Course taught by Ronny Smith and held by Leading Edge Air Foils in Lyons, WI.

There were 13 of us in the class, with quite a range of experience. Some were brand new students who just finished the Service training course with Rainbow Aviation that was teaching the 120 hour 3 week LIght Sport Repair Maintenance course at Oshkosh. Others were local A&Ps with lots of Lycoming time. Owners and flight school personnel also attended. Most were familiar with SLSA but some were interested in ELSA.

Ronnie Smith of South Mississippi Light Aircraft is an A&P and longtime maintenance technician with lots of field and classroom experience. He is a very well prepared, very knowledgeable instructor with good presentation skills and a good sense of how to manage his class.

The classroom was a simple room at LEAF, adequate but not plush. Lunches were catered in. LEAF made everyone feel welcome.

The class included some discussion and lecture with slides and video to cover some of the administrative and general part of the instruction. Up to noon of the first day, we talked about the engine, regulations, engine systems and so forth. After lunch, we methodically disassembled a Rotax 912. With frequent shifting of students on wrenches and explanation of hints and best practices for each step, we concluded at day's end. We got a take-home open book test to complete that night.

Morning found us assembling the engine. Again, there was a lot of time gathered around the engine stand with students taking turns applying what they learned. Smith took time to discuss tips and tricks that were general mechanic's skills but not in the manuals. We had the engine back together by noon. Afternoon was spend with review of what we had covered, grading and critiquing the test, and administrative details including issuance of temporary certificates for course completion.

I found the class interesting, informative and worth my time and money. It reinforced the information in the Rotax manuals and helped us improve our reference skills so we knew where to look for information. We used the Heavy Maintenance Manual extensively but also used the Line Maintenance Manual and the Parts Manual. Smith followed procedures and specifications from the manuals. We didn't learn to do anything differently than "by the book".

He added a lot of information based on his mechanic and Rotax background. This included such hints as common errors (dropping a washer or o-ring in a hard-to-reach place), marking and labeling parts for identification, disassembly and assembly techniques to prevent damage or ease operations. Many of his suggestions would be known by an experienced mechanic, such as step torquing heads. Some were unique to Rotax engines, such as how to clock the clamps on the water hoses so they didn't rub on the intack manifold. None contradicted the manuals.

In the Line Maintenance Course, we essentially took the engine down to the point where we'd have to crack the case to continue. I look forward to taking the Heavy Maintenance course in the future.

[drseti]

Thanks, Jim, for a great description of a very fine course. Glad you got to take it. I took the same class from Mike Stratman at CA Power Systems a couple of years ago, and he approached it exactly the same way Ronny did. I think Rotax has all their instructors follow the same curriculum, thus maintaining consistency and good quality control.

I would strongly recommend this course (as well as the heavy maintenance one) to any A&P who's spent his or her life working on Lycoming and Continental engines. Yes, legally, any A&P can work on Rotax engines. But, they're a different breed, and I wouldn't want anyone not trained on them to work on mine (any more than I'd want anyone not having taken the Lycoming class to work on a Textron engine).