Sport Pilot Talk

I had been inquiring what a typical major at 1500 hours costs for the Rotax 100 HP engine. An AI at one of the Rotax service centers told me that it is better to just buy a new engine, as the parts and labor for a major are within $500 of the new price. The new engine comes with a fresh Rotax warranty http://www.rotax-aircraft-engines.com/p ... d04533.pdf , whereas the overhauled engine has a greatly limited warranty, depending on the shop. With a new engine going for around $23K, that works out to an engine reserve of $15.33/ hour.

I'd like to hear from anyone who has reached the 1500 hour TBO. What course did you take?

Fly safely,
Dennis

I think the new TBO is 2000 hours. What a lot of people are considering is to go ahead and install a new engine at 1200-1500 and sell the old one to a homebuilder. I suspect you could get $5000 for it easy.

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PP-ASEL, Flight Design CTSW owner.

The current 912 ULS has a 2000 hour TBO, and there is a service bulletin for increasing TBO on some of the older ones by changing the oil pump pressure relief spring and cap screw. A new engine costs $18,500 (not including installation). Depending upon condition, you can get a $3k to $4k core credit for the old one. Given these figures, I bank $10 per flight hour into the TBO fund.

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The opinions expressed in this post are those of one CFI, and do not necessarily represent the position of the FAA or its lawyers.
Prof. H. Paul Shuch, Ph.D., CFII, LSRM-A/GL/WS
AvSport of Lock Haven
http://AvSport.org fly@AvSport.org

Prof,

What's the final price installed?

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Frank
Fayetteville, NC
KTTA, Sanford, NC
Allegro 2000 Renter

A 912 overhaul is about $12K. If you have a 2000 TBO engine then you could sell it at 1500 hrs. for around $7k-$8K and then just pay the $12K and get a brand new engine for around $18K. Many 912's run easily for 3k-4k hours without any issues.

Here is the big butttt in all of this. Unless you are using your engine for training or rental then you can not be forced to do the 2000 TBO. The FAA ruled on this a couple of years ago. Rotax can not impose any higher or extra regs above what the FAA has in place. So you can go on condition inspections and it will have no impact on your insurance because the FAA has checked and the companies are going with the FAA ruling.
So as long as your engine is running good which with the proper and timely scheduled maint. it should keep right on running well past 2000 hrs.

The guys who teach or train in an LSA are locked into the TBO.

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Roger Lee
Tucson, Az.
Light Sport Repairman - Maint. Rated
Rotax Repair Center - Heavy Maint Rated
(520) 574-1080 (Home) Try Home First.
(520) 349-7056 (Cell)

That's my situation, but Roger is right. Except for commercial operations, TBO is advisory, not regulatory.

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The opinions expressed in this post are those of one CFI, and do not necessarily represent the position of the FAA or its lawyers.
Prof. H. Paul Shuch, Ph.D., CFII, LSRM-A/GL/WS
AvSport of Lock Haven
http://AvSport.org fly@AvSport.org

Could you provide a link to the SB with the serial numbers of the engines upgradeable to 2000 hour TBO? I'm in shopping mode now and that will be a valuable piece of information when I decide to buy.

Thanks!

Dennis

It's Rotax SB-912-057UL

http://www.asmpish.com/DOC/SB-912-057_UL.pdf

table 1 on p. 4 gives the relevant serial numbers.

If you've never heard Mike Busch speak on the subject of maintenance induced failures, it's eye-opening and relevant to this discussion.

https://www.savvymx.com/index.php/webinar

With the iPad so clearly dominating the aviation tablet market, it's a real pity that all of Michael's fine webinar archives require Adobe flash, and hence are inaccessible to iPad users.

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The opinions expressed in this post are those of one CFI, and do not necessarily represent the position of the FAA or its lawyers.
Prof. H. Paul Shuch, Ph.D., CFII, LSRM-A/GL/WS
AvSport of Lock Haven
http://AvSport.org fly@AvSport.org

actually, they play fine on my ipad or ipad mini, it appears to use quicktime. I've watched a half-dozen of them on ipad.

Roger, I agree that if you are doing flight instruction and rental it is a good idea to overhaul or replace at TBO, but what regulation you are basing the requirement that it has to be done on?

I don't remember the FAR, but it's in the same section that requires LSA trainers and rentals to do 100 hr. inspections where everyone else is advisory not regulatory. I know schools that have already had to do their overhauls. Personally I would sell the engine and buy new.


The 1500 hr swap to 2000 hr TBO start right around July 2006 give or take a month. If it is that close to the date you would need to look up the serial number on the SB. Anything later than that will be 2000 TBO.

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Roger Lee
Tucson, Az.
Light Sport Repairman - Maint. Rated
Rotax Repair Center - Heavy Maint Rated
(520) 574-1080 (Home) Try Home First.
(520) 349-7056 (Cell)

Roger, I think you meant to say any engine manufactured after July 2006 can be brought up to 2000 TBO, by complying with the SB. As I recall, the couple of parts to be replaced ran around $100 (in stock from Lockwood), and the labor was negligible. Older engines cannot be brought up to 2000 hours. Engines built after early 2010 are already 2000 hours.

Here is another example of why Rotax training, though not required, is a pretty good bet. Otherwise, how would an A&P know about any of this?

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The opinions expressed in this post are those of one CFI, and do not necessarily represent the position of the FAA or its lawyers.
Prof. H. Paul Shuch, Ph.D., CFII, LSRM-A/GL/WS
AvSport of Lock Haven
http://AvSport.org fly@AvSport.org

Your talking about part 91 vs part 135 ops

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http://www.10kvacationrentals.com