Rotax for Varieze

[wolf.]

Gentlemen I got hold of a varieze fuselage without the engine and thought of installing a Rotax 912 with 100hp, any information/experinece outthere. The Rotax is interesting because of it being nearly 35kg lighter than the O-200.

 

wolf.

[emteeoh]

I`m currently flying DiamondAir DA20-A1s, which are powered by a Rotax 912 with a CS prop. The flightschool I`m at has had good experiences with the plane, its been pretty reliable for them AFAIK, but it doesn`t have the best climb performance. The Cessna 172s outclimb them quite handily. The varieze is about 200kg lighter than a katana, and has what I presume is a lower drag shape, but my knee-jerk reaction is to assume you might be a little unhappy with climb rates and maybe the top speed too. Some of the oldest katanas in the school`s fleet were having some engine cooling problems over the summer, and Diamond was working with the school to resolve those problems. It was my understanding that the problem was only in some earlier A1s, not all A1s, and I am not clear if they did any ducting or engine changes, all I`m certain of was that they changed the coolant used, and that for a month, my instructor was taking detailed notes about engine temperature and performance as well as coaching me through stalls, spins and spiral dives.

[wolf.]

Thank you very much although we have a lot of experience with the rotax engines themselfs they are the standard small aircraft engine in europe. I was more looking for information about an actuall installation and teh experience with a varieze.

 

wolf.