Nervous about Rotax

Jay,

I hit send to soon. Here are my thoughts from a German perspective:

- The Rotax 912/914 has been in service in Europe for decades now,
inpowered gliders and what's called ultralights here (the LSAs you see
in the US now). People are quite happy with it, the service history
seems completely normal.

- Germany is much smaller, so finding a service center can be much
easier than in the US. However, with the engine becoming more common,
mechanics in the US will have to adapt. They did here.

- The main problem I see is that the 912 doesn't really run well on
diet of Avgas exclusively. OTOH, auto gas contains increasing amounts
of ethanol - and while you can handle part of that with engine design,
choice of gasket and hose materials and so on, you cannot design away
the fact that ethanol will dissolve water which might freeze out at
high altitudes. That's something I would like Rotax to comment on
extensively.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)