912 ULS clone

[Kitfox Pilot]

My issue with Harbor Freight is when the smoke escapes from their electric tools I can never stuff it back in to make them work.

Haha, this is a true quote from my experience!

[Av8r3400]

My issue with Harbor Freight is when the smoke escapes from their electric tools I can never stuff it back in to make them work. I can only imagine the US General/Bauer/Hercules 912ULS.

This may solve your problem....


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[rv9ralph]

I was at Sun N Fun on Wednesday and came across the "Clone". It at a vendor at Paradise City, the ultralight area. He revealed that the manufacturer had beeb producing "official" Rotax parts for years. I didn't get the spelling but the engines had "ZD" on the valve covers and he said the company was Zeuzus ... or something like that. Below are a few pictures. It looks much like a 912ULS, 100 hp, the castings did look a little rough, in that the surfaces weren't smooth. The carburetors also looked like knock-offs.

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[ADK-Flyer]

MMatt is a You tuber who has installed one of these a while back on his Zenith. He Paid a 3rd of the price of the Rotax when he bought it so I'm assuming around $8,000 but when I looked them up they go around $16,000 now. I feel for only $6,000ish less than a Rotax 912ULS it doesn't really seem like it's worth it at least not for me. I feel that the price of Rotax engines does seem inflated when compared to the prices of engines in other machines with equal or better engineering and technology not just airplanes. Personally I'd want the Rotax for piece of mind and resale. I attached a couple videos one where he talks about the engine on his own and the next his interview with the Experimental Aircraft Channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnCEgmwTv5U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrZAQlKEJ8s

[Kitfox Guy]

This will be interesting to see how this plays out. I?d be reluctant to fly behind a ?new? engine manufacturer?s first generation model, but there are others (less risk averse than me) who will. Hopefully this gentlemen will publish updates on how the engine performs over time. If it has comparable reliability to Rotax, that might spur Rotax to readjust their pricing. If it doesn?t it will soon disappear just as other experimental aviation manufactures have. Only time will tell!