Rotax 912 Voltage regulator

[jiott]

I have heard that many guys carry a spare with them because these things can easily strand you somewhere. Almost none of the major airport maintenance shops keep these regulators in stock, so you would end up waiting several days while you have Lockwood, CPS, or Kitfox (bless them, they keep some in stock) ship one to your location.

I believe these Ducati regulators are by far the weakest link in the whole otherwise reliable 912 engine series. I wish Rotax would step up to the plate and recognize this and develop a good one of their own, or partner with another vendor, to solve this problem once and for all before they spend any more effort in developing and improving the engine itself. It only makes good business logic to attack the weakest links first. Sorry about my soapbox!

[kmach]

I have over 650 hrs with no failure, 912 uls internal generator only. regulator mounted in the cockpit.

I never shutoff the master with the engine running. If memory serves me right, the 912 operators manual covers that.

I run a fairly high load , efis ,ems, gps, radio ,transponder ,intercom, IFA electric prop, stabilizer electric trim, aeroled's aerosun wig wag and position/strobes, heater fan, aux fuel pump . Thankfully allot listed are intermittent short period use. The IFA prop , radio transmitting and trim adjustment on an idling final definitely suck the power.