Edge Performance turbo 912

[PaulSS]

I know what you meant, LC

I don't know the details of the Rotax warranty as I haven't got my aircraft or engine yet. However, as I said, I did look at the Edge options and the fact that the conversions nullify any Rotax warranty was a consideration.

If I were to buy a second hand Rotax and convert it there wouldn't be the same issue as buying a brand new engine and doing the same thing. Unfortunately (for this situation), I'm getting a new engine.

The Eurofox guys in the UK are currently testing the 120hp Edge conversion they've carried out on a 100hp 912ULS. The aircraft is going to be used for glider tugging, so the extra power will be great for that and I'm sure the aircraft will almost leap vertically from the ground, as it's already great with 100hp. However, there's no variable pitch prop in use in the UK (yet) and so I don't think there will really be any benefit to cruise performance of the extra 20hp, so I'm going to stick with 100hp and 'endure' the 400' takeoff run, instead of shorter

[kmach]

Rotax's warranty on a new 912 uls engine is 200 hours or 2 years, whichever comes first . Any after market modifications void warranty.

[aviator79]

Rotax's warranty on a new 912 uls engine is 200 hours or 2 years, whichever comes first . Any after market modifications void warranty.

2 yrs/200 hours doesn't seem like a great warranty, but that is the period of time when something is most likely to fail. I did read some negative commentary on the Vans website about getting Rotax to honor the warranty. I take anecdotal evidence at face value.

Regardless, I think established reliability and longevity is probably the stronger argument for stock Rotax than warranty. TBO isn't as sexy to talk about has takeoff distance, climb rate, and cruise speed, but it's at least as important. Does Edge have a stated target TBO? You can't replace the crank, cams, pistons, induction, and exhaust and claim the same TBO without solid data.

Again, I think that Edge's stuff looks like pretty good quality, and I've heard only good things about them. But engine failures account for twice the percentage of E-AB accidents vs Certified aircraft accidents. You should consider all aspects of how a conversion changes your engine, and if you can't quantify the effect on reliability and longevity, you should at least be honest with yourself about these being unknown quantities. Unfortunately, unlike horsepower that you can read on a dyno, reliability and longevity are stochastic quantities that require years (decades?) of service data to put numbers on.