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RV-12 Viking to Sebring

A

Avenger V

Active Member
I thought the trip from CZL north Georgia to Sebring was rough, ice, rain, stranded in Perry, FL with a dozen LSA overnight but that was nothing compared to the flight home. Left Sunday around noon and headed North. Got to Thomasville, GA for fuel and the wheather was starting to get bad. Tried going North until we hit a wall at 600 AGL and did a 180 with the Dynon 74 and headed back to Thomasville. The wings are still on the plane but got one heck of a work out. The engine usually cruises about 125 to 130 mph and gets about 5 to 5.5 gph at 5100 rpm. Got a room and tried again Monday and departed about noon. Tuesday headed west to get around whether but ended up going south west. After lighting, terrible rain, wind I managed to get to Geneva, Alabama. The town opened there doors to us. Parked the 12 inside a hanger and took us to the Motel and dinner. Great people. Left Tuesday about 10 0'clock and got back to Calhoun, GA in 2 hours with a head wind. 209 miles. Put on 13 hours and landed at nine different airports. What a trip.
Ron Russ RV12 Viking 55 hours.
 
Good Job

Ron,

Sounds like a rough ride. Glad you made it safely. Speaks to the quality of your Viking installation and your piloting skills.

Tony
 
We hit rain.

We went down and back on Friday....blue skies and tailwinds going down...then lowering ceilings and a wash job at 3,000' in a descent:).

Best,
 
RV-12 Viking success!

Happy to hear of your save return home behind your Viking engine installation.
You make a point in your post to highlight your confidence in your viking installation.
I am only an interested observer in the alternative engine debates.
Of all the installations that have come and gone I have a feeling that the Viking might be a winner.
The pros and cons of this package have been debated in another thread but the very essential question of final weight of a finished RV-12 Viking has not been answered
Perhaps you would be kind enough to share more of the details and most specifically the final weight of you RV12.
 
33J

Glad you had a good time in Geneva, Ron. Sorry I didn't get to the airport for your departure. Glad you got back home safely.

By the way, for those that haven't seen this 12, it is a very, very nice airplane whether you're a fan of alternate engines or not. What a nice installation!!!!
 
Viking Post???

Someone posted earlier a multi series of failures with his RV12 Viking install and ripped it all out and went back with the factory Rotax setup. Had to go and did not get to digest it all... now it seems to be gone. Anyone read the thread and recall what the thread was all about?
 
I would like to discuss the Viking Engine

I was reading it and looking forward to discussion but one of the over zealous moderators must have deleted it. [ed. That over-zealous moderator was me, the site owner. The post in question was a new registered account's first post - and it was a live hand grenade. The stuff lawyers love to contact me about. I'm not trying to keep information from you...I'm trying to keep my house! PLEASE consider the option that it's just a simple posting rules violation, and not a conspiracy. dr] I like the Viking engine and looking to possibly using one in a 12 I plan to start next year.

I would like to know more about why the guy took it out and try to understand the problems he said he had.



LifeofReiley said:
Someone posted earlier a multi series of failures with his RV12 Viking install and ripped it all out and went back with the factory Rotax setup. Had to go and did not get to digest it all... now it seems to be gone. Anyone read the thread and recall what the thread was all about?
Click to expand...
 
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Viking

I do call it was all removed around 90 hours, but there seem to be 4-5 issues before the final straw that made them pull it out. ??? Thought I was going to learn something again today. :confused:
 
LifeofReiley said:
I do call it was all removed around 90 hours, but there seem to be 4-5 issues before the final straw that made them pull it out. ??? Thought I was going to learn something again today. :confused:
Click to expand...

From memory, he mentioned a cooling system "failure" at 15 hours with lots of leaks. Followed by multiple oil leaks. Also, mentioned it added 20 (?) kilos (or was it pounds?) on the nosewheel and put the airplane at the very front of the CG envelope. The other issue, IIRC, was that it was a year overdue on delivery.

On the other hand, the original poster in this thread - Ron (AvengerV) continues to make the rounds of the local (N GA and NW Alabama) pancake breakfast circuit, and from appearances, the airplane seems to do just fine.
 
Engine hours

Ron (AvengerV) was reporting he had over 200 hours on the engine as of April on another forum.
 
Ron Russ graciously took me for a flight in his plane, I was quite impressed with the smoothness and power. I have flown a UL powered plane and a Viking powered one, so cannot compare with Rotax, nobody has given me a ride in one of those yet.
 
I delight in telling all my Rotax friends that apparently they are "traffic pattern only" aircraft, none of them ever come down to see me!
 
Pott/Kettle

DonFromTX said:
I delight in telling all my Rotax friends that apparently they are "traffic pattern only" aircraft, none of them ever come down to see me!
Click to expand...

Be careful Don,
At least they're flying around the pattern. How many times have you been around the traffic pattern in your's?
 
Keep it up Don. There are many of us following your story and are interested in your choice to use an alternate engine. Don't take any **** from anyone - trying to razz you.

Best of luck and I wish I was closer. I would love to come see your plane and your FWF.
 
Viking RV12

My Sebering flight was two years ago. That's old news. I now have 220 hours of trouble free flying with my Viking engine. No coolant leaks or oil leaks. Weight and balance was not even near being an issue. There were two Viking powered planes at Oshkosh this year with over 300 hours on each. One flew from California for the second time. Most of my flying is trouble free cross country flights. I cruise at 133 MPH at 5.5 gph burning 87 ethanol.
[ed. Rules violation text deleted. dr]. ...and give him credit for his engineering accomplishments with the Viking engine.
Ron Russ
 
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Ron, I didn't realize that the Viking ran ok on 87 octane. Do you know if it would run fine on Avgas 80/87? I could get that much easier than any kind of Mogas on my Cross Countries ...
 
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