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Getting spun up on RV-12

David-aviator

Well Known Member
Just want to let you-all know getting spun up on building the 12 helping a friend with his project.

Found out today a fuel injected engine is now available but not for older kits. Will be going with the dual carb set up as per plan.

I have not had flown with a carb since owning C-150 in 1980. :)
 
It?s not too late to install a nice electronically fuel injected/ electronic ignition UL Power engine... ;)
 
It?s not too late to install a nice electronically fuel injected/ electronic ignition UL Power engine... ;)

Yes, have been wondering about that...have hangar neighbor with UL powered Zenith, loves it.

Are you flying with UL?

I assume you had to go E-LSA to do it.
 
Yes, have been wondering about that...have hangar neighbor with UL powered Zenith, loves it.
Are you flying with UL?
I assume you had to go E-LSA to do it.

I think you meant that you have to go EAB to use the UL engine.
 
Yes, have been wondering about that...have hangar neighbor with UL powered Zenith, loves it.

Are you flying with UL?

I assume you had to go E-LSA to do it.

Not flying yet, but I have the engine, UL350iS, mounted and just finishing up the cowl fitting. I'm hoping to be flying soon...that's a relative term. ;)

I think you mean, "go E-AB", and that is correct. While there is an endless amount of opinions and threads on this topic, I don't personally see it as a big deal; especially for the benefit I get by customizing my build the way I want.

Although the first engine mounts and cowls had development issues, there is now a solid engine mount and cowl setup available for the RV-12 and a UL engine. You may want to consider the UL260iS as it's 107hp and just a couple pounds lighter than the 912ULS. There is a group of us that have gone the UL route with some collective knowledge we can share.

I'm a bit of an outlier in that I went with the 350iS, which has more hp and torque, but weighs about 9 pounds more all in. I had to do some engineering and work with the UL both here in the US and Belgium, but I'm very happy with my setup now.

Although 10 pounds of the engine weight is fuel pumps, filters, ECU, VR and coil packs (none of which are attached to the engine, but rather elsewhere in the aircraft such as the FW, instrument bay and back at the fuel tank), the suspended weight of the engine is 159 pounds complete and very comparable to the suspended ~160lbs weight and balance for 912.

No carbs, magnetos, gearbox, or coolant system....just a simple four cylinder engine. I can say it starts on the first blade pass and runs very smoothly with a nice baritone rumble. I'm holding off on saying much more publicly until after I have firm performance data...hopefully in the next few months.
 
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UL 350IS

I have a brand new UL350IS engine I would sell. I bought it for my since abandoned Arion Lightning project. Been pickled since day 1.

Will sell for 1/2 current price plus freight.

They are a beautiful work of engineering!

Gordon
 
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I first heard of Ron's build while researching engines after the Rotax took a dump at 47 hours. It would have cost me a bit more than just replacing the Rotax at $19k to get the cowl and other FWF stuff done so I went with a second (hopefully reliable) Rotax.

If I had the opportunity to build out the UL at half price I think I would have done it.

If we could get a few more examples of UL / 12's flying maybe one day it would be an option out of the factory.
 
I first heard of Ron's build while researching engines after the Rotax took a dump at 47 hours. It would have cost me a bit more than just replacing the Rotax at $19k to get the cowl and other FWF stuff done so I went with a second (hopefully reliable) Rotax.

Jim, What happened at 47 hours? It wasn't covered under warranty?
 
Jim, What happened at 47 hours? It wasn't covered under warranty?

Piston Meltdown. Detonation is not covered under the warranty. Seems Rotax has seen enough of this to exempt it from coverage.

Rotax immediately concluded bad gas (without any evidence). Once that was ruled out they turned to the cooling shroud that Vans has now eliminated from the firewall forward kit.

I plan on giving it a proper write-up but it's not a priority for me. I won't own a third Rotax engine.
IMG_0597.JPG
 
What did the head look like? Perhaps foreign object got into combustion chamber and played pingpong?
 
Piston Meltdown. Detonation is not covered under the warranty. Seems Rotax has seen enough of this to exempt it from coverage.

Rotax immediately concluded bad gas (without any evidence). Once that was ruled out they turned to the cooling shroud that Vans has now eliminated from the firewall forward kit.

So sorry this happened. Now I understand why you were saying in another thread that you only use 100LL. I wonder if the mogas we have in California is barely up to Rotax minimums. Here in the LA basin, I think it's 91 octane with who knows how much ethanol and other stuff thrown in.
 
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