Rodger,
From reading your last post here, I don't think you would be happy with the 912. And not that there is anything wrong with that. I agree that a 912 can be a lot harder to figure out than the standard Lycoming or Continental when it doesn't work right. So for those like yourself that are quite "fluent" in the older aircraft engines, having to learn a whole new, vastly different engine probably doesn't make sense. And honestly, the airplanes we like can handle either engine if that's really what we want to do. The only downside would be that unless you come up some secret combination of engine and airframe, because the empty weight will be higher than the Rotax version, performance may not be as good. But I have seen cases with similar designs where the performance is better. A good example would be a Kitfox I just heard of that was originally powered with a Lyc 0-235. It was an ok performer with that 108 hp engine, but generally not as good as with a 912. But he recently replaced the 0-235 with a 180 hp Titan 0-340 and turned his plane into a real screamer. Apparently there is very little difference in weight between those two engines, but lots of difference in power. So again, with airplanes like ours we do have a lot of choices.
And I guess how we feel about flying any engine over dangerous terrain is a very personal thing. I remember when we finally had 912 engines to fly vs the little two strokes we had in the early days; everyone said with the 912 they felt they finally had some peace of mind when flying over areas they never would with the 2 strokes. And now we have the option using the tried and true tandard aircraft engines too, which bush pilots have used to fly over some of the worst terrain on the planet for decades. But peace of mind is just a mental state of mind, or maybe an attitude. It really is a person setting their own limits. Not too long ago I had the pleasure of flying with a friend in his PC-12 PIlatus, and he admitted being nervous going over lake Michigan with just a single engine airplane. So even though he has a Pratt & Whitney Turboprop, which has to be the most reliable single engine ever built, he didn't feel comfortable having just one engine over all that water.
So I guess I'm a bit like my friend, and will keep thinking that any engine can quit at any time. And I will probably get a few extra flying hours in here and there from going around all the nasty stuff I'd prefer not to go directly over, just in case things get a bit too quiet...
Paul
Viking 130
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Includes: Highlander, Escapade, Summit and SuperSTOL.
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