On Jan 27, 2012, at 4:27 AM, William Daniell wrote:
> I think the base Honda fit engine is a very interesting powerplant
> and the
> volume and quality control is unlikely to have the manufacturing
> problems
> that the aviation manufacturers have like dodgy cranks but I am
> personally
> am not up for the experimentation process required to get it flying.
>
> There was a chap flying in Canada whose name escapes me with a Honda/
> CAM100.
Will...that would be Alex Bowman who flies out of Nanaimo, BC...he has
the CAM125 which is built around (I believe) a mid-80s Honda Civic
engine...and he's been quite satisfied w/ performance, ops, and
maintenance. He flew it to the EAA show at Arlington, WA back in 2004
or 5, and I've seen it at a fly-in at Pemberton, BC alongside Peter
Timm's Classic. Alex is now in his late 80s and has had some medical
issues which, I believe, have been the sole reason for why he has not
been burning holes in the sky w/ his Europa...it remains a low-time
aircraft, but I much admire what he has achieved. Incidentally, he
built his plane where he lives on a small island "off the grid", and
true to form, the manufacturers of the CAM engines have evaporated.
Though the success rate for auto engine conversions for aircraft use
may be low, Alex's CAM125 installation along w/ his Airmaster CS prop
has been one of the success stories...of course, it would be more
convincing to be able to point to say 10 Europas thus powered, each w/
a thousand hours and still going strong. Some listers may recall that
w/ the demise of the original Europa company, I attempted to assemble
a group of FWF'less builders to utilize Alex's production cowl molds
and experience w/ mating the CAM125 to the Europa, but alas, that
never happened.
Of course, auto engine conversions are a subset of the question of
whether or not one may choose to deviate from orthodoxy...anyone so
interested can do some web searches and find any number of scholarly
papers and descriptive narratives on the pros and cons of doing so.
For myself...as I continue my XS mono powered w/ a derivative of a
Subaru (the RAM Performance 140 hp, MPEFIed engine w/ an Autoflight
helical-geared PSRU)...I spent about 15 months molding the cowls,
designing and fabricating the mounting frame, ditto for cooling and
tuned exhaust systems, plus temp & pressure sensors...176# "wet" but
excluding cooling & exhaust systems.
I find that a high tolerance for ambiguity has been essential...
I will post test/performance data when available.
I trust that there's a place in the Europa community for the
occasional deviant,
Fred
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