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Message
a well
maintained certified type engine is light years ahead in
reliability.
Sorry, Rusty, but I've got to take issue with
that.
I got into the rotary not for the challenge, and
certainly not for the cash savings. I've seen plenty of the former and
little of the latter so far. The reason I wanted a rotary was first and
foremost, increased reliability. Specifically a reduced
chance of a catastrophic failure and stopped prop and better chance of making it
to a field if something DID go wrong. The other reason was that I wanted more
power at altitude.
I'm just now getting to the point that I'm ready to
wear my "I love flying my rotary" badge. It's been a long haul, solving little
problems one at a time, but because of the redundancy, it hasn't been a
dangerous one.
We were just discussing this on the canard forum.
Here's a snip of what I posted there on the same issue......
I
wouldn't call it lack of confidence. It's more of an "acute awareness" that I
admit to not having had when flying my Cherokee all over the East Coast.
Obviously I did the usual off field training, PFLs etc and kept the issue in
mind, but nowhere near as much as I do these days. Is that because the Rotary is
more likely to let me down? Not really. In fact I think it's less likely to stop
the prop than that old (2250 SMOH) O320 I was driving. The rotary engine isn't
likely to fail internally and I have redundancy on almost all critical systems,
so I'm probably more confident than I was. That is... if I'd thought about it as
much in the Piper, which I didn't.  In those days I'd bumble along cross country at 1000' without a care
in the world. I don't do that any more, but it's not because of the rotary.
Perhaps it's because of the increased landing
speeds.
The first few flights were certainly
adrenaline pushers, if not a little scary, but we pilot types thrive on
adrenaline - right? I'm confident that I'm though the worst of the unique
installation issues. The last few months have been plagued with little things -
minor fuel leak, partially blocked filter, fuel pump ground, minor oil leak and,
finally, minor coolant leak. Would you believe - a fully tightened brand new $30
AN swivel fitting leaking?  , All
little annoying stuff.
There have been zero issues that damaged
the underwear or even changed the heart rate.
I'm confident
that the "acute awareness" will settle down over time.
My 2c
John
Turbo Rotary Cozy IV
53.3
hrs.
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