SonexBuilders.net

Looking at the picture and the drawings of the proposed cowl 2 questions arise.
The proposed Viking cowl will not follow the line of the windshield so with the filler box as it is, there will be a gap between the cowl and the top of the filler box which will allow fumes from the engine to enter the cockpit, will the filler box need to be remade with a higher neck so it sits snug against the Viking cowl?
Also will the windshield strap (and potentially the upper firewall) have to be remade to sit at a different angle, I can

This installation is the new one with the VW adapter plate on the VW Sonex mount. When I did my measurements, it was based on the Jabiru mount and no adapter plate and interfered with the fuel tray. From the picture, it looks like the engine is pushed forward quite a bit, hence why it now clears the fuel tray. Plus The Jabiru mount is much closer to the firewall than the VW one.
So now you have an engine pushing close to 200lbs being hung quite a ways forward on the aircraft than the Jab3300. Weight and balance will be interesting.
Jan has not published W/B on the RV12 or for any other aircraft that I'm aware of.

Sounds like Jan has flown the Viking/Sonex!

I would like to see the image that he sent to the yahoo group to see how the cowling worked out. I have the viking yahoo group set up to web only so I am unable to see the email attachment. Do you have it?

Here is a link to the first flight video. I actually think the nose looks better than I expected it would.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtXLweQNidE

Steve
Sonex 892 VH-ZSX 3300 103hrs

Indeed, it doesn't look too bad at all.
And climb out performance with two people on board seems quite good as well, off course we don't know how much fuel was onboard but still...

Wouldn't an engine swap out like this put the aircraft back into phase 1 flight test for 5 hours? How can he take a passenger with him?

fastj22 wrote:Wouldn't an engine swap out like this put the aircraft back into phase 1 flight test for 5 hours? How can he take a passenger with him?

A lot of times Phase 1 limitations require "only required crew members" to be on the airplane. It actually doesn't say just one; rather, the Manufactorer states what required crewmwmbers are. I think I recall hearing that when the CAF started flying their B-29 "FIFI" last summer, they required 7 people on board.

Anyway, a lot of people get by on a technicality that one person is insufficient to fly, take notes, observe engine readings, etc., so they'll take another person on Phase 1 flights.

I've asked Jan to post the weight of the aircraft before and after the engine swap.
Lets see if we get some concrete numbers this time.

My question does not seem to make it online.
Anybody else want to try and get these numbers out of him?