Looking at a Sonex A

[turbobill]

A 2009 Sonex A has turned up for sale at my local airport. It has the Camit gen 4 version of the 3300 Jabiru engine with approximately 160 hours since new. Airframe has 730 hours. No damage history, just some improvements over the years. It's also equipped with an EFIS, GPS, autopilot as well as an xponder and ADS-B. It would fit my mission as a fun airplane as well as a cross country bird mainly commuting to my flying job in the good weather.

My learning curve the past week has been steep concerning the Sonex and the engine as well as the avionics installed. Build quality on this one seems excellent and other than the improvements over the years it's just had normal maintenance.

A test flight isn't possible at this time as the owner is out of the country until next February but it is in current annual. He did properly prepared it for longer term storage (in early June) until his return next year. He was flying it up until then and apparently decided to sell a couple of weeks ago.

My main concerns are parts support for the Camit version of the Jabiru engine and common problem area's of this particular airplane model. I'm looking for any and all input. Thanks in advance.

[Bryan Cotton]

The Sonex design makes for a solid airframe. There are a few Camit guys here who all seem to like them. I'm sure one will be along shortly.

[lgsievila]

I can't speak about the CAMit 3300 but I do love my 2200 in my Onex. I started with the AeroVee and just was not happy with performance and multitude of oil leaks. And yes I know there are those out there who are thinking I did a bad job while building the AeroVee but I would argue that is not the case.(You can check out some of the Youtube videos I posted) A friend and I received our fuselage and engine kits in the same shipment and built simultaneously and we came to the conclusion that our crankcase castings where not machined very well. At any rate we both switched to CAMit 2200s which entailed moving the engine 7inches forward for CG,(new mount and cowling mods). We flew from(KKLS, Kelso, WA) to Oshkosh and back without a hiccup and that was 3600 mile round trip. On my way back home I went to 11,500 ft to get over smoke from forest fires in Montana- don't think the AeroVee would have been able to do that, all while burning 3.5 gph at cruise. Only problem I have had is a replacement of distributor cap and rotor and NEVER one drop of oil on the hangar floor! Starts with one revolution of the prop, 1100 fpm climb vs AeroVee 600 fpm. Parts are a concern but I think there are some available.

[DCASonex]

Kevin Hyam in the UK has picked up the rights to the CAMit and is selling some service parts including new pistons and cylinders. Just google CAMit Aero Engines. Many of the parts are interchangeable between Jabiru and CAMit engines.

Also should check out the Jabiru Camit owners group >> https://jabcamit.groups.io/g/main <<<

David A. Sonex TD with CAMit 3300 #0004