Sonex & Viking Mods?

[DavidLawson]

Greetings all,

I wanted to ask if anyone here has performed any of the "Viking Aircraft Engines" mods whereby the widen the cockpit 5" and put tank in the wings. Forgive my being naive, if putting tanks in the wings.. are the wings still removable/foldable?? I further wonder what the unintended consequences of widening the cockpit are (i.e drag, weight). Reason I ask is it would be nice to have more XC range.

Here is the you tube video I am referencing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKPQx81NzYw

Please forgive the sacrilege.

(If I am being honest, I want a longer range for solo/my dog combined with the Zenair floats)

I want to fully consider mods/pricing impact/impact to build process before purchasing plans, etc. (I want a clear mission/objective going in)

Regards,

David Lawson

[rizzz]

As far as I'm aware there is only one Sonex aircraft that has these mods done to it and that is the Viking factory prototype Waiex.
Also, the original purpose of these mods was to b able to raise the thrust line of the engine and allow for a larger prop as the original factory Viking Waiex without the mods had pitch trim issues with the Viking engine installed. Not sure if in the end this resolved the problems.
You can find more details on how/why this happened if you search the old Viking Yahoo group.