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I sold my avid flyer and am looking for a sonex. I have one that is close to me that I was going to try and look at with an 85 hp great plains engine. My question is can you put a turbo kit such as aerovee makes on a great plains engine? I normally fly solo but have the potential to be taking the wife on some 180 mile trips for her work. Between the two of us we are about 370lbs I would be operating of 2400-2600 ft turf unless I had her meet me at an airport with paved runways. I am thinking with the two of us and full of fuel it would be at or near gross and that is why I was considering a turbo unit. I have a turbo waiex that I could purchase but it is a tri gear and I really like the tailwheel planes. THere is a jab 3300 gen 1 sonex that is 800 miles away in Georgia at a higher price and considerably farther away so just playing my options.
Mark
edit I am in north central Texas alt 800ft range not going mountain flying with the wife but it does get hot here.

I have yet to hear of anyone purchasing the turbo retrofit kit from Sonex and installing it on another brand of VW-based engine, but logic would say you could do it. The heads should be similar in size, as well as the basic core of the engine; you may have to perform some of your own engineering to make everything fit but I'm sure it's possible. I'm not sure how Great Plains mounts the engine to a mount, and I also don't know what sort of ignition system setup they have, so you could possibly have some work to do in order to make everything fit. You may be able to get in touch with Great Plains and ask them what they think about the possibility. That will be up to you if you decide it's worthwhile to try it!

Given your demands, and assuming an average empty weight of maybe around 670 lbs plus 370 lbs of passengers and another 90 lbs of fuel, and you're at 1130 lbs takeoff weight. If you're operating off a shorter turf strip the non-turbo VW engines may be getting pushed pretty hard; a turbo setup will offer more capability, and the Jabiru 3300 will offer more capability even still. Personally, I would consider trying to get as much engine as possible to make your life easier, but that will be your call.

Best of luck!

MichaelFarley56 wrote:Given your demands, and assuming an average empty weight of maybe around 670 lbs plus 370 lbs of passengers and another 90 lbs of fuel, and you're at 1130 lbs takeoff weight. If you're operating off a shorter turf strip the non-turbo VW engines may be getting pushed pretty hard; a turbo setup will offer more capability, and the Jabiru 3300 will offer more capability even still. Personally, I would consider trying to get as much engine as possible to make your life easier, but that will be your call.

I agree with Mike and would go even further and say that I personally would not put a passenger or myself in a VW turbo aircraft. The success (or lack of) has not been stellar. Not trying to be argumentative but just stating a fact. The manufacturer may get it figured out soon enough (with the customer testing and input from this group) but IMHO it ain't quite there yet.

Given your strip length and payload requirements I agree with Mike and suggest that you need 120 HP. The early Jabiru engines were reliable enough but there may be some upgrades that would need to be considered. The Jabiru pilots on the list can give you those or you can go to the Jabiru Yahoo group and ask questions. I believe you have to join to partake in the group but that's easy enough:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/JabCamit/conversations/messages

Dunno if this helps,

Dale Williams
N319WF @ 6J2
Myunn - "daughter of Cleanex"
120 HP - 3.0 Corvair
Tail Wheel - Center Stick
Signature Finish 2200 Paint Job
171.9 hours / Status - Flying
Member # 109 - Florida Sonex Association
Latest video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VP7UYEqQ-g

I mildly disagree with Dale's sentiment towards the Turbo (although it has had teething problems so some caution is warranted). But regardless of how we feel about the engine, physics says you're not going to easily retrofit the Aerovee Turbo kit onto a Great Plains engine. There are too many differences and too many unknowns about how the system as a whole might work (i.e. what oil pump does the GP use? How do the case modifications in a GP engine stack up against the AeroVee? Are the heads the same or will you need to make a 100% custom exhaust and turbo-mounting system?).

If you need the power, you should just go with a complete FWF solution that you know "plays nice" together: Get a Jab and pay more money but spend less time fiddling with it, or buy a complete AeroVee Turbo kit or Corvair setup and spend less money but more time fiddling/building/tuning it.

Good luck,

--Noel

tx_swordguy wrote:I sold my avid flyer and am looking for a sonex. I have one that is close to me that I was going to try and look at with an 85 hp great plains engine. My question is can you put a turbo kit such as aerovee makes on a great plains engine?
...

Apart from the technical difficulties which probably could be overcome if you have the skills and determination, one problem I believe is that Sonex will only sell a Turbo kit to AeroVee engine owners. You will have to enter your AeroVee engine serial number when you order the kit on the web store to prove you’re a genuine AeroVee owner.

Thanks Guys,
Enough info to at least make a decision about the great plains engine. I appreciate the comments and information
Mark

Great Plains Turbo Question......

tx_swordguy..........A number of those comments are "spot on". Sonex will very likely not sell you the turbo pkg because you don't have an AeroVee engine.........they are actually doing you a favour. Don't go down that "rabbit hole". If you bought that Sonex and installed a turbo (the one they won't sell you) you would put the airplane "out of service" for likely a year or more.

You need more power? And I agree you do.......go buy a Sonex 3300 and you can fly right now. There are enough of them come up for sale on Barnstormers and if you don't get in a hurry, you WILL find a nice one for under 30k. It's better to bid your time and find the RIGHT 3300 Sonex then go "jumping off a cliff" with this turbo notion.

Gordon.........Onex....Hummel 2400

A note for the other side: Sonex may not sell you a turbo conversion kit, but I don't think there's anything super special in the kit. Most of the parts look to be pretty easy to source independently, and with the manual you can probably figure out how to do it without huge problems. The big exception is the exhaust manifold, so you'd have to be ready to fabricate that. The GP engine mount might be different anyway, so it's not even clear that the Aerovee one would work without running into something.

That is, if you're interested in tinkering. If you just want to fly, I agree with the others. :-)

There may be a couple turbo setups on the market. Patience level in the community varies through the whole spectrum.

I can answer this because I asked the factory directly about this. They will not sell you an Aeroconversion turbo kit without a valid Aerovee serial number and even then if it’s an older Aerovee like my 2002 they require you to upgrade to the newer crank and hub. So best bet is to buy a turbo kit secondhand or buy a separate fwf package. Good luck man.


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