Aviomania - Viking First Impressions

Mike has the 110 hp which has a different gearbox. My engine is the vertical mount and he went to a 3 gear box not a two. There are only a couple of these flying. Although one has over 100 hours mine is the only one on a slow speed pusher configuration which may be why I am experiencing something the others have not. I have yet to see the new cooling-venting he has done to my engine. I will let you guys know what I think when i have beat it up some.
 
Wow Joe! Not only are you an accomplished pilot, but you are also a brave man; I must admit I'd be pushing for money back and changing to a Rotax. But that's just me.
 
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I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for more news !
 

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No news is hopefully good news, and Joe may well be taking things slowly and carefully.
 
I am just about ready to fly again. I will be speaking with Ernie about new blades in a week or two and will be giving it another go. Finally what appears like proper venting has been added to the gearbox. To be honest I had the consequences of these incidents weighed heavily on me, in fact I have flown my Dominator only a few times since. But gradually I am getting the urge to finish this project. If it fails again I will be looking to the other gearbox provider for the Honda engine that has been mentioned on the forum.
 
the gear box problem is typical eggenfellner crap, his gear boxes never held up on the Subaru conversions and the pilots were the

test pilots for the new improved versions which always failed,

He destroyed the reliability trust of the Subaru now it looks like he is doing the same thing to the Honda engine.
 
Joe: SPG-2 gearbox is quite good if you can get it. Alex in Georgia can help you (Tango gyro importer) but I do not know if there is an adapter plate for it for Honda engine. I used it in Suzuki conversions (6 or 7 of them) and it lasted and to the best of my knowledge those conversions I did in trikes are still flying around the country with no failures yet from 13 years ago. I just gave up on them because I did not want to piece a conversion from used engines, making piece meal parts etc. and take on the headaches of engine support. The conversions were also heavier than Rotax which is a given for the same power. Any way, SPG-2 (not SPG-3, I have no experience with that model) gearbox is bulletproof and I can assure you it can hold up to 130 HP as long as there are no resonance issues noted which is rare.
 
If you get to the point of wanting a Rotax engine in it, I think there is a guy selling a re-built 914 engine. He is a Searey dealer in Canada and trustworthy. The problem is the TBO on that model for that year is only 1200
 
What happened exactly? I remember the story about the forced landing after flying to Viking, and having to trailer the gyro back to his shop for some changes to the gearbox. Apparently you had another forced landing and bent up the blades? What does Ernie say, since he is so fond of that engine package?
 
GyroRon;n1122538 said:
What happened exactly? I remember the story about the forced landing after flying to Viking, and having to trailer the gyro back to his shop for some changes to the gearbox. Apparently you had another forced landing and bent up the blades? What does Ernie say, since he is so fond of that engine package?

Ernie does not use that engine anymore I think. He went to a Suzuki conversion from another company. I have looked at them as well and I have personal first hand experience with converting quite successfully G13BB 16 valve SOHC 100 HP engines.
 
The Viking looked extremely promising and people who have tried them. Sadly there have been problems with those on gyros.
 
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soooo anyway... After 7 months, I again resumed my flight testing. To be honest my spirit took more damage than the bird last time and I really was reluctant to continue this journey. But I did. I trailered down to Wauchula and met Ernie there were we put on my new blades. For those who have forgotten they were damaged in a gear box failure incident a while back. This time I decided to try Ernie's wide chord, heavy lift blades. My machine comes in at 707 or 714 pounds can't remember off hand, and with my goal of flying anyone who can fit in the seat, these blades seem to fit my need.

Slow Joe, was nice enough to let me hangar with him for a few weeks so Ernie and I went to his hangar and strung the new blades. The new blades come with what is called the Dragon Truss. In spite of what you might thing it has nothing to do with a rupture it has to do with bracing against lateral flex, and if I got that wrong ask him. The cool thing is when you want to string them you simply twist one of the rods that make up the truss and you can move the string to exactly where it needs to be. See the pics.

So my first flight seemed uneventful but when I landed the gearbox reservoir had about 8 ounces of gear oil in it and showed no signs of draining back in. So I called Jan and reached his answering machine. A few minutes later I asked Ernie to call and luckily he answered. We described the issue and he suggested we drain the fluid, refill it with 12 ounces of gear oil, fly it and see what happened. We did so and after a 10 minute flight I landed and the reservoir held 9 ounces of the 12 we had put in. We called back and Jan did not have a solution however he did agree that If I brought it back he would attempt to find one.

I was all set to trailer the machine back from Wauchula when I decided to try to resolve the issue myself. The last time I returned for what I thought was a warranty repair, I got an unpleasant surprise in the form of a rather large repair bill, and I have decided that I do not wish to repeat that. (In fairness, this week in the mail I got a check for 25% of the amount that I had paid for the repair service and although I thought it should have been covered as a manufacturers defect I did appreciate the refund.)

So I went back down to Wauchula and with the help of Slow Joe, Dave Bliss, and Dave Seace came up with an idea how to solve the issue. After another 9 or 10 hours of testing I believe the problem is resolved. Last Thursday I had a neighbor fly me down in the morning, then mounted up and flew the bird out of Wauchula home, a trip of about about 100 miles. It was a pleasant uneventful flight. It took 1 hour and 17 minutes.

Then this week I began adding weight to represent a passenger. I started with 85 pounds and it went well. This week I will add another 40 pounds and continue the practice.
That’s it for now.
 

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Wellllllll ? What did you do to fix it ?
 
Unfortunately it does seem to confirm that stick your neck out with Jan it does cost you, that problems remain with the Viking, and that sometimes beating the path does contain pitfalls.

Very sorry to hear that Joe. A lot of us have been there and done that with various promising avenues that have not quite lived up to expectation.
 
Joe Pires;n1128127 said:
...
I was all set to trailer the machine back from Wauchula when I decided to try to resolve the issue myself. The last time I returned for what I thought was a warranty repair, I got an unpleasant surprise in the form of a rather large repair bill, and I have decided that I do not wish to repeat that. (In fairness, this week in the mail I got a check for 25% of the amount that I had paid for the repair service and although I thought it should have been covered as a manufacturers defect I did appreciate the refund.)
....

Did you ask for 100% of the repair bill to be refunded? I would.
Also did you send a bill to them for engineering solutions to their gearbox issues. I would do that as well. Just saying. If you don't ask, you'll never know.
 
Its like I said in an earlier post that's the way he operates,he uses his customers as the test pilots and charges them for the privilege.
 
eddie;n1128164 said:
Its like I said in an earlier post that's the way he operates,he uses his customers as the test pilots and charges them for the privilege.

I can assure you that you are wrong. I haven't seen Nicolas for some time now, he's working days and nights at Larnaca International Airport as an Airline aircraft mechanic.but I know he's doing all tests by professionals and in flight by experience pilots. If you buy a Genesis you are the pilot not the test pilot. Now if anybody wants to make changes (in this case as I see its not just a change ) Nicolas the only he can do is to assists.
Just to correct wrong statements like this.
 
scandtours;n1128191 said:
I can assure you that you are wrong. I haven't seen Nicolas for some time now, he's working days and nights at Larnaca International Airport as an Airline aircraft mechanic.but I know he's doing all tests by professionals and in flight by experience pilots. If you buy a Genesis you are the pilot not the test pilot. Now if anybody wants to make changes (in this case as I see its not just a change ) Nicolas the only he can do is to assists.
Just to correct wrong statements like this.

I'm pretty sure he was talking about Eggenfellers actions, not Aviomania.
 
Padraic thanks for the correction,yes I was talking about eggenfellner and the Honda engine conversion.

Everything I have heard about the Aviomania Gyro has been positive,the owners appear to be very pleased with them.
 
Joe: Been enjoying following your adventures re: your alternative engine, the Viking. Thanks for lettting us know of your experiences. But, curious as to the cause and you and the Wachula guy's solution of your oil reservoir fluctuations...

Also, impressive that you were able to cover 100 miles in that time frame in an open frame gyroplane!
 
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