World's First 160 HP Yamaha EXUP Aircraft Engine!

[wolfy]

Dear Barry: Yamaha RULES, Rotax drools. That's all I'm gonna say. Read 'em and weap, buddy, my gyrocopters will out-climb ANY gyro in the sky, anywhere in the world today. Period. End of story. Luv ya, bruh. Oh, and Ferarri? Fuggeddaboudtit. I have one word for you: PORSCHE! (especially blue ones)

Greg has left the building.

Wow that's a big statement, how could you possibly know what else is flying in other corners of the globe.
I know in oz alone there are several non standard turbo rotax's on very light single seaters that would be more than up to your challenge.

wolfy

 

[Greg Vos]

Please don’t tell me that our development engineer on the Yamaha project drives a Porsche? I was beginning to gain respect for him and his engineering achievements.... but if he drives the Toyota of sports cars I may have to recalibrate my thougts

just for interest sake Wagtail here in South Africa have a gyro that climbs at 4000Ft/m with a DA of 7000Ft ... it to many gyroplanes can do that?

 

[TonyM]

My friend (I know, right? Wonders never cease) Scott McNeil provided a lot of help Monday May 19, 2020 and took this video of the third crow hop (test flight) of the WORLD'S FIRST AND ONLY Yamaha EXUP 160HP aircraft, built by Mohawk Aero for Geoff Resney of CH18.

Mohawk Aero Yamaha 160 HP EXUP Air Command
https://youtu.be/n0jmIPf9Ctc

This is at Columbia, SC Owens airport (CUB) while a storm was moving in. In fact it occurred to me as I was flying this run just exactly why I like a windscreen as the first few rain drops were kissing my cheek.

I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to Scott for his driving up to CUB on SEVERAL occasions for aborted test attempts prior to this successful one. He lives 40 minutes away, on his family's private airfield, one of SC's oldest, in fact - SC03. Scott's dad is a gyrocopter guy from the old days, and Scott grew up with gyros. He and I just recently drove to and spent a day with Jon Carleton at 4A4, Polk County AP in Cedartown, GA him getting a lesson and me getting a biennial. That day Scott purchased a brand new Tango Gyro from one of our club members, "Billy Gyro". Our best wishes for your health, Billy. Hope all is well and hope you return soon to be able to fly gyros again, bro! Scott now has an ELA, a Trendak, a watchamacallit stick-built Bensen sumthin SxS, and last time I was in his shop Max Wilde's Subaru-powered tandem was in there. I'm quite sure I am missing two or three other gyros, but those are the ones that stick out in my memory. Oh, there's a Cavalon, too. I know, right?

Scott, with his wide array of gyro projects described above, me, and another guy now loosely form the South Carolina Gyro Club, or actually SERA (South East Rotorcraft Association). The other guy is Tony Mattioli. Tony occupies a hanger facing mine at CUB. He owns a FW, and just acquired a new Silverlight AR1 which is still in FLA. We COULD have another fellow, who lives just ten minutes away from me, but THAT guy keeps Chris Burgess' old Snobird (the one I trained in up in Frederick, MD in 2005) at Barry "He whose name shall not be spoken" and the Barnstormer's hanger WA-A-A-A-A-Y the heck up in Wadesboro, NC for reasons I can understand - Barry is a super cool guy, and the fellow gyro pilots that congregate up there are too cool for school as well. A good group, great support, and - well - I can't offer nearly as much as they can to help him out.

I am SOOOOO glad that I beat Tony to the punch of being the first gyro guy flying out of CUB in many years.

Oh, BTW: Emilia Earhart flew into CUB way back in the the 1930's in a Pittcairn! There are photos in the FBO! Pretty cool, huh?

Dear Barry: Yamaha RULES, Rotax drools. That's all I'm gonna say. Read 'em and weap, buddy, my gyrocopters will out-climb ANY gyro in the sky, anywhere in the world today. Period. End of story. Luv ya, bruh. Oh, and Ferarri? Fuggeddaboudtit. I have one word for you: PORSCHE! (especially blue ones)

Greg has left the building.

Congrats Greg! I’m hoping to get the AR-1 to CUB soon.
-Tony

 

[NoWingsAttached]

Wow that's a big statement, how could you possibly know what else is flying in other corners of the globe.
I know in oz alone there are several non standard turbo rotax's on very light single seaters that would be more than up to your challenge.

wolfy

Yeah, I realize there are even single place MAC 90's out there that can probably beat this gyro in a time-to-climb. Gary Goldsberry comes to mind. I'm just havin some fun, so we can all lighten up. But speaking of after market Rotax...

Non-standard turbo Rotax engines that I am aware of run up to almost 160 HP and then they blow up pretty easily. I know this, because the guy who owns Bad Ass Motorsports blew his engine on the way to Oshkosh last year, and Steve Henry got sick and tired of blowing these after-market boosted Rotax engines out, one after another and quit using them. That is why Steve contacted me in 2013 about installing one of my Yamaha kits on his Highlander in the first place. Steve hasn't run a Rotax in once in the six years since he switched over to Yamaha, including the 2018 Airventure Grand Champ award winner with my adapter on it.

Rotax turbos weigh about 20-30 lbs MORE than this installation does. Therefore, pound-for-pound the Yamaha is in the winner's circle.

 

[NoWingsAttached]

Please don’t tell me that our development engineer on the Yamaha project drives a Porsche? I was beginning to gain respect for him and his engineering achievements.... but if he drives the Toyota of sports cars I may have to recalibrate my thougts

just for interest sake Wagtail here in South Africa have a gyro that climbs at 4000Ft/m with a DA of 7000Ft ... it to many gyroplanes can do that?

I built and raced a 500 HP, 1900 lbs, metallic blue '79 930 on the GT1 circuit for a few years in the early 1990's, even found ways to win half-dozen races against guys who stood on the podium at Le Mans in the same year. That car was radar'ed at Road America at 181 MPH, and the very next week the back-marker CART Indy cars were running the same speeds through the trap.

Barry has a nearly identical color Porsche 911 Targa that I really like, so this is an inside joke for us.

 

[NoWingsAttached]

Congrats Greg! I’m hoping to get the AR-1 to CUB soon.
-Tony

We are excited to have you start flying another COOL gyro at CUB! Scott will be flying his new Tango (built by Billy Gyro) as soon as he gets the paperwork finished.

Funny how there haven't been any gyros flying at CUB in many years, and now we will have three pilots flying them around here. Like popcorn, ya wait and wait and then they all burst at once.

 

[NoWingsAttached]

 

[Vance]

Looks good Greg,

What was involved in registering the major change and how many hours are phase one?

 

[NoWingsAttached]

Thanks, Vance.

A call to the Atlanta MIDO for limited testing, and customer notification of the need for re-certification with the new power plant in place, typical requested is 20 hrs. at listed airports though sometimes you can be granted less.

Ron Awad always wondered who snitched on him when he swapped out his Rotax 670 for a YG3 Yamaha Vector snowmobile engine from Todd Reick back around 2009.

Things that make go, "Hmmmm."

Anyway, it was Ron who told me about the need for re-cert after a type engine change has been made, and ever since the FAA came out and visited me at KCTJ to give me a free gyroplane inspection and certification on my first Yamaha YG4 conversion in 2013 things have been smooth, the inspector was quite impressed with my work and attention to detail on both the machine and the documentation. That first impression has paid off, several times over.

 

[Wop Genius]

Wow! That installation looks so compact compared to the massive Subaru that was on there before!! Looks great!

 

[wolfy]

Yeah, I realize there are even single place MAC 90's out there that can probably beat this gyro in a time-to-climb. Gary Goldsberry comes to mind. I'm just havin some fun, so we can all lighten up. But speaking of after market Rotax...

Non-standard turbo Rotax engines that I am aware of run up to almost 160 HP and then they blow up pretty easily. I know this, because the guy who owns Bad Ass Motorsports blew his engine on the way to Oshkosh last year, and Steve Henry got sick and tired of blowing these after-market boosted Rotax engines out, one after another and quit using them. That is why Steve contacted me in 2013 about installing one of my Yamaha kits on his Highlander in the first place. Steve hasn't run a Rotax in once in the six years since he switched over to Yamaha, including the 2018 Airventure Grand Champ award winner with my adapter on it.

Rotax turbos weigh about 20-30 lbs MORE than this installation does. Therefore, pound-for-pound the Yamaha is in the winner's circle.

Yes the trick is to use standard rotax pistons ie uls pistons with reduced compression, engines that have used after market pistons have had there problems no doubt.
I wouldn't push them to 160hp either.
wolfy

 

[StanFoster]

Greg...I am just a surface dweller anymore, not complaining in the least though! But I must say I am very impressed with your Yamaha powerplant conversions. More than likely I would have bought an engine from you and built "something gyro" to put it in.

I always loved milking performance out of anything either by adding power or reducing power needed by streamlining.

May your engines run hundreds of hours longer than expected.

Stan

 

[Illini85]

The Yamaha is the hands down winner for clean installations. Rotax's look like they set as a goal the maximum amount of wires and hoses.

 

[NoWingsAttached]

Greg...I am just a surface dweller anymore, not complaining in the least though! But I must say I am very impressed with your Yamaha powerplant conversions. More than likely I would have bought an engine from you and built "something gyro" to put it in.

I always loved milking performance out of anything either by adding power or reducing power needed by streamlining.

May your engines run hundreds of hours longer than expected.

Stan

Thank you muchly, I miss you and the helicycle. Those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end. Good song, too.

 

[NoWingsAttached]

Scott McNeil had business at a warehouse next to the airport yesterday, so we met up and he helped me video tape the rotors at speed so I could track them.

The rain held off and we decided to get a quick video of a Figure-8 pattern. Scott remarked how QUIET the 160 HP Yamaha installation (172 lbs) was on take-off compared to the next FW taking off immediately following, with a 150 HP Lycoming IO-320 (283 lbs), owned by our gyro brother-in-arms Tony Mattioli, who is bringing a Silverlight AR1 up from FLA to CUB very soon. His hanger is facing mine, and down a couple of doors.

Yamaha 160 HP EXUP Figure-8 Test Flight

 

[wolfy]

Sounds good mate.

wolfy

 

[yongyang]

so good well!