Rotax 582 Greytop crank TBO

[Andy Kennedy]

Evening,

What's the LAA view on the greytop 582 TBO?

After the 300 hrs rotax TBO are you allowed to run them on condition with the Conrad Cyclone bearing tester thingy or is it a mandated new crank time?

I'm reasonably sure you can go past TBO with monitoring on micro's but if it was an LAA permit aircraft whats the story?

The reason I ask is that it would potentially affect future aircraft buying decisions....

Cheers

Andy

[Rob Swain]

I investigated blue top Rotax 582s when considering going down the microlight route. I stayed with Group A!

On hunting round t'internet the general consensus seemed to be that after 300 hours it was not if but when the crankshaft would break, and normally quite soon after (10-25 hours).

I was appalled and it was one of the major reasons for staying with chunky, if expensive, 4 strokes.

My experience with 2 stroke bike engines has always been overdo (or overdue?) it and you are heading for piston slap, blowby and eventually a seizure. After that "rebore and repeat"! OK not ideal for an aircraft but hey-ho, these were bikes! However, I can't ever recall anyone expecting a crankshaft to BREAK!