by Taylaz » Thu May 01, 2008 12:53 pm
Hi - I had a pair of Redrives made up from Rotax Type A gearboxes adapted to the 185's. I ran them on the ground for what seemed like many hours, maybe about 5 hours or so. Also did static load tests with the engines in-situ on the wings. The props were specially made from lightweight wood, about 48" from my (bad) memory. They ran very well, no oil leaks. I just had problems with getting the fuel up to the wings (tubes too large for the carb-pumps) & the recoil, so I hand-propped them on the decompressors which worked ok on the ground.
This was for my Lazair that was rebuilt in the UK, now called a Taylaz registered in Canada as C-IHOP. I sold it on a trailer to a guy who re-sold it - not heard it was flying yet.
So since you can get cheap Rotax Type A gearboxes cos no-one wants to use them on R503's any more, it's not too hard to make a machined adapter plate to mount the g/box on the 185's.