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Permalink Reply by Bob McDonald on April 24, 2011 at 7:46pm

No!  Rotax 912S

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Permalink Reply by Bob Pustell on April 24, 2011 at 10:43pm

I spoke with the Viking guy at Oshkosh last summer for half an hour or so. There was way too much talk of how the production engine would have this changed and that changed and something else made lighter or stronger. In other words, the prototype they had on display (one of only two engines that had flown, had just under 120 hours between them) was nowhere near the final configuration engine, and also, by the way, the final configuration engine was not yet real or built. It was all still figment of their imagination stuff. I think it is significant that the picture you sent a link for is a computer generated image, not a picture of a real engine turning a real propeller on a real airplane.

 

But they were taking deposits! For an engine that was not yet fully developed. Jim Bede did that with the BD-5 and a lot of people lost their shirts on that one. I left with the feeling it may evolve into a wonderful engine, but it was not ready for prime time yet.

 

Please be aware this is one person's gut feeling from a short exposure to a smooth talking spokesman and a prototype. I may have a good reading on this, I may not. I hope the engine turns out to be everything they say it will be, but I would not put money on one yet, myself. It looks like a very promising design, but it does not seem mature enough to market yet, to me.

 

At the very least, find out how many production configuration engines have been built, how many hours they have run them for, and what the internals looked like when they did a tear-down inspection of an engine with at least a few hundred hours on it. Also, get the results of their torsional vibration analysis for the reduction drive and the tear down inspection results for a high time gearbox. If you get good answers from all of that, it might be safe to order one.

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Permalink Reply by Ken Ryan on April 25, 2011 at 9:03am

If Jan says he has sold 35 Vikings to CH 750 builders, I would tend to believe him. I visited him at his hangar last winter three times over the course of a month and I was very impressed with all that he has been able to accomplish in a short time. Right now there aren't many Vikings flying (three, I think) but within a year there should be many more in the air in a number of different airframes.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Dale Medendorp on April 25, 2011 at 5:32pm

I'm looking at it very carefully for my CH650. I understand that Viking has orders for over 60 engines, they have 300 trouble-free hours in a CH601HDS, and engines are also flying in a Highlander and a SeaRay.

 

At this price ($13K with engine mount) and power-to-weight ratio, I think this engine will be showing up in lots of airplanes.

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Permalink Reply by Mason Bullard on April 26, 2011 at 2:11pm

I'm building a 701, mine is due for August delivery, for that much difference in price, I'm gonna give her a whirl!

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Permalink Reply by Burt Harger on April 28, 2011 at 2:33pm

I`m building a 750 and made a down payment on a Viking engine in Aug. 2010.  Was told delivery would be Dec, 2010.  Next delivery date was late Feb. 2011.  Made full payment in January.  Next delivery date was late March--just before Sun`Fun.  The latest is for May.  Needless to say I`m somewhat disappointed with Viking.  If the May date doesn`t materialize--my advice for Viking engine buyers is BEWARE!!  Burt Harger, Weiser, Idaho.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin McCune on May 3, 2011 at 6:18am

I was thinking about them at one point too. Nice engine, but the thing that turned me off was the empty weight. It seems to me that for an airframe that can fly around very nicely with an 0-200, the prototype supposedly having a 176 ish lb engine, has the engine  mounted very close to the firewall. Maybe not an issue for you 601/650/750 guys. But there is that darn 701 engine limit for us 701 guys.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Schaefer on March 16, 2013 at 12:51pm

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Viking_Aircraft_Engine/

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Permalink Reply by Ben Schaefer on March 16, 2013 at 11:09pm

I purchased a viking and have been disappointed in that the engine was delivered 3 months late and the Engine Control Unit hasn't been delivered...going on 6 months. Looks like a nice engine and is a fairly straight forward installation. I have a 701

Ben

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Permalink Reply by Michael J. Baker on September 13, 2013 at 9:00pm

I have a viking flying with 60 hour on now 9/12/13 on my ch750

Mike Baker

N750MB

all is OK thus far!

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