New O-200 Replacement.

[Bacon]

http://www.epi-eng.com/aircraft_engi...aft_engine.htm
Has anyone looked at this project?
"The great news about this engine is that the targeted sales price is less than half that of a Continental O-200-D."

[davzLSA]

Beware of Unicorns!!!

[Bacon]

Haha, I Definitely had “skeptical hippo eyes“ while reading.
If it’s real, it’s interesting. I guess we’ll see, or like most aviation engine startups, nothing will happen and I’ll keep looking for that unicorn.

[Patrol28]

The best deal on an O-200 is to buy a Cessna 150, fly it and get to know the engine then pull it and part it out.

[Bacon]

This sounds like a good excuse to buy a 150. Use the motor for the bearhawk, build the Remaining 150 fuselage into a bar in my backyard...
Put an electric motor on the prop, blow it down the bar.

[btdobie]

I would love to see that Bacon.

[Gerd Mannsperger]

Or buy a 150 put a 150 hp and tailwheel conversion on it and have what 90% of 2 place buyers are looking for. The 150 is a very underrated Aircraft tough as nails no fabric to worry about goes in and out of 95% of what a cub can do and cruises 25 MPH faster put a cruise prop and 850s on it it does a solid 140 MPH at 6500 feet.

If you have never had the pleasure to fly one you should not bash what you don't know.

[JimParker256]

Guess the 150's I rented back in the day must have had really tired engines and worn-out props. I was lucky to see 115 mph (100 knots) in cruise with 6' tires and wheel pants...

[Russellmn]

I've been eyeballing the 152 at my flight school. 180hp in that guy, 110kn is all it gets, but that's plenty. Don't have to hardly touch the trim wheel all the way up to 7k.

[marcusofcotton]

Russell, I heard a number of years ago that that particular 152 you speak of was equipped with a climb prop for towing gliders.

[davzLSA]

One of the guys I work with pointed out the fact that I could buy a Cessna 150 much cheaper than I can build an airplane. He is of course right but I told him its about the journey not the destination.

[Frank]

That's definitely the way I'm looking at it!

[svyolo]

There are a lot of options in the 90-130 hp range now. Something for everyone as well. Old school or new tech. Take your pick. I would think it would be a tough market to bring a clean sheet design into.

[geraldmorrissey]

I owned a 150 for almost 20 years. Never got more then 95 kts. No wheel pants, when I sold it, it went to Chilean flight school. During BFR's demonstrating a departure stall I could climb at 45 kts flaps up, 100 ft/min up, nose way up there, horn blaring making 30 degree bank turns left and right. Made in America, pretty fine little airplane that benefitted from a long production run and continuous though often subtle improvements made by professional engineers. If my Patrol is as reliable and fun to fly, I'll be happy.
Gerry
Patrol #30

[Patrol28]

In my youth I towed gliders with a C150 with 150 hp O-320. I have one tucked away for a TD conversion and general refurbish. I robbed the O-320 off of it for my Patrol. Aviation can be cruel sometimes.

[Gerd Mannsperger]

With the heavier engine the 150 needs a stol cuff to carry the heavier engine well.

The one we use has a Horton stol cuff vortex generators and a re arced gear for better angle of attack 26 inch tires. Even with 31 inch tires it will do 120 MPH at 2500 RPM above 6000 feet.

The prop is a middle of the road pitch 54 degrees 74 inch that is where it gives up take of performance to cubs with borer props

For those of you streamlining the shock struts on your Bearhawk to improve aerodynamics just think of a nose wheel 2 feet behind your prop on the 150.

Now remove it and replace it with a tailwheel 20 feet further back and on tenth of the size.

The removal of the nose wheel weight and adding it to the tail also helps to balance the aircraft C of G although the main gear goes the opposite way.

Like with everything it takes a well balanced approach to make them work as good as this one. If you just throw a 150 hp engine in and hope it to be a finely tuned backcountry plane you may just

be disappointed. one can get a aircraft close to its potential with mods but it takes a lot of time and work to fine tune them properly. And not all mods are created equal or to work together well.

I bought a 206 last year and flew it all season the way it was ( it came with many good mods)

In the winter we did the maintenance and removed everything I did not like and replaced it with what we know works -- now after a super slow season and many hours fine tuning it

I gained almost 10 Knots top speed with much improved take of performance over last year, it flies hands of (no auto pilot needed anymore) and is 160 pound lighter than last year.

We did loose the 3800 pound high gross weight (it was attached to a mod we removed) so it reduced the gross weight to the stock 3600 pounds but we only lost 40 pounds useful

load and even that gets off set by a higher climb and cruise so that we do not need as much fuel, Now we are hauling around 200 pounds less weigh -- the difference is amazing.

The same aircraft that used to be and feel heavy and sluggish now feel light and responsive -- most of all I now look forward to go to work and fly it. Before it was just work.

This is just to illustrate what is possible and how much we usually leave on the table by just building or modifying something without optimizing it to live up to its potential.

Hopefully my ramblings do make some sense and are helpful to some of you. This would probably be more appropriate in a Cessna forum.