SonexBuilders.net

Hello
I am Jean Claude from France
I have installed an ULpower UL260i on my sonex TD
I cruise at 135 mph and top speed is 150 mph and reach 1300 feet/mn
Consomption is about 4,5 gph
I logged 70 nice hours on it
Best regards from Paris

Welcome to the group Jean Claude!


Robbie Culver
Sonex 1517
Chicagoland
Tails and Wings complete - finishing fuselage.
N1517S reserved

Hello Jean Claude! As Robbie has said, welcome to the group!

Thank you for sharing information on your Sonex. Do you have any pictures of your airplane and engine combination? I think the UL is a very neat looking engine and could see it as an excellent option for the Sonex airframe.

Thanks again!

I put his photos here
http://sonexbuildersandpilotsfoundation.zenfolio.com/p698068276

Robbie Culver
Sonex 1517
Chicagoland
Tails and Wings complete - finishing fuselage.
N1517S reserved

Thank you Robbie I was fighting with picasa :)

if more détails are wished I can make more pictures
Best regards from Paris
Jean claude

More pictures!

Robbie

Great photos Jean... where can I get a ground crew like yours???

tonyr wrote:Great photos Jean... where can I get a ground crew like yours???

You just have to stick a nice Toon on the fuselage (first level reading please)

By the way we had a small fly in on my airfield last week and there were some "pom pom" girls taking profit to make nice pictures in front of aircrafts
We were ok for that

Dear Sonex enthousiasts

Some explanations about my project to install a UL Power UL260i (97 cv) on a Sonex TD

My project was born 3 uears ago from a kind of wreck taking dust and mud at the far end of my hangar
It was a Sonex equiped with a old Jabiru 2200; Felt in love with this design I bought it and had in mind to refurbish completely it and mount a brand new, up to date, engine, I liked the idea of injection, without drive and water coolant design

The UL power mounting match perfectly with the Jabiru engine brackets, so it was very easy to swap them
The Jab was holding a lead weight about 15 lbs for having a correct weight balance, so installing the new heavier engine but without the added weight gave the same W/B

The tasks were to rebuilt the fuel line with the feed back to the tank, to totally redesign the electric circuitry because, the ECU, ignition and Pumps need a perfect power supply , to built a new instrument panel and to do a big maintenance on the frame and commands

AND the main task was to modify the engine cowling that took me almost the same time than the previous listed tasks....the first default or amateur is to be a bit too much optimistic ...
The engine has bigger (by far) head fins than the Jabiru one that insure a goog running temps but also a pain in... to integrate under a cowling that would be nice to observe

I choosen to install a pair of ram air boxes to be sure that, what ever the quality of my cowler, the engine will be constantly cooled

I modified the sonex cowling by sticking the right and left side and cutted it to have acces by the top and having then the possibility to operate a good checking on the tarmac with reasonable efforts to play with cowling parts

I intalled in a first time the oil cooler along the engine left side and was ducted with a Naca with poor efficiency so I moved it to the front of the engine and modified the cowling with a kind of mouth that is much more effincient but less pretty
Actually CHT's are 110 to 120°C, EGT's are 780 to 810°c and oil is 85 -95 °C what ever the external condition (tested close to 30°c on ground) and even in climb

I firstly installed an adjustable two blades (59"x51") carbon propeller that permits to cruise at 135mph@2900-3000 rpm with a top speed at 150mph @3300 rpm (20°c and 1500ft fligh test conditions) the climb rate was about 1000-1100 ft/mn; nevertheless I espected a take off running better than 600ft so I ordered a dedicated wooden two blades (58"x50") with an increase of the climb rate about 1300'/mn and shortened run for take off by 10-15% and small losses in speeds, but am not so enjoyed by this one and the engine doesn't likes too much light propeller
With the first prop I did a country tour in summer with an average fuel flow about 4 to 4.5 g/hour including take off, climbings, cruise and so on

I have (only) 70 logged since new, it starts like a car, run smoothly with a reasonable sound level (my friends said), I fill it with MOGAS 95 or 98 and sometime AVGAS 100LL
The ULPower members are nice and carefull to your questions
The price is not really competitive to Rotax

Until now I am satisfyied by this choice

Have good and safe flights

Jean CLaude

Avweb had an article on kaolin aviation in GA. Will be developing a FWF package for the UL power motors 4 cyl models for the sonex/ waiex/xenos. Sounds very interesting. Not cheap buy quality and features of the UL motors are outstanding. Let's keep an eye on this option. Anyone else thinking about
putting in a UL engine?

waiexN143NM
Michael Radtke