I have now 60 trouble free hours on my Rotax- Europa with a lot of cross country
(Vienna-Epinal, Epinal-Toulouse, Toulouse-Basel-Vienna) with legs up to 4 hours
and had no haedaches etc. On final inspection my inspector tested CO level in
the cockpit but non was detected, I have two NACA air inlets on the sides and
two 2 inch holes on the sides of the D-shaped panel. Air is also sucked out of
the cockpit by the slot of the gear lever.
However I tried to make my firewall as tight as possible and also the slot for
the flap push rod where I used brushes as are used for door seals. This was very
effective as lot of air was passing here before and most probably also exhaust
gases.
BTW I have no fuel return line but installed a fuel pressure sensor (from BOCSH
0,05-0,15 bar) into the tee before the Carburators to monitor any pressure drop
and also vapor lock. Even on the hottest days in southern France with 36 C I
never had problems with vapor locks. And if my fuel pressure light went on it
was on the ground after the aircraft has been parked hot for 10 to 30 minutes.
But with the electric fuel pump on and after beginning taxiing the light went
instantly off.
However with under the cowling temperatures of up to 65 C takeoff power was
strongly affected and sometimes I had only 4700-4800 static rpm with (17 deg).
So cold air supply becomes a must.
I am also very impatiently awaiting any news on the variable pitch prop as my
climb performance with two on board, full fuel and bags on a grass runway in
sunny southern France are far from "healthy".
However cruising in the Europa was very comfortable with a good 120 kts on 4900
rpm with an average consumption of 15,5 l/h.
Klaus, Kit 132, OE-CKD
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