viruspilot

I hear that. When I ordered mine, I should have gone ahead and prepaid the whole thing. If I had, the USD slide against the Euro would not have cost me an extra 7000 Euro

It was kept by the Rotax folks and I am sure more info was provided to Pipistrel than I might be privy to.

Nick, I have the exact aircraft you are talking about. I currently cruise at 140 kts at about 14.3 liters per hour. You need the airbrakes as it wants to go fast, even at pattern flying. I don't know about trailering in 15 minutes, but certainly in less than 45 if that is what you want to do. :)

I own a Pipistrel Virus SW with the 912iS engine. It is registered as an Experimental Glider. I hangar out of 5C1 near Boerne Texas. I also operate the www.PipistrelOwners.com website

The quote is mine. I own a Pipistrel Virus SW out of San Antonio Texas. I took delivery of this aircraft in April, 2013 and experienced periodic power loss since delivery. Most of the power loss was limited to inability to run both fuel pumps without a loss of power, down to around 4800 RPM at most. When 2nd fuel pump was disengaged, full power was restored. Also, Lane Warning Lights would engage on low power as in pattern altitude prior to landing. In all cases, turning ignition key to Lane A, waiting 10 seconds, and restoring to Both would reset the computer and turn off the Lane lights and resume normal operation until the next event. I took a 1000 mile flight from San Antonio Texas to Greensboro North Carolina (NC) in November. Flight to NC was uneventful as long as both fuel pumps were not engaged. Subsequent sightseeing flights in NC were also uneventful. Upon attempted return to Texas, about 45 minutes into the flight, I encountered some brief sags and surges in power. I landed to inspect, but found no fuel-related cause. I took off again and about 30 minutes later, encountered the same thing. I landed in South Carolina and began a month-long game of "get Rotax and Pipistrel to solve the problem". I could get no one to take responsibility for directly handling it, so I spent hours and $$ travelling back and forth to troubleshoot and forward info to Rotax and Pipistrel for analysis. The consensus was that it was intermittent and safe enough to attempt to fly somewhere for a Rotax repair technician to assist. I attempted to fly it again and after about 1 hour, I experienced a steady loss of power and lane warning light on A. I switched fuel tanks and reset the computer and power resumed normal for about 10 minutes, at which point the steady loss of power resumed. I landed just north of Atlanta GA and told Pipistrel to come get the aircraft and that I would not make any further attempts to do what I considered warranty troubleshooting. To their credit, Pipistrel sent the dealer to pickup the aircraft and ferry it to Lockwood Aviation, an authorized Rotax Service Center in Florida. The dealer reported inability to use both pumps without loss of power, but no symptoms such as I had experienced the last time that I flew it. Upon inspection of the aircraft the following issues were found: 1) Fuel pressure with one pump engaged of 60+/- psi. With both pumps engaged, fuel pressure was 80+/- psi. The norm is approximately 45 psi. The fuel regulator and the fuel filter were clogged with a black contaminant. I suspect this was pieces of the fuel line, but this has yet to be determined absolutely. The regulator and fuel filter were replaced. 2) There was no fuel pressure sensor, which is recommended by Rotax but not installed by Pipistrel. Pipistrel has installed this fuel sensor with reporting on my Dynon Skyview at no expense to me. 3) The fuel line was of a slightly smaller diameter (1/8" smaller, I think) than recommended by Rotax. Lockwood did not have couplings for the recommended fuel line diameter, so they replaced the original fuel line with a new one of the same diameter. I will be reviewing this at a later date. There was no determination at the time of this posting whether or not the existing fuel line had deteriorated. Since I had issues from day one, I am inclined to suspect that when the fuel line was made, there was no attempt to blow out the pieces that were cut to make the line. Future inspections of the fuel filter may corroborate or dispel this theory. 4) The ECU was reprogrammed to the current firmware which has been posted as a required service item before January, 2015. I strongly recommend this upgrade sooner if possible. I do not know if it has helped with the Lane Warning errors, but I have had none in the 10+ hours that I have flown it since then. I flew the aircraft back from Florida to Texas (approximately 1000 miles) with no issues whatsoever. No Lane Warning lights, no fuel pressure issues. Fuel pressure stayed between 44-46 psi with one or both pumps engaged. Here are my takes from the process: 1) I should have demanded that since it was under warranty, Pipistrel and Rotax come to the aircraft and get it or service it where it sat when it first had a problem in North Carolina. Now that I know it was a fuel pressure problem, it could have failed shortly after takeoff, although it never failed except when at smooth level flight. I now believe that it was just a matter of time when that would not have been the case. 2) There needs to be a determination of the actual cause of the fuel pressure problem. Were there contaminants in the fuel line which caused a failure of the fuel regulator or was a faulty fuel regulator the cause of the contaminants breaking off from the fuel line? 3) A fuel pressure sensor should be installed on all 912iS engines with constant readings reported to the pilot. 4) The Rotax BUDS cable, which is required for both getting data from the ECU and programming the ECU is excessively expensive ($800 for the owner version, $1000 for the mechanic version, and $who knows for the Level 3 Service Center version), in short supply everywhere, and the Level 3 version (there are only 2 in the US) is required to update firmware on the ECU. I bought the Level 2 Mechanic's version just to get the data to send to Rotax and Pipistrel. I love my Virus SW. This has in no way turned me off the aircraft OR the 912iS version of the engine. My aircraft hauls butt. I typically cruise at 140-145 knots at about 3.8 gallons per hour. I have to work to keep it from cruising at 155 in smooth air (163 is VNE). I now know, however that Rotax (and by extension, Pipistrel) need to step up their game on warranty related issues on this engine. Shane Mitchell http://forum.pipistrelowners.com