Engine Installation
Engine Installation
- The first engine going on the P1 is a Rotax 503 (Installation Manual, 4MB), with dual electronic ignition and a single carburetor. A second carb will probably be added later (52hp vs. 46hp), in addition to a high-altitude mixture control kit. The propeller is a two-blade GSC 68" ground-adjustable prop.
- The engine mount is made from a 1/4" plate of 6061-T6 aluminum, suspended from 1/4" angle brackets via elastomeric bushings.
- The exhaust system is suspended from the boom via two strut supports, each with an elastomeric bushing similar to the one on the engine mount. The struts were water-jet cut from 6061-T6 plate, cleaned up, then anodized. The first version was 3/8" thick, and was replaced with a reduced-thickness version with smaller struts that cut the weight by about 50%.
- The Rotax 503 is an oil-injected engine requiring an external tank gravity-feeding the oil injection pump (at the rear of the engine). The tank is a Rotax part, held to the boom by a carbon-fiber bracket and worm-drive clamp.
- The carburetor is fed fuel through a pulse-driven pump. The center blue tube supplies an air pressure pump as the engine turns, compressing a diaphragm that pushes fuel through the pump. A blue regulator-rectifier converts the variable-frequecy, variable-voltage AC output of the engine generator into regulated 12VDC that can be used by the electrical instruments on the airplane.
- The Engine is mounted to the baseplate with 4 AN6 bolts in tension, and to the boom with 8 bolts (4x AN3C and 4x AN4C) in single shear.