Yes, no Egg belt drives were delivered as testing continued and deposits were taken I understand. Unlike those thousands of crankshafts which already made it to customers... To Textron's credit, they're stepping up to the plate financially on the last ones.
If you have ever talked with Jan, you'd know he is a driven, enthusiastic, positive personality usually wearing a big smile because he loves what he's doing. He's excited about new things coming down the pipeline because he's innovating and bringing new ideas along, testing and proving or disproving them. Perhaps people doing these things get carried away sometimes- well shoot us then. At least we're doing something new that many are interested in and not flogging the same old thing.
And yes, starting over with a new gearbox design means starting from scratch to test and validate the design with probable delivery delays, a reality of any design in any field of endeavor which does not pan out. Customers will likely end up with something better and safer at least. Jan is trying to get 3-4 new drives built and flying to accumulate flight hours quickly to validate the design with minimal delays.
While some people beat on Jan, I marvel at what he has accomplished with a small crew in a short time. Conversely, here is giant Textron, billions of dollars, lots of engineers, tens of thousands of engines flying, millions of hours and decades of experience- and what, they can't build a proper crankshaft anymore? If I was running Lyco, heads would have been rolling years ago. Seems like they are on track again but they have a long ways to go to get customer confidence back again from many. We need Lycoming and I do hope they get it right this time under the new management. The clones and alternatives have risen as a result of these debacles and slow feet. Lyco loses while others take their market share. That's business.
My accident was certainly an airmanship deal! As an old and wise friend used to say to me when I screwed something up- "you weren't paying attention kid!" Absolutely spot on. I had the ammeter right there on the panel staring at me and a voltmeter on my EGD available too. Had I not been so complacent about things, I might have checked them and discovered the fault earlier and it would have been a non-issue. You cannot miss the 95 db buzzer now and I have a second battery and buss now so that is not going to happen again. I could have learned from Jan to have that 2nd battery and I guess he could have learned something from me on fuel systems so now we all share our good and bad ideas with everyone, hoping to make things safer. Test flying has its hazards.
Since my Sube journey began about 7 years ago, I've talked to hundreds of interested people and pilots at fly ins, chapter meetings, via phone and E-mail. Many are VERY experienced pilots who've flown many thousands of hours behind Lycos. They all have a story to tell and they are not all bad of course. One fellow offered a story from Vietnam where they ran Lyco GPUs. He said they ran day and night at 2800 rpm WOT. Only stopped to change oil every 100 hours or when they got around to it. He said he never saw one blow up on his tour, they just got really tired after 3-3500 hours and burned lots of oil. I was impressed. I was impressed again flying a friend's 7A with an O-360 FP. It worked well. I have fine memories of flying Cherokees and Grummans that wouldn't have been possible without Mr. Lycoming.
The common threads that most tell me in considering a Sube or alternative engine is that they are tired of the:
High cost- acquisition and maintenace. Many of the people that I've talked to have not gone to TBO without serious problems along the way. They don't want to deal with "special" break ins, plug cleaning, oil seeps, smells, valve adjustments, sticky valves, cracked heads and crank ADs. When overhaul comes, they don't want to drop $10K to do it again.
High vibration- This is more subjective. A Grumman Lyco installation is not very smooth. An RV is not bad and a 172 is actually pretty smooth. Must be in the mounts. A flight in a Sube powered plane readily convinces even jaded pilots that no Lyco is smooth compared to a Sube.
No work- Pilots are either getting lazy or expecting more "car like" operation of their aircraft engines. Rightly or wrongly and technical arguments aside, they want to turn the key, no priming, no pre-warming, no shaking, no fuss and have it start and run immediately well. They don't want to deal with carb heat or mixture controls. They just want to fly the plane and not worry about this stuff.
They want something new. The reasoning is they don't drive a 1950s Chevy nor would they want to in most cases so why shouldn't they have something more modern available?
I'll certainly admit that I'm always asked by pilots what if... I reply, the prop windmills and you better be up your glider skills. Kinda like being up to date on your prayer skills if you fly at night over the rocks single engine. Bang you're dead. That one sets them thinking! We take risks in different ways.
Most of Jan's customers seem very happy. I've talked to a couple who are not. Par for the course in any business. Things like higher than desired temps in hot conditions are little different than lowering the nose on a Lyco plane in similar conditions. They are not causing forced landings and fixes are on the way. There are few other complaints that I hear other than delays which are safety issues in my view. People will wait a bit for something better.
The real reason we like Subes is the attention it gets us. Whether we are forced landing near a small town in Nowhereville, being the center of attention at a fly in or seeing fellow pilots stream out of their hangars as we check the windsock overhead due to that lovely, distinct sound, we are it!
Mostly pilots I talk too are just plain impressed that I did it all myself and the thing actually works well (finally). My friend with the 6A Lyco C/S who did the Kitplanes fly off with me made me feel especially warm inside when he said after the flight "Ross I'm pretty impressed with what you've done there". Les is the smartest engine man I know, building record holding drag and Bonneville engines for years. A valued opinion from someone in the know about things mechanical.
Other most asked question: Are you offering engine kits? NO.
