LeSving wrote:
In the 80s (or 70s, don’t remember exactly), a Norwegian homebuilder used 10 years building a Falco from scratch. When finished he flew it alone to Oshkosh and won the price for best plans built plane, and some other awards also I believe. That is a big achievement IMO.
Bjoern Eriksen, 1993 
Falcos are cool.
A well maintained Rotax 912 is more reliable than any Lycoming and Continental
I read this so often, and also that Lycos need a lot of maintenance, but none of this makes sense. There is no maintenance on any of these engines – till TBO.
You change the oil, clean the plugs, change/check the oil filters… nothing else for 2000hrs or whatever.
You cannot see what is inside the engine, about to break, etc, etc.
Peter wrote:
Ferry pilots might take a different view
Obviously. This is two-fold. They typically don’t know the plane and a plane can break down in a number of ways that would force a landing. And an experienced ferry pilot is much less likely to kill himself by poor planning, etc.
Peter wrote:
Also no microlight can fly IFR legally, which limits the airspace options considerably.
Airspace up there isn’t complicated. But VFR flights over NA are rather severely altitude restricted. Also, IIRC, Transport Canada wants the PIC to have an IR even for a VFR crossing (some conditions apply).
Peter wrote:
There is no maintenance on any of these engines – till TBO.You change the oil, clean the plugs, change/check the oil filters… nothing else for 2000hrs or whatever.
I don’t know about you but I call a change of oil maintenance. 
It is but is no more extensive than on a Rotax.
Does the 914 have a TBO of 2000hrs, too? I just heard of 1400hrs TBO for the turbocharged Rotax.
Peter wrote:
I read this so often, and also that Lycos need a lot of maintenance, but none of this makes sense. There is no maintenance on any of these engines – till TBO.You change the oil, clean the change/check the oil filters… nothing else for 2000hrs or whatever.
And inspect the gearbox, clean lead off the clutch if you’ve run the engine on leaded fuel, synch the carbs and replace the rubber carb diaphragms regularly. You don’t do any of that?
I call a change of oil maintenance
I don’t think a piston engine exists which doesn’t need that, so I don’t understand this assertion of excessive engine maintenance at all. The 50hr check is roughly equivalent to a 15000km service in a VW.
