Loki got back in the air again today, the first time in just over two months. Back in the first week of November, an engine problem came up that required the motor to be shipped back to the factory near Prague (Czech Republic), and with the cooperation of everyone at PBS, they turned it around in just a few weeks of shop time. Unfortunately, you can add a week of shipping on the front end, and three weeks while the motor sat in its crate on the shipping dock through the European holidays, when nothing, but NOTHING moves. It shipped last week and got here in three days travel, took about an hour to have it installed, hooked up, and serviced with oil – but by then, I had a bit of a cold, and only wanted to fire it up on the ground and taxi a bit.
Today we had a narrow weather window between cold morning temperatures and afternoon wind with storms moving in, so when the temp got above freezing, I climbed into my heavy Patagonia underwear, flight suit, heated socks, and heated vest, and took the machine aloft to see if I still remembered how. The motor purred along great, the airframe and instruments showed no sign of a layoff, and we’re back in business. Of course, now the winter weather will set back in…
Can’t say enough good things about the folks at Sonex and PBS who made the turnaround as short as they could. Czech Customs… well, they could at least have an intern around one day a week through the holidays!
Outstanding paint job.
John Stahr is a true artist.
Does anyone have any information on the intended new power plant for the two passenger version? Projected performance figures. It would be nice to have a larger fuel tank too that could be used for longer range.