"Re. Great planes. With all due respect Mark, and I mean that sincerely, their has been the same man at the heart of Great Planes from the beginning . . ."
I've got about 900 hours on mine and trust it as much (or more) as I would a Lycoming or Continental. I routinely fly at night and over wild terrain. I expect it to give me some warning if some problem does seem to be evolving - such as my voltmeter reading a little low recently. At the very bottom of my list of concerns is a crank breaking. I re-did the heads a couple hundred hours ago (just for fun, not because I needed to) and the magneto needs servicing (it's 300+ hours beyond it's service interval) but the prop hub seal does not leak nor does it have any other leaks. It burns very, very little oil. It's never backfired. It continues to be a great engine, put together by Steve himself. He ran it at 2900 down low everywhere he went and I run it 3000 to 3200 up high, everywhere I go. Where I normally fly it's producing about 50% - 55% power at WOT so whether with Steve or with me this engine has led a stress-free life, was put together well, and has been operated with consistency - like an oil field or marine engine. Not like a hot rod. I fully expect it to go another 900 hours without problems. It always starts instantly and has only faltered once . . . thanks to Rimco re-using old springs when they rebuilt the heads a long time before I bought the plane from Steve. I have only good things to say about the GP2180 with an Ellison. Having said that, if one is going to defend the reputation of GPASC, please get the name spelled correctly :-). Mike KSEE ____________________________________________________________ Blazeray Deemed: One Household Item Everyone Should Have In Any Emergency http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/576b0578723aa5782556st04vuc
