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Issue link: http://amt.epubxp.com/i/679617
www.AviationPros.com | www.AMTSociety.org 33 the ROTAX® 9 Series engines to the 100-hour or annual level. There are no prerequisites. Note: Current 912 Ser vice rating holders must complete the new program to be eligible for renewal. 9SSR – 9 Series Service Renewal, 2 Star Skill, one-day course*. This course is available to all current RFSC 912 Ser vice rating holders. 9SM – 9 Series Maintenance, 3 Star Skill, two-day course. As of Jan. 1, 2015, the 9 Series Maintenance Course will replace the current 912 Maintenance Course at select independent Training Centres (iTC) that have a 912iS training engine. The 9 Series Maintenance course is a two-day program aimed at technicians. It covers the removal and replacement of components at the line maintenance level. A current 9 Series Ser vice rating is required. Note: Current 912 Maintenance rating holders must complete the new program to be eligible for renewal. 912M – 912 Maintenance, 3 Star Skill, two-day course. 912 Maintenance course is for technicians. It covers the removal and replacement of components at the line main- tenance level. A current 912 iRMT Ser vice rat- ing is required. 912MR – 912 Maintenance Renewal, 3 Star Skill, one-day course*. Renewal course for working members with a 912 Maintenance iRMT rating that is current. 9SMR – 9 Series Maintenance Renewal, 3 Star Skill, one-day course. 9 Series Maintenance Renewal – This is part of a one-day renewal program. Only for students that have taken the 9 Series Maintenance course. (Three-month window if student's current rating has expired.) 9SHM – 9 Series Heavy Maintenance, 4 Star Skill, three-day course. 9 Series Heavy Maintenance course is for technicians. It cov- ers the repair of line item parts and advanced maintenance. A current 912 Ser vice and Maintenance iRMT rating and two years expe- rience are required. 9SO – 9 Series Overhaul, 5 Star Skill, four days, renewal two-day course. The 9 Series Overhaul course is available by invite only. Applicants must meet both facility and train- ing requirements to be eligible. RIT – Instructor Training, 6 Star Skill, four-day course. This course is by special invite only. *NOTE all marked renewals done in same day, review of all manuals, all SB, SI, releases in the past 24 months MY PERSONAL IMPRESSION To be able to write this article I attended several iRMT courses at Lockwood Aviation in Florida and at ROTAX® Franz Aircraft engines in Germany (www.franz-aircraft.de). This was the only way to make my opinion and expe- rience — this is my duty as a professional journalist. I have to admit that even being an aeronautical engineer and frequent flier of ROTAX® powered aircraft I have learned a lot in ser vice and maintenance classes. For proper engine use I should have learned that way earlier! Talking to other attendees with different backgrounds, from prospec- tive home builder, aircraft manufacturer to A&P; technicians/mechanics they admitted that they have learned many new things, too. Surprisingly, after the courses, many of them expressed a wish to take renewal courses as new topics showed up in training, specially those associated to new generation of fuel- injected engines. I'm almost sure I will do the same. For a normal user without any experi- ence with these engines I will suggest attend- ing the one-day "installation" courses and for more ambitious persons the two-day ser vice or line maintenance courses. Other courses, specially all "3 Star Courses" and above are for pros or for ver y ambitious persons. FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit www.brp.com , www.flyrotax.com , or www.rotaxflyingclub.com . RFSC Training Facilities: www. ROTAXflyingclub.com/courses/centres or www.Rotaxflyingclub.com/courses/training . To contact a local distributor: http:// dealerlocator.flyrotax.com/ . Visit www.RotaxFlyingClub.com or www. RotaxiRMT.com for contact information of any independent training center. modernized version of the carburated 912UL with over 60 percent of new parts compared to its predecessor. In 2015 at AirVenture/ Oshkosh the 135-hp 915 iS was presented. This is now the last evolution stage of the fuel-injected 912 iS engine, that, with an added turbo-charger and inter- cooler, is capable of full power output up to 15.000 feet. By the time you read this article the 915 iS should have completed its maiden flight. ROTAX® ENGINE MAINTENANCE (HI)STORY From the first two-stroke engines to the introduction of the successful 912/914 engine range series and today's fuel-injected 912 iS-915 iS engines, a lot has happened. This technological progress and the certi- fied engine variants have put a different emphasis and requirements on the engine maintenance and training methods. The first dedicated train- ing in the Americas for ROTAX ® aircraft engines started in early 1980s with Engine Tech in Canada and Ron Shettler as the first distributor for the Americas. He contracted Engine Tech — which later became ROTAX ® Flying Club (RFC) — offering training also to all new OEMs. A few years later the RFC- ROTAX ® Flying Club added safety to the name, to cover the accident inves- tigation functions for RFSC-ROTAX ® Flying and Safety Club. These early programs were based on training developed from the two-stroke, snowmobile programs, coupled with years of experience collected in mainte- nance training on aircraft engines. FUEL TYPES: ROTAX® aircraft engines are approved for use with Ethanol 10, MOGAS, and avgas fuel types. The exact approvals can be found in the operational handbooks of the individual engines (http://docusearch.flyrotax.com/files/pdf/d06038.pdf).