It was close to flying, only thing left to do was install some ballast in the tail for proper cg location and then get it inspected. But, I was offered a flying job in another state and took it. I sold the project to a guy out of Avon Lake Ohio. I have not heard whether or not he has proceeded with the project. I do know that after 8 months he had not transferred the registration to his name.
The Rotec engine looks like a well machined piece of equipment. However, I have/ had serious concerns about its reliability. Where I lived in the mountains was NOT an ideal place to test a questionable engine. I was based out of KGWS, 3300' long at 5900' msl, with a deep river valley off the departure end of the airport. Rotec had built the engine mount for me, but the mounting holes showed up the wrong size. They built the oil tank as well, the plastic protector sheet on the aluminum had not been removed during assembly and was inside the tank. The tank had welds that had been ground on to look better, and there were several pin holes in the welds, they had used large quantities of a red sealer. It took me many hours to clean out the plastic and sealer, then I had the local shop pressure check it and weld up the problem areas.
I truly wonder why there is no example that I have seen or heard about with one of these engines with more than about 100 hours on it. They have been out long enough and there are enough out there that there could easily be examples of engines with hundreds of hours on them.
The Luscombe was a little small for the 9 cylinder. With no interior, minimal avionics, wood prop and no cowling the cg was pretty far forward and there wasn't much usable load left. It was a cool project, but I'm glad its gone.
