To Neil Unger,
You did not show your e mail, so here is my thinking about the Viking.
I was suspicious about why this guy suddenly drop the Subaru and are
doing something else now. He is of course coy about any info why he had
to start afresh.  His price is quite attractive, and he's got a good web
site.  Anyway, all things considered, I doubt anyone that bought one of
his Subarus are getting much support now. His reputation are knownto
some even in Canada. I am not going to say what exactly I heard, why
make work for lawyers.

If I want a Honda similar to his, there is an ex Russian engineer in
Montreal that deals with Trikes who can do the same conversions too.
Despite his being a new company, I saw the Viking site, there is approx.
70? orders to be delivered by end of August.

One of the things I dislike about these one men shops, like William
Wayne, or Aeromax Aviation, both Corvairs, they don't answer e mails,
which  make me wonder how much tech support I will get from them. The
Corvairs only had the add on 5 th bearing the last few years, which make
me wonder what kind of risks the owners were taking before that. But
then, even the expensive certified engines had broken crank problems.
At least with a rotary, there is less to go wrong and I will learn
enough to handle tech issues myself.
Tony Lam

Tony, it is our policy to not publish email address for obvious reasons.
We don't want companies mining the list.

Automotive piston engines are fundamentally unsuitable for use in aircraft.
There is a real reason aircraft piston engine cost so much money.

They are designed for the aircraft duty cycle. I.E. Full powers for 5 minutes and
then 75% power for the rest of the flight. TBO is typically 2000 hours becasue an
overwelming amount of experience proves that cracks in the major parts will not occur
in that time period. It all has to do with the exact metal alloys used and the
methods of manufacture. Parts that can stand up to this duty cycle tend to be a lot
more expensive than what appears to be the same parts in automotive engines.
An auto piston engine can go through it's entire life and never see full power.
It will run for years at 10 to 20% of full power. If you run an auto piston engine in
an aircraft a major structural failure  could could occur at any time and with out
warning.

The rotary on the other hand is entirely different.
http://www.rotaryeng.net/Rotor-v-Piston.html

Paul Lamar

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