Superior Air Parts Says, "Congratulations"
Superior Air Parts says Dr. William
Hayden is the first person in 2005 to build his XP-360 Engine at
the company's state-of-the-art engine build center in Coppell,
TX.
Hayden will use his new XP-360 to power the GlaStar he is
building, which he and his wife plan to use to fly from their home
in Kansas City to their summer residence in southern Colorado. "It
will turn a very long, 11-hour drive into an enjoyable flight," he
said. "I like to fly along and sightsee - that's the beauty of
flying to me."
Hayden explained that when it came time to choose his engine, he
was looking at a "Lycoming type" but a friend in the EAA
recommended he look at Superior's XP-360 Engine. "I was intrigued
by the engine and the idea of being able to build it myself under
the guidance of an experienced A&P," he said. "I admit I'm kind
of a 'gear head' and the idea of erasing my engine ignorance really
got my interest up. That and the chance to get my old dentist hands
in the grease made the idea very appealing."
Before making his final decision, Hayden made an unscheduled
visit to Superior's Coppell, Texas headquarters (file photo of
classroom session, above). "I was in the area on business and
decided to stop by," he said. "The people were very friendly and I
was stunned by the quality and cleanliness of the facility - you'd
never know that people actually built engines in there. I decided
that if they took that much care in the facility, their engines
must be something really special too."
"My experience at the builder's school was better than I ever
expected," Hayden explained. "Evan (Yearsley) was my instructor and
he was great. I now know what goes on inside that 'black box' and
while I'm not going to take my engine apart to fix it, I'll know
how to communicate better with my mechanic if a problem ever
occurs."
"I also picked up a lot of wonderful pointers that will make my
work habits better - he even taught me the right way to use a
torque wrench," he said. "Working side-by-side with an experienced
engine builder like Evan gave me a chance to learn things he's
picked up throughout his whole career - that one-on-one attention
was much more than I ever expected to get from the school."
Hayden said that now that he's finished his engine, he's even
happier about his decision to buy the XP-360. "With the
180-horsepower XP-360, I'll have lots of reserve power, even at the
higher altitudes in Colorado," Hayden continued. "It will be like
flying a 172 on steroids. I've read of other GlaStar builders who
use the XP-360 getting 167 miles-per-hour cruise at 75% power. And
if I want to, I can pull the power back to 55% and fly along all
day."
"Attending the build school has given me a tremendous
peace-of-mind about my engine," he said. "Every step I completed
was checked by Evan and then checked again by the Quality Assurance
people - this is probably the most reliable engine I'm ever going
to get. I'm confident that it's much more so than any engine I
could have bought out of a box."