I Had the pleasure this morning of meeting with Tom Fawcett of Wild Hare Hobbies in Flower Mound, Tx. I have seen his website and decided to drive there and look at his shop. Much to my surprise my tomtom took me to a residential address. I called WildHare to see if I was in the right area and sure enough it was his place. Anyway, He let me look at a DLE30 up close and personal, gave me some insight on the engine and all in all made me feel a lot more comfortable choosing this as the engine that will power my Taylorcraft. Comparing the DLE30 to the Zenoah G26ei. THe DLEis smaller, has a better ignition system on it that does not draw a lot of power from the battery, also I find it very impressive that this engine will turn a 19" prop with authority. I am very impressed with the workmanship this engins has. I will be buying an engine from him as soon as I get back home. I spoke with him briefly about the tilt and die issue and he said that it is a little overexaggerated and he has not personally had one do this to him yet. (I saw his test stand and he has the capability to tilt the engine). He said he may get one that dies eventually but he hasn't had it happen yet to one of his engines. We spoke briefly about the tuning and I asked him what oil to run. Without hesitation, he said break it in and run it with Pennzoil 2-cycle oil. You can read his "white-paper" on the wild hare.com website. He also told me that I can break the engine in on the airplane. He does not recommend running them for an extensive time on a test stand. Well that sums it up. I am a believer. I am now a DLEfan.

Glenn Williams