The Rotax market on PlaneFox
As of August 2026, PlaneFox lists 399 Rotax-powered aircraft. 320 of them carry a published asking price, the median is EUR 110,000 and the middle half sit between EUR 65,000 and EUR 175,000. Typical build years run from 2002 to 2024.
The most listed types are the JMB VL3 (32), the Aerospool WT9 Dynamic (27), the Czech Sport Aircraft SportCruiser (14), the ICON A5 (12) and the Comco Ikarus C42 (11). For context, the wider ultralight category shows 629 listings with 485 priced and a median of EUR 99,000, and the light sport selection shows 49 listings with 39 priced and a median of EUR 100,000.
Which engine you are actually buying
Rotax's four-stroke aircraft engines split into three groups.
- 912 family. Naturally aspirated. Rotax rates the 912 UL at 80 hp and the 912 ULS at 100 hp. This is the bulk of the listed fleet.
- 914. Turbocharged and carburetted, rated 115 hp by Rotax. It holds power to altitude, which is why it appears on aircraft flown over terrain.
- 915 iS and 916 iS. Turbocharged and fuel-injected, and rated above the 914. Take the power figure from the Rotax data sheet for the exact variant rather than from the advert. These sit behind the faster ultralights and the newer four-seat kit aircraft.
Read the engine data plate rather than the advert. A 912 UL and a 912 ULS look identical and are 20 hp apart.
TBO is a date as well as a number
Current 912 ULS and 914 engines carry a time between overhaul of 2,000 hours or 15 years, whichever comes first. This was not always the case. Rotax service bulletin SB-912-057UL, issued on 14 December 2009, took the 912 UL, ULS and ULSFR from 1,500 hours to 2,000 and from 12 years to 15, and only for engines above a stated serial number that have had the 1,000 hour special check. SB-914-039, issued on 25 March 2010, did the same for the 914 F, from 1,200 hours. Engines below those serial numbers sit at 1,000, 1,200 or 1,500 hours and at 10 or 12 years until the listed bulletins have been complied with, so the extension is conditional rather than automatic.
Ask for the engine serial number and its build date, then ask which service bulletins have been signed off. An engine advertised at 1,100 hours with "plenty left" may be a 1,500-hour engine with 400 hours remaining, or a 2,000-hour engine with 900.
The 15-year calendar limit is the one that catches private owners. An ultralight flown 40 hours a year accumulates 600 hours in 15 years, so the calendar limit arrives with 1,400 hours of a 2,000-hour TBO unused. The overhaul falls due anyway. When you compare two aircraft, compare years since manufacture alongside hours.
Rubber has its own clock
Rotax's line maintenance manual sets a five-year limit on rubber components in chapter 05-10-00: coolant hoses, fuel lines that are not PTFE, carburettor sockets, and the diaphragms inside the carburettors. The fuel pump carries the same five-year limit. On a 15-year TBO that is two full rubber replacements before the engine ever reaches its hour limit.
This is the most commonly deferred item on a privately owned Rotax. The parts are not expensive; the labour is, because reaching some of them means taking the engine out of the airframe. Ask for the date of the last rubber replacement in writing. If the seller cannot produce it, price the job into your offer.
Gearbox and the other checks
Rotax requires a friction torque check in free rotation on propeller gearboxes fitted with an overload clutch, and the measured value has to fall inside the band published in the current revision of the maintenance manual. Not every 912 and 914 has the clutch fitted, and the check interval differs between gearboxes with a clutch and gearboxes without one. Confirm which configuration the aircraft has, then ask when the check was last carried out, what it measured, and against which manual revision.
Other items to see recorded: oil and filter changes at the published interval, carburettor synchronisation, the propeller's own overhaul or inspection interval, and any gearbox inspection carried out after a propeller strike. If the aircraft has had a propeller strike, ask what gearbox inspection was done and get the report, because the gearbox sits between the propeller and the crankshaft.
What the logbook should show
- Engine serial number matching the airframe records, with the build date.
- A dated service bulletin compliance list, showing which bulletins raise this engine's TBO.
- Dated entries for the five-year rubber replacement, not just hour readings.
- Oil changes at the published interval, shortened where leaded avgas has been used rather than unleaded mogas.
- Gearbox friction torque results where an overload clutch is fitted, with the manual revision they were measured against, and any inspection carried out after a propeller strike.
Compare live inventory on Rotax-powered aircraft, ultralights, light sport aircraft and kit and experimental aircraft, where 99 of 148 listings show a price and the median is EUR 95,000.
PlaneFox figures were taken on 7 August 2026 and are asking prices, not transaction prices. Engine figures are from Rotax service bulletins SB-912-057UL and SB-914-039, the Rotax line maintenance manual for the 912 series, and Rotax product data sheets.