Hands down, the absolute best resource for Rallye owners and pilots is the Rallye List . This list was established several years ago by Pete Snipe on the RallyeClub web site in England. To date hundreds of messages have been posted by list members citing their experiences and sharing their knowledge. This is the first place to go with questions regarding flying and maintaining a Rallye.

Some Rallye Minervas used the light, powerful Franklin 350 cubic inch six-cylinder engine. The Franklin lost the market  to Lycoming and Continental through a series of ill-timed misfortunes. Consequently, Franklins are not well known by A&Ps and parts can be hard to find. PZL is manufacturing the Franklins now and the engines are  STC’d for a number of US aircraft. Want to pep up a Cessna 172? Drop in a Franklin and stand back.

However, the current situation with Franlin engines is in flux. PZL, which made Franklins (and somehow decided to change  many engineering aspects of the engine without letting the rest of the world in on it) has discontinued production. Pratt & Whitney is rumored to be taking over, but other rumors have it that another  organization may be bringing the engine back to the US. And, hopefully, back to US specifications. PZL changed gear pitches, metallurgy and so on, rendering replacement parts incompatible with US engines. But not so  incompatible that it was noticeable until gears started getting chewed up and so on. Service bulletins were issued after the fact in some cases. So far no fatalities to our knowledge.

This is a real shame since the US Franklin is such a strong, simple and reliable engine when properly serviced.

Parts - here’s a resource in the UK.

For help with Franklins, talk to the Franklin dealer in Colorado.

We welcome any and all suggestions regarding A&Ps, parts dealers and salvage operators who deal with Franklin and  Rallye parts. Start any part search by calling Susan Prall at A-1 Service in downtown, metropolitan Jewitt, Texas.

SOCATA USA is represented in the eastern US by SOCATA Gammes in Pembroke, Florida and in the western US by AVEX in Camarillo, California..

For a refreshing refresher on the physics of phlying, see John S. Denker’s online book, “See How It Flies.” Absolutely superb!