Bill Freeman wrote:

snips

  I thought some one out there might remember.  He was flying home
to LA from Sun 'N Fun in his 100 hp VW powered KR2.   Arrived
over the LA area mtns in poor weather, on top; not a good plan.  His
aftermarket,
very expensive forged and counterweighted crank broke, after a relatively
few hours, like 200-300 or less.  He did not survive the dead stick approach
into a snowstorm over the mtns.  Very sad, but an object lesson on 100 hp
VW motors in airplanes, and pushing the weather.  Either incident separately
might well have had a happy outcome.

snips

Bill

To be a bit more accurate Bill, Ken was flying a direct drive VW. Prop
bolted to the wrong end of the shaft and the new Pulsar engine is a geared
VW based engine. Whole different situation on the crankshaft loads.
It is now well known that there is a limit to the weight of the prop
you can bolt to a VW crankshaft and that appears to be three pounds.
Ken died 20 years ago as I recall. I will take a close look at that
new engine and gear box soon.

Paul Lamar

In my recollection of Ken Rand's death was that he flat ran out of fuel in IFR
conditions. Reports were that there was no trace of fuel in any of the tanks, and
this is the first I have heard of any mention of a crankshaft failure. That does
not mean that they cannot be broken, but I do not think this was the culprit in
that instance.

A freind of mine lost a significant portion of a metal prop "bolted to the wrong
end of the crank" The world disappeared in a blur, and he put it on the ground
safely at Camarillo . The engine mount had a broken tube on one side, and the same
tube on the other side had the paint burned off by cyclic yielding. The crank was
unharmed..
Vance

 
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