Chuck wrote:

Well I did not make it to Arlington. I was over the Grand Canyon at

12000

ft when the engine suddenly started shaking and RPM

dropped to 3900. . . . GPS reported nearest airport was Marble Canyon

21

miles away. Set up best glide, headed for

Marble Canyon, looked at EGT and rotor #1 (rear rotor in RV6, front

rotor

in car) was showing <400F. 12 minutes later, Marble

Canyon was 1 1/2 miles out but could not reach it so I set up

approach on

Highway 89A.

Thomas Parkes wrote:

Chuck:  Like everyone else, I was sorry to hear of your engine failure,

but

very happy that you came through unscratched.  As they say, any landing

you

can walk away from . .. . .

I drive that stretch of 89A every few months to visit relatives, and

have

flown into Marble Canyon many times.  Did you land west of the Colorado
River or on the east side?  If you were coming from the southwest
paralleling 89A, you may have overflown the dirt strip at Cliff Dwellers
Lodge about five miles before Marble Canyon.  Admittedly its not much of

an

airport, and isn't in any GPS data base I'm familiar with, but any port

in a

storm . . . .

Tom Parkes

-"Brian D. Cain" wrote:

I've been following this thread since it started.  What I don't understand
is exactly
how this normally aspirated motor failed, especially during cruising when
not under
huge loads.  From my years of dealing with rotaries, it's exceedingly rare
for a
normally aspirated motor to fail from detonation/pre-ignition unless the
motor was
tuned badly or had the trailing/leading plug wires installed improperly.
Chuck, have
you had the time to disassemble the engine and inspect the innards to see
what's
going on?  If you've got failure due to severe engine knock, you'll see
"devil's claws"
markings on the rotor housings towards the outer edges, perhaps a centimeter
or so
away.  You should also have failure of the apex seal towards the outer
edges, as well
(they don't tend to crack or shatter at the centres).  I'd be very
interested in seeing
the outcome of this.

Good luck with the recovery and get back up in the air pronto,

B

Brian D. Cain -/- Grand Prairie, TX -/- bdc196@comcast.com
MSN bdc196@hotmail.com, Yahoo! bdc196, AOL Symajhi, ICQ# 1733105
http://bdc.genxracing.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fc3s_org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HaltechSupport- 

 
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