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

I came in from the west, and yes, I saw the dirt strip but did not know
anything about it and it looked like I could still make Marble Canyon at
that point. In retrospect I should have put it down there.

I removed the exhaust manifold this morning and I could see a broken
apex seal and evidence of something had jammed against the rotor, about
the size of a 8/32 nut. Maybe just a piece of apex seal.
I inspected the intake system but could not find any missing hardware. I
should know more when the engine comes apart.

Chuck

Could be fod from a runway someplace. Turbulence bounced it around in the intake
system for a few days and finally found it's way into the intake port.


Paul Lamar
 
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