Sorry I didn't make to Bill Eslick's for the Rotorfest, I missed by
about one hour. About 30 miles north of San Angelo TX the RPM suddenly
dropped and I could not restore it with any of my emergency procedures.
GPS told me nearest airport was Robert Lee about 15 miles away. I headed
there and landed without incident.

Turning the prop by hand shows almost zero compression in one rotor,
indicating bad/broken apex seals, quite similar to my engine-out
experience 2 1/2 years ago which caused a forced landing near the Grand
Canyon. This time the vibration was not quite as bad, and the RPM
dropped to around 4300 which was still not enough to maintain altitude.
I called my friend with a Glasair and he cam got me and took me home. I
will have to find some time to build another motor and drive 12 hours
back there and swap motors. Or I might drive there, remove the wings and
trailer it back, have not decided yet.
My good friend/mentor/flight instructor is trying to talk me into going
back to a Lycosaurus, and I have to think of some good reasons not to.
Until I get the motor back and torn apart, I wont know what caused the
failure, but I will post anything that I find.

Regards
Chuck Dunlap
RV-6 13B 535 hours


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