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
Chuck do you have a filter on the engine?
--
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
Paul, I have a water filter and oil filter, but no air filter. I was at
5500 ft when it happened.
Chuck
Could have been bouncing around in there for awhile.
--
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
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