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 you don't want to take the wings off. Been there and done that
with a crew of six no less. It was not easy getting it in the truck
either. Major project.

Best to build an engine and drive it down and fly the plane back. If you
need some help driving the truck and changing out the engine I will come
over. Check with Mazdatrix. They might rent you an engine. I can bring
it over when I come.