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. Sorry to hear about your engine ''failure''. Since you mention
possible bad/broken apex seals, may I ask if you use oil in fuel in that
engine?. Yvon.
Yes, I am using Wal-Mart 2stroke outboard oil.
One detail I left out of my first post was I stayed overnight at Pecos,
TX and when I got back in the AM someone had filled the fuel tanks
overnight. I added the oil after the tanks were full, I usually add oil
gradually during fueling, so the oil may not have been a bit lean for
the 1 1/2 hours flown since Pecos. I would not have thought it would be
all that critical in the short term - I believe George Graham flew quite
a few hours with NO oil without a problem.
Chuck
This may have absolutely nothing to do with it but what brand of apex
seals were in that engine Chuck? I am just curious.
Paul Lamar ...No rotor no motor.
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