Wow!  That's a great ending for what could have been a total disaster.
I don't know Oly, but I'm tickled pink that he's OK.

Ed, Didn't you have another friend that landed in a tree?

Bob W.


On Thu, 9 Jul 2009 08:45:57 -0400
"Ed Anderson" <eanderson@carolina.rr.com> wrote:

> I am posting the contents of a report of an accident involving my friend Oly
> Olson and his rotary Vari-Veggan that was posted on Van's RV List by David
> Domeier. Oly  was using an Ellison Throttle body rather then EFI and was
> working on sorting it out.  I was attempting to assist him over the phone
> and via e mail.  He seem to have a problem getting the Ellison to both idle
> well and still provide adequate fuel flow on the high end.  He was thinking
> of going to a different size Ellison to see if that cured the problem.    I
> have no further details at this time and no indication of what the cause of
> engine stoppage might have been.  He had flown several times with the
> Ellison.  Oly and his wife had stopped by to visit me last year, a great
> couple.
>
>  
>
> I think it clear that having the right "reflexes" are necessary in such a
> situation - because there is no time to think - just react.  Even so Oly
> clearly is a great stick man to get the aircraft oriented up right before
> striking the trees.
>
>  
>
>  The body of the report follows:
>
>  
>
> Ed
>
>  
>
> REPORT
>
> ".
>
> I received a cell phone call from a friend at KSUS (St. Louis Spirit) this
> afternoon at about 1:35 pm. He was upset and could hardly say what had just
> seen. From his open hangar he witnessed a mutual friend on down wind leg
> suddenly pitch up, roll nearly inverted and disappear behind an adjacent row
> of hangers in what appeared to be 45 degree dive. He said we just lost Olie.
>
>
> Olie is one of the guys in a local group messing around with experimental
> airplanes, he was trying to get the one and only metal built VariViggin to
> fly with a Mazda rotary engine. This was the second or third time Olie had
> attempted to fly the airplane in the past several years. It was a beautiful
> machine copied from original drawings and built by a couple engineers in
> Canada and painted like a Blue Angel F-18. Olie bought it and had it trucked
> in. We were in total shock and not feeling well at all about this happening
> to a guy we knew so well.
>
> I was really in the dumps when the phone rang again about 20 minutes later.
> It was the same friend calling to say local guys were reporting Olie was
> walking around the wreckage which was up in a tree. I said, this is the best
> phone call I have ever received, wow!
>
> I had Olie's cell phone number and called him. Sure enough, he was alive and
> well, and I said man am I glad to hear your voice. He said things happened
> real quick and he would brief everyone as soon as possible, meanwhile he was
> waiting for the FAA and also looking for a ride back to the airport. (he may
> not have been aware of it, but there was quite a traffic jam developing on
> Airport Road as a number of people saw him go in, one said he couldn't
> believe he was not killed, all this on a local TV web site)
>
> This evening I received more info on what happened. The engine quit at about
> 90 knots on down wind leg and the airplane pitched up immediately, probably
> due to a high thrust line, speed dropped off to about 70, and the machine
> rolled nearly inverted about that quick. Olie said "some basic instinct
> kicked in - I pushed the nose down trying to recover some speed and kicked
> rudder real hard trying to get the airplane to roll back up right" - it did
> just that before it hit the trees. He climbed down with hardly a scratch.
>
> We are thankful our friend Olie is with us tonight...."
>
> __________________
>
>  
>
> Needless to say so are we.  I sent Oly an e mail asking that when he got
> things sorted out to provide any information he could about what he though
> the cause of the engine stoppage was.  One thing from this incident shows
> that regardless of whether using and EFI system, a Carburetor or other means
> of providing fuel - they all require sorting out and you can encounter
> difficulties with any of them.
>
> Ed Anderson
>
> Rv-6A N494BW Rotary Powered
>
> Matthews, NC
>
> eanderson@carolina.rr.com
>
>  <http://www.andersonee.com> http://www.andersonee.com
>
>  <http://www.dmack.net/mazda/index.html>
> http://www.dmack.net/mazda/index.html
>
> http://www.flyrotary.com/
>
>  <http://members.cox.net/rogersda/rotary/configs.htm>
> http://members.cox.net/rogersda/rotary/configs.htm#N494BW
>
> http://www.rotaryaviation.com/Rotorhead%20Truth.htm
> <http://www.dmack.net/mazda/index.html>
>
>  
>
>


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