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Our recently rebuilt Europa G-BWCV is again in pieces after we put only 30
more
flying hrs on this engine to add to the 50hrs it had done in the hands of
the
previous owner.

We had just received the new full permit to fly when recently, heading for
Lundy
Island just South of Bristol Docks , the cockpit filled with smoke as if a
smoke
bomb had gone off and the engine stopped! I could not discern whether the
smoke
was electrical in origin but assumed as the engine had stopped it had to
be.

The cause and subsequent sequence of events has now been established.

Alternator bearing seizure initiated dual rubber v-belt slip at the
crankshaft
pulley.
In 2-3 seconds 50 cruise hp turned both rubber belts into smoke and
vulcanised
them instead of driving the now freewheeling prop (no flywheel effect to
snap
belts).

The alternator was switched off immediately but to no benefit since its
load was
not the issue.

So instead of the crankshaft pulley driving the alternator, the alternator
now
seized was now driving the engine to a stop! A relatively minor accessory
failure
had initiated a cascade of events equivalent or even worse than a major
engine
failure.

Ofcourse this should not happen should it?

Little did I know I had become an involuntary test pilot!!!!!!!with an
observer!!!!!

The idea of a re-start attempt was not surprisingly quickly rejected.
However, as
I now know it would obviously have been a futile exercise, the engine
stopped
from 50hp running  so the starter did not have a chance.

Two other aspects of this incident made for an extremely high workload.

1. I had to switch off all electrics to prevent any further risk of smoke
(if
only to be able to see out for a forced landing) or worse still fire. This
meant
I lost the electric trim.

This may appear a small thing but believe me, this meant the constant use
of one
hand flying the stick without feel and as a consequence one eye glued to
the ASI.
A workload I did not need at this time. Mechanical trim would have helped
enormously.

Try your practice forced landings in cruise trim to see what I mean. "It
could be
you."

2. The other aspect which is a little more difficult to practice was the
free
wheeling prop. All practice forced landings to date had been with the
engine at
idle as is usual. In this condition increasing speed, by diving, increases
engine
rpm so the sprag clutch is effectively connecting engine and propeller
like any
other engine.
When the engine stopped, I was quickly aware of an abnormally high rate of
descent. The prop ran away like a wind generator in hurricane, the feel of
the
stick was abnormal due to the out of trim load and I think also the
braking
effect on the airflow over the tail.of the prop now in drag parachute
mode.

The location was far from ideal for a forced landing and with the high
rate of
descent meaning short time for descent we could easily have come off far
worse
especially since the area was well populated with power lines of different
sizes
forcing a late rejection of the primary field selection.

Having taken the diagonal in anticipation of the limited field size We hit
the
far hedge in a 290 meter  30+ Celcius almost max gross with wind light and
variable as the sea breeze was backing up the Severn valley. The near
hedge
incidentally was a 6 foot steep bank from a wide drainage canal. This,
coupled
with the unusual deck angle in the glide which only got worse of course
when I
put the coupled gear and flap down on the Mono, requiring an unusually
long
duration flare as if landing up hill, put our aiming point considerably
before
the actual touch down point so we were going to hit the hedge. The last
trick I
had up my sleeve from my cross country gliding days was to drop the gear
in order
to minimise the ground roll. This in retrospect, although it did no such
thing,
probably stopped us flipping upside down. I never considered applying the
brake
but the wheel just keeps turning judging by our grass marks.Which
fortunately I
was able to pace out having vacated the aircraft.

I am giving a talk to Gloucester strut about the Europa rebuild and now
have a
new chapter.

It is in the Aeros flying club building next Tuesday at 07.30 pm and would
welcome anyone especially Subaru owners to come along.

I still like the Subaru engine and would be happy to fly it again once
this
single point failure has been addressed. If the Europa flies again it will
be
called hedgehog!





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