|
After 225 hrs of flying on my Renesis the
guts of my HP were pretty well disintergrated. I used a long chisel and
other rods to finish the job. If I were to do it a gain I'd just make
a pipe to replace the muffler.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2011 12:35
PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: The good news
and the bad news......
How did you remove the muffler
innards? I've got a Hushpower and at this point, it's the only thing in the
plane that makes me nervous, other than the guy in the cockpit.
Brian Trubee
-----Original
Message----- From: Dennis Havarlah < clouduster@austin.rr.com> To:
Rotary motors in aircraft < flyrotary@lancaironline.net> Sent:
Sat, Sep 3, 2011 8:26 am Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: The good news and the bad
news......
Bill,
Great flying and decision making to get it back
on the ground with "minor" damage!!!
I sure hope we can find the cause to prevent it
in the future.
One idea: Rotor #1 - still great
comp. Rotor #2 - None. First flight after plugs
changed. Any possibility one plug in Rotor
#2 protruded beyond the housing and did damage? Why
does Rotor # 2 have no compression?
The muffler crap should not have damaged anything
because it would only get into the engine after the nose went down
and the prop stopped.
But on the other hand - you would have had some
power from Rotor # 1 "No stumble, no hiccup, just instant silence" That
indicates to me total failure of fuel or ignition.
Concerning HushPower II mufflers - After Bobby
H's. loss of power I removed my muffler and found the internals failing at
about 225 hrs. I removed all the internals and now fly with just the
muffler shell.
Dennis H.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2011 9:53
AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: The good news
and the bad news......
Bill,
Helluva nice job on
the emergency. Glad you’re unhurt.
Bryan
From:
Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net]
On Behalf Of Bill
Eslick
Sent: Friday,
September 02, 2011 11:52 PM
To: Rotary motors in
aircraft
Subject:
[FlyRotary] The good news and the bad news......
I have been holding
up reporting this until all the facts are in, but that might never happen,
so here we go.
Good news:
No injuries.
Bad news: I have some work to
do.
Photos at: http://www.tiny9.com/u/2101
On August 16th at
10 AM, I lined up for takeoff at my home airport (3600' paved) into a 5 knot
headwind. I had just finished changing the oil and filter and
plugs. Run-up was fine, so off I went. Approximately mid-field,
and a couple of hundred feet in the air, it suddenly and without any warning
became very silent.
Hit the big switch which puts direct battery
power to everything engine, but no noise. No more time. At this
point flying the machine becomes THE priority. Dropped the nose and
was amazed to see a little bit of runway under the nose! I had fully
expected to land in trees, houses or the river, so I dove what seemed like
straight down to capture as much runway as possible while (somehow) holding
the electric flap switch long enough to get full flaps (noticed this
later). Pulled probably my best round-out ever - no bounce.
Brakes to max and tail up for weight. I think my sub-concious put it
all the way on the nose to try to prevent going through the fence and down
the hill. Wheel skid starts about 200 feet from the stopping
point. Skid marks from the wheel pants, cowling and prop run about the
last 50 feet. It stopped nose down just off the end. The tail
was still over pavement. Pushed the slider canopy UPHILL, stepped out
and down. Noticed that I was not even scared by the whole event.
Interesting. Never even considered trying to turn around.
Pre-thinking that non-option apparently paid off.
More good
news. No FAA or NTSB as it was a non-reportable incident. Didn't
even bend the gear legs. Also, my neighbor crashed in a Challenger
about 10 minutes earlier at the city airport about 10 miles away. The
police and rescue types were headed that way (they had injuries) and were
not interested in my minor mishap.
As for the engine. When we
got it back to the hangar, the prop would turn only haltingly. You
could feel grinding going on inside. First try at turning had it come
up hard and stop. More fooling with it and it gradually came looser
and would turn. Really looked like something came loose in
there. Pulled a plug from each rotor and did a compression test.
Rotor 1 was 80-80-80. Rotor 2 was 2-2-2. More proof that
something had come loose. With that evidence, the insurance company
allowed me to remove the engine for inspection. What I found was a
pile of ground up ceramic junk. All the seals were still fine.
Lots of time went in to finding where that stuff came from. Went
through every inch of the induction system. Finally Jason Hutchison
(my other on-airport rotary guy) broke the code. While the RV was
standing on it's nose, this crap from my burned-out Hushpower II ran back up
the manifold and in the exhaust port. That is what was grinding.
Crap. Now the entire thing is off the firewall including the engine
mount. All the wiring is disconnected (did not find anything loose or
missing). I spent the morning looking under the panel for any loose or
broken wiring, but found none. When I get the EC-2 out, Jason wants to
plug it into his plane and we'll do the plugs and injectors test. If
that checks out, Tracy, it is coming to you for a good look. I don't
know what else to check. The engine quit just like somebody reached
over and turned off the ignition. No stumble, no hiccup, just instant
silence. I honestly do not know if the prop was turning or not.
I suspect not, due to the silence and the fact that one blade is
untouched.
As you can see from the photos, there was something going
on with Rotor 1. Wear is apparent down stream from the plug holes and
all 3 apex seals are starting to chip in the center. There is quite a
lot of carbon also on the rotors after 170 hours.
Going forward, I
have decided to look at resale value for if/when my RV-12 days arrive.
This means putting a (gasp) IO-360 on it. The rotary has given me a
safe 10-year run (til now, of course), so I have no regrets, but this is an
opportunity to make some changes, and parts are already on the way. I
will still be hanging out at the engine tent at S-n-F and wherever else
gatherings happen. Hope to be flying by the first of next
year....
I'm sure some of you will have suggestions about what might
have gone wrong, and I welcome any kind of speculation, but bear in mind I
am just looking at a pile of parts and wires at this point. Both fuel
pumps were on, tanks were over half full, crank angle sensor worked
fine.
Guess it's obvious that I now have a RD-1A, EC-2, EFI Monitor
(Ed's), Felix 68/72 and Props Inc 68/72 wood props and LOTS of engine
parts (my whole 14-year stash) available! And priced to sell!
Bill Eslick
RV-6 13B/NA
EC-2 RD-1A
750 Hours
|