A couple of hours staring at steam guages in a snow storm while over water with no auto pilot. .... Iron man in a wooden plane. Bet he has a hairy chest too 😆!
   I'm just thinking about autopilot as I'm thinking about pulling the trigger and ordering a set of servos for my Dynon tonight. And to convince myself to do it I try to imagine myself in Max's place.
  I sure hope his engine problem is as simple as your long distance diagnosis.
Further to that, I just installed a canister fuel filter/water separater with a water detection probe to avoid that very problem.

On Tue, Sep 6, 2016, 5:17 PM Ed Anderson <flyrotary@lancaironline.net> wrote:

Thanks, Alex

 

I passed your suggestion on to Max.  Have not yet heard from him whether he checked for water in his fuel.

 

Ed

 

From: alex

Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2016 4:05 PM

To: Rotary motors in aircraft

Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Fw: Big day tomorrow !

 

I don't know the construction of the falconavia wing, but if there's low spots in the tanks  eternity ribs for instance for water to gather he might want to consider doing a few wing tank drains and moving the wings fore and aft between draining, leave to settle for 30 min between each drain. See if he can get more water out, minimize his chances of getting problems again

Alex Molteno

 

On Sep 6, 2016 6:16 PM, "Ed Anderson" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net> wrote:

When I had spark plug sag, the engine did not sputter, it just lost rpm and power.

 

He had 14 hours with the engine running fine and after a night of heavy rain with it left outside (which he normally does not do) and then the sputtering does not start until 5 minutes after take off, sure makes it sound like water in the fuel to me.

 

Ed

 

From: Kelly Troyer

Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2016 12:44 PM

To: Rotary motors in aircraft

Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Fw: Big day tomorrow !

 

Ed,

  I think you may have diagnosed the problem..........It does not sound like spark plug "SAG"...........Hope So ??.............

 

Kelly Troyer

 

 

 

 

 

On Tue, Sep 6, 2016 at 11:28 AM, Ed Anderson <flyrotary@lancaironline.net> wrote:

Bummer, Max -  to hear you had a problem after such a great start. Grateful that
you made it back to the airport.

Here is my best guess as to the problem.  IF it rained all night long and
the engine was running fine when you landed, it sure sounds like you got
water in your fuel tanks.

Five minutes is enough to burn all the
uncontaminated fuel out of the lines and your fuel sump and start sucking in
water contaminated fuel.  By playing with the fuel mixture you probably made
it rich enough (more fuel) to sort of counteract the water in the fuel.

I would drain some fuel from each tank and check it for water - I'll bet you
find some.

IF you can somehow turn off your wing tanks fuel feed and turn on the aux
tank in the cockpit (which should not have water in it), then see how it
runs.

If you run the engine on the ground and it is the water causing the problem,
you should use up the water in a few minutes and then it should start
running normally.  IF that happens then, in my opinion, that increase the
odds that it was water in the fuel that caused your problem.

I'll bet you normally keep you aircraft in the hangar when its raining.  IF
so its not uncommon when left out in the rain that rain  could leak past old
hard rubber seals around your filler caps - are they located on the top of
the wing??

Let me know what you find.

Ed



-----Original Message----- From: (null) maximilian
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2016 12:06 PM
To: Ed Anderson
Subject: Re: Big day tomorrow !

What could have happened?
it was raining all night long!
5 min after takeoff it started loosening power like sputtering!
thank god after playing with the mixture it ran just enough to get me back
to airport
very scary! I was fully loaded with fuel!
most likely I leave the plane here!

max

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 6, 2016, at 10:52 AM, Ed Anderson <eanderson@carolina.rr.com> wrote:

Great going, Max - you put Lindberg to shame {:>).  Onward to Iceland

Ed

-----Original Message----- From: (null) maximilian
Sent: Monday, September 05, 2016 2:04 PM
To: Ed Anderson
Cc: Stefan.Kohout@t-online.de ; s-kocher@hotmail.com ; dibora@sbg.at ; Karin Raab ; chuck55@optonline.net ; Joseph DiPalermo
Subject: Re: Big day tomorrow !

I'm in Narsasuak Greenland after completing my most difficult Flight ever!
Icing, snow, rain and fog!
Mashine and pilot went through the most difficult!
5 hours 20 min total
more then 2 hours in solid IFR!

wunderbar!
Max

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 4, 2016, at 3:59 PM, Ed Anderson <eanderson@carolina.rr.com> wrote:

Stay High and dry my friend.  Let us know as soon as you get to Greenland.

Ed

-----Original Message----- From: Max
Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2016 11:12 AM
To: eanderson@carolina.rr.com ; Stefan.Kohout@t-online.de ; s-kocher@hotmail.com ; dibora@sbg.at ; Karin Raab ; chuck55@optonline.net ; Joseph DiPalermo
Subject: Big day tomorrow !

Got my survival gear, Flieger is loaded with gas, weather looks good tail wind
Going straight from Goose bay to Greenland 5 hours over water!










Sent from my iPhone





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Kelly Troyer
Dyke Delta_"Eventually"
13B_RD1C_EC2_EM2

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Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
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