----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, May 13, 2004 1:03
AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Detonated! :-(
Hi
Guys;
Got some good news and bad news. Bad news first. During a flight on
Monday, during climb-out I inadvertently over-boosted and detonated the engine
(more on why later), destroying 1 apex seal in each rotor. It also caused some
damage at the rotor tip. At first inspection I thought I had no damage to the
rest of the engine, but I just discovered a small scuff mark on the rear end
housing. The attached picture shows it rather poorly, but due to the shiny
reflective surface is it hard to take a pic to show it clearly. I'm uncertain
if this means the rotor is now NFG. The apex of the #2 rotor is where the
worst detonation occurred and there is a small notch in the rotor at this
location. Again, I don't know yet if this is any good. The pic of the seals
pretty much says it all. It also shows one of the side seals that broke. There
was another side seal broken as well, but with only a small 2mm piece cleanly
broken off the end, would have been easy to miss.
The pic of the rotor apex also clearly shows remnants of the ceramic
coating that was applied to the rotor faces. So if anything at least this
shows that don't waste your money on this mod.
Oh yeah, the good news (hey it's my attempt at finding a silver
lining). While I knew something was definitely amiss, the engine continued to
run and produce good power while I made a circuit (called tower for a
precautionary landing... didn't want to see them damn fire trucks come out to
meet me) and continued to run until I was on the ground at which time it
quietly died. This is one of the aspects of the rotary that initially
attracted me to this engine. I just didn't expect to find out first-hand. I
really don't doubt that it would have lasted at least a little while
longer.
It actually ran so good that I really
didn't believe that there was much if any damage and tried everything
yesterday trying to start it in an effort to avoid removing the engine. After
no success and a call to Tracy, I finally pulled it and took it home. Tore it
down this morning. Viewing the apex seals through the exhaust ports,
everything looked fine. The damage was just past the edge of the port.
Surprisingly they actually still felt solid and had spring in them with no
indication of the true amount of damage. I was beginning to second guess my
decision to teardown.
I'll be using Tracy's new apex seals in the rebuild and am now just
trying to decide which other parts I need.
S. Todd Bartrim (now into beer drinking mode...
lots of beer :-(
Turbo 13B RV-9Endurance
C-FSTB
http://www3.telus.net/haywire/RV-9/C-FSTB.htm
"Whatever you vividly imagine, Ardently desire, Sincerely
believe in, Enthusiastically act upon, Must inevitably come to pass".
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