Posted for "Frederick Moreno" <frederickmoreno@bigpond.com>:

 There we were, over the crocodile infested swamps of the Kakadu National
 Park when the exhaust rocker arm of cylinder no. 1 broke taking that
 cylinder off line.  Operating with intake valve only, cylinder 1 burped all
 its fuel into cylinder 6 (next in line) which promptly flooded and shut
 down.   What fun.  And of course I had no hint as to the cause of the
 transition from smooth to very rough.  Fussing with mixture, RPM, and
 manifold pressure brought cylinder number 6  back on line and smoothed
 things out a bit, but going full rich when I ran the standard final
 checklist on final flooded the entire engine which crapped out just when I
 needed a bit more power for the flare.  So it was bonk on the nose wheel and
 a chin slide.  
 
 
 
 Then the fun began.  I did the aircraft recovery with a friend (only 3000
 miles via road from home) and found it was great fun to work in the sun in
 the tropics.  The insurance company wanted a log of activities to support my
 claim for recovery costs.  I prepared the attached document and a spread
 sheet of costs.  They paid in full.
 
 
 
 Rocker arm failure appears to be a manufacturing fault.  I am negotiating
 with CASA and Continental to see who does what investigation with the broken
 pieces and then publishes the results.  More to follow.
 
 
 
 Captain Tuna, Chicken of the Skies
 

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