Rusty, absolutely great flying! You and Ed have done it right
when you needed to get it right the first time.
Hope your airplane is not out of service long. I used to practice
power out (actually, at idle) approaches every time I flew. The game
was to land within 50 feet of the numbers and not to add any power. If
I landed 'long' or added power, I lost. I've gotten lazy now that I'm
not flying much; I think I'll start flying (and practising) more!!!
All of us should be practising power off approaches so we can fly as
well you did today if the need should ever arise.
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Original message --------------
Greetings
all,
It was a
beautiful day to fly, so I finally made it over to see Paul's plastic
fantastic in Mobile. The engine was running great, the oil temps were
perfect, and I was seeing 235 mph groundspeed as I headed home. I was
about 25 miles from my home airport, and started descending from 7500
ft. At about 6000 feet, I started smelling something that smelled like
plastic, or insulation burning, smoke started coming in through the
vent, and oil covered the canopy. Not good.
My primary
fear was fire, and my planned course of action was to get on
the ground as soon as possible, so I pushed the nose over, and headed
for a Navy helicopter field ahead. I did the 121.5 mayday call,
squawked 7700, and talked to the controller. He asked if I was going
to land at the Spencer Field, or if I could make another airport. The
smoke was subsiding, and the engine was still turning, and I thought
about trying for another field, but when I tried to throttle up,
the prop stopped cold. Needless to say, I confirmed that I was landing
at Spencer. Fortunately, I had the field made easily, and had to use
full flaps and a slip to make the part of the field I was aiming at.
This field
is a helicopter training field, and it has 4 runways that form a
square, with each runway being maybe 1000-1500 feet long. Lots of
grass exists outside of this square. I wanted to head for one of the
runways, but it was full of RC model guys. I went instead for the
parallel runway on the other side of the field. Still, they were
mighty shocked when I came gliding in :-) I landed a little hot, about
a third of the way down the runway, and ended up running about 200 ft
off into the grass before coming to a stop.
Within a
minute, there were people from the RC club at the plane, and I could
already hear the fire trucks that had been summoned by
Pensacola approach. Within just a couple minutes, civilian rescue
folks were there, followed shortly afterward by military police,
and then by the CO of Whiting NAS. I talked to the Pensacola
controller, and got a call from the Birmingham FSDO. Basically,
everyone just wanted to know that I was OK. I filled out a few papers
for the Navy Police, and I owe the FSDO a statement via fax, but that
should be the extent of the paperwork. The CO of Whiting NAS (who
controls all the outlying fields) gave me permission to either repair
the plane, and fly it out, or disassemble it, and haul it away.
The plane
was not damaged in the landing, so no problem there. I pulled the top
cowl off before it got dark, and just can't see the problem, probably
because the oil cooler (evap core) is hard to see without removing the
bottom cowl. There's a puddle of oil in the oil cooler scoop, and
oil covering the exhaust, and all the bottom of the cowling. I can't
prove it yet, but I fully expect to find the evap core split open just
like the last one did. Let's just say I won't be using one of those
for oil again.
The EM-2
was flashing it's ass off, and in the middle of trying to get the plane
on the ground, I never even looked at the screen. My initial
assumption is that I blew out all the oil, but I won't know until I
check the oil level. I don't recall the low oil light coming on, but
that doesn't mean it wasn't on. The engine is not seized now, but it
does feel low on compression. Once the engine quit, the prop did
not turn at all for the duration of the glide.
The plan
for tomorrow is to remove the wings, with the help of my good RV-8
buddy, and haul the plane back to the hanger. At this point, I don't
know quite what I'll do with it from there. My wife was slightly upset
by this, but I think she'll get over it. I also have the Slingshot at
home already, AND I'm going to have to leave the hanger in a month or
so when they rebuild it from the hurricane. Seems like a logistical
nightmare. I don't intend to abandon the rotary, but I might re-work
the Slingshot first (with the 912S), so I can get something flying.
I'd follow that with a rebuild of the RV-3 engine, and a real oil
cooler. Once I do that, maybe I'll be ready to tackle the single rotor
for the Slingshot, or maybe not :-)
Cheers,
Rusty (I
still smell burning oil, 5 hours later...)