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Date: Sun, 12 Dec 2004 21:46:59 -0600
From: Charlie England <ceengland@bellsouth.net>
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To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] RV-3 down
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Russell Duffy wrote:

> 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...)  

Glad you're alright; wish some of us were close enough to help retrieve 
the plane. If you need a stock oil cooler quick, I've got an non-running 
'88 n/a car in the hangar I can pull one off of.

Charlie
(joke about terrorists & ADIZ's & scrambling etc etc deleted from this 
space)