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...)