What a relief the find that the power came back on; and
that you landed without mishap. My adrenalin level was going up when I got to
the part of your story where you were heading for the highway.
I see two important lessons in your experience;
Redundancy in the system isn’t much good if there is
still a single point failure.
Have an emergency checklist that is well memorized, but
kept handy.
Glad everything is OK,
Al
-----Original
Message-----
From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of
Steve Brooks
Sent: Saturday, December 03, 2005 6:29 AM
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Subject: [FlyRotary] Intersting flight
I
made it down to South Carolina, to among other
things,
fly the Cozy. It had been 2 months to the day
since
I had been down, so the remaining 8 hours of the
40
test hours have been slow to come off.
On
Thursday I washed about 30 lbs of dust off of the
plane
(open T hanger) and checked everything out. I
did
a high speed run down the runway, but didn't have
time
to get in a flight.
Yesterday
I went to the airport after it warmed up a
few
degrees, and took off. The engine was running
very
strong in the cooler air (54 degrees). I had
planned
to do about a 30 minute flight ad land, just
to
check everything out, and was was doing turns and
just
cruising around about 6-7 miles from the airport
at
about 2900 MSL (2300 AGL). While flying straight
and
level, I felt a sudden miss in engine. When I
check
the I/P, I also noticed that the digital gauges,
fuel
and oil, had rebooted. I immediately started a
turn
toward the airport.
About
15 seconds later, I lost total electric. The
I/P
went dead, and so did the engine. This isn't
good,
I thought. Actually, it was more like, OH SH**.
I
took a look at the airport, and I was too far to
make
it there, so I looked around, and a 4 lane
highway,
which has light traffic appeared to be my
best
option. I had just started turning toward that
highway,
when the electric power came back, and the
engine
picked back up.
I
immediately started a climb, and headed toward the
airport
again. I already knew that there was a plane
in
the pattern doing touch and goes (unicom field), so
I
called the airport and advised the other aircraft
that
I had a serious issue, and needed to make a
straight
in landing.
It
didn't lose power again, on the trip back to the
airport,
but that 6-7 miles seemed to take forever. I
stayed
on the high side on altitude, for obvious
reasons,
and then had to bleed altitude (and speed)
while
on short final. I came in a little fast, and
touched
down earlier than normal, but still was on the
ground,
and very happy.
Since
I have two separate electrical systems (engine
and
everything else), I was really stunned that I lost
both
like that. After thinking about it for I while,
I
figured out that the master switch was the only
common
link. I pulled the I/P cover off, and found
that
the ground connector was pulled off of the
terminal
and just sitting there barely touching the
contact.
The
cause of this was the fact that when I did an
annual
on the plane in May, I had added some addition
ty-raps
to dress up the wiring a little more. In
doing
so, I had stretched the ground wire which runs
to
the master switch, which energizes the two master
relays.
It
was an easy fix, but now I have to replenish the
adrenalin
supply, and figure out how to get the ridge
out
of the seat cushion.
After
some ground testing, I made another flight
(circling
the airport) and everything checked out OK.
I
have an emergency bypass switch that will supply
power
to the engine systems from either the forward or
aft
battery. I didn't think to switch it over, but I
really
didn't get to the point of doing any trouble
shooting,
so I'm not sure if I would have thought of
that
option or not. It was without power for only
about
20 seconds, but it seemed much longer. I will
definitely
remember the emergency power switch, should
I
every have an issue like that again, but I hope that
never
happens.
This
isn't nearly as harrowing as some of the
experiences
that Ed or John have had, but it was
plenty
for me. I don't want any more glider time.
Steve
Brooks
Cozy
MKIV
Turbo
rotary
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