Steve,
Congratulations on the successful outcome -- your
experience fits right into what "Sport-Air" states in their flight testing
course, namely that the most common problem on experimental aircraft in flight
test mode is engine failure.

Can you arrange two paths for electrical to the
"engine bus", one for normal use, and the other coming from second battery via a
separate switch?
Bill Schertz
KIS Cruiser # 4045
----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Brooks" <prvt_pilot@yahoo.com>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft"
<flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Saturday, December 03, 2005 9:35 AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Intersting flight


> Hi Al,
> You make an excellent point on the single failure
> point.  I've been trying to come up with a way to
> eliminate the problem, but outside of going to 2
> switches, I'm not sure how to do it. Even with 2
> switches the one for the engine is still a single
> failure point for the engine.
>
> The emergency checklist is also a good idea.  I'm
> going to check today, I think that I already have
one
> with my preflight checklist.  A placard for engine
out
> is probably better though, rather than trying to
find
> a paper copy during an emergency.
>
> Steve
>
> --- Al Gietzen <ALVentures@cox.net> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>