Thanx Rusty – I was gone for the
weekend and away from email.
As you said, I won’t feel good about
it until I know for sure what’s going on. When I got back in town
my wife graciously let me kiss her and then leave again for the airport to work
on my engine. I started at about 5PM and at 7:30PM had it off the plane and in
the back of my truck. Amazing. It took months to get it all situated in the
plane with all the hoses and wires and in a matter of a couple of hours it all
comes undone!
I’m going to go see Atkins tomorrow
and watch while they dissect the engine. But, I also have another rotary
I bought at a local junkyard a year or two ago and I’m slowly working on
rebuilding that too. So, I’ll get my rebuild education at some point. But
for this one, since I paid some substantial cash for that engine, I’d
like to at least get 100hrs out of it!
Besides – I lost my medical
temporarily. If any of you have gone to a “sleep doctor” –
you might want to conveniently forget that fact when you go to get your FAA
medical renewed. I made the mistake of noting that and when asked about the
outcome I said “mild sleep apnea”. Wrong thing to say.
Apparently the FAA doesn’t know the difference between mild sleep apnea
and narcolepsy. I spent all day today in a “Maintenance of
Wakefulness Test”. Essentially I sat in a dark room all day and tried
to stay awake. I was successful so next week I can get a letter from the doctor
and get it to the FAA and hopefully in 60 days or less I’ll get my
medical back L
Thanx,
Joe Hull
Cozy Mk-IV #991 (In Phase1 Flight Test – 10.9
hrs flown)
Redmond (Seattle),
Washington
I dropped the pan today and there were a
bunch of gold flakes in the pan. Not a huge amount overall but if I sloshed
things into a corner it looked significant. So, pondering my next step.
Did you drain the oil before dropping the
pan? I'm assuming the answer is yes. If so, then draining
the oil didn't get the flakes out. If that's the case, then they
could have been in there since day one, and you have no way of
knowing.
Did you get a chance to check
the relief valve? If you pulled the pan, and
didn't unscrew that valve, your restraint is far greater than mine
:-)
As for what to do about the engine, it
almost sounds like you're looking for an excuse to go through the engine to
make sure all is well. If that's the case, and that's what will make you
comfortable, then that's what you need to do. End of
dilemma. See how easy that was :-)
I would further suggest that you do it
yourself, with a copy of Bruce's video, rather than letting Atkins do it. It's
not hard to do, and you'll be way more careful with it. You can also
use the opportunity to install the Bruce/RWS seals. If you want a
professional to go though it, then I'd recommend sending it to Bruce
Turrentine.
Cheers,
Rusty (26)