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)