I am posting the contents of a report of an accident involving my friend

Olson and his rotary Vari-Veggan that was posted on Van's RV List by David
Domeier. Oly  was using an Ellison Throttle body rather then EFI and was
working on sorting it out.  I was attempting to assist him over the phone
and via e mail.  He seem to have a problem getting the Ellison to both

well and still provide adequate fuel flow on the high end.  He was

of going to a different size Ellison to see if that cured the problem.

have no further details at this time and no indication of what the cause

engine stoppage might have been.  He had flown several times with the
Ellison.  Oly and his wife had stopped by to visit me last year, a great
couple.  

I think it clear that having the right "reflexes" are necessary in such a
situation - because there is no time to think - just react.  Even so Oly
clearly is a great stick man to get the aircraft oriented up right before
striking the trees.

 

 The body of the report follows:

 

Ed

 

REPORT

".

I received a cell phone call from a friend at KSUS (St. Louis Spirit) this
afternoon at about 1:35 pm. He was upset and could hardly say what had

seen. From his open hangar he witnessed a mutual friend on down wind leg
suddenly pitch up, roll nearly inverted and disappear behind an adjacent

of hangers in what appeared to be 45 degree dive. He said we just lost

Olie is one of the guys in a local group messing around with experimental
airplanes, he was trying to get the one and only metal built VariViggin to
fly with a Mazda rotary engine. This was the second or third time Olie had
attempted to fly the airplane in the past several years. It was a

machine copied from original drawings and built by a couple engineers in
Canada and painted like a Blue Angel F-18. Olie bought it and had it

in. We were in total shock and not feeling well at all about this

to a guy we knew so well.

I was really in the dumps when the phone rang again about 20 minutes

It was the same friend calling to say local guys were reporting Olie was
walking around the wreckage which was up in a tree. I said, this is the

phone call I have ever received, wow! I had Olie's cell phone number and called him. Sure enough, he was alive

well, and I said man am I glad to hear your voice. He said things happened
real quick and he would brief everyone as soon as possible, meanwhile he

waiting for the FAA and also looking for a ride back to the airport. (he

not have been aware of it, but there was quite a traffic jam developing on
Airport Road as a number of people saw him go in, one said he couldn't
believe he was not killed, all this on a local TV web site)

This evening I received more info on what happened. The engine quit at

90 knots on down wind leg and the airplane pitched up immediately,

due to a high thrust line, speed dropped off to about 70, and the machine
rolled nearly inverted about that quick. Olie said "some basic instinct
kicked in - I pushed the nose down trying to recover some speed and kicked
rudder real hard trying to get the airplane to roll back up right" - it

just that before it hit the trees. He climbed down with hardly a scratch.

We are thankful our friend Olie is with us tonight...."

__________________

 

Needless to say so are we.  I sent Oly an e mail asking that when he got
things sorted out to provide any information he could about what he though
the cause of the engine stoppage was.  One thing from this incident shows
that regardless of whether using and EFI system, a Carburetor or other

of providing fuel - they all require sorting out and you can encounter
difficulties with any of them.

Ed Anderson

Rv-6A N494BW Rotary Powered

Matthews, NC

eanderson@carolina.rr.com

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