Mailing List flyrotary@lancaironline.net Message #50284
From: Mark Steitle <msteitle@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Power failure
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2010 21:19:29 -0600
To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Jon,

Wow, what a cool-headed pilot you proved to be.  Glad you got it down safely and uninjured.  Let us know what you find as I'm sure we would all prefer to leave that "one nut" out of our airplanes.  I think we all fear everything going silent right after takeoff.  Good job!

Mark 
  

On Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 8:48 PM, Michael Silvius <silvius@gwi.net> wrote:
This from John Finley on the Fly Subbie list.

RWS ECU

http://www.finleyweb.net/JonsStuff/Q2AircraftInfo/EJ22Conversion/EFICurrent.aspx

============================

http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/local/central/small-plane-lands-on-i-25

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1452711.shtml?cat=504

Yes, I had a bit of excitement yesterday (Saturday 3/6).  We have one small
runway at the airpark (Mid Valley – E98) at which I live but Interstate 25
parallel’s our runway (separated by about 2-3 miles).  I took off to the
north heading to breakfast at Double Eagle airport (AEG). I got 2-3 miles
north, was over the village of Los Lunas, and everything got really quite,
real quick.  No missing, hesitation, nothing – just dead.  I made a turn for
the Interstate and made a radio call to let folks know (a number of us
heading to breakfast at the same time). I have a bunch of redundancy so
switched everything over but no change. The tach showed 270 rpm (windmilling
prop) and nothing I tried changed that.  There appeared to be less
southbound traffic on the Interstate so I turned southbound over the Los
Lunas interchange and got lined up.  There was one truck on the road right
below me and I am fairly sure that I just BARELY cleared him – I bet he had
nightmares last night about that UFO dropping out of the sky right in front
of him!!  The landing was pretty normal and I let her roll for quite a while
so the automotive traffic behind me had a chance to figure out what had
happened and slow down.  I stopped in the middle of the two lanes, jumped
out and pulled her off to the side. That Interstate is REALLY smooth!!  I
wish our runway was as nice! J

It wasn’t very long before the whole state showed up.  State police, Los
Lunas police, fire, ambulance, tow truck, media, everyone… The only people I
was really happy to see were the folks from Mid Valley!!  Though, if I had
been injured I am sure I would have been very happy to see these other
folks. Of course, law enforcement called the FAA in spite of the fact that
there was no damage and no injuries. So, we had to wait until they showed
up. By the time that was taken care of, my truck and trailer and a BUNCH of
people from Mid Valley Airpark were on site to load the plane up.  We tossed
it onto the trailer and tied it down.  The state police agreed to escort us
back to Mid Valley so we could leave the plane together (very wide load –
about 17’).  We hauled it down the Interstate to the next exit and back up a
state highway to Mid Valley.  No problems, no damage.

So, by noon, she was back in the hangar and not a scratch on her – she just
won’t start.  Initial troubleshooting indicates that the problem was due to
a single nut coming loose (in the cockpit) and getting into some electronics
(circuit boards) and rendering all of my redundancy useless.  However; that
hypothesis has not yet been proven. I will report back on that when I know
for sure.

Jon Finley

N314JF - Q2 - Subaru EJ-22

http://www.finleyweb.net/Q2Subaru.aspx



--
Homepage:  http://www.flyrotary.com/
Archive and UnSub:   http://mail.lancaironline.net:81/lists/flyrotary/List.html

Subscribe (FEED) Subscribe (DIGEST) Subscribe (INDEX) Unsubscribe Mail to Listmaster