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Quick action and good pre-event decision
making,Bill! Very glad you had no scratches and the aircraft certainly
looks like it will fly again - with a bit of work.
Bill, quick suggestion before you take too much
apart. I would use the injection and ignition diagnostic mode of the EC2
to check out each of the circuits. You still can if you stick the spark
plugs back on the wires and ground them - ditto the injectors into electrical
harnesses - then you should hear clicks from the injectors and get spark from
the plugs.
Regarding the chips on your apex
seals - run you finger (carefully) around the lip of the leading spark plug
entrance into the combustion chamber - you may have an edge of metal surrounding
the hole that could be causing the chips on the apex. Just a
thought.
Sounds like Jason hit the money on the head about the
ceramics from the muffler falling toward then engine with the tail up.
But, of course the big question is why did it quit. Without any sputtering
to indicate a fuel problem -- I would hazard a guess that it is electric or
ignition related.
Back about 8 years ago, I had a similar incident on my
2000 ft run way- engine started surging after lift off with rpm dropping
down to 3500 rpm then back up. Had time for one corrective action (did not
work) - planted the aircraft 300 ft from the end doing around 70 mph -got on the
binders as hard as I could and ended up about 10 ft off the far end of the
runway. Fortunately I the nose gear ( made up for all the
"funning" I got about the 'Whimpy wheel in the front" ) and kept the aircraft
from going up on its nose. Ravine at that end which I certainly did not
want to go into.
But, like you I had made that decision long before - that
I would rather go off the far end at 20 mph than get airborne and find myself
running out of opinions and no good ones at that.
Ed
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 11:51 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] The good news and the bad
news......
I have
been holding up reporting this until all the facts are in, but that might never
happen, so here we go.
Good news: No injuries.
Bad news: I have some work to do.
Photos at:
http://www.tiny9.com/u/2101
On August 16th at 10 AM, I lined
up for takeoff at my home airport (3600' paved) into a 5 knot headwind. I
had just finished changing the oil and filter and plugs. Run-up was fine,
so off I went. Approximately mid-field, and a couple of hundred feet in
the air, it suddenly and without any warning became very silent.
Hit the
big switch which puts direct battery power to everything engine, but no
noise. No more time. At this point flying the machine becomes THE
priority. Dropped the nose and was amazed to see a little bit of runway
under the nose! I had fully expected to land in trees, houses or the
river, so I dove what seemed like straight down to capture as much runway as
possible while (somehow) holding the electric flap switch long enough to get
full flaps (noticed this later). Pulled probably my best round-out ever -
no bounce. Brakes to max and tail up for weight. I think my
sub-concious put it all the way on the nose to try to prevent going through the
fence and down the hill. Wheel skid starts about 200 feet from the
stopping point. Skid marks from the wheel pants, cowling and prop run
about the last 50 feet. It stopped nose down just off the end. The
tail was still over pavement. Pushed the slider canopy UPHILL, stepped out
and down. Noticed that I was not even scared by the whole event.
Interesting. Never even considered trying to turn around.
Pre-thinking that non-option apparently paid off.
More good
news. No FAA or NTSB as it was a non-reportable incident. Didn't
even bend the gear legs. Also, my neighbor crashed in a Challenger about
10 minutes earlier at the city airport about 10 miles away. The police and
rescue types were headed that way (they had injuries) and were not interested in
my minor mishap.
As for the engine. When we got it back to the
hangar, the prop would turn only haltingly. You could feel grinding going
on inside. First try at turning had it come up hard and stop. More
fooling with it and it gradually came looser and would turn. Really looked
like something came loose in there. Pulled a plug from each rotor and did
a compression test. Rotor 1 was 80-80-80. Rotor 2 was 2-2-2.
More proof that something had come loose. With that evidence, the
insurance company allowed me to remove the engine for inspection. What I
found was a pile of ground up ceramic junk. All the seals were still
fine. Lots of time went in to finding where that stuff came from.
Went through every inch of the induction system. Finally Jason Hutchison
(my other on-airport rotary guy) broke the code. While the RV was standing
on it's nose, this crap from my burned-out Hushpower II ran back up the manifold
and in the exhaust port. That is what was grinding. Crap. Now
the entire thing is off the firewall including the engine mount. All the
wiring is disconnected (did not find anything loose or missing). I spent
the morning looking under the panel for any loose or broken wiring, but found
none. When I get the EC-2 out, Jason wants to plug it into his plane and
we'll do the plugs and injectors test. If that checks out, Tracy, it is
coming to you for a good look. I don't know what else to check. The
engine quit just like somebody reached over and turned off the ignition.
No stumble, no hiccup, just instant silence. I honestly do not know if the
prop was turning or not. I suspect not, due to the silence and the fact
that one blade is untouched.
As you can see from the photos, there was
something going on with Rotor 1. Wear is apparent down stream from the
plug holes and all 3 apex seals are starting to chip in the center. There
is quite a lot of carbon also on the rotors after 170 hours.
Going
forward, I have decided to look at resale value for if/when my RV-12 days
arrive. This means putting a (gasp) IO-360 on it. The rotary has
given me a safe 10-year run (til now, of course), so I have no regrets, but this
is an opportunity to make some changes, and parts are already on the way.
I will still be hanging out at the engine tent at S-n-F and wherever else
gatherings happen. Hope to be flying by the first of next
year....
I'm sure some of you will have suggestions about what might have
gone wrong, and I welcome any kind of speculation, but bear in mind I am just
looking at a pile of parts and wires at this point. Both fuel pumps were
on, tanks were over half full, crank angle sensor worked fine.
Guess it's
obvious that I now have a RD-1A, EC-2, EFI Monitor (Ed's), Felix 68/72 and
Props Inc 68/72 wood props and LOTS of engine parts (my whole 14-year stash)
available! And priced to sell!
Bill
Eslick
RV-6 13B/NA EC-2 RD-1A
750
Hours
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