flyrotary@lancaironline.net Mailing List Archive

Chuck,

So relieved that the failure was benign enough to allow you to pick where

and how to land.........Like all of the "Rotorheads" I will be waiting to hear the

cause of compression loss........Along the same line I and others will be

interested in how the "TES" O-rings in your rotor side oil seals were holding

out.........You and Mark Steitle are the only ones currently using them in

your engines rotors (that I am aware of) and Mark has only ground run time

on his 20B.........How many hours do you have on them now ?

--
Kelly Troyer
Dyke Delta/13B/RD1C/EC2

----- Original Message -----

From: Chuck Dunlap

To: Rotary motors in aircraft

Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2006 12:26 AM

Subject: [FlyRotary] Another rotary failure

Sorry I didn't make to Bill Eslick's for the Rotorfest, I missed by about one hour. About 30 miles north of San Angelo TX the RPM suddenly dropped and I could not restore it with any of my emergency procedures. GPS told me nearest airport was Robert Lee about 15 miles away. I headed there and landed without incident.

Turning the prop by hand shows almost zero compression in one rotor, indicating bad/broken apex seals, quite similar to my engine-out experience 2 1/2 years ago which caused a forced landing near the Grand Canyon. This time the vibration was not quite as bad, and the RPM dropped to around 4300 which was still not enough to maintain altitude. I called my friend with a Glasair and he cam got me and took me home. I will have to find some time to build another motor and drive 12 hours back there and swap motors. Or I might drive there, remove the wings and trailer it back, have not decided yet.

My good friend/mentor/flight instructor is trying to talk me into going back to a Lycosaurus, and I have to think of some good reasons not to. Until I get the motor back and torn apart, I wont know what caused the failure, but I will post anything that I find.

Regards

Chuck Dunlap

RV-6 13B 535 hours