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Date: Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:49:07 -0400
From: Finn Lassen <finn.lassen@verizon.net>
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To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Incident No. 5119
References: <list-3669409@logan.com>
In-reply-to: <list-3669409@logan.com>

Good job Ed.

However, whatever happened to emergency checklists?

(Not that I ever thought to use the ones I had developed when it 
actually came down to emergencies. I guess that takes a LOT of drilling: 
something is not right -- grab the emergency checklists).

Finn

Ed Anderson wrote:
>
> Certainly not trying to “TOP” Al’s door incident – by the way, good 
> airman ship and decisions, Al! Glad the damage was no worst that it was.
>
> But several folks who were not at the Texas Round up have asked about 
> the “Ed’s Incident”. For those of you who were at the roundup, you 
> will probably want to skip this repeat.
>
> Incident No. 5119
>
> One the way to Texas I had an incident that ended up in with me and 
> aircraft making a 7 mile engine-out glide into Craig Field (Selma, 
> Alabama). Again – NO! It was not fault of the engine or even the 
> subsystems. But, the complete answer is not provided until after my 
> litany of the conditions and symptoms – can you figure it out?
>
> I took off on Thursday AM planning on stopping in Mississippi to join 
> up with Charlie England and Tracy. After spending the night there, we 
> all three would head for Texas. But, the weather (as you are aware) 
> has been laying over the southeast for days with rain and more rain – 
> but I launched into it anyway as past Atlanta, GA things were forecast 
> to improve..
>
> Other than dodging lines of clouds and a bit of scud running, but not 
> much, I landed at Alexandria City to the southwest of Atlanta, GA to 
> take on fuel. I then climbed back in and fire it up and took off.
>
> I noticed that during climb-out the engine would occasionally miss and 
> thought the fuel might have had a bit of water in it, but was not 
> really concerned. So I fly on for approx another 45 minutes and had 
> just passed Selma, Alabama and old Craig Air Force base, and turned 
> west toward Mississippi, when more symptoms began to occur.
>
> It started to act like a case of SAG (fouled spark plugs) where the 
> rpm will drop a bit – not dangerous - just nerve racking. But, shortly 
> things began to go beyond the SAG symptoms, so I though I might have 
> an injector problem (like one sticking open or not opening at all). 
> Since our injectors are in pairs, I tried turning off one figuring if 
> things got better, then that pair might have a bad injector.
>
> So I turned off one pair and sure enough the symptoms abated a bit 
> (more on this later) so I figured I had a bad injector in that pair. 
> To be certain I turned this “bad” pair back on and turn off the “good” 
> pair expecting the symptoms to really get bad as I would now be 
> running on only the “bad” pair – much to my surprise when I turned off 
> the “good” pair – the symptoms also abated. So that indicated it was 
> not an injector problem – but what?
>
> About this time, I decided to turn the aircraft back around toward 
> Craig Field and dodging clouds headed back with the engine 
> progressively getting worst. It appeared to be a fuel problem (and 
> while that is ultimately the subsystem affected - it was not the root 
> cause). The fuel pressure was ranging from zero to 80 psi, other 
> electrical things were also misbehaving. I check the voltmeter 
> thinking perhaps the alternator had died – but it showed 14 volts. So 
> back to the fuel system.
>
> Finally, the engine just stops with the prop standing still - like a 
> hood ornament, I’m at around 4500-5000 MSL at this point having lost 
> some altitude dodging a cloud (good old GPS just kept pointing to 
> Craig Field). At that time I am 7 miles out from Craig Field at 4500 
> msl with at stopped prop, a crippled seat cushion and a dry mouth. 
> Yes, I know I’ve been there before, but I don’t think you ever get 
> “use” to it. I recalled thinking things just can’t get worst when they 
> very shortly and suddenly - did.
>
> I keyed the radio and made a call to Craig Field at 4 miles on the GPS 
> (I’m starting to get good at this) but before I could get their reply, 
> I heard a “CLANK” (without the engine running you can hear things like 
> that) like a relay springing open (it was) and the entire panel goes 
> dead!!!! No radio, no engine instruments, not even a stinking LED was 
> lit – only the battery powered GPS. Can you spell “total electrical 
> failure?” Talk about a lonely feeling – amazing how comforting having 
> lights on and radio – you could almost convince yourself this was just 
> a practice engine-out landing, but not when the panel goes dark. No 
> engine gauges, no radio, nada!
>
> Well not being one inclined to panic (but I seriously considered it 
> for a moment {:>)), I continued toward Craig field – I mean like there 
> were lots of other alternatives. Well Once again I found myself in the 
> “fortunate position” of being too high, too much altitude. So I put in 
> 40 degs of flaps to steepen my rate of descent. But, then I decided 
> this time that rather than do the 360 I had done on a previous 
> Incident to lose “excessive” altitude, I would try to glide - a more 
> or less - regular traffic pattern.
>
> However, I neglected to remember to retract the flaps. So I found 
> myself on the downwind around mid-field at pattern altitude (which 
> felt normal) until I suddenly realized that you CAN NOT maintain that 
> pattern altitude without an engine!!! Duh!
>
> I knew I could never make it to the far end of the runway before 
> turning base (toward the runway), so I started my turn immediately, to 
> make matters a bit worst - I had been paralleling the runway on the 
> downwind leg a bit too close – must have been the comforting feeling 
> of being close to safety. This position naturally required a tighter 
> turn and as I turned I saw I was likely to miss the runway and land in 
> the grass. So I though I need to steepen this turn further (this is 
> called COFFIN CORNER), but fortunately glanced at my airspeed 
> indicator to see it only registering 80 MPH and my rate of descent 
> (normally 400-500 feet per minute) up to over 1000 feet per minute. 
> The seat cushion suddenly vanished from this universe.
>
> But the REAL danger in this situation, as you all know, is your 
> airspeed gets low, you are in a steep bank which greatly raises the 
> stall speed - meaning at 80 mph you are close to a stall in a steep 
> turn while your are not in straight and level. So I immediately 
> straighten out of the turn – the little voice saying “better to land 
> in the grass than get their concrete runway all messed up”. So the 
> immediate danger of a stall was adverted, but I was still pointed 
> toward the ground with a sink rate twice as high as normal (and I’ve 
> manage a few hard landings even with a normal sink rate).
>
> The hardest thing to do when you are sinking at a 1000 fpm a couple 
> hundred feet above the ground (with your nose already pointed at the 
> ground) is to push the stick forward steeping the dive even more. But, 
> I manage to do that and picked enough air speed and energy to flair to 
> a nice touch down – not even a bump. I’ve always been amazed at what 
> total concentration does to improve you landing {:>).
>
> Rolled to the end of the runway and had energy to roll off onto the 
> taxiway. Got out, check under the aircraft for any evidence of leaks 
> and started pulling the aircraft toward the far –off – hangar which 
> had an airplane parked in front of it. A nice looking young woman 
> comes riding a bicycle out to meet me. Hopped off and holding out her 
> hand said “Hi I’m Angie, looks like we’ll be spending time together” – 
> so things are starting to look up {:>)
>
> So pulled the aircraft in to the hangar where the mechanic came over 
> and ask what the problem was. Well, I looked at the volt meter and it 
> said the battery was dead. Mechanic put on a battery charger and 
> announced “Yep! The battery is dead”. So we both concluded that the 
> alternator must have failed and not being able to replenish the drain 
> on the battery by all the electrical systems such as fuel pumps, 
> injectors, ignition coils, etc had drained the battery.
>
> However, there were a few problems with the analysis of a failed 
> alternator. First, the low voltage warning light never came on to warn 
> of an alternator problem, 2^nd I never notice the voltmeter showing 
> anything other than what it should for alternator voltage – like 
> around 14 volts. While checking the voltage after the Mechanic had 
> charged the battery, I noticed down below that the “essential bus” 
> switch was in the battery rather than the alternator position, so 
> flicked it back to the alternator position figuring I must have 
> accidentally kicked it while getting to some stuff in the baggage 
> compartment of my RV-6A.
>
> It was getting late and being a bit tired not to mention stressed, I 
> needed to get a rental car and a motel for the night. Did that, eat 
> dinner and went to bed after sitting down and drawing out a problem 
> tree with the entire major elements of the electrical system.
>
> So next morning I show up at the hangar early and meet Ben, the 
> mechanic, the battery had received a charge of only 45 minutes the 
> evening before, So I suggested we charged it for another hour and try 
> to start the aircraft. Ben suggested a real stress test of the battery 
> and NOT charge it anymore. Made sense, so we rolled the aircraft out 
> of the hangar. I hopped in, threw a half dozen switches and punched 
> the starter button. The engine started on the first prop blade 
> rotation – so the battery was clearly OK. The engine is humming like a 
> top. So I looked over at the voltmeter expecting it to show only 
> around 12.8 volts instead of the 14 volts a functioning alternator 
> would produce. Much to my and Ben’s surprise the alternator voltage 
> read 14 volts. We loaded the alternator by turning on the both l00 
> watt landing lights, all fuel pumps, the pitot heat, etc. The 
> alternator voltage only drops perhaps 0.4 volts clearly indicating the 
> alternator could carry the load and was OK.
>
> So here I am – battery is OK, alternator is OK – engine is purring 
> normally, so clearly this was all a figment of my deteriorating brain 
> cells. I loaded up the aircraft and launched to do a few circuits of 
> the airport – I did so and all was operating normally and so I radio 
> them I was head onward to Texas. While flying, my mind could not let 
> go of the problem and finally the light came on.
>
> The essential bus switch had (for my entire 10 + years of flying) been 
> in the alternator position. The purpose of this switch is to isolate 
> the battery from the alternator should the alternator fail - to 
> prevent an alternator problem from draining the battery. So in event 
> of an alternator problem, you move the switch from alternator to 
> battery. Its call the essential bus because you only have the 
> essential things drawing from the battery so you wont’ drain it as 
> quickly. The idea is to give you time (generally around 30 minutes) to 
> find a safe place to land in case of alternator failure.
>
> Well, at some point I had either (not paying attention) turned the 
> switch to battery thinking I was turning the voltmeter switch to 
> battery - or accidentally had move the switch from alternator to 
> battery without noticing it by kicking it, etc. However, it was sort 
> of protected in its position from accidental activation. It must have 
> happened during refueling – as I got approx 45 minutes down the road 
> on the battery after take off before quality battery time started to 
> deteriorate. As the battery voltage fell due to the load (and no 
> alternator link to replenish it), electrical things (mainly computers 
> first) started acting up until they could not longer run the engine. 
> The injectors would not open fully, etc. Then as the voltage level 
> further decreased, the master relay which the battery held closed and 
> which connected the (fully functional) alternator to the rest of the 
> electrical system - opened up and removed ALL power from the 
> electrical system. So no radio, no gauges, etc.
>
> Oh, another little factor that may have contributed, the voltmeter has 
> a tiny toggle switch by it marked ALT BAT1 BAT2 for checking 
> alternator battery 1 and battery 2 (which I no longer fly with) 
> voltages. Down below It a couple of inches and off to the right is the 
> essential bus normal size toggle switch – also marked ALT BAT1 BAT1. I 
> normally never touch it and don’t even think about it. But I could 
> have reached for the voltmeter toggle thinking to check my battery 
> voltage (which I do as a regular thing) and perhaps distracted by 
> something reach a bit further down and instead moved the essential bus 
> switch from Alternator to Battery cause this entire event. I know that 
> I did not consciously do it. So it is either accidental or absence 
> minded activation - either way ends with the same results {:>)
>
> Now it became clear why it didn’t matter which pair of fuel injectors 
> I turned off – turning off either pair improved the situation because 
> it slightly reduced the electrical load by a few amps – and the engine 
> ran slightly better for a few moments. The same thing had happened 
> when turning off one of the EFI fuel pumps – but what threw me was the 
> alternator voltage continued to be normal during this.
>
> After I knew the cause (switch in wrong position), I decided the 
> problem was fixed so no reason to return to NC, and I just continued 
> on to Texas.
>
> I know some of you may think that removing my second battery was a 
> mistake – but, consider this, having another battery could have meant 
> I would have been much further from a suitable airfield before they 
> both went south. On the other hand, it might have caused me to at 
> least think to throw the essential bus switch to the second battery 
> and have the Light bulb come on. Who really knows. But, I have in mind 
> a simply addition to my electrical circuit that should help in the 
> future.
>
> I do want to state that this time when the problems started I DID 
> switch fuel tanks – but naturally it had no effect because this time 
> it turned out, it was not a fuel problem – not the root cause at least.
>
> So what are the lessons learned:
>
>    1. Put EVERY critical switch on your before-takeoff Check list
>    2. Perhaps put a guard around such critical switches to force
>       conscious activation
>    3. Don’t (hard not to) get overly focused on what you think is the
>       problem – consider other possibilities. I thought it was a fuel
>       problem (I even switched fuel tanks this time) – it turned out
>       to be electrical in its root cause.
>    4. While the fuel pressure was jumping all over the place and the
>       EGT was erratic and engine surging strongly indicating a fuel
>       problem – the ultimate cause was electrical. Once the voltage
>       got below a certain point the EC2 was still trying to pull the
>       injectors open, but with the voltage so low it could not do it
>       properly.
>    5. When the battery voltage dropped below a certain point, the
>       master relay released and removed the alternator from the
>       electrical system and the panel went dark – even though the
>       alternator was still working
>    6. Immediately turn to the nearest airfield when serious problems
>       occur - THEN work on fixing them. I only delayed for perhaps 2-3
>       minutes, but that could have made a difference.
>    7. Watch out for *Coffin Corner* turn when turning base to final –
>       airspeed really bleeds off fast with no engine pulling you along
>       (and especially with flaps deployed!)
>    8. IF you change your mind about landing approach type - remember
>       to reconfigure your aircraft for the last decision – I had left
>       my flaps deployed when I should have remembered to retracted
>       them. Did that help prevent a Coffin Corner stall and spin or
>       would it have put me closer to it?
>    9. You must increase airspeed over the wing to get the sufficient
>       energy to over come a high sink rate. Pulling back on the stick
>       when the ground is staring you in the face is the natural
>       reaction – but, pushing forward to lower the nose is the correct
>       action – providing of course you have sufficient altitude!
>   10. Battery life – I had a two year old 680 odyssey battery which I
>       maintain a trickle charge on whenever I’m not flying. With two
>       EFI fuel pumps, boost pump, injectors, coils, EC2 and radio and
>       just having started the engine before take off – this battery
>       lasted 55 minutes. Well, the last 5 minutes was not quality
>       battery time. So in my case, 30 minutes appears to be a very
>       realistic battery life. In fact, had I turned off one EFI pump
>       and the boost pump would have gained a few more miles. But, if I
>       had recognized the need to turn them off at that time (I
>       normally turn them off at cruise altitude), then I would have
>       known how to “fix” the problem.
>   11. I’ve decided to add a Schokkty diode between my essential bus
>       and the alternator – so that as long as the alternator is
>       producing sufficient voltage, then the battery will be getting
>       some charge to replace the drain. I’ve also decided to make that
>       switch position a check-list item.
>
> So what it boils down to – if I had recognized early on that it was an 
> electrical problem and not focused so much on the fuel system, I may 
> have noticed the essential bus switch in the wrong position. Force 
> yourself to examine other possible causes (easy to say – harder to do).
>
> NEVER, NEVER forget that flying the airplane is the first and only 
> priority in this type of situation
>
> NEVER, NEVER forget that saving your butt is the ultimately end-all 
> priority. When I decided that landing on the grass was preferable to 
> putting a hole in their concrete – I just may have made a life-saving 
> decision.
>
> If anybody else wants to pick up this baton – I’m ready to hand it 
> over – what? no volunteers? {:>)
>
> So that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
>
> Fly safe, guys!!
>
> Ed
>
> Ed Anderson
>
> Rv-6A N494BW Rotary Powered
>
> Matthews, NC
>
> eanderson@carolina.rr.com
>
> http://www.andersonee.com
>
> http://www.dmack.net/mazda/index.html
>
> http://www.flyrotary.com/
>
> http://members.cox.net/rogersda/rotary/configs.htm#N494BW 
> <http://members.cox.net/rogersda/rotary/configs.htm>
>
> http://www.rotaryaviation.com/Rotorhead%20Truth.htm
>
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