| Hi Ed, Yes you have missed quite a saga and several failures. The underlying cause of that one seems to be that the auto flex plate fatigued and broke, leading to the pin failure (oversized pin). I replaced the flex plate with a modified 4130 flywheel that seems much better suited to the purpose than the flex-plate.
I then had another failure of the RD-1B when the oiling system did not seem up to the task during my qualifying run at Reno (clocked at 229 mph while pulling 2Gs around the course). Of course, I was probably making over 300 h.p. and pushing the RD-1B beyond its design limits. Not to mention that my oil temps were not being measured well and have probably always been higher than I thought. I am guessing oil temps were in excess of 250F when the main plain bearing in the RD-1B seized (after landing).
I have since had another failure. This time the sun gear pin seems to have simply fallen out! Well, it fell out as much as it could until the housing would not let it completely go, until the last little piece of the pin sheared off. This was amazingly, again, discovered on the ground after a long over-mountainous-terrain flight to Las Vegas.
So despite 4 RD-1B failures in 3 different places all in 2011 (the pin twice, the flex plate, and the main bearing - probably all related to racing in Reno that year) I have not made any ground toward threatening your rotary glider time record. :-)
-- David Leonard Turbo Rotary RV-6 N4VY http://N4VY.RotaryRoster.nethttp://RotaryRoster.net
On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 6:57 AM, Ed Anderson <eanderson@carolina.rr.com> wrote:
Hey, Dave
Glad you didn't further challenge my Glider record
{:>).
I was thinking that perhaps the stress of the Reno
Races might be a contributing factor to the gear box problem. Particularly
if the shear pin was designed for a N/A 13B. Anyhow, hopefully, it is that
simple a cause and you find no further damage.
Send from Lake of The Ozarks resort - looking out over the
waves and reclining in a lounge chair in the cool morning breeze
Ed
Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2011 11:58 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] RD1B Failure
Today had a failure of my RD-1B gear drive. It couldn't
have happened at a better time, I was just taxiing off the runway at my home
airport. I just finished flying 200 mi. to Santa Paula to help Paul with
the getting of Mike Wills airplane back into the air. Flight home was
otherwise unevenful and beautiful. I didn't bother taking it apart, but
will do so tomorrow. Feels like I may have broken the sun gear pin again
but will have to wait until tomorrow to be sure. The strange thing is that
nothing particularly stressed it. Sorry there is not cause I can
report... a little suspense until tomorrow. -- David
Leonard Turbo Rotary RV-6 N4VY http://N4VY.RotaryRoster.nethttp://RotaryRoster.net
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