| Jeff,
I'm sure I speak for the group in saying that we're really happy that you walked away from this. Sounds like you kept your wits about you and made the best decisions possible under the circumstances. You've survived to fly another day.
My DAR was experienced flying behind a rotary-powered a/c. He stated that the rotary engine is very robust, but warned me to pay close attention to the peripheral systems. I've tried to remember that as I work on my airplane and make "minor" changes to the peripheral systems.
Mark S. Lancair ES/N/A PP 20B
On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 6:38 AM, Bill Schertz <wschertz@comcast.net> wrote:
Jeff,
First, kudos for keeping your cool and flying the plane all the way to the
ground – glad you are okay.
Second, I am not familiar with the ‘push-lock connector’ fitting that you
referred to, is it simply hose over a barbed fitting?
Third, what is the model of the plane you had the rotary in?
Bill
Schertz
KIS Cruiser #4045
N343BS
Phase one testing Completed
Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2012 5:52 AM
Subject: [FlyRotary] One rotary down and out
Sorry to post bad news guys but need to share this with you form a safety
perspective.
Anyway what happened ... engine failure, prop stopped went into a corn field
and flipped over.
I have 2 fuel pumps; decided to turn 1 off, when I did the
engine quit - pump back on okay - repeated same result.
5 miles from home
base I headed back, radioed inbound, 1 minute later I thought I smelled fuel and
another 1 minute later the engine quit. Trimmed the airplane, mayday and glided
straight ahead. Lots of corn and a few soya bean fields around but didn't want
to land in them, saw a gravel road and turned to line up on it, pulled on full
flaps for minimum landing speed, when I turned final there was a huge elm tree
on the right edge at my expected touch down point, so at 100' I turned left into
the field which was corn ... everything was going great until I hit the
corn. Thankfully the seats belts and shoulder harnesses did their job;
upside down I released the belts and got out of there fast.
Walked out, phoned police and after they arrived authorities wanted the ELT
shut off so we walked back to the airplane; when I got there I saw oil all over
the bottom of fuselage. Checked engine and found the oil-out line (push-lock
connector) hanging loose. I expect what happened is when the engine quit and
restarted those 2 times that sent a burst of oil pressure and blew the hose off
... I pushed it back on and it would not pull back off again. I had heard some
guys were putting heat shrink or other back-up systems on these connectors; I
wish now I had used a simple stainless worm clamp. Engine and redrive will
be toast, airplane is substantially damaged ... I'll salvage what I
can.
Jeff
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