----- Original Message -----
From: Al Gietzen
To: Rotary motors in aircraft
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 2:09 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Seized 13b - accident prevention


 Two things about his set up doomed it from my view point. 

1.  He had approx 18-24" of distance between his pump pickup and the bottom of his sum - clearly a long way uphill if the pump had drained and was not primed.  He told me that it often took over a minute for the oil pressure to come up.

This is clearly the issue.  The gear style pump is very ineffective pumping air.  You’d like to have a setup where the oil is present at the pump inlet; or the surface of the oil in the pan within a couple of inches of the pump at startup.  And, as mentioned, there must not be air leaks between an oil surface below the pump and the pump inlet.

This brings me back to a suggestion I made a couple of weeks ago; and is further reinforced by our loss of Paul Conner.  We have to help each other prevent engine-out scenarios.  This case with Andy could so easily have caused an in-flight accident, and could so easily have been prevented if someone had pointed out to him that he had a potential failure mode waiting to happen.  Or perhaps someone did, and he chose to ignore; I don’t know.

I’m still wondering if would be possible to have regional teams of 2-3 people with some knowledge and experience with rotary installations, who could be called upon for critiques, questions, and suggestions on rotary engine installations before first flights. Maybe we are just too spread around.  I would be willing to travel 2-3 hrs by car, or when my plane is flying; 2-3 hrs by air at no charge to participate on such a team.  I’m certainly not the expert, but I think I could be potentially helpful.  And I’d certainly appreciate such a session with others going over my installation. 

Am I way off the mark here?  Could/would this work?  Are there others out there who would participate as “examiners”?  Would you welcome such “look-over” on your project?  Do you think it would do any good? I’d like some feedback on this, and then see whether it makes sense to pursue it any further.

I’d be willing to coordinate with Paul Lamar to see if there are folks on his list (that aren’t also here) who would participate.

Al

No question in my mind that makes lots of sense.  I still appreicate people looking over my installation and pointings things out.  I have one bolt that mounts my PSRU to my rear housing that requires a nut (the rest have threads in the block).  Well, I wish I had a dollar everytime someone pointed out the bolt next to it that does NOT have a nut (threaded block).  However, I really appreciate the folks that do point it out - as it makes me feel that there are many pairs of eyeballs looking over my installation - and that's always good. 

Recently after my rebuild several sharp eyed folks noted that there was just a tad of light showing  under the head of one of my four rear engine mounting bolts.  Apparently, I switched the two adjacent bolts and either one is slightly longer, one of the holes is less deep or something fell in the bolt hold and is preventing the bolt from going all the way down.  I could have looked at it 100 years and probably never caught it.

Ed