Hi All,

Been away playing farmer for the last couple weeks so I'm just getting caught up on my email (all 1100 of them) but I thought I'd add my two cents.

First off I was very saddened to hear of Paul's accident and our revisiting what we as a group can do to better manage risk is a good thing.  I'm fundamentally in favor of a more structured peer review of rotary installations and would be happy to help where I can.

I'd suggest that perhaps we should investigate further if this could be rolled into a special group inside the EAA tech. counselor's program as they already have the infrastructure to support such a program and the reach to get the word out to as many as possible.  I think using the EAA might be good neutral ground to do this as the defacto ACRE vrs Fly Rotary split might preclude involving useful resources from one camp or the other and IMHO safety trumps politics.  I've got pretty good contacts through out the EAA as I'm sure several other do as well and I'm sure it would not take long to get this moving.

Just to relate my personal story how a oversight on my part could have been a serious problem.  I bought my engine as a factory rebuild from Mazda and before starting to build the engine mount I plugged and capped off all the openings on the engine with various automotive vacuum line caps.  One of the barbed fittings I capped off was to the cooling system that was forgot about for about 2 years.  It was only after 50 hours of engine running and 30 flight hours did this small unclamped cap finally pop off when taxing at a small grass strip last summer causing a loss of coolant.  I'm sure 50 pairs of eyes had looked at this rubber cap but this being the 1st rotary install in the area everyone assumed this was a vacuum line and I being the "pioneering expert" knew what I was doing so they didn't even question me on it.  Perry Casson
Regina, Canada
Glastar /13B 60 hours
RV-10 / ?? under construction