Sorry I didn't make to Bill Eslick's for
the Rotorfest, I missed by about one hour. About 30 miles north of San
Angelo TX the RPM suddenly dropped and I could not restore it with any of my
emergency procedures. GPS told me nearest airport was Robert Lee about 15
miles away. I headed there and landed without incident.
Turning the prop by hand shows almost
zero compression in one rotor, indicating bad/broken apex seals, quite
similar to my engine-out experience 2 1/2 years ago which caused a forced
landing near the Grand Canyon. This time the vibration was not quite as bad,
and the RPM dropped to around 4300 which was still not enough to maintain
altitude. I called my friend with a Glasair and he cam got me and took
me home. I will have to find some time to build another motor and drive 12
hours back there and swap motors. Or I might drive there, remove the wings
and trailer it back, have not decided yet.
My good friend/mentor/flight instructor
is trying to talk me into going back to a Lycosaurus, and I have to think of
some good reasons not to. Until I get the motor back and torn apart, I
wont know what caused the failure, but I will post anything that I find.
Regards
Chuck Dunlap
RV-6 13B 535
hours