Ron Lendon
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 685
Location: Clinton Twp., MI
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 Posted: Sun Aug 26, 2012 2:08 pm Post subject: Precautionary Landing (Long) |
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Matronics List
In the interest of full disclosure and so others can learn from my mistakes this statement has been made. Several days ago, while talking to Mark Langford he asked me if I was going to confess online, well here it is.
Eleven days ago I made a precautionary landing in a Soy Bean Field. Prior to this landing I was giving an airplane ride to a friend and we had been up for over an hour already. We had flown over the Islands at the mouth of the Saint Clair River and were making our way up the river towards Port Huron. I had been flying low and slow and started gaining altitude to clear the wires that cross the river between the US and Canada. Just over Fawn Island, near Marine City the engine began losing power. I did all the pilot stuff, i.e. check throttle, mixture, carb heat, etc. and nothing would make the RPM’s go up. We were at 1800’ and couldn’t climb. I had already started heading west towards the US airport 76G and was over U.S. soil. Mostly farm land and the oil temp was climbing and the power was falling off. I said to my passenger “This is not good”. I could see 76G and it was 4 miles away and at the rate the oil temp was climbing we would never make it. All the fields I saw were either tall Corn or furrowed with ditches crossing them. I tipped my wing low, and there right below was this field of soy beans that was having a bad year but it looked very solid and sparsely grown, you could see the dirt between the rows, I told my passenger we would be landing in that field (down arrow).
https://picasaweb.google.com/109384641667389142437/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCIHclp7O_erluQE#5781100289459725602
Situation 1 picture
Now I’m on upwind, made a crosswind at the end of the tree lined field, descending downwind and slipped in base to final for a soft field touch down. Kept the nose wheel up down to 40mph then rolled out towards the end of the field where the color changed from green to brown. The farmer had been using this end of the field to spread cow manure, so you could say I landed in the SHIT!
https://picasaweb.google.com/109384641667389142437/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCIHclp7O_erluQE#5781100371980674754
Situation 2 picture
Engine off, canopy open and phone in hand (star), call Flight Control (my wife Anne) and explain the situation, safe and sound on the ground. Exit airplane and open cowling to investigate, nothing but heat, leave cowl open and start walking the field back. Find a well marked decision point (triangle) if I can get this thing flying again. Back to the airplane, hand prop and feel low compression. My passenger is now wandering around looking for the shortest distance out of the SHIT, she heads for the next field over.
Call friend for rescue and he agrees to bring tools. We try diagnosing the problem on the phone and all of a sudden I hear screeching tires and don’t see my passenger. Now I’m think my passenger might have been hit by a car out on the road. End phone call and go looking for my passenger, she is OK at the end of our bean field. In the ditch is a car that just lost control narrowly missing a tractor. I talk to my passenger and return to the airplane to see if I can do anything, now the farmer appears.
He said he saw me flying and the tight turn, then he didn’t see me. He was responding to the tire squeals and that’s when he saw the airplane in the field. He said I was one real lucky guy. He said he knows all the fields around here and this is the only one I could have landed in safely. He then said his last crop here was Hay then he tried some Soybeans and they didn’t take real good, I said I was glad for that. He gave me a ride back up to the road and talked my friend in to our location, at this point I only knew we were 117 degrees and 4 miles from 76G.
When my friend got there, we all headed back to the airplane and checked things over. The timing was good, hand prop gave a little better compression. I started it up and got full static, oil temp was below 200 now. Shut her down and told my friend/mentor that I thought I could fly it out if I could get airborne by a mark I had on the field, if not there was enough room to stop. He asked what I would do once over the trees, my reply was gain altitude and go directly to 76G. He said if all went well to 76G I should orbit and gain 5000’ above there before trying for the run home to 57D. All extra weight was purged from the airplane, passenger, tools, tie downs, etc. Walked the turn around point, cleared the area of people and did a soft field turn and takeoff. I was a little heavy on the left rudder and was drifting towards the tree line(diamond), corrected and left at the end of the field where the trees were lower and further away. Gained 2000’ and made for 76G, temps and oil pressure good. Over 76G slowly gained altitude 200-300fpm to 5500’. Then I headed the 15 miles to 57D. Landed at the home airport and put the airplane away just as my friend and passenger arrived by car.
So now the question is, what caused this to happen. After much investigation and soul searching I have determined it to be a design flaw by the manufacturer (me). Not enough airflow through the cowl, bad exit design, and poor inspection techniques. Head gaskets leaking on the right head showed up on the leak down test. During the disassembly I discovered the CHT probe on the right head was loose, (if I had used my fingers and touched it during inspections I would have found it long ago), I thought it was running at 200-300 degrees. The heat was severe enough to have caused the head gasket to make an impression in the head till it became a constant leak over time.
Repairs are in process and redesign and validation of airflow will be made.
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_________________
Ron Lendon
WW Corvair with Roy's Garage 5th bearing
CH 601 XLB
N601LT - Flying
http://www.mykitlog.com/rlendon
Corvair Engine Prints:
https://sites.google.com/site/corvairenginedata/ |
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