The DesertBee Is . . .

[RockyMeLad]

Well, sort of down, nothing broken like Vance's Predator. Both bird and I are fine.

The engine had been stable since the Royal Purple incident, so ventured away from the airport this morning.

Oops.

Got about six miles from civilization (past a ranch about four miles from the airport), and the engine got quiet. As could be expected, it was time to park the bird. Still a non-problem with a gyro, it's easy to park almost anywhere.

By now it's 10 am and warming up quickly. Of course everyone's phone numbers that I have in the cell phone are unavailable. Five foot-powered miles later, I get back to a little used paved road. But I must have been nice to a little old lady in a former life, a couple of young cowboys in a pickup truck came down the road about then, and took me the last five miles back to the airport.

Solo recovery was successful. Note to self: Take a small piece of plywood next time to stick under the rear wheel when loading bird on trailer in the sand.

Haven't had time to check the engine yet, had to run off to work (Shuttle is up, so we're busier than usual).

[Vance]

Dang Rocky, glad you and your gyroplane are ok.

Thank you, Vance

[jcarleto]

Happy landings, Rocky...er..."parkings."

Good job getting it down safely. What model engine was it that gave you the silent treatment?

*JC*

[GyroRon]

MZ202....

Sounds like time for a Rotax rocky

[GYRO J]

What was the royal purple incident?

[Alan_Cheatham]

Let us know what you find out about the engine failure, a friend is using the MZ202 on his gyro also.

[StanFoster]

Rocky- Good job on the forced landing.....noone wants one..but there is a rush after completing one successfully. It makes a nice logbook entry. Yours has more to being out in the middle of no where.

Nice chatting with you at Bensen Days. Next time I will make more time.


Stan

[Timchick]

Bummer. Hope the engine isn't toast.

[Friendly]

Glad you made a nice recovery. Keep us posted on the engine.

[David Bliss]

Can you hang a small scooter on your bee for land travel returns from you un scheduled landings? As you may recall, during that time, self extraction ejection seats were proposed that, after you were shot out of the shot to hell about to crash jet, your seat became an airplane... and off to the water extraction we go.

Made it back to NC and, with machine shop out the back door, fab'd the stub axles for the wheel barrow wheels. now have 9" of tail wheel clearence (looks like a cat in heat back there) and at 16psi, the local grass strip that was trying to shake the teeth out of my head(those little HP tires) is now soooo smooth. My mz is running great. Wanna hear what you find. Did you get the new tail wheels installed?? Changed my air filters and that fixed the egt temp delta. Starting on the hks machine now. made up extra stub axles so.... not much of a start.

[Early Bird Dave]

Glad to hear you are doing fine Dave.
Hope you can get some flight time in this year in N.C.
So the new wheels work?! DH

[RockyMeLad]

Thanks, guys.
I hope to get out to the airport in the next couple of days to see what happened.
String of 12 hour shifts since Fri. morning.

[RockyMeLad]

It will be a bit before the engine runs again. Too much friction between a piston and it's cylinder. Discussing options with Leon (the guy who makes the motor).

Three pictures of my parking place :) , and the less than ideal condition of the engine for now :( .

[RICK MARTIN]

I hope it all comes out alright Rocky. You already did the most important part by getting it down right.

[Alan_Cheatham]

What brand of oil and at what ratio have you been running in the MZ?

[Passin' Thru]

Rocky, some how I feel this is all related to the Bensen Days - Royal Purple stuck rings and piston swap incident. What does Leon say about it?
Inquiring minds want to know. (otherwise known as nosey bastids!:yo:)

[Timchick]

I hate it for you, Rocky. That is a major bummer.

[Dean_Dolph]

Rocky, is this the same cylinder you had problems with during the Royal Purple incident?

[scottessex]

Wow Rocky, I feel that we are kindred souls, we should sit down, have a beer and talk about burned pistons. :)

[RockyMeLad]

Alan,

I had gone back to air-cooled Penzoil @ 50 to 1.

Scott,

Two fingers of Scotch sounds better, and I rather talk about how NOT to do this again. :D

Dean,

Yes, by default as both pistons had the rings stuck from RP oil.

Haven't talked to Leon yet.

[Brent_Brown]

FYI I used Royal Purple in a MZ for over 30 hours maybe that was to short of time to see rings stuck. But they looked to me.