My first emergency landing; no problem

Mike,

What Ron said x 2. Water will clog that filter again in a hurry.

Put some HEET in there, the red bottle stuff, and top off with fresh gasoline.

With all of the assembly/disassemblyof pieces and parts, go over everything again that you took off and make sure it is torqued back to spec, and that you didn't forget anything.

If a clogged fuel filter made you run lean and hot the first time, I can't see how it would now restrict your RPM, and give you cool egt's now.

Anyway, good luck to you, Michael - check everything you touched from top to bottom.

Oh by the way, check the thread by the FAA (on the forum) about carb ice. Can happen in a venturi carburetor at 80 degrees, especially if humidity is high.

Oh yeah - good response on the engine malfunction - much better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than vice versa.

Also, there are so few of us with tractor gyros that we have to keep them flying!!!!
 
Hi Spencer

Well now you've done it, now everyone will want to 'Drive Back" from a emergency landing.

Tony
 
Went to the airport yesterday to work on it some more.

Looked closely at the old fuel filter and found very small fibers; you had to scrape it with your finger nail to gather some up to be able to see them.
I use a Mr. Funnel every time I fuel up, and I have one plastic and one aluminum fuel tank, and I replace the fuel line every year, so not sure where they might have come from.

Yesterday and today I drained about a cup of fuel from the gascolator and let it sit for a couple of hours but nothing settled out.

Put the jetting back to the original factory settings; now the EGT is good ( about 1100 degrees) at 4000 rpm, but higher throttle setting result in the EGTs going down and the engine surges a little.

I tried opening the enrichers when the surge and low EGTs were happening and it got worse, so it must be running rich.
However, I pulled the plugs (installed new before my previous static runup) and they don't look black from being rich at all. If any thing they look a little on the lean side.

So I have a little conflicting info there; I'm thinking that the plugs are new, and the correct mixture at mid throttle keeps them clean from any carbon buildup at high throttle.

I took both carbs apart and blew out all the passages with carb spray and compressed air. I didn't really see any contamination anywhere, and it didn't make any difference in the way it ran.

Rich at high throttle settings should be main jet related. I had the stock 165 main jets installed. I have some 145's, but with those installed it won't even run off of idle.

So, I ordered some 160's and 155's; I'll put those in next and see how it does.

I'm at a loss as to where the material came from that clogged the filter, and how a clogged filter can cause my jetting to become so far off.
 
Mike,

Your last question:

... how a clogged filter can cause my jetting to become so far off.

spells it out. You have something elso going on.

1) Some of those fibers could have gotten in the carb, and may be affecting the main, idle, or air jets.
2) If your jetting was not off before, it shouldn't be "off" unless there is something blocking it. Since you are running lower egt's, my guess would be the air jet may be clogged, causing you to run rich.
3) You may also have a problem, if you have a fuel pump, with a piece of junk getting stuck in the float needle.


Go back to original problem, and work backwards. It's got to be the fuel, or a blockage in the carb, because your jetting isn't going to go from being good to off all by itself.

Good luck, and remember this - try ONE thing at a time until you find the source of your problem, otherwise you will end up with only a best guess, and you will be back at square one the next time it happens until the source is found. If you change two or more things at once, then you will be stuck changing two or more things the next time it happens. It's the way aviation lore begins... "On a Rotax blue-head 582, if you get this weird hesitation or stumbling in flight, you must change fuel filter, spark plugs, seat tank, and carburetor. I've done it 3 times so far, with no issues..."

Sorry - couldn't resist a little humor. Being a test pilot, it takes longer, but you have to isolate one thing at a time...

Again, good luck, and let us know what the problem was when you find it.
 
My smaller main jets came yesterday and I went to the airport this morning.

First I removed the new fuel filter element to make sure it wasn’t getting plugged up; looks good, I can still blow through it like new.

Put the 155 main jets in and did a static runup; the EGTs were a little closer to normal; about 1000 at full throttle, around 950 between 4500 and 5500. Still not up where they really should be, and max rpm was still only 6000.

Tried a smaller idle jet; no change.

Scratching my head and walking around the gyro, started looking at the prop and found one of the four blades had a 6 inch split in the leading edge and was definitely delaminating/coming apart.

The leading edge was staying together until you looked close and pulled it apart.

There was no sign of recent impact on the blade. About a year or so ago this blade got a small divot in the leading edge about 2 inches from the tip (not sure how). I smoothed it out and got some new leading edge tape and it’s been fine till now.

I had looked over the airframe after the off field landing, but hadn’t really inspected the prop yet.

I imagine this could have a lot to do with my mixture problems at high rpm and low max rpm.

It wasn’t making any unusual noise or vibration when running up; I had my headphones on for ear protection so maybe I just wasn’t hearing it.

Looks like I’ll be grounded a couple of months till I can save up a bit for a new prop.

This is a 4 blade Powerfin; think I’ll go with a Warp drive for the new one.

Makes me wanna say DAMMIT!
 
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