Xenon Down at Sebring

[Rotornut]

Rob
I heard a Xenon went down at the Sebring show, is ever one allright.. hope this is just a bad rumor...Please let us know
Richard

[Joe Pires]

When I saw this I called Scott Lewis. Roy (Bensen Days Airboss) is his next door neigbor and he was piloting the Xenon at Sebring.

So here is the skinny. Apparently the exhaust came loose on the turbo and the engine quit. Roy put it down on a sod farm. No damage to the aircraft or the pilot and passenger.

[Heron]

Hector and Juan left early so . . .no way to confirm with them.
Heron (hoping it´s just an emergency landing)
Yes!!!! it was!!! great!!!

[NoWingsAttached]

Whew! That is a really strange thing to have happen...WHen I was racing 930 Turbo Porsche GT1, I caught my #1 competitor with his head under the rear hood of my car with a wratchet wrench in his hand as we were prepping the car for a race qualifier!!!!!!!!!!! No Kidding. My pit crew and I ran through the engine as best we could, and couldn't find anything amiss. When my turn came for my 3 laps, she started fine, ran fine, until I hit the boost adjust and turned the wick all the way up to get my 500 ponies pulling that 2000 pound monster down the main straight. The thing went bwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAggggggggghhhhhhhh !!!! and almost died. When I let off the gas, she came back to life and I ran fine again, until I cranked up the boost to 15 psi again on the next lap. Same prob, only this time she died down the front straight, and I coasted her off to the grass after turn 1. I popped the rear hood, and found the intercooler had come off of its stack! I pushed it back down over the O ring seals, jammed a fire extinguisher into engine compartment to hold the plumbing together and finished my 2nd and 3rd lap with no further problems. But the problem forced me to not be able to use the boost control and I started out dead last in the race, and came in 2nd to last overall. But that other idiot never even made it to the green flag! He had made a mistake with building his engine and it tore up his oil pump, ruining his $30,000 engine. What goes around comes around. Ooops, I think I just hijacked this very important thread. Sorry friends. I digress.

[ventana7]

Joe has the story correct.

We gave a bunch of demo flights on Saturday after the fog lifted. On one late Saturday afternoon Roy landed about 1/2 mile from the airport on a giant sod farm. He did his usual great job of flying. At first the passenger who was on a demo flight thought Roy was just doing a demonstration of an emergency landing. He had a good story to tell later on.
The gyro was back in the booth Sunday though the crowds were pretty small because it was sooooo cold.
Next week will be spent trying to fly the 5 hours off the 6 new machines we have.

Rob

[Heron]

Good show Rob!
Sebring is always weather challenged, last time we could barely stand and walk against the wind took some exercise . . .
Are you plannig to stay in Florida? (please?)
What a great staff you guys are putting together!
thanks
Heron
(Greg M. do you still race) better go p.message.

[Gyropilot007]

I'm really glad no one was hurt and the aircraft is OK. Great job.

[Harry_S.]

I "thought" about driving down to Sebring yesterday but,tooooooooooooo cold. It's even colder today.

Nice wam Florida, ay. It's sunny tho, not a cloud in the sky. Brrr.


Cheers

[GyroRon]

It is in the single digits here this morning.... With a expected high of nearly 38 degrees. Florida HAS to be better!

And Xenon down is a very misleading thread title. It had a engine out landing.... Not a big deal really.

[Rotornut]

Ya, Ron that dose sound bad, now that you said something. Anyway glad to hear everthing and everone is ok.

Richard

[GyroRon]

You know how people can tend to overreact when they hear something went down.... It's okay though, this apparently was a non event. Hey Fish, whatcha flying these days?

[Vertical Tango]

Was this a 914 or the new TC one ?

[Dmorris]

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I'm almost certain it was a 912 RST Turbo. As far as I know I have the only 914 in the US and it wasn't mine.

[ScottTinnesand]

It was a Xenon RST. David does have the only Xenon RT in the U.S.

[Vertical Tango]

Hi David,

I see that you have the same model that I am currently building. I got the last kit. I want to know your opinion on the nose wheel without any suspension and would like to modify that. I already made the plans but would like to know what you think ?