I have just had my plane lose all its oil just before shutdown when the accusump blew its top. Has anyone had this issue? I lost almost all the oil in a few seconds. If it happened during flight I would be going down.
So far Canton has said maybe I shouldn't fit a valve direct to the accusump, and maybe the vibrations caused the top to seperate. However I am not impressed by the thickness of the unit around the tread, and believe it was an issue waiting to happen, and would not be happy fitting one again until I know why. I'd like to share this with as many others that have these units fitted. Until this failure I loved the system, and have done lots of aeros.
Im including my initial report to Canton and would welcome another thoughts. It was very fortunate this occurred 10sec before shutdown.
I'll include photos as soon as I can.
**************
Accusump top separating from body while engine running
Engine : IO-360 aircraft
Hours total 1200
Accusump fitted March 2013 with approximately 350hours flown
Electronic valve fitted Nov 2016 with approximately 20 hours flown since fitting
On 20th of Jan 2017 at around 10am I left Te Kowhai for a 30min flight to Tauranga.
While preflighting I switched the electronic oil valve to on position to pre oil the plane for around 2min. Shut the valve off and started the plane.
The flight was normal lasting around 30min reaching no higher than 3000ft before landing in Tauranga. A few minutes before landing pre landing checks indicated the engine running fine and oil pressure normal. Some 30m before shut down a loud bang occurred and I shut down the engine. The following fault was found.
The Accusump had separated at the top and almost all oil from the engine was lost.
If this had occurred at anytime during the flight the plane would have required an emergency landing with the possible loss of life. Other planes around the world are fitted with these units, and and there is a grave concerned that this could occur again.
During the whole flight the valve had been left off to allow maximum oil to flow throughout the engine. The accusump was installed for aerobatic flight and to insure the engine has oil when any negative g forces occur.
24-046 - ACCUSUMP 1QT NO VALVE
24-270X - ACCUSUMP PRO ELECTRIC VALVE KIT
All components were fitted by qualified aircraft engineers and according to manufactures instructions.
***********
On testing the value with air, we found the valve when closed (as I had it) is letting air through into where the accusump was but not letting it out. This would account for the total oil loss after the incident.
So far Canton has said maybe I shouldn't fit a valve direct to the accusump, and maybe the vibrations caused the top to seperate. However I am not impressed by the thickness of the unit around the tread, and believe it was an issue waiting to happen, and would not be happy fitting one again until I know why. I'd like to share this with as many others that have these units fitted. Until this failure I loved the system, and have done lots of aeros.
Im including my initial report to Canton and would welcome another thoughts. It was very fortunate this occurred 10sec before shutdown.
I'll include photos as soon as I can.
**************
Accusump top separating from body while engine running
Engine : IO-360 aircraft
Hours total 1200
Accusump fitted March 2013 with approximately 350hours flown
Electronic valve fitted Nov 2016 with approximately 20 hours flown since fitting
On 20th of Jan 2017 at around 10am I left Te Kowhai for a 30min flight to Tauranga.
While preflighting I switched the electronic oil valve to on position to pre oil the plane for around 2min. Shut the valve off and started the plane.
The flight was normal lasting around 30min reaching no higher than 3000ft before landing in Tauranga. A few minutes before landing pre landing checks indicated the engine running fine and oil pressure normal. Some 30m before shut down a loud bang occurred and I shut down the engine. The following fault was found.
The Accusump had separated at the top and almost all oil from the engine was lost.
If this had occurred at anytime during the flight the plane would have required an emergency landing with the possible loss of life. Other planes around the world are fitted with these units, and and there is a grave concerned that this could occur again.
During the whole flight the valve had been left off to allow maximum oil to flow throughout the engine. The accusump was installed for aerobatic flight and to insure the engine has oil when any negative g forces occur.
24-046 - ACCUSUMP 1QT NO VALVE
24-270X - ACCUSUMP PRO ELECTRIC VALVE KIT
All components were fitted by qualified aircraft engineers and according to manufactures instructions.
***********
On testing the value with air, we found the valve when closed (as I had it) is letting air through into where the accusump was but not letting it out. This would account for the total oil loss after the incident.