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RV-7 Engine failure on Saturday in AZ? (February, 2007)

cjensen

cjensen

Well Known Member
I saw on the prelim's this morning that N234C, Mark Chamberlain's RV-7 suffered an engine failure this weekend. Two on board, no injuries.

Anybody know anything?
 
I was on my way from KPHX to KCOS and heard the distress call on 21.5 .. American was able to communicate with the pilot and all that was said was he had an engine failure and was landing on a road.. A few minutes the RV pilot called back and said they landed safely.
That is all I heard.. I would love to hear the rest of the story
Cwoodyfly2001
 
From the SoCal forum...

Hi Folks,



Yep, it was me! Who'da thunk it :)



Here's a rundown: we left Coolidge after the breakfast fly-in and headed
towards St. Johns (just for the sake of it). About 20 miles out from
Cibecue at about 11,500 MSL all of a sudden the engine lost power (it
was still running for a while but wouldn't hold more than about 1900rpm
then gradually faded), the CHT's started climbing like crazy and so did
the oil temp. We looked around and all there was below were mountains,
GL altitude is about 5k there (I was just thinking to myself about 2
minutes before: "we would be S.O.L. if we had an engine failure over
here"). I did a "NRST" on the 496 and the nearest airport was Cibecue,
20 miles and it is a gravel strip. There was nothing else but mountains
so I pointed it in the direction of Cibecue anyway, went through some
engine out procedures and then did a mayday on 121.5 which was
immediately picked up and replied to by a Northwest and an AA airliner
which took my location details and relayed it to ATC. As we were coming
down we spotted the US60 winding through the mountains, so that was it.
We headed for the road and had to slip it in to get down to a straight
part between 2 mountains. There were cars that were coming both ways
(but they were a couple of miles apart thank goodness). We landed on a
straight piece of road (really good landing actually, which is rare for
me) and just as we were coming to a stop 2 cars came around the corner
in front of us and stopped with plenty of room. We got out and pulled
the plane off to the side of the road where it was safe from traffic. I
checked all of the fuel lines (starvation was my first thought) and
everything checked out ok. My good friend Robbie Attaway and a few other
pilots drove all the way out from Phoenix (about 3 hour drive) and took
a look at it but they couldn't find anything either. We fired it back
up, ran it up to full power a couple of times and it ran just fine. We
got the OK from the FAA so the police stopped the traffic on the road
and I took off and flew out between the mountains! We thought it could
have maybe been some kind of icing or dirt in the fuel lines. From there
I flew all the way home with no problems



Long story short: it looks like maybe a timing issue. From what we can
guess one of my electronic ignitions might be advancing the timing way
too much (high CHT's, oil temp, loss of power all in the mater of about
a minute , no loss in fuel pressure, EGT's didn't change, changing the
mixture made no difference to anything, fuel system checked out ok) but
obviously that's just a guess, but it does seem to be the general
consensus. I have 95 hours on the plane to this point and it has run
flawlessly up until now. I am sending the ignitions back to the
manufacturer for a check over and I'm going to go through the whole fuel
system again just to be sure. It won't be flying again now until I
figure out exactly what it was that caused the problem.



If anyone else has ever had anything happen like this please give me a
shout.



I'll let you guys know what we find out as we move forward.



Cheers,



Mark - RV-7 N234C

Flying (sort of)
 
Nice job, Mark. A no-damage, "fly-the-airplane-out" type of off-airport landing is kind of rare, and cetainly good news to those of us who read the NTSB reports every day.

If this isn't a perfect illustration of why we should all practice our engine-out procedures and dead-stick landings every once in a while, I don't know what is...
 
Mark,

What a story! Goes to show that a cool head and a little luck can go a long way. Having covered that ground out there a couple of times and wondered what I'd do in a case like yours my hats off to you.

Well done! Also, wishing you the best of luck in finding an obvious problem so that you can fly with confidence again.

Best,
 
Just put two and two together and saw that you were at Coolidge. Check out the thread about the AOPA forum and the hot heads talking about ramp justice to RV's. Looks like you might be in a position to make a couple of them sweat a bit. :D

Again, great job.
 
Outstanding airmanship. Great thinking / responses under pressure.

I am curiuous for future reference. Did you think to try shutting off one mag to see if you could have regained power? I cerntainly would not have thought of that, until reading your story.

What would make the timing advance in flight, but not duplicate it again on take off? Ice?
 
Awesome job on keeping a cool head. I hope I never get tested like that, but if I do I hope I do as well as you.

Don't know if you have any type of data recording, but if so, any change in fuel flow during this event?
 
Mark,

Were you holding your breath all the way home? It's scary when gremlins disappear and you know, in your heart, that they WILL return at the most inopportune moment, like when flying in mountainous terrain. I know that you will find the cause of the mysterious shut down before aviating again. Hopefully, it will be something simple and you'll be back in the air soon.

Interesting that the "Feds" gave approval that quickly - I'm betting that they didn't offer to fly along. :confused:

Bill
 
Mark

Great job and thankfully safe ...plane/pilot. You gotta love guy's like Robbie that will drop whatever and just head out to be of help.

Thanks for keeping us informed as you sort out the problems

Frank @ SGU RV7A not flying YET but..........
 
I did have a problem one time and lost power like that. Come to find out the coil packs in the magnetos got hot and started to break down. They should have replaced but the mechanics overlooked the AD that were on them. I was losing power and going down even isolating the mags did not help much one mag was worse than the other. I was fortunate enough to land at an abandon airport, this was not in an RV.
 
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Photos

I posted a comment on the AZ and Socal list that I'll repeat here. I was working at an outdoor festival in Glendale AZ when I got a call from a number I didn't recognize. I was having trouble hearing because of the band playing in the background. The guy said, "do you know Mark Chamberlin?" I said, "yes." He continued, "Well, his plane just went down and I wanted to let you know." I had that terrible sinking feeling. He then said that Mark had to make an emergency landing on a road and everything was okay.

Through a few other calls we got Robbie Attaway headed that way with a couple of mechanics to get the plane fixed.

I can tell you from my experience of flying Search and Rescue helicopters in that area that this is trecherous territory. To find a straight stretch of road and then land on it took skill with a mix of luck.

Here are a few pictures Mark took of the area.

Great job Mark!!!!

http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/AZ_RVList/photos/browse/4165
 
Geico266 said:
Outstanding airmanship. Great thinking / responses under pressure.

I am curiuous for future reference. Did you think to try shutting off one mag to see if you could have regained power? I cerntainly would not have thought of that, until reading your story.

What would make the timing advance in flight, but not duplicate it again on take off? Ice?
Click to expand...

Hi,

I didn't at the time. Being a very low time pilot the last thing I wanted to do in the minute or so the engine kept running was to switch anything off! In hindsight that would probably have been a good thing to try because if it was one of the EI's it may have got me home without having to land.

We live and learn (live being the operative word).

Mark
 
szicree said:
Awesome job on keeping a cool head. I hope I never get tested like that, but if I do I hope I do as well as you.

Don't know if you have any type of data recording, but if so, any change in fuel flow during this event?
Click to expand...

I have a Dynon 180 for the EFIS/EMS and it doesn't keep the data in it's memory, and I didn't have any external device plugged in to it (although I have been looking at them over the last couple of days). I didn't notice the fuel flow but I did notice the fuel pressure, and that was fine (I switched the boost pump on anyway but it didn't make any difference).

Thanks for the compliment. I still don't know how I managed to do it, but I did so I'm thankful I managed to keep a clear head.

Cheers,

Mark
 
65 Snake said:
Mark,

Were you holding your breath all the way home? It's scary when gremlins disappear and you know, in your heart, that they WILL return at the most inopportune moment, like when flying in mountainous terrain. I know that you will find the cause of the mysterious shut down before aviating again. Hopefully, it will be something simple and you'll be back in the air soon.

Interesting that the "Feds" gave approval that quickly - I'm betting that they didn't offer to fly along. :confused:

Bill
Click to expand...
I was holding my breath, especially on the take off, that road looks pretty darn narrow when your sat at one end with the nose of the 7 sticking in the air (not pretty at all, almost undid what I did coming in but managed to save it). I went the long way home but followed the road all the way. It was almost twice as far as going direct (the reason that I didn't do that in the first place) but no way was I going to go though the whole thinking that there was no where to land.

I'll find out what it was before I fly again, either that or I'll be replacing both EI's AND the whole fuel system :)

I kind of had a laugh with one of the cops there on scene, I told him that I'd just got off the radio with the FAA and they said that he had to sit with me in the plane and escort me off the reservation (it was reservation where I landed and the police were Apache reservation police). I swear he went as white as a sheet until he realized I was pulling his leg :)

Mark
 
fstringham7a said:
Mark

Great job and thankfully safe ...plane/pilot. You gotta love guy's like Robbie that will drop whatever and just head out to be of help.

Thanks for keeping us informed as you sort out the problems

Frank @ SGU RV7A not flying YET but..........
Click to expand...

No doubt you gotta love guys like Robbie. Don't know what I would have done without the guys that came out (there were 3 plus Robbie, all pilots/mechanics).

Thanks for the words folks, I really appreciate it.

It's the people in the RV world that make it what it is.

Mark
 
This thread's got me thinking about how to handle an engine-out when you've got electronic ignition. I mean, with mags they pretty much work or don't. If one fails, having it on isn't gonna do any harm. But with EI, if the advance goes berserk, you would do well to shut off the bad one. Hmm?
 
Mark,

I do not know you, but will say it was fun reading your report.

Great job flying the airplane and doing what had to be done.
 
Bryan Wood said:
Just put two and two together and saw that you were at Coolidge. Check out the thread about the AOPA forum and the hot heads talking about ramp justice to RV's. Looks like you might be in a position to make a couple of them sweat a bit. :D

Again, great job.
Click to expand...

Oh, they were sweating and moaning like old women anyway. I flew in there about 9am on Saturday when is was busy and had to go around because some duffus in a 100 year old Cessna did like a 5 mile wide pattern and final at about 70 knots all the way. RV's don't like to go that slow ANYTIME!

I think it's just the fact that many of those folks only fly like every 5th weekend or something for 30 minutes so when it gets busy the radio and pattern work gets away from them.

Let them have their fun, they're just jealous of our planes that go twice as fast, burn one third of the gas and cost one third of the price to build :)

Oh, and do GREAT off-airport landings!

Mark
 
MarkC said:
Sorry, can't find any way to do that on Yahoo Groups, you have to be a group member to see the photo albums from what I can see. Perhaps you could help us idiots out and tell us how to do it?

Thanks,

Mark
Click to expand...
Sorry. Wasn't complaining about you. Just don't like Yahoo. I feel one should be able to browse without needing to do anything; then if you want to post, you would need to join.

Plus I don't think you are an idiot. After your great landing & takeoff, I think you are a god.

Speaking of idiots, now I'm subscribed, and can't find the "unsubscribe" button.
 
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GrayHawk said:
Sorry. Wasn't complaining about you. Just don't like Yahoo. I feel one should be able to browse without needing to do anything; then if you want to post, you would need to join.
Click to expand...

I know, no problems, just didn't have anywhere else to put them at the time. I just replied to a message from Gary Sobek who offered to put them on a site where everyone can see them so we should be good to go!

I'm sure he'll post a link when he's put them up.

Oh, not sure about the God part, I'm a lucky b***ard, that's all :)

Cheers,

Mark
 
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what ignition system is intalled?

It would be helpful to know what ignition system you have installed.

Thanks,
Dale
RV-8 stuck in 90/90
 
OK , so in the past 5 years

Did the problem ever recur or get definitely solved? What corrective action was taken? If you don't want to say it's ok but it would be nice to know now that it has been brought up again.

Bob Axsom
 
I was reading this post trying to figure out what went wrong... And just reallized it was 5 years old too!! :eek:

Icing of some sort could've caused it. Since it ran fine afterward without any mods or repair....

Curious to know if the owner found something too.
 
It was the P-Mag problem where it lost timing. This was fixed with a software update by EmagAire a long time ago.
 
If this is the same event I recall from several years ago it does provide an educational element. Imagine two ignition systems of any variety or combination of different systems. Switching from BOTH to LEFT or RIGHT may disable the offending ignition system and allow you to continue to a better landing spot.
 
I had a problem back then with an e-mag that was a lot more than a software issue. Something internally got "loose" and the reference got "lost".
 
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Engine failure

15 years ago I was flying a Pitts S-1S in the pattern when the engine abruptly began shaking like a wet puppy, also losing power. Rather than a key switch the plane had a separate toggle for each mag. Turning the left mag off had no effect, but turning it back on and toggling off the right mag instantly restored smooth power. The right mag had failed internally in such a way that random sparks were going frequently to all cylinders, or so it was explained to me. It's worthwhile to check one mag at a time - or sure was for me!
 
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