I'm sure many have asked where I have been, the last post was in the spring of 2011. Well, the Vw blew up. You read that right, the vw blew up, more specifically, the block cracked. Here is the whole story.
Testing of the fat fin heads at the sustained high horsepower outputs had gone very, very well. After the generation two heads were installed the engine itself became completely reliable but the redrive became the weak link. The generation two heads were installed and flown one time. The heads were retorqued, the valves adjusted and then another flight to get things hot again. After the engine cooled off the valves were checked and two required adjustment. Everything went well from that point on for the next 60 plus hours with no adjustments what so ever to the actual engine, not one.
I continued flying the plane feeling much better about the engine but now the fight was the redrive. The belts were lasting about 10 hours and nothing I could do would help. A call to the good folks at Valley Engineering shed some light on my woes and they upgraded my redrive from the compact 12 groove to the more robust 16 groove setup and told me to install a heavier 18 lb flywheel to dampen the power pulses. A wooden two bladed prop was also recommended due to the higher moment of inertia of the 3 bladed Powerfin that I was running.
As soon as the new setup came it was installed and tested but I did not install the heavier flywheel for a couple of reasons. The 701 is designed for a maximum installed engine weight of 200 lbs and the current setup was at 224 lbs. Another issue was the C.G. Adding twelve more pounds out front would require the battery to be moved to the tail along with the added battery cable length, cutting in access panels etc. The useful load would be even less, I certified the airplane at 1200 lbs, 100 over the factory maximum of 1100 already and still only had a useful load of 458 lbs. Taking an additional 12 away from that was not acceptable. Most importantly however was the way the airplane handled, the elevator wasn't as responsive as it should be at slow speeds and low power settings, the airplane was in the "envelope" cg wise but it just didn't fly as good like I felt it should. Adding more weight out front just wasn't an option. To make a long story short the belt life was only slightly better with the 16 groove but I found a different belt which seemed to help with one set lasting nearly 32 hours.
Confidence grew until I finally got the nerve to take up my first passenger, a 140lb friend. I began to extend my range a little more and then shortly before Oshkosh what I felt like was the invitation of a lifetime came my way.
I was asked to represent the 701 community in the Airventure opening day festivities honoring Chris Heintz and to fly in the parade of homebuilts. Wow. This was quite an honor to me. To top this off I had received a comfirmation from the EAA to give a seminar on my thoughts and experience on the fat fin mod style of cooling the Vw on Tuesday, day two of the show. I couldn't wait! What a better way to show off my testing than to actually have the plane there, fly it in front of the thousands and then give a talk about it? The week before departure I rebuilt the redrive with all new bearings and belts and made the preparations for the trip with one short test hop.
After a series of false starts due to weather I launched on Saturday morning at 7:00 am on the adventure of a lifetime. That is exactly what it turned out to be. Things went well until a planned fuel stop in Kentland, Indiana. There was a little more oil than usual leaking out of the cowling and the engine oil level was a little low. Having just finished the longest flight ever in the plane I figured that had a lot to do with the excess oil. With full tanks and a thunderstorm fast approaching from the south the decision was made to get out of town and ignore the oil issue. The plan was to stop in Morris, Illinois for fuel again and to rest, get some lunch and check on things before it got crazy trying to get into Oshkosh. This turned out to be the end of the line.
I read somewhere that every aviation accident has on average a chain of events 8 links long. Break any of the links and the accident never would have happened. I was putting a lot of links together that day. Upon landing at Morris I found oil streaming from the cowling, it was down the side of the plane and everything under the cowling was just soaked in oil, including the exhaust pipes. With no shade to be had in the 102 degree heat the search began for the cause of the leak. It took 2 hours of wiping oil and sweat but the cause was discovered to be a cracked crankcase. The crack had formed where a oil gallery passed through the casting and anytime the engine was running the oil pump was forcing the oil from the sump, pumping the engine dry. There was about a quart left in the sump upon landing. I was just devastated.
After calling my family and getting a plan together for the rescue everything of value was removed from the plane and I began the 2 mile hike down the road to get a room for the night. Not one person at the airport offered to give me a lift. Twice I had to stop and sit down in the corn along side the road for shade to keep from having a heat stroke. Upon arrival at the motel I collasped on the bed sobbing and thinking about the day's events I realized my dreams of ever flying at Airventure were over. Then the phone rang. It was my Mother and she asked if all was ok. After a short conversation I realized that she hadn't heard about what had happened. Thats when she told me that " God has sent me a message that you had been in danger and that I should call". Not being overly religous in the past I had a wake up call right there.
After getting my wits back together I began to think about the days events and what I had heard about the 8 links. In this case there had been several foolish links, ignoring the addional oil leaking from the engine in Kentland due to the rush of getting ahead of the storm, the need to add oil, the fluctuating oil pressure readings enroute to Morris, the different smell of the engine in flight, ignoring the additional vibration ( oil soaked belts). I made a decision right then that my days of flying behind this vw were over. God had protected me too many times, after no less than three in flight engine emergencies how many more before fate caught me? At least the airframe as still intact and my family needed me alive.
My family drove all the next day as I hoofed it back up the road to the airport with all my gear. After one of the worst thunderstorms to go through those parts in some time blew out the airplane was moved to a hanger and prepped for the trailer ride home.
The two photos above pretty much say it all. My son in law headed south with the plane while my wife, daughter and I headed north to KOSH. Watching the Monday festivities go on without me and N701RW in them was very hard but the peace that had come over me Saturday evening after talking with Mom allowed me to handle it pretty well. The seminar on the fat fin mod on Tuesady also went well but it was hard to say the engine let go on the way up but overall it was a success with standing room only.
Upon arrival back home to West Virginia I tore the engine off the plane and began to investigate the crack. Pressurizing the oil system with air and soaking the block with soapy water showed the crack actually followed the oil gallery and was leaking in several places up the side of the case, the worst was between the studs of the right front cylinder. See the picture below. Using a borescope to inspect the interior or the gallery revealed nothing.
The area where the paint is scraped off is the location of the leak. It goes vertically and turns forward continuing along the bottom of the casting towards the distributor. I have an opinion about what caused the crack but it is only an opinion so we'll leave it at that.
There are a lot of factors in my decision to abandon the vw on my 701. The number one reason is reliability of course, we've covered that. Cost, having invested close to 10 thousand in the Vw and it lasting only 148 hours before the block cracked with no certain explanation is the second. Why spend another thousand to replace the case and have it only last another 148 hours and do it again with possibly the loss of the airframe and life? Third is performance. The Vw was just not a good fit on my 701, maybe on another, but not mine. It was too heavy with all the items on it like dual igniton and bottom mounted card, 4 into 1 exhaust etc. Most importantly was the worry factor. Everytime I would get a little confidence in the plane something would happen and destroy that comfort. The redrive was a costant worry and it seemed that fixing one problem just moved the reliabilty issue to another weak link. There was no gaurantee it would ever end. That's when it dawned on me that 10,000 would have gone a long way towards a Rotax 912 and the peace of mind it would provide.
Testing of the fat fin heads at the sustained high horsepower outputs had gone very, very well. After the generation two heads were installed the engine itself became completely reliable but the redrive became the weak link. The generation two heads were installed and flown one time. The heads were retorqued, the valves adjusted and then another flight to get things hot again. After the engine cooled off the valves were checked and two required adjustment. Everything went well from that point on for the next 60 plus hours with no adjustments what so ever to the actual engine, not one.
I continued flying the plane feeling much better about the engine but now the fight was the redrive. The belts were lasting about 10 hours and nothing I could do would help. A call to the good folks at Valley Engineering shed some light on my woes and they upgraded my redrive from the compact 12 groove to the more robust 16 groove setup and told me to install a heavier 18 lb flywheel to dampen the power pulses. A wooden two bladed prop was also recommended due to the higher moment of inertia of the 3 bladed Powerfin that I was running.
As soon as the new setup came it was installed and tested but I did not install the heavier flywheel for a couple of reasons. The 701 is designed for a maximum installed engine weight of 200 lbs and the current setup was at 224 lbs. Another issue was the C.G. Adding twelve more pounds out front would require the battery to be moved to the tail along with the added battery cable length, cutting in access panels etc. The useful load would be even less, I certified the airplane at 1200 lbs, 100 over the factory maximum of 1100 already and still only had a useful load of 458 lbs. Taking an additional 12 away from that was not acceptable. Most importantly however was the way the airplane handled, the elevator wasn't as responsive as it should be at slow speeds and low power settings, the airplane was in the "envelope" cg wise but it just didn't fly as good like I felt it should. Adding more weight out front just wasn't an option. To make a long story short the belt life was only slightly better with the 16 groove but I found a different belt which seemed to help with one set lasting nearly 32 hours.
Confidence grew until I finally got the nerve to take up my first passenger, a 140lb friend. I began to extend my range a little more and then shortly before Oshkosh what I felt like was the invitation of a lifetime came my way.
I was asked to represent the 701 community in the Airventure opening day festivities honoring Chris Heintz and to fly in the parade of homebuilts. Wow. This was quite an honor to me. To top this off I had received a comfirmation from the EAA to give a seminar on my thoughts and experience on the fat fin mod style of cooling the Vw on Tuesday, day two of the show. I couldn't wait! What a better way to show off my testing than to actually have the plane there, fly it in front of the thousands and then give a talk about it? The week before departure I rebuilt the redrive with all new bearings and belts and made the preparations for the trip with one short test hop.
After a series of false starts due to weather I launched on Saturday morning at 7:00 am on the adventure of a lifetime. That is exactly what it turned out to be. Things went well until a planned fuel stop in Kentland, Indiana. There was a little more oil than usual leaking out of the cowling and the engine oil level was a little low. Having just finished the longest flight ever in the plane I figured that had a lot to do with the excess oil. With full tanks and a thunderstorm fast approaching from the south the decision was made to get out of town and ignore the oil issue. The plan was to stop in Morris, Illinois for fuel again and to rest, get some lunch and check on things before it got crazy trying to get into Oshkosh. This turned out to be the end of the line.
I read somewhere that every aviation accident has on average a chain of events 8 links long. Break any of the links and the accident never would have happened. I was putting a lot of links together that day. Upon landing at Morris I found oil streaming from the cowling, it was down the side of the plane and everything under the cowling was just soaked in oil, including the exhaust pipes. With no shade to be had in the 102 degree heat the search began for the cause of the leak. It took 2 hours of wiping oil and sweat but the cause was discovered to be a cracked crankcase. The crack had formed where a oil gallery passed through the casting and anytime the engine was running the oil pump was forcing the oil from the sump, pumping the engine dry. There was about a quart left in the sump upon landing. I was just devastated.
After calling my family and getting a plan together for the rescue everything of value was removed from the plane and I began the 2 mile hike down the road to get a room for the night. Not one person at the airport offered to give me a lift. Twice I had to stop and sit down in the corn along side the road for shade to keep from having a heat stroke. Upon arrival at the motel I collasped on the bed sobbing and thinking about the day's events I realized my dreams of ever flying at Airventure were over. Then the phone rang. It was my Mother and she asked if all was ok. After a short conversation I realized that she hadn't heard about what had happened. Thats when she told me that " God has sent me a message that you had been in danger and that I should call". Not being overly religous in the past I had a wake up call right there.
After getting my wits back together I began to think about the days events and what I had heard about the 8 links. In this case there had been several foolish links, ignoring the addional oil leaking from the engine in Kentland due to the rush of getting ahead of the storm, the need to add oil, the fluctuating oil pressure readings enroute to Morris, the different smell of the engine in flight, ignoring the additional vibration ( oil soaked belts). I made a decision right then that my days of flying behind this vw were over. God had protected me too many times, after no less than three in flight engine emergencies how many more before fate caught me? At least the airframe as still intact and my family needed me alive.
My family drove all the next day as I hoofed it back up the road to the airport with all my gear. After one of the worst thunderstorms to go through those parts in some time blew out the airplane was moved to a hanger and prepped for the trailer ride home.
There are a lot of factors in my decision to abandon the vw on my 701. The number one reason is reliability of course, we've covered that. Cost, having invested close to 10 thousand in the Vw and it lasting only 148 hours before the block cracked with no certain explanation is the second. Why spend another thousand to replace the case and have it only last another 148 hours and do it again with possibly the loss of the airframe and life? Third is performance. The Vw was just not a good fit on my 701, maybe on another, but not mine. It was too heavy with all the items on it like dual igniton and bottom mounted card, 4 into 1 exhaust etc. Most importantly was the worry factor. Everytime I would get a little confidence in the plane something would happen and destroy that comfort. The redrive was a costant worry and it seemed that fixing one problem just moved the reliabilty issue to another weak link. There was no gaurantee it would ever end. That's when it dawned on me that 10,000 would have gone a long way towards a Rotax 912 and the peace of mind it would provide.
New Life
Once again I gave up on flying but I had the satisfaction that I had given it my all and in doing so I had hepled others as well. People like Tom Huebbe. I was at peace, still missed flying but was glad that it was finally over. Then one day my wife and I talked and she convinced me that we could swing a Rotax firewall forward kit from Zenith. After wrestling with the cost of the kit, the effects it would have on my family's future and our standard of living we decided to order the kit.
The picture above was taken just moments after completion of the first test flight with the new Rotax 912ULS. It was everything I expected and more. 10 hours into the new phase one flight test program has produced some good numbers. Takeoff roll is about 25% shorter and climb has improved 400 fpm, fuel consumption is 2.5 gph less than before at the same airspeed. At the same power setting as he vw the airspeed with the Rotax humming is about 5 to 7 knots faster. The airplane is more slippery and the cg has moved aft 2.23 inches. I no longer run out of trim on approach and the plane will flare much more easily. The engine and prop are absolutely vibration fee, almost as smooth as the King Airs I have been priviledged to fly in. I have 72 lbs more useful load. But most important of all, I have 10 hours on it and have not touched it. The Rotax made the plane.
Another life lesson I learned? There are times when you think you just can't afford to do the right thing. That's the time to realize you can't afford not too. Think of what flying the Vw cost me. 148 hours for 10,000 dollars and how do you put a price on the risk, aggravation and man hours invested that took me from my family and the rest of my life ? The mental anguish?
Where do I go from here? I have been toying with the idea of building a Nieuport 17 or a Fokker triplane to be powered with a Vw, this time direct drive. It would be nice to continue the development of the fat fin engine and that is the plan if I can find a suitable airframe for the right cost.
Right now I'm having too much fun just flying, which is why I started the 701 project back in 2006. Finally!
