"El Roto" wrote in message
...
Go on over to see a cylinder head and piston off of a P&W 1830 after the
exhaust valve broke off part way up the valve stem (that's what made the
big
hole through the piston). The a/c landed safely and no one was hurt - I
can't say more than that per the request of the a/c owner.

The exhaust valve and stem was recovered nearly intact. It was the poor
intact valve that really got tore up, though the stem stayed in place.

You'll notice the cylinder head is cracked in two, not cut open. As they
were removing the plug wires and other bits the two halves fell away from
the cylinder like a coconut split by a machete.

Steve "El Roto" Genotte

P.S. It's good to be back

Thanks for the picture. Scary. Thirty years ago, the story is told, a
Waco took off from the airport here down by the river and circled West
Asheville. Suddenly a jug departed the engine and dropped about 500 feet
into the township. The pilot was a round-engine aficionado and came loping
along back to the little strip and landed. In about 15 minutes here came a
little man in a truck with the jug, which had left a crater in his front
yard.