As the Brits say, Jolly good show gal.






On Fri, 28 Oct 2005 01:12:34 GMT, Michelle P
wrote:

I used the E-word today. At 08:30 EDT this morning over the Springfield
Mixing bowl just south of Washington DC, I declared and emergency.

We had just finished our Potomac River crossing south of National
airport and headed south to Woodbridge and back to Springfield, VA.
Northbound I was just turning the corner to pick up the beltway and head
for Tyson's Corners and the engine instantly started running rough, very
rough. I thought we were going to loose it all together at 1000 feet AGL
over a densely populated area.

I immediately turned south again towards the last airport we had passed
and called the tower. "Davison tower, Fetter Three is coming in". Fetter
Three what is the nature of your trouble? "Engine running rough", How
many souls (I hate that question but the need to know to know how many
Ambulances to roll), "2." How much fuel? "40 gallons". Are you declaring
and emergency? "Yes" ,Would you like Fire rescue? "Yes". I have pushed
the button. I tried the Carb heat no results. Mixture full in, and I
used our excess airspeed to climb. This added about 200 feet to our
altitude. Oil pressure was reading ok as was oil Temp. I tried different
power settings no luck. Here we were at 70 KIAS "full" power and holding
altitude. I called on the Company air to air to report I was going down.
Our other Fixed wing immediately turned towards our position. I was not
sure how long this would last so both my observer and I were looking for
a place to land short of the field. I am usually looking for places to
land as we are cruising around the beltway. Never hurts. Interstate 95S
was lightly loaded and was a real possibility. We also had a couple of
"large" fields on our way. The engine held and we were cleared to land,
wind calm.
As we rolled out we we met by the entire fire crew. Since the event was
sudden I had no Idea how bad the damage was and weather we would have a
fire upon landing. It turns out we were not leaking any oil or fuel.

We pushed the airplane off the runway, they have no tow bars for Small
GA airplanes. It was parked with the other fixed wing aircraft on the
field. THe airfield manager came out and greeted us. Offered us the use
of the DV (Distinguished Visitors) lounge. I called my boss and
Maintenance. They were on their way. Our other plane landed about 10
minutes behind me. While I was Cleaning out the plane, My observer
climbed in our other plane and went back to home base.
While I was waiting for my Boss and the Mechanic to arrived I sat in the
DV lounge watching Satellite TV and filling out the mound of paper work
from an un-authorized landing. Being made Authorized.

I stayed with the plane in hopes we could fix it and fly it out today.
The plane turned out to be broken harder than I thought. I originally
thought the Mags (Dual Drive) had slipped a gear since the entire engine
was running badly. It became very obvious when we removed the cowling
that we had a problem with the #3 cylinder. The intake push rod was
bent. This seemed strange until we removed the rocker cover. The stud
for the exhaust valve had come loose in the head and the rocker was
cocked to one side. THe push rod was not even contacting the rocker arm.
This trapped the high pressure combustion results in the cylinder. When
the intake valve tried to open it couldn't. Too much pressure. The push
rod bent. Not only did we have a dead cylinder, we had the rest of the
engine pushing against a full Combustion charge that could not escape.
The mechanic and I removed the offending cylinder and return to home
base. I and my morning observer went out and flew the afternoon Survey run.
Everything went smoothly and it usually does.

The airplane looks like it will be there until Monday when some of the
parts under the cowling were broken by the shaking.

Michelle (Two engine failures in 15 years and counting)