On April 14, 2009, approximately 1915 central daylight time, a single-engine, RV-6A airplane.. was substantially damaged during a forced landing following a loss of engine power shortly after takeoff… The pilot, sole occupant, received minor injuries.
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) inspector who responded to the site, reported the pilot state, that he was on a local pleasure flight when the aircraft experienced a loss of engine power. The pilot elected to conduct a force landing in a vacant field. During the forced landing, the airplane’s nosewheel dug into the ground and the airplane “nosed over”, coming to rest in the inverted position.
On April 15, 2009 the NTSB (IIC) Investigator in Charge and a technical representative from the engine manufacturer examined the airplane on-site. The airplane was turned right side up; the fuel selector was in the left position and both wing fuel tanks contained a considerable amount of fuel. The electric fuel boost pump was found to be in working order. The bottom set of sparkplugs were removed from the cylinders and the engine rotated by hand. Continuity to the back of the engine was confirmed. The engine was equipped with two single (left and right) magnetos, with the left magneto having an impulse coupling. The magneto’s “p-leads”, were disconnected and the engine rotated by hand; electric “spark” was not observed at the ignition leads. The magnetos were removed for further examination.
The magnetos were tested under the supervision of the NTSB IIC and engine manufacturer’s representative. When placed in a bench test machine, the left magneto did not produce any ignition spark; individual components were then tested. The ignition technician stated that the magneto displayed signs that the left magneto’s coil was “open” [bad]. The right magneto produced an erratic electric spark, and would stop producing spark around 1200-1500 rpm. When testing the individual components of the right magneto, the coil tested “open.”
The Slick magnetos, model 4370 and 4371, were manufactured in 1991; and a review of the aircraft maintenance logs did not reveal any data that the magnetos were ever overhauled/maintained.
According to the Slick Magneto Maintenance and Overhaul manual, # L-1363, the magneto’s coil, points, condenser, brushes, are to inspected every 500 hours and the magneto must be overhauled when the engine is overhauled.
The RV-6A is out of production, but its replacement will cost the builder between $64-$76k at the low end, not to mention around 2000 hours of production time. A 500-hour inspection of a Slick Magneto costs $225 dollars.
Fuel, spark and lube: You need all three.
(BTW, anyone who’s ever been mystified by the operation of a magneto really ought to spend 10 minutes or so on that last link, including both components and operation.)
On a similar vein, When I was 19 or 20, I was riding down from Logan Utah to St. George, the bottom of the state, in a Navion owned by a retired CDR who lived up the street from me. It had redently been overhauled, and that morning the local FBO crew had changed the oil and filters.
As we passed Salt Lake City, the CDR noticed a drop in oil pressure, and at the same time I noticed spots of oil on the windscreen, and some seepage onto the floorboards. I flew the plane steady while the CDR checked the charts for the nearest airfield. He declared an emergency and we landed without incident.
Upon egress, the entire port side of the fuselage had an oil slick from the cowling aft. Expecting the worst, he opened the cowling and, at first, nothing seemed amiss, expect for oil everywhere.
A cursory inspection showed that the fellow who had changed the oil and filters had not secured the oil cap onto the fill pipe, and it had slowly vibrated loose, and risen up enough to allow oil to flow out.
It took awhile to clean the thing up and refill the oil, but other than that, everything turned out fine.
However, it again points to following the instruction manual, and making certain that everything is returned to where it ought to be, and when something is supposed to be locked and fastened, it should actually BE that way.
Simple things.
respects,
Similar experience, Tim. When I was instructing in the T-28, it was common practice to send the stud out to preflight, while I finshed reviewing the maint. records. On arrival at the aircraft, I would do a quick check of key items, placing hands on, before strapping in. On one flight, I opened the oil filler door and visually checked the oil cap but neglected to grab it and twist to verify it was secure. Upon rolling out of the first immelman, I saw the small spot of oil hit the windscreen, followed by an unending spreading of oil over the entire canopy. Within about a minute, the entire canopy was covered except for a tiny speck on my left side where a dead bug caused the stream to part into about a 3 inch triangular window. I was in the back and the stud up front coudn’t see out, so I took the A/C and headed to Waldron OLF and flew a PEL in a side slip so I could see out the tiny clear spot, kicking it out at the last second to touchdown. We only lost about a gallon out of 8, but the entire fuselage was covered and dripping all over the ground.
I never failed to check the oil cap after that. Another cheap lesson.
Back in the day, Slicks were known as “throw aways” as they they had a mandatory retirement time of, I believe, 500 hrs.
As a rookie A&P some 40 years ago, I had a hard time with mags. One day my boss, Fred Nash, sent me home with a Bendix book on mags and said “read it”. I did (still have the book), paid attention to the “old guys” like Rupe and Fred, and learned what A&P school didn’t teach me. By the time I became an “old Guy”, I was known as, amongst other things, “Magneto Marv”.
One thing I have noticed with many a homebuilt is that many of the owners/builders tend NOT to pay attention to maintenance time limits (chapter 5 items) thinking it will save them money. Until, that is, a situation such as that above plus the fact that, because of not following manufacturer’s maint. recommendations, his insurance was probably void…..
Throughout my years in aviation maintenance (the naval aviation kind) I’ve seen a lot of developmental and fielded maint/maint training media. Some were awesome (too expensive), others were great, some were downright terrible. The flash media you linked to is a great example of one that gets it right. NAVAIR has fielded some Job Performance Aids (JPAs) which are primarily videos of complex maint procedures designed to supplement, not replace the formal maint instruction manuals. Several Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals in use today (commercial and military applications) provide a glimpse into what I hope will become the norm. Cost efficient, cross-application (maint and training), multi-media tools integrated within Automated Maint Environments (or now, ALE….yay). Can’t wait to see F-35′s ALIS (teasers out at various forums, but still very much in development). The challenge is basic standards so we can stem the proliferation of stove-top chickens, oops, meant stovepipe systems.
Nice to know info. I have Slicks and they were installed at major 200 hour ago. I would hope the IA signing off on the annual did the homework.
There are non-magneto ignition systems that can be used on homebuilts. I wonder why he didn’t use one. If cost was the issue, it can come later, but you had better pay attention to maintenance issues or you get his result.
Once upon a time, long ago, in a galaxy far far away, some other fixed-wing pilots and myself decided that would learn about the world of ‘fling-wing’ pilots and their mental disorder that would cause them to trust their lives to rotating blades above their heads, rather than fixed wings that required nothing other than airspeed to do their work.
We purchased a ‘surplus’ H-269(Th-55) to play with.
It became apparent that the ship had a problem when we would fly somewhere and not be able to re-start. Hmmm. We re-timed the mags to a gnats-a$$, to no avail. This aircraft even had the vaunted “Shower of Sparks” ignition system.
After getting stranded a couple of times, I took the mags apart and checked the ‘internal timing’. The moron that built the helicopter had the timing about 40 degrees off. It’s a miracle that the thing ever flew!
Oddly enough, once the mags were set-up properly, no more problems! Unfortunately, there are a bunch of BDMFs working on aircraft.
Cheers!
ChrisP
A lot of Army pilots endured the TH-55 in training. If you’ve ever read “Chickenhawk” you know it buried a few student pilots before Hughes figured out what was going on. It took about 1500′ to recover, but by that time you had bored a hole since we normally flew about 500′ agl.
I’ve seen that last link before, but had forgotten about it. Thanks for the reminder.
This should remind those who don’t own planes to check the maintenance logs. I’ll bet many have never asked to see them.
Yellow sheets forever, eh?
Well well well, magneto servicing – wasn’t that always good for a laugh. Spent a couple of years in the ‘Lectric Bay when I was a Greenie (Avionics tech). The joys of “winding” up the spring to get it back into the impulse coupling assembly, the “crime” of not discharging the condensor –
always a trap for the unwary (but not something ya should pass to ya boss undischarged, watched a young tech do that – he got the boss twice before it was completely discharged..).
Makes the years roll back.
I used to work at a local airport as a lineman several years ago and you wouldn’t believe some of the dumb things I saw. (OK some of you would)
I watched the owner of a Mooney put about 1000 lbs of quarters into the back seat and luggage compartment (he ran a carnival and didn’t want to pay the surcharge the bank charged for the quarters) and then take on a full load of fuel and barely get off the ground.
I was asked to refuel a Cessna 210 once. I was told to “fill it until it came out of the vents”. After putting in 10 gallons more than the max capacity label said it should hold, I remarked to the pilot that “it must have been bone dry”. He said that he “ran out of fuel on the taxiway and pushed the plane to the ramp”. (He had gotten in before the FBO opened) I asked where he came from and when he told me I asked why he hadn’t landed at another airport along his route. His reply was that our AVGAS was .06$ cheaper than the other airport.
This is NOT your father’s Oldsmobile. You can’t pull over to the side of the sky when the engine gets knocky. MAINTENANCE!
I learned about magnetos as a 12-year-old newbie in the Civil Air Patrol when one of the older cadets gave me a couple of wires, said, “Hold these…” and then gave the magneto he was holding a spin.
Lit me up like a Christmas tree…
Glad my mother wasn’t around to hear what her “nnocent little boy”had to say…