Engine Failure- No, Not that.wmv

It started as a short flight to Pueblo Colorado for breakfast.

After a great breakfast, it is time to depart for home.

A quick preflight, and off we go.

The gyro sat about 45 minutes, but the oil was still very warm, and everything was in the green.

TOWER: GyroCopter 9 Mike Bravo, maintain runway heading, I will call your north turn, cleared for take off runway 8 right.

As you will see in the video below, we had a good climb rate .

TOWER: GyroCopter 9Mike Bravo, Cessna on left downwind for 8 left, report him in sight... 9MB, pass behind the Cessna, north turn on course approved.

As we begin to leave the airport to the north (at about 2:49 in the video below), our attention was abruptly turned to the engine.

OH NO, NOT an ENGINE FAILURE

The power abruptly dropped as if you had turned off the fuel.

As you can see, cameraman Todd Rieck dropped the camera and began to pay very close attention to my emergency turn back to the runway.

Is it the gear reduction? the engine? the fuel? the fuel pump? No , No, No. (Fly the aircraft, fly the aircraft. My instructors voice from my student pilot days kept sounding in my memory from all those years ago. First, fly the aircraft.) I have flown to a safe landing 4 full engine failures in the last 35 years. Was this my 5th?? I can do this.

I reduced the throttle, and held about half throttle. The engine recovered, but I didn't want to push it to full throttle until I had my runway made, as I didn't want to chance it stopping altogether.

9MB: Pueblo Tower, Gyrocopter 9MB has an engine problem, need an immediate clearance for 26 Left.
After a repeat, we were cleared to land.

Traffic was using both 8 right and left, and there was a Tiger (an Air Force Diamond Katana taking off on 8 left 8,000 feet west at the opposite end of the long runway.) To avoid him , I was gliding to the shorter runway next to the tower 26 left or the opposite end of 8 right that we had just taken off on.

As I advanced the throttle when I was over the runway. I had normal power. This was now a precautionary landing. In less than 30 seconds, the emergency nature started to fade, and now it was , land, and find out what caused this.

We taxied clear of the runway onto the Flower Aviation Ramp we had just left 4 minutes before. After letting the blades spin down, we exited and began to inspect, and poke around.

10 minutes passed. After finding nothing out of the ordinary, I fired up the Rotax. Totally normal.

Half throttle, then full throttle, then lower, then higher. Power at idle, power to full throttle. All normal. We began to suspect, and it was later confirmed, we had experienced a temporary mild case of vapor lock.

Less than 20 minutes later, we are lined up once again on Runway 8right, and cleared for takeoff. For some reason, Todd forgot al about the camera, and just listened intently for any sign of a hiccup. There was none. Full Power climb, uneventful cruise home.




About 30 minutes later, we were handed off by Colorado Springs approach to ..." squawk 1200, frequency change approved.."

Approaching Meadow Lake, we heard a familiar voice calling. It was my son Tommy in Citabria 4 8 November. He was out flying with my 15 year old grandson Tyler. The came along side to say hi as we entered downwind in formation, a blue aerobatic tail dragger, and a yellow enclosed gyrocopter.
As we taxied to my hangar, I said to Todd, Our weekly flights are a lot of things, but boring isn't one of them. With a big grin, Todd agreed.

END.
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Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Xenon
• GyroCopter

[willisbr]

If I could have throttled up a bit more, I would have. The lower RPM can increase your drag. I would have wanted more altitude and worked for best glide. What was your airspeed? Looks like it was a good call all-in-all, but I personally would have attempted to push in more RPM. Engine idle and engine out pretty much has the same drag anyway.

[ms80831]

@willisbr ..."If I could have throttled up a bit more, I would have.."

Why? The 40 to 50 % power I was holding was more than enough to get me where I wanted to go. What if I had added power, and it failed dead stick? As I said, after about 30 seconds it was clear to me this was a precautionary landing.

[LLuE88]

good job, I don't doubt that you will or have checked further, If it were mine, a check of every thing electrical with the engine, the smallest bit of debree can cause a spark plug to lose function. The vapor lock is something that is misunderstood, by me also, is it a temperature issue with the carburator?

regards

[ms80831]

For Vapor Lock explained google wikipedia + vapor lock

[germb747]

walked away--nice job

[AShadowbox]

I'm unfamiliar with this aircraft. What is it?

[SoCalDualSport]

@routhoula No working vent.

[routhoula]

whats a vapor lock?

[hamellious]

hello where is every body

[FirstPersonFlyer]

Well done!

[BLOWMEV8]

omg

[LLuE88]

@ms80831

reason for reply: vapour lock is all too often a catchall for otherwise unsolveable issue, try COLON//wwwDOTppruneDOTorg/arch­ive/indexDOTphp/t-271030DOThtm­l FOR swarf in fuel lines. the mechanic I referred to said it's probably not vapour lock. call/email Rotax or Xenon, too dangerous to pass of as vapour lock,

regards

[willisbr]

Oh ok. It sounded like it was around 3k rpm which in my RAF would be about equal drag as engine out. Thought you may have been lower than 40-50%. Must have had the doors on cause it sounded lower. :) oh duh. I just re read your description and saw you said that you were at half power. Oops