REFLECTOR: Precautionary landing near St. Louis

Tue Nov 18 02:22:11 CST 2008

Dave,
Thanks for your report.  Happy to learn that your flight resulted in a safe 
landing.
A broken exhaust can lead to other problems, namely an engine fire.  High 
heat caused by an engine fire can do a lot of damage, including melting of 
the aileron control cables.
Welded mending of a broken exhaust system needs to be done right.  If the 
repair shop that did the repair is not an exhaust specialist, I recommend 
the exhaust be removed and inspected by a specialist and determined to be 
airworthy before further flight.
Regarding the factory policy on parts sales - I have clarified with our 
people (and will do so again) that the factory offers parts support for all 
Velocity aircraft owners.
Sincerely,
Scott B.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Philipsen" <velocity at davebiz.com>
To: "Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list" <reflector at tvbf.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 2:21 AM
Subject: REFLECTOR: Precautionary landing near St. Louis

>I have a story to tell the group about an incident that happened about
> two weeks ago as I was flying home to central Illinois from Dallas, TX.
> The reason I am relating it is so that someone else who may have a
> similar setup may be able to avoid having the same problem that I did.
>
> I was flying my Velocity STD-FG in a northeasterly direction through the
> Saint Louis Class B airspace at about 5500 ft. and about 12 miles NNW of
> Lambert Field. The weather was perfect: wind out of the southeast at
> less than 10 mph, no ceiling, 10+ miles visibility at about 11 AM.  Very
> suddenly, the tone of the engine changed to a much harsher, louder
> sound.  I immediately checked the engine instruments and everything
> still looked fairly normal.  Next, I looked at my GPS and saw that I was
> about 6-7 miles from KSET, a rural airport in St. Charles County.  I
> didn't know exactly what was wrong, just a very different sound.  Was it
> an exhaust leak, had one cylinder quit firing, etc.?  I moved the
> mixture to full rich and pulled the power back some.  The noise subsided
> a little but still didn't sound quite right.  I applied power again and
> that raspy sound was back again.  I thought to myself, "Well, I'm close
> enough to make it to KSET without any power so there's no need to push
> the engine any harder than I have to."  So, I pulled the power back to
> almost idle and let ATC know that I was having an engine problem and I
> was going to have to make a precautionary landing at KSET.  A controller
> was immediately assigned to talk with me and me only.  Even though there
> was other traffic on the radio, he did not ask me to change frequencies
> but just started giving me vectors for the airport.  He gave me runway
> information and the current weather at KSET.  Based upon that
> information, I told him that I wanted to land on runway 18 which was
> 3800 feet long.  By this time the airplane had slowed from about 180 mph
> down to about 120 mph and the controller told me that I should see the
> field at about my two o'clock position or so.  All I could see was
> farmland but I stayed in a slight bank turning as he instructed me.
> When I finally saw the field I was about 2 miles away and probably about
> 3000 feet MSL.  Field elevation was 437 feet.  I had to lose a bunch of
> altitude.  I pulled the throttle all the way back to idle and pushed the
> prop control full forward and kicked in both rudders to create some
> drag.  I probably should have engaged the speed brake but I wasn't so
> sure I wanted that much drag nor did I really want to take my hands away
> from the controls to flip the speed brake switch.  The rudders were both
> almost fully engaged and I was loosing altitude a little faster.  At
> about a mile out I was lined up for runway 18 but still pretty high
> (maybe 1800 feet MSL).  I thought maybe I should do a 360 just to lose
> some altitude but I also thought I'd better check to see if the engine
> would respond just in case I needed a little power.  I nudged the
> throttle forward and the engine started coughing and sputtering.  That
> wasn't going to work.  So I bagged the 360 turn idea and just decided to
> make a gentle 'S' turn.  As I came over the numbers I was still pretty
> high...maybe 200-300 feet above the ground.  I could see the other end
> of the runway in the distance.  Was I going to overshoot?  I made sure
> that the throttle was all the way back and the prop was all the way in.
> I pulled hard back on the stick to get a somewhat nose high attitude and
> by the time I was about halfway down the runway I was pretty sure I was
> going to make it.  I forced it down at maybe 5/8 of the way down the
> runway and was able to stop before the end.  Using the momentum from
> landing I turned off on a taxiway and made it a little way back toward
> the terminal building.  Again I tried to apply power by inching the
> throttle forward.  The engine coughed and sputtered and then finally
> died.  The airport manager came out and towed me in.  The controller
> from St. Louis TRACON had called him on the phone and alerted him of my
> landing.  By the way, I had lost contact with ATC because of my low
> altitude at about a mile or so from the field.  The controller wanted to
> know if I'd made it in ok.
>
> Well, I was relieved that I had made it in with no damage to myself or
> the airplane.  But now I had to find out what the problem was.  I
> inspected the exterior of the plane and quickly found a clue.  The
> pilot-side exhaust pipe was not sticking through the lower cowling as it
> usually had.  Not good.  Was it merely an exhaust pipe break?  If so,
> why had the engine run so rough and eventually quit?  I peeked inside
> the cowl with a flashlight and saw my exhaust pipe hanging there by the
> safety wire.  Good thing it didn't just fall out and go through the prop.
>
> I removed the lower cowling and found that there was no other apparent
> damage to the engine.  I just had a broken exhaust pipe.  Apparently the
> engine started running rough because my air intake sucks air from inside
> the cowling and the engine just started sucking in its own exhaust!  I
> suppose as the airplane slowed down there was that much less fresh air
> getting in to clear out all of that exhaust gas.
>
> Well, I called the factory just in case the exhaust pipe was
> unrepairable on hopes that they would have a spare in stock.  Would you
> believe it, I ran into the same problem again.  I was told that since I
> was not the original builder/owner and since I had not paid the $400
> transfer fee or whatever they call it, that I was not eligible to even
> buy parts from them!  I reminded the gentleman that Scott Baker had
> informed me that I could buy parts but that I just couldn't receive
> support.  He said that he would check into that but that the pipes
> weren't in stock anyway so it didn't really matter right now.
>
> So, I removed the pipe and took it down to the local welding shop where
> they repaired it for 50 bucks.  I put the pipe back on, started up the
> plane and flew it back home without a problem.  The moral of this story
> is that if your induction system is sucking air from inside the cowling
> you'd better check to make sure that it can get fresh air in the event
> of an exhaust leak.  I was just so thankful that this had not happened
> about an hour or so earlier while I was flying over the Ozark
> mountains.  Of course if I had lost the exhaust pipe over the mountains
> I probably wouldn't have been in such a hurry to pull the throttle back
> and maybe, just maybe, there might have been enough fresh air coming in
> at 180 mph that the engine would have continued to run ok.
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Dave Philipsen
> Velocity STD-FG
> N83DP
>
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