REFLECTOR: N2XF Down in Stevensville -- Trailer Stands for Wings?

[Bob Jackson via Reflector]

We safely emergency –landed N2XF (Turbo-550N Velocity XL/RG) in Stevensville
(32S) about 25 miles south of Missoula, MT yesterday afternoon.  

 

While on a short ‘demo-FAM’ flight with the son of a lifelong friend, I
noticed oil pressure down at ~10 psi and decided to make an emergency
landing in Stevensville, about 25 NM south of Missoula.  About ¼ miles short
and 100’ AGL of the Stevensville runway the engine surged and quit.  I
feathered the prop and we were able to safely land on the 3800’ paved
runway.  The engine seized and you can’t turn it much now on the ground.
The preliminary cause appears to be an internal oil seal leak in the
pilot-side turbo.  There was a small amount of oil on the outside of the
bearing section and dull black staining inside the turbo exhaust pipe, but
no other oil leaks on the engine.

 

N2XF is based at X04 (Orlando Apopka airport) and I think we’ve decided the
best approach is to pull the wings and trailer the plane back home to work
on it there.  

 

Our current plan is to rent an ~8x16 ft open bed trailer (U-Haul?) and
temporarily hitch it to a big engine rental car and drive it back to
Orlando.  Our questions concern whether the rental car companies will let us
pull a trailer, and also any special ‘rigs’, suggestions or advice any of
our Velocity friends may have concerning particular trailers, tools or
techniques.  

 

More specifically, we’re wondering if anyone has any photos of cradles or
rigs they used to trailer wings under the fuselage and keep them from
getting scratched or damaged


 

Considering many of the ‘nasty’, rugged terrains and cold waters we’ve been
over during the last three weeks of our trip from Orlando to Anchorage and
(partially!) back, we’re fortunate and very grateful to now have the plane
safely down on a small strip in Montana!

 

We would appreciate any photos of wing cradle-stands, other special tools or
jigs, or other suggestions for trailering our plane and wings back to
Florida!

 

Thanks,

Bob Jackson

Velocity XL-RG N2XF

Custom Turbo IO-550N

 

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