Posted by darrell mazzoline on 10/6/2005, 7:02 pm, in reply to "Marty Lunsford's Crash" --Previous Message--
: The Following is from FLY-UL.com September 1,
: 2005
: ...............................
:
:
: The following crash report, comes from
: ultralight pilot Marty Lunsford, from North
: Carolina. Marty suffered injuries as a
: result of a recent crash. Ironically, he
: happened to have a video camera mounted on
: his plane, and running at the time of the
: crash. I applaud Marty for sharing his story
: with everyone, and for being candid about
: "mistakes" he may have made. We
: can all learn from this. - Bob Comperini
:
:
: Marty Lunsford's Crash
: On Saturday, August 27th 2005 I took my
: Quicksilver MX to the Raleigh (NC) East
: airport to do a little flying. On previous
: flights I had noticed that the engine was
: only developing about 5700 RPMs at full
: power. It should be hitting about 6200 RPMs,
: so a friend of mine, who is familiar with 2
: stroke engines and carbs, met me at the
: airport to see if we could tweak the engine
: a little.
:
: When I first pulled the plane out of the
: trailer, I noticed that I had left the fuel
: valve on after the previous flight. As a
: result, the air filter was saturated with
: fuel and oil, and it was even dripping off
: of the filter. After assembling the plane we
: tried to start the engine. It normally only
: takes a few pulls to get the engine going,
: but this time it took several minutes. We
: turned off the fuel valve, opened the choke,
: and opened the throttle to pull lots of air
: through the engine. Eventually it caught,
: and we let it run at about 2500 RPMs for a
: few minutes to warm up.
:
: After the engine had warmed up, we ran it up
: to mid range, and then full throttle to
: check the RPMs. It was still only hitting
: about 5700, so we throttled back to idle and
: I went to get the Cuyuna manual while my
: friend held the plane. We looked at the
: diagram of the carburetor in the book, and
: after a minute or two, realized that the
: carb on my plane was slightly different from
: the carb in my book. Realizing that we
: weren't going to be able to make any
: adjustments right then, I decided to just go
: fly a little.
:
: Here is where the memories of my friend and
: I break down. We think we had turned the
: fuel valve at the bottom of the fuel tank
: back on, but we're not really sure. I had
: already done my preflight and walkaround, so
: I didn't check the valve immediately before
: taxiing out to the runway. The video shows
: the outcome of the flight.
:
: I was taken away by ambulance, and the next
: day a couple of friends went back out to the
: airport to put the wreckage back into the
: trailer and take it to my house. I asked
: them to check the fuel valve to see if it
: was on or off. When they got to the airport,
: the fuel valve was OFF, but the fuel filter,
: which is located between the tank and the
: carb, was full of fuel (it has a clear
: cover). We don't know how long the engine
: will run with the valve in the off position,
: but I suppose it could idle for several
: minutes, just sipping on the fuel in the
: carb bowl and the filter.
:
: However, we had the engine running at
: various power settings for approximately ten
: minutes before I actually took off. I don't
: think the engine could possibly run that
: long if the valve was off, so I'm assuming
: we turned it back on. But that is one of the
: "unknowns".
:
: If we had turned the valve back on, then how
: did it get turned off before my friends
: picked up the plane the next day? Well, I
: crashed right next to an airport, and some
: of the people who came to rescue me were
: from the airport. It is possible that one of
: them had enough airplane smarts to realize
: that the fuel valve being "on" was
: a safety hazard. Maybe they turned it off
: shortly after my crash. That would make
: sense, since the valve was off, but the
: filter was full of fuel. Of course, all of
: this is just a guess.
:
: My friends also told me that the prop turned
: freely, so the engine didn't seize. They
: tried to start it, but it would not start.
:
: I have also been wondering about the engine
: kill switch. The previous owner of the plane
: told me to be careful of it because it was
: easy to kill the engine when grabbing ahold
: of the tube by the pilots head. Looking at
: the video, I clearly did not grab that tube
: until after the engine died, however, the
: switch might have some corrosion in it which
: caused it to short out, or the wire may have
: gotten pinched somewhere, and the vibration
: of the engine may have caused it to short
: out.
:
: It will be several weeks before I have
: recovered enough to investigate what caused
: the engine failure. I'll update you when I
: have more info.
:
:
: View the video of the crash here . (3.9Mb.
: ©2005, Marty
: Lunsford)
:
:
: Things to notice in the video:
:
: I had 2700 feet of paved runway in front of
: me, but I chose to make an immediate left
: turn after taking off. That was my biggest
: mistake.
:
: When the enginge failed, the plane almost
: immediately stalled. I was in a turn, and
: climbing at about 27mph (I remember looking
: at the ASI). I didn't push the nose over
: immediately, and since the plane was still
: at a climb attitude, the airspeed dropped
: below stall speed in less than a second.
:
: There was very little distance between me
: and the trees, so even if I had managed to
: keep the plane from stalling, I still would
: have ended up in the trees.
:
: It's hard to see on the video, but the plane
: is spun to the left by the trees. As I fell
: through the trees, the plane actually ended
: up going backwards slightly with the wings
: acting as "parachutes" The camera
: cuts out a fraction of a second before I hit
: the ground. If you pause the video on the
: last frame, you can see the road that I had
: just passed over. I did a 360 degree turn
: whle falling vertically through the trees.
: Hope ya'll can learn something from this.
:
: - Marty Lunsford
:
Hi Marty, Man sure glad you were ok after that mishap. Well I have watched that clip MANY times.I have a background in motorcycles , snowmobiles jet ski. after listening to that clip I can here the motor slow down before it quits. What that tells me is.. it was not a kill switch or electrical if it was it would just QUIT. The motor clearly slows down before it quits. I would look very close into the fuel system. Cap not vented ??? line collapsing filter clogged water in tank with low fuel in the tank and water in it it would suck up the water when it might not with more fuel in the tank? If was a seizure you can tell by looking in the exhust port. also a compression check will tell you alot as well. I would look at the fuel system real close . Good luck!!
:
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