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Zodiac Forced Landing

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moorecomp(at)yahoo.com
Guest

Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 11:18 am Post subject: Zodiac Forced Landing

All,



Found this recent forced landing on Safetydata.com

I believe this aircraft is equipped with a Corvair.

Thankfully, no injuries.

IDENTIFICATION



Regis#: 282RS        Make/Model: EXP      

Description: ZENITH ZODIAC



Date: 05/20/2006     Time: 1600



Event Type: Incident   Highest Injury: None     

Mid Air: N    Missing: N



Damage: Minor



LOCATION



City: LOTT   State: TX   Country: US



DESCRIPTION



ACFT FORCED LANDED IN A FIELD DUE TO INCREASING

VIBRATION AND THE RPM DROPPED, 5 MILES SOUTH OF LOTT, 

TX



INJURY DATA      Total Fatal:   0



# Crew:   1     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0    

Unk:    



# Pass:   1     Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0    

Unk:    



# Grnd:         Fat:   0     Ser:   0     Min:   0    

Unk:    



WEATHER: TPL 1615Z 19015G20 10SM CLR 27/17 A2992



OTHER DATA



Departed: ROCKWALL, TX                Dep Date:   

Dep. Time:      



Destination: SAN ANTONIO, TX          Flt Plan:       

      Wx Briefing:  



Last Radio Cont:  



Last Clearance:  



FAA FSDO: SAN ANTONIO, TX  (SW17)               

Entry date: 05/22/2006



__________________________________________________

Michael Valentine

Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 108

Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 11:37 am Post subject: Zodiac Forced Landing

Yes, that is true.  These were posted on the Corvair list (of course, the

analysis/investigation continues):



Message: 4

Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 17:59:28 -0500

From: "Oscar Zuniga" <taildrags(at)hotmail.com>

Subject: CorvAircraft> another broken crank-?

To: corvaircraft(at)mylist.net

Message-ID: <BAY112-F279803C845FDFCA0222393BCA40(at)phx.gbl>

Content-Type: text/plain; format=3Dflowed



Sometime just after noon today (Saturday, May 20), my hangar mate Randy

Stout's 601 ZenVair went down in an oat field near Temple, TX.  Everyone is

OK and only minor damage to the plane.  Randy was on his way to the Zenith

open house in Mexico, MO with his wife and dog.



At cruise, Randy began to notice a vibration from the engine.  He spotted a

good field and set up for it, the engine began to vibrate a bit more so he

shut everything off and secured the engine.  Everything went normally but a

bit too much float in the flare started to worry him about running out of

oat field so he dropped the nose and put the airplane down.  That bit of

diving, rather than holding the nose off a bit longer, caused the nosewheel

pant to crack but it was not the final version of wheelpant that he wanted

anyway.



Just minutes ago, Randy and his wife and dog were picked up from the

sheriff's office by his brother in law and they are on their way back home.

Early tomorrow morning a retrieval party from EAA Chapter 35 is headed up

with a trailer and tools to pull the wings off the airplane and bring it

back to San Geronimo.



Randy had not nitrided his crank.  He had bought a spare crank from me a fe=

w

weeks ago and it is at the machine shop right now, being prepared (it passe=

d

magnaflux and was being polished and cleaned).  Once it was ready and the

machine work was done, he was going to send it off to Nitron, then when he

got it back he was going to do the crank swap all in one work session.

Looks like he'll be accelerating the process.  Hope there isn't any damage

to the cases.  Teardown to follow, including a determination of whether or

not it was indeed a crank break but it sounds a lot like what Langford

experienced and described.  Randy had put quite a few hours on his 601.



News as it becomes available...



Oscar Zuniga

San Antonio, TX

mailto: taildrags(at)hotmail.com

website at http://www.flysquirrel.net



Message: 8

Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 13:44:59 -0500

From: "Oscar Zuniga" <taildrags(at)hotmail.com>

Subject: CorvAircraft> Randy's ZenVair

To: corvaircraft(at)mylist.net

Message-ID: <BAY112-F84D16A129A2067A662A20BC9A0(at)phx.gbl>

Content-Type: text/plain; format=3Dflowed



Just talked with Randy, who is at the hangar with the airplane.  The

retrieval from the oat field went very well yesterday... the farmer had a

four-wheeler and that's all it took to pull the plane out of the field to

the road, then the retrieval party had the wings off and the airplane on th=

e

trailer in less than 2 hours.



Pulling the top cover, Randy says that the crank is definitely cracked... o=

n

the throw between #5 and #6.  I haven't seen it so don't know exactly where

he's talking about, but he did say it definitely is not near the journal

like Mark Langford's was and it sounds like it's on the rough-cast crank

throw.  Regardless, it seems to be the same syndrome.  He runs a 2-blade

Warp Drive prop, it's a 2700cc engine, and has about 148 hours since build.

Nitrided crank is in process.



BTW- his wife is ready to go flying with him again.



Oscar Zuniga

San Antonio, TX

mailto: taildrags(at)hotmail.com

website at http://www.flysquirrel.net

craig(at)craigandjean.com
Guest

Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 11:41 am Post subject: Zodiac Forced Landing

Yep, happen on Saturday - ironically as he, his wife and dog were flying to

Corvair Day at the Zenith plant. There has been a little info on the Corvair

list but not a lot. What we do know is that the crank was not nitrided, that

he has a nitrided crank in process and that his wife is still willing to fly

with him 



Randy's web site:



http://www.geocities.com/r5t0ut21/



-- Craig

ggower_99(at)yahoo.com
Guest

Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 3:08 pm Post subject: Zodiac Forced Landing

Is Randy Stout's HD,  Just met him in Easter Week in my vacation trip.

   

  Glad he is OK.   and landed safetly,  

   

  Hope I was there to help him get the plane out of the field (retrive?)...  

  Will Call him tonight.

   

  Saludos

  Gary Gower



Craig Moore <moorecomp(at)yahoo.com> wrote:

  



All,



Found this recent forced landing on Safetydata.com

I believe this aircraft is equipped with a Corvair.

Thankfully, no injuries.

IDENTIFICATION



Regis#: 282RS Make/Model: EXP 

Description: ZENITH ZODIAC



Date: 05/20/2006 Time: 1600



Event Type: Incident Highest Injury: None 

Mid Air: N Missing: N



Damage: Minor



LOCATION



City: LOTT State: TX Country: US



DESCRIPTION



ACFT FORCED LANDED IN A FIELD DUE TO INCREASING

VIBRATION AND THE RPM DROPPED, 5 MILES SOUTH OF LOTT, 

TX



INJURY DATA Total Fatal: 0



# Crew: 1 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 

Unk: 



# Pass: 1 Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 

Unk: 



# Grnd: Fat: 0 Ser: 0 Min: 0 

Unk: 



WEATHER: TPL 1615Z 19015G20 10SM CLR 27/17 A2992



OTHER DATA



Departed: ROCKWALL, TX Dep Date: 

Dep. Time: 



Destination: SAN ANTONIO, TX Flt Plan: 

Wx Briefing: 



Last Radio Cont: 



Last Clearance: 



FAA FSDO: SAN ANTONIO, TX (SW17) 

Entry date: 05/22/2006



__________________________________________________

		

---------------------------------

Talk is cheap. Use Yahoo! Messenger to make PC-to-Phone calls.  Great rates starting at 1&cent;/min.

ggower_99(at)yahoo.com
Guest

Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 3:39 pm Post subject: Zodiac Forced Landing

I am really glad the 3 of them are OK.

   

  Randy is a great guy,  I meet him in San Antonio, while my family vacation trip to Houston. this last Easter Week, (mayor holiday here).

   

  He was very kind and even offered me a flight in his plane, I accept it and  I really enjoy it.  Thanks again Randy.

   

  His great HD  has everything needed to fly, in a simple way.  I like very much this type of projects,  He had lots of fun building and has lots of fun flying. without instrument  luxurys.  

   

  Has a well planed intrument panel,  including a wired hand held radio and a hiking GPS with a special program installed for airplane use!   

   

  I also meet that day Bill Bartlet, didnt had the chance to see his airplane (a 601 XL), happened that was in another place in painting process,  

  Bill shares hangar with Alex Roca.  I Had the chance to take a good look to Alex beautifull airplane.  Alex was in a bussiness trip that day.

   

  Both gave me the chance to have a great aviation day and saved me from a shopping day   

   

  Is realy a great thing to have aviation friends in internet, then have the chance meet them in person.

   

  Also is great that Randy's wife flys with him.    

   

  My wife never has flown with me and says never will...  I accept it, nothing to do,   

   

  Saludos

  Gary Gower.

  701 Flying from Chapala.

  XL on process.

  



Craig Payne <craig(at)craigandjean.com> wrote:

  



Yep, happen on Saturday - ironically as he, his wife and dog were flying to

Corvair Day at the Zenith plant. There has been a little info on the Corvair

list but not a lot. What we do know is that the crank was not nitrided, that

he has a nitrided crank in process and that his wife is still willing to fly

with him 



Randy's web site:



http://www.geocities.com/r5t0ut21/



-- Craig



		

---------------------------------

Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates.

JAPhillipsGA(at)aol.com
Guest

Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 4:47 pm Post subject: Zodiac Forced Landing

Gary, maybe get a new wife, Huh ? Got to be a lot of fine looking ladies 

looking for a pilot that owns his own airplane, Best to you, Bill

n282rs(at)earthlink.net
Guest

Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 8:15 pm Post subject: Zodiac Forced Landing

Yes. it was my plane. 



I was planning on flying to the factory Friday, but decided to go to Dallas to visit my family instead. Saturday, on the way back, the engine developed a vibration that got worse very quickly. I ended up shutting down the engine and landing in a oat field about 20 miles east of Temple TX. Good thing it happened where it did as I would have been over the Texas Hill country in about 20-30 more minutes. Not many landing spots there. If I had of gone to the factory, it probably would have happened over the Ozark Mountains.



The EAA chapter here arranged a retrieval party and we got the plane back to my hangar Sunday evening. 



So far I have pulled the top cover off the top cover on the engine and verified that the crank had broken. It broke on the 5th and 6th connecting rod throw. The flywheel also had a crack in it. Apparantly that has happened to a couple of others and may be a clue to a cracked crank. I'll post some pictures when I get the engine disassembled.



Answers to a few questions that have come up:



The prop was indexed

The prop is a Warp Drive

The engine is the 100 hp version, not a Big Boy.

The crank had not been nitrided. I was in the process of getting a nitrided crank.

I have the front starter.

My wife still claims she is willing to fly with me again, and my dog would follow me if I were to jump off a cliff.



Randy Stout

www.geocities.com/r5t0ut21

ggower_99(at)yahoo.com
Guest

Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 10:39 pm Post subject: Zodiac Forced Landing

No way!   I will not make the same mistake twice  

   

  An old man here used to say:  With so many great ladies all over, why marry ONE?

   

  Never own a single seater airplane, best side by side    

   

  Saludos

  Gary Gower

Do not archive  PLEASE  (Or IL be Dead!   

  

JAPhillipsGA(at)aol.com wrote:

  



Gary, maybe get a new wife, Huh ? Got to be a lot of fine looking ladies 

looking for a pilot that owns his own airplane, Best to you, Bill



		

---------------------------------

Be a chatter box. Enjoy free PC-to-PC calls  with Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.

cffd(at)pgrb.com
Guest

Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 2:10 pm Post subject: Zodiac Forced Landing

Randy,

How long did the engine run after the vibration started, and was it running

with a broken crank?

Chuck D.

---

n282rs(at)earthlink.net
Guest

Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 4:24 pm Post subject: Zodiac Forced Landing

I assume the vibration was the result of a broken crank, so yes it was

running while the crank was broken. Maybe 2 minutes tops while the

vibration was light. As soon as it became severe, I shut off the engine.



Randy Stout

n282rs"at"earthlink.net

www.geocities.com/r5t0ut21



 	  Quote: 	
		   [Original Message]

 From: Chuck Deiterich <cffd(at)pgrb.com>

 To: <zenith-list(at)matronics.com>

 Date: 5/25/2006 5:17:56 PM

 Subject: Re: Zodiac Forced Landing



 



 Randy,

 How long did the engine run after the vibration started, and was it

running
	


 	  Quote: 	
		   with a broken crank?

 Chuck D.

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