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Airmaster failure

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europa(at)pstewart.f2s.co
Guest

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 10:44 am Post subject: Airmaster failure

Just had an open circuit failure of our Airmaster CS prop. Upon

investigation one of studs providing wire connection from the slip rings to

the pitch motor (the green wire) has sheared off!



No apparent damage to inside of spinner or blades and obviously no evidence

of the sheared bit of stud.



Anyone seen anything similar or any other thoughts.



Just recovered aircraft to workshop to investigate potential for repair.



Regards



Paul

G-GIDY

g-iani(at)ntlworld.com
Guest

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 11:20 am Post subject: Airmaster failure

Paul



Do you mean a stud or was it one of the carbon "brushes" that run on the

slip ring.  These do wear out over time and the wear is not even so one goes

before the others (I have had to change one of mine).  Three spare "brushes"

are usually shipped with the prop.  Changing them is not difficult but does

involve soldering.  I have a spare.  If you  want to talk it through you can

ring me on 01483 714096



Ian Rickard G-IANI XS Trigear, 300hours

Europa Club Mods Specialist

e-mail g-iani(at)ntlworld.com 



--

europa(at)pstewart.f2s.co
Guest

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 2:09 pm Post subject: Airmaster failure

Thanks Ian but it's not the brushes. On the 'prop side' of the base plate

the 3 slip rings each have a brass stud to which a wire is attached then

running to the pitch motor. It is one of these studs which has sheared. If I

get chance to take some I'll post a picture.



Regards



Paul 

 

On 17/2/11 19:15, "G-IANI" <g-iani(at)ntlworld.com> wrote:



[quote] 

 

 Paul

 

 Do you mean a stud or was it one of the carbon "brushes" that run on the

 slip ring.  These do wear out over time and the wear is not even so one goes

 before the others (I have had to change one of mine).  Three spare "brushes"

 are usually shipped with the prop.  Changing them is not difficult but does

 involve soldering.  I have a spare.  If you  want to talk it through you can

 ring me on 01483 714096

 

 

 

 Ian Rickard G-IANI XS Trigear, 300hours

 Europa Club Mods Specialist

 e-mail g-iani(at)ntlworld.com

 

 

 

 --

jrgowing(at)bigpond.net.a
Guest

Posted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:45 pm Post subject: Airmaster failure

Dear Paul  of G-GIDY

 

It is interesting that you say sheared off instead of “cracked” off!

 

Is there anything there that could cut it off!

Or do you think it it just vibrated and fell off?

Since I am just ordering I am very interested.

JR Gowing Europa 327 in Oz

From: owner-europa-list-server(at)matronics.com [mailto:owner-europa-list-server(at)matronics.com] On Behalf Of Europa

Sent: Friday, 18 February 2011 5:43 AM

To: europa-list(at)matronics.com

Subject: Airmaster failure

 

--> Europa-List message posted by: Europa <europa(at)pstewart.f2s.com (europa(at)pstewart.f2s.com)>



Just had an open circuit failure of our Airmaster CS prop. Upon

investigation one of studs providing wire connection from the slip rings to

the pitch motor (the green wire) has sheared off!



No apparent damage to inside of spinner or blades and obviously no evidence

of the sheared bit of stud.



Anyone seen anything similar or any other thoughts.



Just recovered aircraft to workshop to investigate potential for href="http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Europa-List">http://www.matron--> http://forums.matronics.com

_p;         - List Contribution bsp;                    -Matt Dralle, List href="http://www.matronics.com/contribution">http://www.matronics.com/c=================



No virus found in this message.

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Version: 10.0.1204 / 02/16/11

  [quote][b]

Justin(at)systemwise.co.u
Guest

Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:11 am Post subject: Airmaster failure

HI Guys,

 

I took off from Gap Tallard in the French Alps in Summer 2009 year and my Airmaster refused to go into “Cruise”. Meitrher Auto or Manual pitch control worked. I had to fly the sortie in fine pitch. The possibility of overspeed was ever present when you are used to the Airmaster doing the work. On inspection the stud with the green wire attached to it had sheared just as yours did.  Luckily, thanks to very helpful French engineer on the airfield whose wife also fed myself and my wife, I was able to drill and tap a tiny hole into the broken stud and get a good connection going again. I was able to get back to Scotland with this and indeed it proved so secure that I was able to use it while Airmaster supplied me with the whole new three ring circus. The studs are embedded behind the rings so I needed the whole thing. Fitting a new ring requires removal of the propeller which was a big job for such a small failure. All working again.

No damage anywhere and the piece of stud dropped out when I removed the spinner so it must have lodged itself somewhere.

The outcome was a happy ending, a nasty moment in amongst the high mountains new friends made who we promise to revisit and quite a lot of work to put right. 

You asked .

 

Looking forward to some good weather this Summer, fingers crossed.

Safe flying all

Justin

 

G-ZTED Europa Classic Monowheel 912S Airmaster

Kit No:15

 [quote][b]

g-iani(at)ntlworld.com
Guest

Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 7:17 am Post subject: Airmaster failure

Paul

 

Thanks for the explanation of which part broke.

 

Europa is the UK agent for Airmaster and should have minor spares such as your failed stud.  Let me know if they are not able to help and I can give you contact details for Airmaster

 

 

Ian Rickard G-IANI XS Trigear, 300hours

Europa Club Mods Specialist

e-mail g-iani(at)ntlworld.com 

   [quote][b]

europa(at)pstewart.f2s.co
Guest

Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:57 am Post subject: Airmaster failure

Thanks Justin. 

 

 It sounds as if we are not the only ones. One of our group has talked to Neil France today who was aware of previous incidences (unless it was you). 

 

 The offending stud and wire was the one controlling feathering. It has been temporarily isolated so theat the controller works fine all be it without the feather function. 

 

 Talking to Airmaster this evening – time zones etc.

 

 

 

 In response to JR Gowing – up ‘til this little issue it seemed to be working great. I don’t fly, but those of the group who do found it simple to use and the performance is fantastic.

 

 Regards

 

 Paul

 G-GIDY

 

 

 

 

 On 18/2/11 14:36, "Justin Kennedy" <Justin(at)systemwise.co.uk> wrote:

 

  	  Quote: 	
		  HI Guys,

  

 I took off from Gap Tallard in the French Alps in Summer 2009 year and my Airmaster refused to go into “Cruise”. Meitrher Auto or Manual pitch control worked. I had to fly the sortie in fine pitch. The possibility of overspeed was ever present when you are used to the Airmaster doing the work. On inspection the stud with the green wire attached to it had sheared just as yours did.  Luckily, thanks to very helpful French engineer on the airfield whose wife also fed myself and my wife, I was able to drill and tap a tiny hole into the broken stud and get a good connection going again. I was able to get back to Scotland with this and indeed it proved so secure that I was able to use it while Airmaster supplied me with the whole new three ring circus. The studs are embedded behind the rings so I needed the whole thing. Fitting a new ring requires removal of the propeller which was a big job for such a small failure. All working again.

 No damage anywhere and the piece of stud dropped out when I removed the spinner so it must have lodged itself somewhere.

 The outcome was a happy ending, a nasty moment in amongst the high mountains new friends made who we promise to revisit and quite a lot of work to put right. 

 You asked .

  

 Looking forward to some good weather this Summer, fingers crossed.

 Safe flying all

 Justin

  

 G-ZTED Europa Classic Monowheel 912S Airmaster

 Kit No:15

 

 

  Email Forum -

 ist">http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Europa-List

 ;  - MATRONICS WEB FORUMS -

 matronics.com

 ;- List Contribution Web Site -

 ;                 -Matt Dralle, List Admin.

 ://www.matronics.com/contribution

 

 

 	


        [quote][b]

Fergus Kyle

Joined: 03 Jun 2007
Posts: 291
Location: Burlington ON Canada

Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:06 am Post subject: Airmaster failure

Gent’men,  

        I know nothing of the Airmaster, nor the applicable prop installation, but having had a similar event i recalled the final assessment was the exactly-sized pebble entered the prop cowl and sheared off a stud at takeoff rpm.  

Cheers, Ferg  

    [quote][b]

budyerly(at)msn.com
Guest

Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:52 am Post subject: Airmaster failure

<?xml:namespace prefix="v" /><?xml:namespace prefix="o" /><![endif]-->  Paul,

 Forward the pictures to me, as an Airmaster Dealer, I am interested in the  failure and getting you in the air as soon as possible...

 Please send your address, photo, prop propeller serial number and hours on  the prop and I will get you a replacement sent from Airmaster.  If I  understand your post, the stud in question goes through the slip ring so it is  not normally repairable.  The entire slip ring needs to be replaced if that  is the case, and the slip ring has changed from model to model but it sounds  like an AP332 three ring model.

 I do not have a spare slip ring in the shop as it normally does not fail,  so we are very interested.

  

 Best Regards,

 Bud Yerly

Custom Flight Creations, Inc.

Europa Tech Support

 Airmaster Dealer

 www.customflightcreations.com

(813)  653-4989

 [quote]   ---

budyerly(at)msn.com
Guest

Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 3:51 pm Post subject: Airmaster failure

<?xml:namespace prefix="v" /><?xml:namespace prefix="o" /><![endif]-->  Ferg, Justin and Paul.

 Should the nut come loose on that or any stud, the nut becomes the foreign  object and can be responsible, but more than likely not, as the spinner   hole is large enough that a foreign object can easily enter the hub.  That  said, the forward side of the back plate spins with the prop so in my  opinion it can't generate enough torque to impact that stud hard  enough.  The next likely is fatigue failure do to some looseness in the  bolt, over torque or the wrong material, and that is why I am so  interested.  Nylon lock nuts are great in that they don't need much torque  and hold up well, but forward of the firewall heat it will sometimes rob them of  there "stickiness" and age takes a bit of a toll.  The prop does not get  that warm to compromise a nyloc so it is an interesting failure.  A good  investigation and proper scratch analysis will Anyway  

Anway

 , I'll inform Martin at Airmaster.

  

 Regards,

 Bud Yerly 

 Europa Tech Support

 Airmaster Dealer

 Custom Flight Creations, Inc.

www.customflightcreations.com

(813)  653-4989

 [quote]   ---

jrgowing(at)bigpond.net.a
Guest

Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 4:04 pm Post subject: Airmaster failure

Thank you Paul for the reassurance!

JR (Bob) “gowing in Oz

 

Do not archive

 

From: owner-europa-list-server(at)matronics.com [mailto:owner-europa-list-server(at)matronics.com] On Behalf Of Europa

Sent: Saturday, 19 February 2011 5:45 AM

To: europa-list(at)matronics.com

Subject: Re: Airmaster failure

 

Thanks Justin. 



It sounds as if we are not the only ones. One of our group has talked to Neil France today who was aware of previous incidences (unless it was you). 



The offending stud and wire was the one controlling feathering. It has been temporarily isolated so theat the controller works fine all be it without the feather function. 



Talking to Airmaster this evening – time zones etc.



In response to JR Gowing – up ‘til this little issue it seemed to be working great. I don’t fly, but those of the group who do found it simple to use and the performance is fantastic.



Regards



Paul

G-GIDY





On 18/2/11 14:36, "Justin Kennedy" <Justin(at)systemwise.co.uk (Justin(at)systemwise.co.uk)> wrote:

HI Guys,

 

I took off from Gap Tallard in the French Alps in Summer 2009 year and my Airmaster refused to go into “Cruise”. Meitrher Auto or Manual pitch control worked. I had to fly the sortie in fine pitch. The possibility of overspeed was ever present when you are used to the Airmaster doing the work. On inspection the stud with the green wire attached to it had sheared just as yours did.  Luckily, thanks to very helpful French engineer on the airfield whose wife also fed myself and my wife, I was able to drill and tap a tiny hole into the broken stud and get a good connection going again. I was able to get back to Scotland with this and indeed it proved so secure that I was able to use it while Airmaster supplied me with the whole new three ring circus. The studs are embedded behind the rings so I needed the whole thing. Fitting a new ring requires removal of the propeller which was a big job for such a small failure. All working again.

No damage anywhere and the piece of stud dropped out when I removed the spinner so it must have lodged itself somewhere.

The outcome was a happy ending, a nasty moment in amongst the high mountains new friends made who we promise to revisit and quite a lot of work to put right. 

You asked .

 

Looking forward to some good weather this Summer, fingers crossed.

Safe flying all

Justin

 

G-ZTED Europa Classic Monowheel 912S Airmaster

Kit No:15





Email Forum -

ist">http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Europa-List

;  - MATRONICS WEB FORUMS -

matronics.com

;- List Contribution Web Site -

;                 -Matt Dralle, List Admin.

://www.matronics.com/contribution





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No virus found in this message.

Checked by AVG - www.avg.com

Version: 10.0.1204 / 02/18/11

  [quote][b]

europa(at)pstewart.f2s.co
Guest

Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 8:24 am Post subject: Airmaster failure

Bud

 

 Many thanks for the email. I’ll forward it to Hugh who is in the process of sorting it out. I havn’t had chance to get any pics yet but will certainly send them through when I do.

 

 Regards

 

 Paul

 

 

 On 18/2/11 19:48, "Bud Yerly" <budyerly(at)msn.com> wrote:

 

 [quote]Paul,

 Forward the pictures to me, as an Airmaster Dealer, I am interested in the failure and getting you in the air as soon as possible...

 Please send your address, photo, prop propeller serial number and hours on the prop and I will get you a replacement sent from Airmaster.  If I understand your post, the stud in question goes through the slip ring so it is not normally repairable.  The entire slip ring needs to be replaced if that is the case, and the slip ring has changed from model to model but it sounds like an AP332 three ring model.

 I do not have a spare slip ring in the shop as it normally does not fail, so we are very interested.

  

 Best Regards,

 Bud Yerly

 Custom Flight Creations, Inc.

 Europa Tech Support

 Airmaster Dealer

 www.customflightcreations.com <http://www.customflightcreations.com> 

 (813) 653-4989

 [quote] 

 ---

europa(at)pstewart.f2s.co
Guest

Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:27 am Post subject: Airmaster failure

Bud

 

 Herre’s a couple of pics Hugh has taken. As you can see he’s been in contact with Airmaster so no doubt they will respond next week.

 

 Regards

 

 

 Paul

 G-GIDY

 

 

 ------ Forwarded Message

 From: Hugh Carmichael <hughcarmichael(at)me.com>

 Date: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:59:15 +0000

 To: Paul Stewart <paul(at)pstewart.f2s.com>

 Subject: Fwd: Hugh Carmichael, G-GIDY

 

 Hi Paul,

 

 Copied below is the E mail I sent to Airmaster in NZ. Feel free to forward it to Bud, or indeed anyone else. As yet I have had no response. I am also hoping to attach a couple of pics of the failed stud.  Our inspector, Neil France is happy for us to continue flying with the prop control wire disabled and protected, and to use the prop in auto or manual mode, with a cockpit placard stating that Feather Function is unavailable.

 So there is no great rush to get the bits required to fix it so far.

 

 [img]cid:3381063666_38111451[/img]

 

 [img]cid:3381063666_38071901[/img]

 

 Begin forwarded message:

 

  	  Quote: 	
		  From: Hugh Carmichael <hughcarmichael(at)me.com>

 Date: 19 February 2011 07:32:23 GMT

 To: support(at)airmasterpropellers.com

 Subject: Hugh Carmichael, England.

 

  

 Hello Mr Eskildsen,

 

 A group of four friends, we have recently completed the build of a Europa XS Mono Wheel, with a 914 engine.

 This took us some time, twelve and a half years in fact, but we received a Permit to Fly in November 2010.

 Due to poor weather etc, the aircraft has only flown a total of 12 hours.

 Our LAA Inspector is Neil France, who advised us to call you.

 

 We bought an Airmaster AP 332, Serial No 253 from Europa Aircraft way back in 2003.

 

 A couple of days ago, I was doing circuits and became aware that the Prop Controller had lost all power. Even the Manual Function was unavailable.

 

 After landing, we discovered that the controllers thermal fuse/reset had tripped, as well as the 5 amp fuse in the main 12v supply. We could find no fault in the wiring this side of the propeller, so took off the spinner to look further.

 The stud embedded in the slip ring plate to which the green Feather control wire should be attached, had sheared off. The remains of the stud and stiff nut must have been ejected from the spinner in flight, and the loose wire causing a 'short' which blew the fuse.

 

 It would seem that we need a new Slip Ring assembly in order to put the situation right. We would appreciate any help and advice you can give us, and to dispatch whatever parts we may need.

 

 I am available in England for the next few days, and when we get to speak I can supply you with payment details for the parts required.

 

 Home No. +44 1283 733922      Cell Phone  +44 7977 457294 E mail  hughcarmichael(at)me.com

 

 I will try to call you again on Monday.   Sorry to disturb your weekend.

 

 Best Regards,

 

 Hugh Carmichael.

 	


 

 

 ------ End of Forwarded Message

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budyerly(at)msn.com
Guest

Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 12:28 pm Post subject: Airmaster failure

<?xml:namespace prefix="v" /><?xml:namespace prefix="o" /><![endif]-->  Thanks 

 Bud

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europa(at)pstewart.f2s.co
Guest

Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 10:00 am Post subject: Airmaster failure

[quote] 	  Quote: 	
		  

 Bud

 

 Thanks for your rapid offer of help. Martin has a replacement slip ring winging its way to us.

 

 Paul 	
[b]

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