DakotaHawk
Well Known Member
I'd like some help on troubleshooting...
Christmas Eve - I was taking a wanna-be pilot up for a second flight in my RV. She's starting ground school next week. After a normal engine run-up, we taxied onto the Rwy 34 and smoothly applied power. The IO-360 was purring along, we rolled down the runway, and lifted off. Everything was still running smooth.
At about 350' agl, the engine suddenly started running rough. My #2EGT immediately started climbing, all other EGT stayed normal. I didn't notice any change to CHT, but I was paying attention to other things at the time. I used my airspeed to zoom to about 650' agl, pulled power back to about 1700 rpm, and held airspeed (which had bled off in the zoom) at about 80 mph. I made a shallow left pattern turn to downwind, and then realized that I had the pattern to myself and Rwy 11 directly under my wing.
I chopped the power, dropped in full flaps, and slipped down to land on Rwy 11. I landed on the last 1/3 of the runway since I had made my decision to land when I was over the numbers and I had 650' to lose.
After landing, I did a quick runup, and the engine ran just fine. Back to the hangar - still running fine.
Back at the hangar, I pulled the cowl and did a compression test. Compression was good and I didn't hear any intake or exhaust leak-by. The exhaust stack coming from the #2 cylinder was sooty, the other stack was clean. Pulling the plugs from #2 cylinder - dark brown color.
So... What's next?
Christmas Eve - I was taking a wanna-be pilot up for a second flight in my RV. She's starting ground school next week. After a normal engine run-up, we taxied onto the Rwy 34 and smoothly applied power. The IO-360 was purring along, we rolled down the runway, and lifted off. Everything was still running smooth.
At about 350' agl, the engine suddenly started running rough. My #2EGT immediately started climbing, all other EGT stayed normal. I didn't notice any change to CHT, but I was paying attention to other things at the time. I used my airspeed to zoom to about 650' agl, pulled power back to about 1700 rpm, and held airspeed (which had bled off in the zoom) at about 80 mph. I made a shallow left pattern turn to downwind, and then realized that I had the pattern to myself and Rwy 11 directly under my wing.
I chopped the power, dropped in full flaps, and slipped down to land on Rwy 11. I landed on the last 1/3 of the runway since I had made my decision to land when I was over the numbers and I had 650' to lose.
After landing, I did a quick runup, and the engine ran just fine. Back to the hangar - still running fine.
Back at the hangar, I pulled the cowl and did a compression test. Compression was good and I didn't hear any intake or exhaust leak-by. The exhaust stack coming from the #2 cylinder was sooty, the other stack was clean. Pulling the plugs from #2 cylinder - dark brown color.
So... What's next?