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kklewin

Well Known Member
Experimental plane makes emergency landing
By Michele Clock, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 12:12 p.m.

SAN MARCOS ? A small experimental plane carrying two people made an emergency landing on a street in San Marcos Saturday morning, triggering traffic delays but causing no damage or injuries.

The plane touched down on West San Marcos Boulevard near Viewpoint Drive around 9:30 a.m. after having engine difficulties.

A county Sheriff?s Department official said the plane had left from Oceanside a few minutes earlier and was on its way to McClellan-Palomar Airport.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident.


Saw the clip on the news....good work!! Looks like no damage, no injuries....they put it on a truck and hauled it back to the airport...nice plane, dark blue, military insignia, 3-blade prop with some type of auto motor....glad they walked away!!! Good work. Be careful !!

Kurt
 
kklewin said:
Saw the clip on the news....good work!! Looks like no damage, no injuries....they put it on a truck and hauled it back to the airport...nice plane, dark blue, military insignia, 3-blade prop with some type of auto motor....glad they walked away!!! Good work. Be careful !!
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Second that. Well done.

A little more info here: http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=73450

It appears to be N4VY, Bill Leonard's Mazda rotary powered RV-6.

--Paul
 
He Will Likely

He will likely be along shortly to let us know what happened. Second off airport landing for him.

Hans
 
The news reports I saw on FOX News said his passenger was his mother! :eek:

Well done Bill, glad you are both okay.
 
This is his second engine failure in flight with the Mazda engine. That just knocked a possible alternative engine down a couple notches on my engine possibility list...
 
FresnoR said:
This is his second engine failure in flight with the Mazda engine. That just knocked a possible alternative engine down a couple notches on my engine possibility list...
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I am not a supporter of converted auto engines in theory, but the pilot
of this -6 has done a lot of testing. He can post here if he wants, but
this was a fuel issue (and no, it wasn't low fuel), not an engine failure.
He flew the airplane home later that day. I don't know if he is on this forum,
but he can explain what happened if he is so inclined.
 
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It is a beautiful aircraft

I am glad he landing safely.

Since his approach was 60-65 and the speed limit is only 50, I wonder if he recieved a speeding ticket?
 
FresnoR said:
This is his second engine failure in flight with the Mazda engine. That just knocked a possible alternative engine down a couple notches on my engine possibility list...
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I heard that an RV with a Lycoming went down a month or two ago....does that knock it down on your list as well?:rolleyes:

With ZERO facts posted here, I think it is fruitless and possibly disrespectful to speculate on the cause. Glad to hear it all turned out so well, and hope he doesn't get that traffic ticket....

Paul
 
I met "Rodoc" at the races last year, while he was parked in my old hangar (where Greg A now resides and was putting him up). Very nice plane and a sharp guy. FFI Flight Lead, and as a matter of fact, just this past weekend he led a multi-plane formation at a memorial is SD, and the team received very positive reviews. Still hoping to fly on his wing at this year's West Coast Formation Clinic.

Whatever the cause, sure looks like he did a great job, and did the RV community proud through his actions and his interview.

Nice job Rodoc!

Best,
Bob
 
The real Scoop

Thanks for the kind words Bob, really enjoyed meeting you as well (and your plane is really bad-@ss). Your reward is of course my full shameful explanation...

I took my mom up for a flight on her birthday and we went to overfly the area we were going to be doing a memorial pass the next day (which I lead mostly because it was my home turf - I'm just an aspiring FFI flight lead). I was entering a user waypoint in my hand held GPS (to prepair for the memorial flight) and my hand must have accidentally hit the 'cold start' switch. That switch doubles the injector duration and is used for starting in extremely cold temperatures. But it was too much fuel for the engine to keep me aloft (just an occasional sputter). I was only at about 1100 AGL at the time so my emergency procedures only got as far as: turn toward airport, switch fuel tank, aux fuel pump, verify fuel pressure, primary switches turned on... ****, time to find a place to land this thing... call mayday, choose best spot, fly under traffic signal and onto road.

Mom was cool and collected the whole time. We were very lucky to find a gap in traffic, the cars were waiting for the light I flew under. Sheriff did joke that he was going to write me up for speeding and running a red light, I contested that I was still technically flying over the intersection. Anyway, I am really glad to have a plane as nimble as an RV. I don't think I could have done it in a Bonanza. (course a Bonanza doesn't have a 'cold start switch' either - no an RV with an aircraft engine). Who would have thunk that in an alternate engine installation, switchology ergonomics is what I didnt know enough about?

It was not until after all the commotion on my drive back to OKB that I finally had a few minutes to think about what could have been the cause... then I really felt stupid. If only my emergency procedures went one more step and I would have tried tweaking the mixture I could have saved myself a lot of embarrassment.. But when it is time to fly/land the plane, that is what you have to do. With a little more altitude I am sure I would have figured out the problem, but clouds and ground feature identification were keeping me low.

Sure enough, upon return to the plane I discovered the cold start switch flipped. I checked out everything else, ran fine. Later in the afternoon I flew it home to OKB from Palomar. The next day I was still permitted to lead the memorial flight. I am so very grateful that extreme embarrassment is all I suffer. Thanks for all the support from the RV and GA community.
 
Rodoc said:
... my hand must have accidentally hit the 'cold start' switch. That switch doubles the injector duration and is used for starting in extremely cold temperatures. But it was too much fuel for the engine to keep me aloft (just an occasional sputter). ...
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Great job getting the aircraft on the ground. Congrats.

If you've got a single switch that can kill the engine, perhaps it should have some sort of guard.
 
Sounds like a great job and and a good lesson learned as well. My congratulations to you for a job well done.

Just FYI, my neighbor has a V-6 in a BD-4 and he's had four off-field landings, all were fuel delivery related. The engine runs great and sounds awesome. That was four years ago and he's been flying trouble free since he sorted out those issues.
 
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Providence, my friend....

Rodoc said:
.......... I am so very grateful that extreme embarrassment is all I suffer. Thanks for all the support from the RV and GA community.
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....providence! You were being looked after is all I can say.

Really great outcome with true 'heads-up' flying!

Best,
 
Good Job.

Well done David on getting it down safely. Put a guard on the offending switch or relocate it out of the way. Maybe add a big red warning light as well.

Do you think you will get a parking ticket as well as a speeding ticket?
 
Ironflight said:
I heard that an RV with a Lycoming went down a month or two ago....does that knock it down on your list as well?:rolleyes:

With ZERO facts posted here, I think it is fruitless and possibly disrespectful to speculate on the cause. Glad to hear it all turned out so well, and hope he doesn't get that traffic ticket....

Paul
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Touch?. Actually the Mazda is on the top of my list. Poor first reaction on my part.

Too bad there wasn't one of those traffic intersection cameras, that would be montly wallpaper worthy.
 
Hi David
Glad it worked out and great job flying.Sorry I was not in the area to pick up your car this time.I picked up your car when you were checking out the runway surface on the 395 last time.
 
I bet Rodoc was thinking the whole time, ?light please don?t turn green now?please don?t turn green now?.? At least I would have been thinking that the whole time. :D

I hope the NTSB doesn?t give you much grief over this. You did great in the so little time you had at that altitude to do anything but land.
 
Hey Doc,

Thanks for the candid explanation. Takes guts, humility and honesty...and it will help others (whether that be placement of or guarding a critical switch in a build, or just flying the airplane first in an emergency). Well Done!

And if you had gotten a ticket, I would have wanted to be in that traffic school class, when everyone got to tell the story of how they got the ticket. You'd win, hands down! ;)

See ya in Madera!

Cheers,
Bob
 
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