Frostbite023
Member
My journey continues unfortunately with another problem. Haven't flown in about 2 weeks due to a faulty light. Was looking forward to a nice scenic flight today and on startup I noticed immediately that my normal rotax vibration was a little more aggressive. As I increased power to around ~3000rpm that vibration became even more violent. It was so harsh that my voice was shaking while talking (like talking into a fan). I shut it down, gave it a moment, and restarted with the same result. Engine oil was allowed to warm up well beyond 120 and did a full throttle static runup. RPMs exceed 5000 so still getting sufficient power and the vibrations got better. It's tough to tell if it's normal vibrations at that power setting. My brain was telling me that it was still vibrating worse than usual but that could be an effect of the vibrations at a lower speed.
Without a doubt though, the vibrations are excessive at around 3000rpm. Haven't had this problem before. I did check the prop balance when I bought it and they said it was fine. Not sure if it's possible for that to degrade over time, all the bolts look good (torque paint agrees). I've linked a short video, it really doesn't do it justice but you can see how the stick is vibrating, the whole plane is vibrating like that. Unfortunately my phone camera likes to smooth things out.
Any advice? My mechanic is coming tomorrow night and we're going to try to diagnose it and find a solution but I would love some ideas on where to start. I really wish someone else had an RV12 at Henderson or even North Las Vegas that I could confer with....
Without a doubt though, the vibrations are excessive at around 3000rpm. Haven't had this problem before. I did check the prop balance when I bought it and they said it was fine. Not sure if it's possible for that to degrade over time, all the bolts look good (torque paint agrees). I've linked a short video, it really doesn't do it justice but you can see how the stick is vibrating, the whole plane is vibrating like that. Unfortunately my phone camera likes to smooth things out.
Any advice? My mechanic is coming tomorrow night and we're going to try to diagnose it and find a solution but I would love some ideas on where to start. I really wish someone else had an RV12 at Henderson or even North Las Vegas that I could confer with....