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FIRE!
As
most of you know, our backup towplane (N54898) is offline due
to an inflight power failure and fire. Thanks to some cool and
level headed flying by tow pilot Lynn Joice, 898 and the tow pilot
are all in one piece. If you didn't get to attend the last club
meeting where Lynn spoke about the flight, the following is a
recap of his report to the board:
Bob Currie
had started the day with 4 or 5 tows in 54898 because 87Z was
down with an AD. I relieved Bob about 1:30 and had completed 4
uneventful tows.
The PW5 wanted
a pattern tow and we launched off the grass on 36 with a powered
A/C on base shooting touch & goes and a glider on downwind.
RPM, oil pressure & temps were fine in climbout and had been
on the other flights as well. I delayed turning to crosswind a
little to give more spacing for the other glider to roll out and
advised the PW5 to hang on if he wanted for me to turn back towards
Terry. He released at 1000 feet about 1.5 miles northwest of Terry
while still on a heading of 270. I turned south and kept the power
up to get well ahead of him anticipating landing on 36 hard surface
to stay out of his way. I think the other glider was touching
down on the south end of 36 grass at this point, but I'm not sure.
I had just rolled out of the turn, when the engine became very
rough and the RPM dropped to about 700 in 2 to 3 seconds. I checked
oil pressure and it was up. I cycled left and right mags one at
a time with no effect and I radioed glider ground that I had a
power failure. At this point I was getting smoke in the cockpit
from the top and right side of the cowling but I didn't see flames.
I closed the vent window on the right to keep smoke and fire out
and opened the left side vent to let smoke out. (that actually
worked!) I pulled the firewall fuel cutoff, shut off the radio,
both mags and the master switch.
From the beginning,
I knew I had the field made for a downwind landing on 18 but the
wind was 8-10 from the northeast and I elected to take 36. At
this point, I was just west of the jet ramp headed southeast at
about 200 feet. I turned left to final, crossing the fence just
north of the stub where glider base was set up, dropped the rope
and landed about 50 yards south of the second taxiway, crossed
the taxiway and stopped in the grass between the first and second
taxiway on the north end of 36. I exited the cockpit with the
fire bottle and opened the right side cowling. The fastener on
the rear was burned somewhat, and was too hot to touch, so I used
the bottom of the fire bottle to open it. I put out a small fire
around the fuel pump at the rear of the engine. My best guess
of time elapsed from first power loss to full stop is between
60 and 75 seconds.
The top and
back half of the muffler was blown apart which allowed exhaust
to burn the plug wires on the right side which explains the power
loss. After letting everything cool off a little, we towed it
back to the hanger and notified Dan Montgomery.
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