Argonaut Mayday

[CJS]

The attached photos are of Argonaut on the Friday race at Reno 2008 when the engine was doing its imitation of a hand gernade. The photos were taken during the two minutes that followed that moment. They start near Pylon #8 and end up on Runway 14.

[Skyracer]

Re: Argonaut Mayday

UHHH...Imitation?

[Red]

Re: Argonaut Mayday

CJ

How about a first hand account of what it was like from the drivers seat?

[Inverted]

Re: Argonaut Mayday

um are those cell phone pics?

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Argonaut Mayday

CJ

How about a first hand account of what it was like from the drivers seat?

That's gonna be a good read!!

[evanflys]

Re: Argonaut Mayday

[LearFanKid]

Re: Argonaut Mayday

Thanks for sharing your pics... as good as these are none of them do justice to seeing it happen as the flames were shooting out. Those were some scary moments. The pilot sure did a good job getting down on the runway.. quick. There were a couple seconds of prayin he'd make the runway (from an amateurs perspective anyway)

[Peashooter]

Re: Argonaut Mayday

CJ: We'd love the hear the details of the failure once they're known. With that much oil, something major broke or let go. Wow! It also appears that the prop didn't feather/go into coarse pitch, I suppose due to the loss of oil pressure? How much did that shorten your time to get it down? Excellent flying!

[Inverted]

Re: Argonaut Mayday

Isnt it supposed to go course with oil pressure loss? Thats how most engines are.

[evanflys]

Re: Argonaut Mayday

[Red]

Re: Argonaut Mayday

Wow!

Great shot Evan!!

[King]

Re: Argonaut Mayday

http://evanflys.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/P1040357-1.283184610_large.JPG

The first one with flames that I have seen.

Nice shot.

[CJS]

Re: Argonaut Mayday

Well the explosion was loud and everything started shaking violently. My first thought was that the motor was rejecting the ADI so I reduced throttle setting and turned off ADI pump. Soon ( about 3 seconds ) I became convinced this might be serious so pointed the airplane at the "low Key" downwind position for Rwy 14. The shaking was violent. Brief surges of high power made me think it was beneficial to NOT pull course propeller. Apex was at 3,000'agl; desired low key 2,500'agl; actual altitude was @ 2,000'agl. With low energy state I had to hold landing gear until last minute to be able to line up on Rwy 14. With 90 degrees to turn I looked for place in desert to 'put it down' but that looked really ugly so re-focused on the turn to final. A very low flap setting helped with turn and getting the gear at the last minute made it all work. The fire had gone out by landing but the motor froze solid on the runway. The landing was pretty uneventful but getting out of the cockpit, with all of that oil, was extremely slippery and a fellow could have hurt himself.
"CJ"

[planecrazy2]

Re: Argonaut Mayday

Congratulations on a fine job of piloting CJ.

I was there and had my binocs on you the whole time. Don't think I took a breath till you successfully rolled out. Everything sure happened quick.

Thanks for sharing your experience here.

[AAFO_WSagar]

Re: Argonaut Mayday

Well the explosion was loud and everything started shaking violently. My first thought was that the motor was rejecting the ADI so I reduced throttle setting and turned off ADI pump. Soon ( about 3 seconds ) I became convinced this might be serious so pointed the airplane at the "low Key" downwind position for Rwy 14. The shaking was violent. Brief surges of high power made me think it was beneficial to NOT pull course propeller. Apex was at 3,000'agl; desired low key 2,500'agl; actual altitude was @ 2,000'agl. With low energy state I had to hold landing gear until last minute to be able to line up on Rwy 14. With 90 degrees to turn I looked for place in desert to 'put it down' but that looked really ugly so re-focused on the turn to final. A very low flap setting helped with turn and getting the gear at the last minute made it all work. The fire had gone out by landing but the motor froze solid on the runway. The landing was pretty uneventful but getting out of the cockpit, with all of that oil, was extremely slippery and a fellow could have hurt himself.
"CJ"

Hi CJ, thanks for recounting the experience, Matt Jackson told me the engine on Argo was just about totally cut in half.. Damn good thing the oil didn't burn any more than it did!

Until you wrote the account, I had to look at your membership here several times to realize that you were C.J. the Pilot CJ....

Thanks again for visiting and sharing!