From: Carl Johnson
Subject: Cardinal bit the dust
It has been quite awhile since I have contributed to this forum, or even had time to read it, but this is an event that fellow Cardinal flyers should know about. The plane is/was a 78 RG, N2019Q,that I have owned for the last 8 years.
I just finished up a $4k annual with an independent mechanic. Independent meaning uninsured! He seemed like a very diligent mechanic, and he was willing to work cheap. He replaced tires, shoulder belts, prop governor, and the # 4 cylinder - as well as fixing a lot of other little things that really needed fixing.The plane had been using a quart of oil every 2-3 hrs, and the plugs on #4 were wet, although all the cylinders had great compression. The cylinder was sent up to Minneapolis (Bullocks) for a rebuild, and my mechanic put it on.
Sunday morning after church, my son (a Navy pilot) and I went out to the airport (Rochester, MN), to give the mechanic a hand bleeding the brakes. After bleeding the brakes, we pulled the plane out of the hanger with the cowl - both upper and lower - off. We checked the oil (break-in mineral oil) and it was at 7 qts.
We let the engine come up to temp, then ran the engine up to 1800 rpm (while I held down the brakes), the mechanic checked everything for leaks. He must have spent at least 10 minutes looking at everything with his flashlight.Everything was working great, no leaks, good oil pressure, cool temp, etc. So the mechanic put the cowls back on and my son and I took it up for a little flight. The mechanic said I should get it up to cruise and leave it there for an hour or so before slowing it down.
I checked the oil pressure as usual during takeoff run up and it was fine. We took off, climbed to 2000 agl and headed North over the city. I checked the oil pressure again, just as part of my instrument scan five or six miles north of Rochester and it was fine.
My house is about 10 miles north of the city, we circled it, then headed east for a mile or so when the engine started vibrating like crazy. I really thought it was going to shake off! I backed off on the power, and the engine shut down.I tried to do a restart, and the prop moved about 5 degrees - it was seized. After trying the restart, I was going to give the tower a call since I was still monitoring them, but the radios, gps, etc were all dead. Have no idea why!
A little aside here - when I was interviewing with the FAA yesterday, he said that Rochester Unicom received a distress call from us. Figure that one out, in the 35 years I have been flying out of Rochester, I can't remember calling Unicom once!
Anyway, back to the scenario - we had below us a very nice asphalt, straight county road with no traffic!! We were headed east, the wind was from the west, the runway (road) was on my left. We were set up for a perfect approach.I put the gear down while up higher than normal - since I didn't have power to my avionics, I wanted to make sure I had time to pump it down if I needed to. It went down and locked perfectly. Since I didn't need power for anything anymore, I shut down the master - just in case.
Everything was going fine until we saw the power lines. I had plenty of forward speed to get up and over the lines. I turned on to a very low final and was ready to flare when we lost total control. I had no idea why we lost control until the next morning when I went out to take pictures and found 3 feet of wing up in a tree along side of the road. So - except for the last 2 seconds or so of the flight everything was going fine.
We slid across a fairly smooth field that was very wet from snow melt - slid about 100 yards, losing gear and misc parts on the way! When we came to a stop, we were in a waterfall of 100 octane. The right tank had ruptured - at this time, I was very happy I had a cool engine and I had shut the master off!I asked my son if he was OK and he said no. I said it didn't matter and that he had to get out - my door was jammed into the ground. So he climbed out with a fractured vertebrae, got about 30 feet away and went to his knees - where he remained until picked up by air ambulance.
I climbed out with a black eye and burned neck from the shoulder belts. And I have a slight backache, which I am going to have looked at again tomorrow. Emergency room doc said nothing was wrong.
We were so lucky (or blessed) - plane stayed together, didn't catch on fire, didn't invert. As far as I am concerned, it was a perfect landing - I walked away! I was slightly $25k underinsured, but who cares - I walked away!
Another aside - the fellow that rewebbed the seat belts told my mechanic a week ago that the old belts wouldn't have held 100 pounds. It appears that the new belts contributed to saving our lives!Now for my questions for your knowledgeable forum readers. What would cause 7 quarts of oil to disappear in 15 minutes? Dipstick show empty. Should I be getting a lawyer? Any experience as to how long this legal cleanup process takes? Any other words of advice?
Thanks - Carl
The clue is in the second paragraph where Carl reports that the prop governer was replaced. In fact the mechanic failed to install the proper adapter/spacer plate. This is a simple thing but absolutely devastating if you leave it out. Read about it on this page, and read well: only a few people have missed this, but they really regret it.
Here is the rest of the story as it unfolded later in official documentation:
#NTSB1 Accident Occurred on: 2005-03-06 00:00:00
Narrative (ACCP): On March 6, 2005, about 1346 central standard time, a Cessna 177RG, N2019Q, owned and piloted by a private pilot, sustained substantial damage during a forced landing following a loss of engine power while maneuvering near Rochester Minnesota. The 14 CFR Part 91 personal flight was operating in visual meteorological conditions without a flight plan. The passenger received serious injuries and the pilot received minor injuries. The local flight originated about 1330.
FAA Accident/Incident Information
#FAA1 Accident/Incident Occurred on: 2005-03-06
Narrative: (-23) THIS WAS THE FIRST FLIGHT CONDUCTED SINCE THE ANNUAL INSPECTION WAS COMPLETED ON MARCH 2, 2005. DURING THE ANNUAL INSPECTION THE #4 CYLINDER AND PROP GOVERNOR WERE REPLACED. DURING THE FLIGHT, THE PILOT AND PASSENGER DESCRIBED HEARING A WHINING AND RATTLING NOISE. THE ENGINE THEN KNOCKED AND LOST POWER, THE PROP CAME TO AN ABRUPT STOP, (ENGINE QUIT). THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO RESTART THE ENGINE BUT THE STARTER WOULD NOT TURN THE PROPELLER. THE AIRCRAFT MADE AN OFF AIRPORT LANDING. DURING THE LANDING THE RIGHT WING HIT A TREE CAUSING SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE TO THE AIRCRAFT. INSPECTION OF THE OIL DIPSTICK REVEALED NO OIL SHOWING. DURING PARTIAL ENGINE TEARDOWN IT WAS NOTED THAT THERE WAS OIL RESIDUE AROUND THE PROP GOVERNOR LEADING DOWN THE ACCESSORY CASE. THERE WAS ALSO A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF OIL ON THE BOTTOM OF THE AIRCRAFT FUSELAGE. THE ACCESSORY CASE WAS REMOVED WHICH REVEALED THE NUMBER 4 CONNECTING ROD WAS BROKEN. THE PROP GOVERNOR WAS REMOVED AND IT WAS NOTED THAT THE GASKET STACK-UP DID NOT COMPLY WITH LYCOMING SI 1438. THERE WAS APPROXIMATELY ONE TO ONE AND ONE HALF QUARTS OF OIL REMAINING IN THE ENGINE. THE OIL DRAIN QUICK DRAIN WAS IN PLACE AND WAS NOT LEAKING.