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Late in the afternoon, RV-8 N540JT, took off with 2 people
on board. This is a fairly new RV-8 and was looking great. The
panel has just about all that you'd want in a nice RV. The topper
though was the potent IO540 engine sitting there waiting to go. I
had a brief conversation with the pilot as he was climbing in to
leave. The -8 took off and made a low approach (along with several
other planes) before heading NE. Beth had just returned from the
Stinson with the scanner and just turned it on when she heard
"Mayday, Mayday, 540........". Apparently, N540JT had an
abrupt engine failure and was going down. The area is full of corn and
bean fields and the pilot attempted to land in a freshly plowed
field. When landing, apparently the left main gear dug in and
collapsed resulting in further unknown damage. The pilot and
passenger got out and walked around, as reported by another circling
plane. I don't know what happened to the engine but everyone was
glad both pilots walked away, apparently unhurt.
This last picture shows the plane in the field but, unfortunately,
digital camera's don't work well at 1500' agl. Epiloge:
The plane has been completely repaired and is flying again.
You would never know that there had been a problem. They even added
some graphics during the repair. The engine outage was caused by a
failed diaphram in the fuel injection causing all the fuel to be
vented overboard. Although the logs showed that this unit had been
serviced when sent it away for repair the overhaul shop found parts
inside that should have been replaced under AD's that went back almost
20 yrs! |
