Good call or bad call?

[alan_k]

Had a lovely flight this evening; a little too much adrenaline on the second half though. I’ll go through the thought process and you make your mind up whether I made a good call or a bad call.

I was just about at my turnpoint when a loud buzzing started.

I immediately thought it was interference on the radio.

I turned my head left and right and it was louder on the left – not interference then.

I tried looking around to see if anything was fouling the prop – couldn’t see anything.

Wondered if the prop was delaminating, or some netting was loose?

Lowered the revs slightly, the buzzing changed pitch – something to do with the motor then!

Throttle control was OK, heading was OK, and there was no extra vibration.

I carried on flying back to the T/O field listening intently to the pitch of the noise.

I looked behind as much as I could and could see the exit pipe of the silencer moving about a little, not enough to be a worry with striking the prop.

I thought maybe the exhaust to silencer union had come adrift, there is a donut between the two to allow for movement, secured with 3 spring loaded bolts.

What if one or two of the bolts had failed leaving just one?

What would happen if the other failed?

The buzzing remained constant throughout the return flight, I killed the engine at 1100 feet over the field so as not to risk anything adverse happening if I lowered the revs.

So I got back and had a safe landing, was it a good call or a bad call?

The problem turned out to be a fractured 90° pipe linking the exhaust to the silencer

In hindsight if anything had fallen off that would have been very bad airmanship.

Cheers, Alan

[norbertflyer]

Always a good call to land in those situations. Lucky you were near your field for convenience etc. I've 'out landed' a couple of times due to poor weather forcasting and each time glad I did, rather than braving it out. Glad it ended ok ish.

Richard