engine failure

I recently acquired a 1973 P337 Skymaster and had a bit of trouble with
it on a flight to New Jersey when I lost an engine enroute. I left
Magnolia Arkansas in the morning and flew to Knoxville for lunch and
refueling, then on to CDW --Essex County, New Jersey. Over Allentown,
I noticed fluctuations in manifold pressure on the front engine and
rough operation. The EGT and cylinder head temps were fine, but my oil
pressure was down to nothing, so I shut down the engine and feathered
the prop. I called ATC and let them know. Then I flew the plane on
towards CDW keeping a close eye on the rear engine guages. Since the
engine is turbocharged, I had no trouble holding altitude on one engine
and therefore decided to continue to my destination (about 15 min
more). When I arrived at CDW, they had men and equipment waiting and
let me use whatever runway I wanted. I chose 22, entered a right
downwind, and put my gear down. But it wouldn't go down. So I circled
and pumped it down. Then no gear light came on. I tried to call the
tower, but I had lost all electrical. (Hence the gear light failure).
So I lined up on final and landed the plane.

The mechanic at CDW looked everything over the next day and reported
the front engine had blown an oil seal for one of the cylinders, and
the rear engine's alternator was bad. In addition he said the fuel
line to the rear engine had eroded through and there was a gas leak in
the rear engine compartment. He noticed this because of a leak of gas
on the hanger floor. I swear there was no leakage of gas under the
plane prior to the trip. So I had three systems fail in one leg of the
trip.

The plane was one month new to me. I had 30 hours on it since
purchasing it and had fortunately practiced single engine landings and
manual gear extension. For 30 hours there was no excessive oil
consumption or leaks or ther signs of trouble. So it's hard to blame
the mechanics who worked on it last. Just fate I guess.

Glad to hear you were able to land safely! That second engine sure can
come in handy, in a pinch, ehhh?

Best Regards,
Todd

The plane was one month new to me. I had 30 hours on it since
purchasing it and had fortunately practiced single engine landings and
manual gear extension. For 30 hours there was no excessive oil
consumption or leaks or ther signs of trouble. So it's hard to blame
the mechanics who worked on it last. Just fate I guess.

Crikey! Three separate systems failed during a single flight?

Either the odds played out against you in the worst way possible, or the
folks who did your pre-buy inspection missed a bunch of stuff.

Glad you made it down okay...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Well I must confess that I didn't get a pre buy inspection. The plane
had just gone through an annual, and I went over the plane with the
shop that did the annual (St Cloud Aviation). Maybe this speaks to the
value of a pre buy, although I have a hard time believing they could
find something that was "about" to fail.

Jay Honeck wrote:
The plane was one month new to me. I had 30 hours on it since
purchasing it and had fortunately practiced single engine landings and
manual gear extension. For 30 hours there was no excessive oil
consumption or leaks or ther signs of trouble. So it's hard to blame
the mechanics who worked on it last. Just fate I guess.

Crikey! Three separate systems failed during a single flight?

Either the odds played out against you in the worst way possible, or the
folks who did your pre-buy inspection missed a bunch of stuff.

Glad you made it down okay...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay Honeck wrote:

Crikey! Three separate systems failed during a single flight?

Either the odds played out against you in the worst way possible, or the
folks who did your pre-buy inspection missed a bunch of stuff.


Knowing how they build in redundancies in aircraft (which would pale
the best HAZOP study), the odds are very heavily on the latter.

Nice ending to what could easily have gotten a lot worse.

Ramapriya

"swag" wrote in message
oups.com...
Well I must confess that I didn't get a pre buy inspection. The plane
had just gone through an annual, and I went over the plane with the
shop that did the annual (St Cloud Aviation). Maybe this speaks to the
value of a pre buy, although I have a hard time believing they could
find something that was "about" to fail.


snip


There are plenty of things that they could find that are ""about" to
fail"...




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Wow! That was a interesting flight. I don't think I would tell the wife.

I'm glad you made it ok. As said here that second engine is nice to have
around. Since you mentioned you left Magnolia Arkansas and that is only
about 30 miles from me (ELD) I'm wondering is the plane originally from
around here and was your pre-buy done by anyone from around here.


"swag" wrote in message
oups.com...
I recently acquired a 1973 P337 Skymaster and had a bit of trouble with
it on a flight to New Jersey when I lost an engine enroute. I left
Magnolia Arkansas in the morning and flew to Knoxville for lunch and
refueling, then on to CDW --Essex County, New Jersey. Over Allentown,
I noticed fluctuations in manifold pressure on the front engine and
rough operation. The EGT and cylinder head temps were fine, but my oil
pressure was down to nothing, so I shut down the engine and feathered
the prop. I called ATC and let them know. Then I flew the plane on
towards CDW keeping a close eye on the rear engine guages. Since the
engine is turbocharged, I had no trouble holding altitude on one engine
and therefore decided to continue to my destination (about 15 min
more). When I arrived at CDW, they had men and equipment waiting and
let me use whatever runway I wanted. I chose 22, entered a right
downwind, and put my gear down. But it wouldn't go down. So I circled
and pumped it down. Then no gear light came on. I tried to call the
tower, but I had lost all electrical. (Hence the gear light failure).
So I lined up on final and landed the plane.

The mechanic at CDW looked everything over the next day and reported
the front engine had blown an oil seal for one of the cylinders, and
the rear engine's alternator was bad. In addition he said the fuel
line to the rear engine had eroded through and there was a gas leak in
the rear engine compartment. He noticed this because of a leak of gas
on the hanger floor. I swear there was no leakage of gas under the
plane prior to the trip. So I had three systems fail in one leg of the
trip.

The plane was one month new to me. I had 30 hours on it since
purchasing it and had fortunately practiced single engine landings and
manual gear extension. For 30 hours there was no excessive oil
consumption or leaks or ther signs of trouble. So it's hard to blame
the mechanics who worked on it last. Just fate I guess.

"swag" wrote in message
I recently acquired a 1973 P337 Skymaster and had a bit of trouble with
it on a flight to New Jersey when I lost an engine enroute.

I had a C-337 once. I never could get the rear alternator to work for more
than an hour (Both engines can be hand-propped, but the front engine is a
bit more of as pain). I had a fuel injection spider line break on the rear
engine which caused the engine to shutdown sooner than I expected due to
fuel exhaustion. In hindsight I wondered when I would have detected a fire
on that rear engine if it had caught fire. The gear system is a CF. After
the second indicator problem, I just flew around with the gear down. The
cabin is small and noisy. The fly-over noise is loud. I got rid of it and
bought another Aztec.

D.

I'm happy with the noise level (P337) and not dissatisfied with the
cabin size. You're right about not ever knowing until too late if the
rear engine catches on fire. I may have to get rid of this if I ever
want my wife to get in a small plane again. She has sworn off ever
setting foot in this one.

Capt.Doug wrote:
"swag" wrote in message
I recently acquired a 1973 P337 Skymaster and had a bit of trouble with
it on a flight to New Jersey when I lost an engine enroute.

I had a C-337 once. I never could get the rear alternator to work for more
than an hour (Both engines can be hand-propped, but the front engine is a
bit more of as pain). I had a fuel injection spider line break on the rear
engine which caused the engine to shutdown sooner than I expected due to
fuel exhaustion. In hindsight I wondered when I would have detected a fire
on that rear engine if it had caught fire. The gear system is a CF. After
the second indicator problem, I just flew around with the gear down. The
cabin is small and noisy. The fly-over noise is loud. I got rid of it and
bought another Aztec.

D.