Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Emergency landing

Last Saturday saw another spring day and we were staying at our friends who have a farm near Andover in Hampshire. It was the perfect place with plenty of space to take off from (so I slipped the old 4-stroke machine in the car together with all the baby gear, cots, bags, food and push chair! Thankfully, Diana, my wife, is used to this game!)

That afternoon I took off in light winds and flew around the farm taking pictures before flying on towards Ibthorpe where they live in a thatched cottage. I was circling above this little village, taking more photos, when the engine started vibrating violently, all power and revs were lost and I was losing height! I was worried that part of the propellor had come off causing it to become unbalanced? So I cut the engine at 1500ft and drifted down to land conveniently by the cottage but unconveniently 6km from my car!

I studied the engine and nothing was visibly wrong. I am still not sure what the problem was as I still have to get it repaired but I suspect that it could be the bearings inside? I'll keep you posted. A great shame as it was a perfect evening with a red skies and silky smooth air...

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