Incident Details

Pilot was at a fly-in in Galveston and attempted a personal altitude record. Climbed to 10,000 feet at full power until running out of gas. During descent when fuel ran low, pilot repeatedly turned to shift fuel in tank, running the engine dry 6-7 times before it finally stopped. After landing, motor was hard to start. Flew another 15 minutes and landed. During attempted cross-country flight, experienced sudden motor failure at 1500 feet. Found metal filings shorting spark plug gap. Cleaned engine and attempted another flight but had motor out at approximately 80 feet on takeoff. Investigation revealed that running engine lean at high altitude and repeatedly running it dry damaged cylinder walls, creating metal filings. Filings came from damaged cylinder and possibly from homemade aluminum choke (no air filter, exposed to sand/grit). Compression check after incident showed 150 psi indicating no severe permanent damage.

Primary cause was pilot running engine lean during extended full-power climb to high altitude, then repeatedly running engine completely dry (6-7 times) which damaged cylinder walls. This created metal filings that shorted the spark plug gap causing subsequent engine failures. Contributing factor was lack of air filter allowing grit contamination of homemade aluminum choke.

Age: 57, Weight: 150 lbs, Male

Return to the incident list: Incident List Motor Out PPG Type: Type of Injury: Pilot Details Age: 57 Weight: 150 Gender: Highest rating held at the time of the incident: Pilot experience level: Gear Details Wing Brand: Model: Muse 25 Size: Paramotor Frame: DK Whisper with Incident Details March 14, 2009 Location of the incident: , Type of Incident: I was at a fly-in at Galveston and decided to make an altitude record for myself. I had almost a full tank of gas and just kept full power on making large circles upwards until I ran out of gas at 10,000 feet. I then glided down back to the beach. I noted the motor was a little hard to start with my starter, so I hand pulled it and flew another 15 minutes and landed. The group was going to make a cross country so I took off and made it about 1500 feet and then had a sudden motor out. After getting picked up on the beach with a pickup, I took my spark plug out and found it had some metal fillings shorting across the gap, thereby killing the spark. I had a homemade choke made out of aluminum which had a lot of grit on it from the sand (no air filter), so I figured the metal shaving were from that. Therefore I went home, poured gas in the carb opening, with the spark plug out, washing the fillings out. The motor ran fine after so I took it out to fly, but had a motor out at about 80 feet on take off. Checked again, more metal fillings. On reviewing the pattern with someone with experience in repairs, it was speculated that as I was approaching my maximum altitude I let it run lean and damaged the cylinder walls. I compounded this by another action. As I ran out of gas during the altitude attempt, I found if I turned I could shift some gas from the low end of the gas tank up to the shallow end so getting another few minutes of flight time. So actually I let it run dry 6 or 7 times before it actually died. After consulting, the opinion was that the damage was already done, so I was advised to put in a rich oil mixture, 32:1, run it for 20 minutes then check the compression. For the DK Whisper under 100 lbs probably was not safe to fly, for 120-130 flyable but low power, 150 lbs per square inch normal. It died suddenly after 15 minutes running, with another filling short across the spark plug, but then well after that. Compression was 150 so I lucked out and no severe damage done. So the moral is, do not keep the motor running until you run out of gas, especially repeatedly. You might burn up your engine. Flight Window: Wind Speed: Type: Phase of Flight: Type of Injury: Collateral Damage: Analysis of the incident (additional input by the incident investigation team): Photos (if available): Video (if available): Other Files (if available): Return to the incident list: Incident List