When Edward Frye posted a video to YouTube in late November 2021 about his catastrophic engine failure right after takeoff, he didn’t expect more than 273,000 views.
The flight was the first after the engine on his Cessna 210 Centurion was overhauled.
“New cam shaft, lifters, bearings, connecting rod bolts, rings, and honed cylinders,” Edward says. “Fresh zero-time propeller and prop governor. We had started the engine three times and made sure everything was in great shape before this fourth time. I performed a run-up and everything was looking good, so I took off to break-in the engine. It ended up breaking instead.”
A few days after the first video aired, Edward posted a Post Engine Out After Takeoff incident debrief:
The engine damage leads me to believe the piston ring end gaps were not checked when new rings were installed causing the rings to seize in the cylinder bore. After an engine rebuild, piston rings run hotter because of the increased friction against the honed cylinder bores. Checking and adjusting piston ring gaps is especially critical on a supercharged, air-cooled engine because of the higher operating temperature of the Pistons which may not show up as quickly in the cylinder head or exhaust temperatures.
Actually, I was wrong. It was more than a 180 degree turn back, but the alternate runway position is what helped it work more than a turn-around to Rwy 12.
As I said, good show.
Outstanding airmanship, but important to note this was not a classic “turn back”. From Rey 30 to Runway 08 (your statement) is only 40 degrees. Worth pointing out.
Nevertheless, you quickly dumped the nose to retain energy, kept your cool and did it. I’d estimate you had less than 10 seconds to spare on the failure.
Good show.
I think survey would reveal failure upon changing a setting is more of a worn cable, loose set screw, worn rotating attachment/bell-crank issue, all avoidable with proper attention service. I would also think having it happen in the airport area would be preferable to an upcoming canyon or residential area.
Glad you got down safely with no collateral damage. Not bad for a ‘low time pilot’. There will always be those with differing views on how you handled it….oh well.
Quite a story on how frustrating it was getting the engine issues diagnosed/addressed, to then have a catastrophic failure anyway. There’s another “option” to consider if it’s available in your area:
Take it to a trade/technical school that has an
Airframe & Powerplant Mechanic program.
A key take away point in this video is that engines very often fail on changes of state. Be it after TO or at the end of cruise.
As I tell my students or whomever I fly with:
“DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE ENGINE UNTIL AT LEAST 1000 FT OR WHATEVER ALTITUDE YOU NEED TO GET BACK TO THE RUNWAY!”
It’s cheap insurance!
Well, i like to pull the power back just a tad after take-off. I Don’t need full blast RPM when I mostly fly by myself or with one other person in a 182. Cuts the noise down a bit for the airport neighbors and I figure, “What better place for an engine failure than with 4000′ of paved runway right in front of me?”
Not true, according to the great Flying magazine editor Dick Collins. He wondered about that and analyzed years’ of engine failure accidents and concluded that there was no statistical correlation between change of state and engine failure.
There isn’t enough factual information in this report to make a sound judgement. But the reported list of parts replaced sure doesn’t sound like an overhaul. Continental SB97-6B lists many parts that must be replaced on an overhaul, and none of this mentioned. In the report, it sounds as if there were only a few minutes of ground runs, which is contrary to the Continental overhaul manual run-in procedures. And the reported “ran the engine for 2 minutes to bring it ip to temp” is hardly an engine run-in. Plus, I have never seen an engine come up to operating temps after a 2 minute run!
WOW ! It’s very sad to see a newly iran’d engine fail so quickly.!
Obviously something was not installed or torqued correctly.
Seeing the oil pressure drop off at the same time as the rpms drop indicates to me that a bearing spun and the rod cap separated.
Disassembly would show if it was a main bearing that spun first and then when the rod lost oil pressure, it failed.
It would be nice if Edward would post another video of the disassembled engine with the mechanic’s analysis of the failure.