So you think he lost the final drive belt and that event disabled the mechanical linkage for the bypass, so he was restricted to the airflow between the rotors giving him idle power? Could be. Is the default of the bypass open or closed or will it just stay in place?
That is EXACTLY what happened... The belt was so stressed that when it broke, the kinetic energy threw the belt into the linkage / cable and jammed the bypass valve closed.....
Several things happened in a split second......
1-The motor instantly gained 30 HP, which is why the witnesses hear the motor rev up for a second.. The prop governor cannot react that fast to add pitch to slow down the revs.
2- Then is when to idle,, the construction worker stated that... My hangar mate with the RV-6 heard that... It came past me idling... I /we found dirt in the throat of the fuel injector and part ways up the intake tubes of the motor. Motor was running at 610 rpm at impact.
Also, the NTSB gals report reads exactly like the web page description of the G3I site... I don't know if she just used the web page as a narrative or spoke in depth with the owner of G3I to get the same words... I had to explain to Zoe how a supercharger works and it would be a slim chance of her mentioning Hi Helix rotors... I "thing she reported the supercharger had 4 lobe rotors,,, my pics show them as three lobe rotors.
I am the one to use heat to dissemble the charger since the case was deformed by ground impact and with any scroll type rotors, they need to rotate to remove them from the assembly.
The original plane had three push pull cables.. One for the throttle, one for the mixture and one for the prop.. All three has a light blue sheathe covering their outer casing.. The new one that controlled the bypass valve and a red knob similar to a mixture cable but it's casing was black...
I would like to download the hundreds of pics I have so all I need to do is reference a certain pic# and you guys can view them...
As it is I can only attach 4 pics with each posting so I will add the most important ones... I have had several guys try to log into my Flickr site but for some reason it rejects all attempts....
First pic is of the supercharger as it hangs from the wreckage as I bought it into my secure hangar for the NTSB investigation... Notice it had 2 cables still attached.. One is the throttle cable for the fuel injector, the other one is is for the custom / manual bypass valve modification...
Second pic is another view of that cable /connection.
Third pic is of the panel and a rats nest of twisted wires..... Notice there are three blue sheathed cables and one black jacketed cable... Also notice how Russ had labeled all his wires.... There is no doubt he was very anal in his construction during the build of this RV-7.....
All I can figure is he wanted total control of the bypass valve so he might gain a couple of more HP out of the motor... Use racers think like that, we would sell the wife and kids for another 5 HP....
Fourth pic shows a image of the 3GI logo on the wreckage.... I have been told by several people that N820RV was the prototype/ demo / display plane for the supercharger, ignition and fuel delivery systems... The owner /guy at 3GI was completely honest with me when he called me several times to discuss what I had seen / Uncovered etc etc... He is just human and trying to keep his business viable and he might have told Zoe the glamor parts of his aftermarket stuff.... He HAD to have known that Russ had removed the vacuum /automatic bypass set up and installed the manual cable. I even pointed that out to Zoe several times, but for some strange reason that important fact was left out of the "factual " NTSB final report.. You guys /gals can draw your own conclusions...
