503 Cooling fan

[Yenn]

Iv'e just had a call from a friend of mine who flies a single seat Thruster. He had a failure of his cooling fan, heard a small noise and discovered that his fan had disintegrated.

 

He tells me that the fan and also the aluminium housing were demolished, but no damage to the prop. He has some remains of the fan belt, which are damaged. Hr was at about 2700' and 5 miles form home so just reduced power and landed, with no rise in temperature visible on the CHT guages.

 

I havn't seen it yet, but my guess is that the belt broke and part of it went into the fan and demolished it and the housing. I may get to see it at the weekend, but would suggest that inspection of fan belts at pre flight time may be a good idea. Will keep you posted.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Years ago when we were all commonly using air/fan cooled Rotaxs we knew you had to be carefull how you held those fans, whilst tightening the bolt, as you could damage them, which would lead to failure.

 

It is possible the belt failed, but more likely the fan just failed. They are only nylon and must be getting old by now.