Latest from warbird conference

[Bill Greenwood]

I Just returned from the NWOC at Mobile, and one of the topics was problems pilots are having with recent Merlin overhauls. Several had engines that seemed to be running normally, but then quit in flight, perhaps when power was reduced from cruise. All were able to land at an airport safely, but not what you want to have to do again. A Merlin makes a lot of noise and a lot of power and if it suddenly stops doing both it focuses all you attention. No real definitive cause has been found, but suspicion is focused on the carburetors, with the thinking that recent overhauls have used new materials for the diaphragms' which seem more durable, but in fact may not be as good as the old type rubber ones which have been proven over decades. Chad Ezell observed that even taking the carb off and testing on a flow bench may not readily show the problem. So if you are flying a 51 now with a new carb oh be extra aware. One case was Mark Henley who took off and fortunately made a circling departure so that when it quit on DW he was able to land ok. Of course he's one of the very top pilots and has upteen T-6 hours and enough Mustang time.
Other news on the positive side is that Paul at Roush says they are about to start doing overhauls for magnetos and they have a large stock of NOS parts, etc. for them.

[Mark17]

Thanks for the update Bill. Any and all info that can be passed on to everyone within the community is greatly appreciated! It sounds like the conference was great and you learned some new info to share with us. Thanks again and CAVU