Last week, my friend flew his Mooney from FL, to NY to help me with work. (By the way, I urged him to purchase a new vacuum pump, which he did, but he did not install it) On descent, having just popped out of hard IFR conditions, he changed RPM and his vacuum pump failed. He was certainly happy to have the D1 clipped into an empty hole.
He was using a GoPro video camera and it's quite possible he has the situation on video. We will have to review the video. I certainly hope his battery and memory were still functional towards the end of this flight.
In any case, I changed his vacuum pump, cleaned the system of debris and got him on his way. I pointed to the pile of broken vacuum pump vanes and asked him if he was still willing to trust his life to such a device.
He was using a GoPro video camera and it's quite possible he has the situation on video. We will have to review the video. I certainly hope his battery and memory were still functional towards the end of this flight.
In any case, I changed his vacuum pump, cleaned the system of debris and got him on his way. I pointed to the pile of broken vacuum pump vanes and asked him if he was still willing to trust his life to such a device.