Originally I accepted 5 passengers to fly to Taipei. So we embarked, I ran the checklist and quickly left from Tainan, heading towards the East coast, over the mountains.
I found some clouds right after the mountains, but not dense enough to be worried about them. So I went on flying along the coast, heading North, enjoying the landscape.
But suddenly, on cruise, I get an alert. Right engine exhaust gasses are too hot. Certainly they are hotter than they should. I check that the thrust is still fine, so I decided to lean that engine differently and to open the right cowl flap, to lower the EGT. I also reduced the RPMs to 2300 and the manifold a bit, to release some pressure off the system, and decided to continue towards Taipei on that configuration.
However, suddenly I hear a nasty beeping sound. The CO alarm system is activated. That means CO in cabin and lack of oxygen. This is far more serious. I quickly applied the protocol for CO detection, which begins by closing the heater, and it worked. Apparently the CO is coming from the damaged engine.
I consider now an emergency landing on a nearby airport. The situation seems to be controlled but too risky to continue flying with passengers. And, luckily, I was flying right over Hualien airport, at 9,500 ft over the ground. So I decided to land at Hualien and have that engine checked before continuing North. I did a sort of spiral descent till entering in the traffic pattern and landing. I had to desynchronize the propellers right before landing, since there was a different in thrust at low speeds and I was not sure the engine would eventually stop on air.
Safe landing, although my passengers are not happy, obviously. I tell them to wait while I talk to the technicians at the workshop. Apparently a magneto is broken, which caused the differencial RPMs and the overheating of the engine. The CO leak came as a consequence. Luckily, it will take just few hours to fix, and won't be too expensive.
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ZHUOXI HUALIEN (YILAN)
RCNN 021600Z 00000KT 9999 FEW012 27/24 Q1012 RMK A2991
RCMQ 021700Z 20005KT 9999 FEW010 SCT200 26/24 Q1012 RMK A2991 AWOS R36 WIND N/A
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