Apparently the turbo sprung an oil leak and I ran out of oil in the air, causing the engine to fail while we were flying. Thankfully I had started noticing that the engine was making a noise that wasn't quite right and expedited our approach to the runway, and as I did that the engine failed due to lack of oil, started vibrating heavily, and I eventually stopped it so that we could have a glide without all that shaking. I almost made it to the runway, but since it was on the Playa, landing anywhere was fine, and I was able to steer towards the runway for smoother ground while decelerating on the ground, and get closer to the airport taxi area although in the end the plane did stop short and had to be towed there. While having an engine failure sucks, this was just about the safest place possible to have one, and the landing was uneventful. As a first for this year, I also was able to bring and fly my motor glider RC plane I had spent loads of time preparing and testing. I have a separate page for these RC flights, and pictures/videos of Burning Man from the sky. You can see most of the flight, airport, and BRC from the sky. And do not miss my Main Burning Man 2015 report. Pictures of the flight:
this is the smallest line at the entrance I've ever seen...
this is as far as we got with the rolling speed after landing. close but not quite :)
we got a bit of oil, but enough had been lost in flight that it didn't cover the windshield
The airport volunteers nicely helped to tow and secure the plane, and gave us a ride
The hole next to the yellow wires is obviously not supposed to be there
nice taping job, but not enough tape to hold it
better job on this one, although it's missing the prop where playa dust will get to the grease