Okay, follow up question. Say you know exactly what the issue is. Would you launch? Not necessarily in this particular case. But let's play with an example. I was sitting at the hold short line and my oil temperature was stable about a needle's width into the yellow, as was my oil pressure. Launch or not?
This was when I flew a Sky Arrow to Dulles for Become a Pilot day at the Air and Space Museum. It was a warm early summer's day, and there was a looong wait for departure. The Sky Arrow has a pusher prop, which means that cooling on the ground is nothing short of horrible. As I was taxiing out and waiting in the long conga line for departure, I noticed the oil temperature creeping up and the oil pressure dropping, but they stabilized once they were both juuuust in the yellow. Given the warm day, long time on the ground, and horrible cooling of a pusher, I took that to mean that nothing was actually wrong and that all would cool off after departure. As I expected, about a minute after I took off, everything was back in the green again, hunky dory.
Still though, I took off knowing full well that the oil pressure and temperature gauges were in the yellow. Do I get the same treatment from ye Prophets of Aviation? Or am I forgiven because I knew exactly why I was seeing what I was seeing?
