EdFred
Taxi to Parking
I don't really know if this qualifies as a never again, since I don't really think there's anything I could have done differently to prevent it...
There I was...
Ok, not really. I took off from Hastings, MI yesterday around noonish and climbed up through the 800' thick layer, and got on top of the clouds, and enjoyed a ever so slight tailwind for the beginning of the flight to CRG (Jacksonville, FL) with a stop at 1A6 for $3.85 100LL in extreme southeastern Kentucky. Nifty little place, nice (deserted) FBO with slightly stale Tootsie Rolls. Tricky landing and departure with the winds, and with a bit less HP, it would have been a cirlcing climb to depart the field to the west to get out of the end of the valley it's tucked in. I had checked the weather at CRG while there and I would have had to probably file IFR to get in, or at least get a pop up clearance once closer. I climbed out of the valley, and reset my destination in the 430 to CRG from TYS (Knoxville, TN).
I was originally going to head to TYS and spend the night, and then finish the flight in the morning, but then I figured nah, lets just get there, it shouldn't be much past dusk, when I arrive, and then I am already there. Then I saw my GS and time enroute to CRG, and decided I didn't feel like flying instruments, and dealing with the rain they were predicting, plus I was kinda tired for some reason, so I dialed TYS back in and headed to Knoxville - about a 20 minute flight and parked the plane. The counter folks got a hotel room for me across the street. After walking to grab a bite to eat at Ruby Tuesday, I called it a night.
Headed back to the airport, and checked out from TACAir, where they raped
me for a $10 overnight fee because I didn't buy fuel. I was expecting $30, so that was a bonus. I waited around the FBO for a while just to make sure I gave the fog time to lift in Jacksonville, and then headed out to preflight. I popped the cowl open and gave everything a bit more of a detailed look than I normally do for some reason. Checked everything twice, and a couple things even three times. Climb in, put the flight plan in the 430, and the FL150, and then climb back out of the plane one more time to give it another once over. Ok, everything looks good.
Fire up the engine, and everything seems ok. I call up clearance delivery, and get my IFR to CRG. At bigger airports, I tend to do my runups on the ramp just so that in case something is wrong I don't have to taxi so far back to have it looked at. I increase RPM to 1500, and do a mag check. Yep, RPM drop good. Now to cycle the prop. For whatever reason my habit is always pull it from 1500, and watch the RPM guage first, and listen for the pitch change. Hmmm, that was a slower pitch change than usual. Cycle it again and look at the oil pressure guage - WAAAAAAY to the left, and well below green. Hmmmm, that doesn't make sense, I wonder what's wrong with the prop. I sit there for a couple more seconds, and decide I should probably shut the engine down. I'm gonna be cheesed off if my prop governor has gone out. Then I rethink things, and realize that isn't going to be the issue. I climb out of the plane, and as after I walk around to the front of the plane, I see this. Well, that's not going to be good.
I walk back to TACAir, and they call one of the maintenance shops on the field, and a guy named Jeremy looks at my plane. We determine it's coming from one of the oild cooler hoses, or the oil cooler itself, but since everything is covered with oil inside the cowling (there was absolutley no outside oil spray) we couldn't tell. So we pull the cowl off, check the fitting, and he's saying something doesn't feel right as he tightens it up. I'm now worried that I've vented enough oil that I might have damaged the engine. Well, after checking the oil level, talking to my mechanic, and Jeremy we determine that I'm in the clear there. (Whew!) We put a couple quarts back in after reconnecting the hose, and crank it over with the mags off, just to put some pressure in the system. Well, it's not the fitting, the oil is pushing out through the cooler itself. We wiggle the hose a little, and definitely see the cooler flexing in a way it shouldn't.
When I had looked at the cooler and hoses during preflight, it was absolutely bone dry, and zero trace of any oil leakage from the cooler, or hoses, or anything else in the compartment. Had I decided to head to CRG instead of TYS last night, it could have probably been catastrophic engine failure about 25 minutes out of 1A6, right in the middle of the Smokeys. Go ahead and plot the crash spot on Google Maps if you like. A few miles SW of Snowbird VOR. Latitude: N35 38.362' Longitude: W83 22.919' seems about right.
New oil cooler being overnighted from RamAir in Waco, and hopefully, I'm airborne tomorrow. Unfortunately at this point, I've missed 2/3 of what I was going to FL for, and will probably just head back home tomorrow.
There I was...
Ok, not really. I took off from Hastings, MI yesterday around noonish and climbed up through the 800' thick layer, and got on top of the clouds, and enjoyed a ever so slight tailwind for the beginning of the flight to CRG (Jacksonville, FL) with a stop at 1A6 for $3.85 100LL in extreme southeastern Kentucky. Nifty little place, nice (deserted) FBO with slightly stale Tootsie Rolls. Tricky landing and departure with the winds, and with a bit less HP, it would have been a cirlcing climb to depart the field to the west to get out of the end of the valley it's tucked in. I had checked the weather at CRG while there and I would have had to probably file IFR to get in, or at least get a pop up clearance once closer. I climbed out of the valley, and reset my destination in the 430 to CRG from TYS (Knoxville, TN).
I was originally going to head to TYS and spend the night, and then finish the flight in the morning, but then I figured nah, lets just get there, it shouldn't be much past dusk, when I arrive, and then I am already there. Then I saw my GS and time enroute to CRG, and decided I didn't feel like flying instruments, and dealing with the rain they were predicting, plus I was kinda tired for some reason, so I dialed TYS back in and headed to Knoxville - about a 20 minute flight and parked the plane. The counter folks got a hotel room for me across the street. After walking to grab a bite to eat at Ruby Tuesday, I called it a night.
Headed back to the airport, and checked out from TACAir, where they raped
me for a $10 overnight fee because I didn't buy fuel. I was expecting $30, so that was a bonus. I waited around the FBO for a while just to make sure I gave the fog time to lift in Jacksonville, and then headed out to preflight. I popped the cowl open and gave everything a bit more of a detailed look than I normally do for some reason. Checked everything twice, and a couple things even three times. Climb in, put the flight plan in the 430, and the FL150, and then climb back out of the plane one more time to give it another once over. Ok, everything looks good.Fire up the engine, and everything seems ok. I call up clearance delivery, and get my IFR to CRG. At bigger airports, I tend to do my runups on the ramp just so that in case something is wrong I don't have to taxi so far back to have it looked at. I increase RPM to 1500, and do a mag check. Yep, RPM drop good. Now to cycle the prop. For whatever reason my habit is always pull it from 1500, and watch the RPM guage first, and listen for the pitch change. Hmmm, that was a slower pitch change than usual. Cycle it again and look at the oil pressure guage - WAAAAAAY to the left, and well below green. Hmmmm, that doesn't make sense, I wonder what's wrong with the prop. I sit there for a couple more seconds, and decide I should probably shut the engine down. I'm gonna be cheesed off if my prop governor has gone out. Then I rethink things, and realize that isn't going to be the issue. I climb out of the plane, and as after I walk around to the front of the plane, I see this. Well, that's not going to be good.
I walk back to TACAir, and they call one of the maintenance shops on the field, and a guy named Jeremy looks at my plane. We determine it's coming from one of the oild cooler hoses, or the oil cooler itself, but since everything is covered with oil inside the cowling (there was absolutley no outside oil spray) we couldn't tell. So we pull the cowl off, check the fitting, and he's saying something doesn't feel right as he tightens it up. I'm now worried that I've vented enough oil that I might have damaged the engine. Well, after checking the oil level, talking to my mechanic, and Jeremy we determine that I'm in the clear there. (Whew!) We put a couple quarts back in after reconnecting the hose, and crank it over with the mags off, just to put some pressure in the system. Well, it's not the fitting, the oil is pushing out through the cooler itself. We wiggle the hose a little, and definitely see the cooler flexing in a way it shouldn't.
When I had looked at the cooler and hoses during preflight, it was absolutely bone dry, and zero trace of any oil leakage from the cooler, or hoses, or anything else in the compartment. Had I decided to head to CRG instead of TYS last night, it could have probably been catastrophic engine failure about 25 minutes out of 1A6, right in the middle of the Smokeys. Go ahead and plot the crash spot on Google Maps if you like. A few miles SW of Snowbird VOR. Latitude: N35 38.362' Longitude: W83 22.919' seems about right.
New oil cooler being overnighted from RamAir in Waco, and hopefully, I'm airborne tomorrow. Unfortunately at this point, I've missed 2/3 of what I was going to FL for, and will probably just head back home tomorrow.
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