MarkZ
En-Route
Bucket list: fly into AirVenture.... CHECK
This is long, but I hope you enjoy the story as much as I did writing it.
I took my flying club's BE33 yesterday morning from LL10 (Naper Aero), picked up a buddy who works at the TRACON and his son to head up to OSH. His son had never flown in a small airplane, so I knew this would be an experience for him. We filed IFR with a reservation from 3CK. Chicago approach was great, but MKE seemed a bit less than accommodating. I cancelled IFR soon after checking on and proceeded to RIPON.
At Fisk ATC let me pick the runway, being able to take advantage of Vintage parking I asked for 36. We were cleared to land on 36L, and I proceeded to the runway to land on the purple dot. On short SHORT final (about 1/4 mile out) I saw an aircraft taking runway 36L. Normally I would go around but my passenger (who has a couple hundred hours experience and is a fellow ATC) and I figured, "hey, it's AirVenture! They run 'em tight here!" I slowed the BE33 to MCA to give a bit more room.
ATC immediately comes on: "red bonanza, can you sidestep to the right?" No problem, I line up with 36R. As I set to touch down ~800 feet past the threshold, ATC asks me to land long and fast. I let them know unable so they ask for a fast taxi to the end. That....I can do. Land, raise the flaps, and taxi 8 knots shy of Vso to the end where the EAA flag person asks me to slow down. We put up our VAP sign and taxi fat dumb and happy down the 36L parallel...
... Further, and further, and further down the taxiway. After seeing a couple of vintage aircraft turn behind me into parking, I realize that the EAA volunteers think we are a VFR departure rather than parking so I change the location of the sign to the right front. That did the trick! Turn 180 degrees, head to a premium parking spot, tie down, and head into expo.
My buddy, his son, and I had a great day at the airshow. As the show was nearing a close, I showed his son how we pre-flight the aircraft for departure. The BE33 burned a bit of oil on the ride up so I threw an extra quart of oil into her. It was windy, and I spilled a bit. Damn, but oh well the airshow is over and we gotta go! Lock everything up, pull the plane out of the parking spot, and now we and a dozen other aircraft in our immediate area are in the mad rush to get to the 36L departure area.
ATC did a spectacular job getting us out. On advice from other pilots, I did the runup and pre-takeoff checks on the taxiway before we got close to the departure runway. I noticed the oil temperature was already above 75 degrees, but heck the airplane has been sitting outside all day so that's not a huge deal.
"Red bonanza, line up and wait 36L left side behind the amphibian." Looks like a slow amphibian and a few Cessna 140's will depart before us. I'm already planning a way to miss these aircraft since my Debonair climbs out at these aircrafts' cruising speeds.
"Red bonanza, make the turn before the tower, miss the amphibian and two high wings, runway 36L cleared for takeoff." As the tower says "cleared" my throttle is fire walled and off we go! Gear up, right turn at 90 knots, and I'm already catching up to my traffic. On the 150 heading, I turn to a 180 heading to miss the amphibian who descends towards the lake. One Cessna keeps climbing past 1300, so I hold 1300 and accelerate to 140 knots and pass well clear and right if the second high wing. Now clear of the Class D airspace, I hold 1300 for another mile as three warbirds fly overhead opposite direction towards 36L.
Knowing I'm approaching Fon du Lac, and clear of traffic, we climb! In no time at all I'm up to 4,500 enroute to our cruising altitude of 9,500. Seeing my Deb overtake a white Cherokee off the left wing, as we are established in climb configuration, I smiled on the inside. I felt I accomplished something! I started training in the very Cherokee that I was smoking past. My passenger got my attention and pointed out ahead of us.
We saw some splatter on the windshield. It looked like water, but from what? Worse yet, is that oil? Could it be oil? How the heck did that happen? Ok, let's look at the gauges: pressure is good, oil temperature is good, but my CHT IS right at 400 for all six cylinders, and rising. Well that only happens when I am climbing out at Vy, did I lose track of airspeed? Nope, I'm still climbing out at 105 knots indicated, so those temperatures are higher than they should be.
Something's not right. We are flying 10 miles south of FLD out of 5,500 for 6,000. I have splatter on the windshield and my temperatures are higher than what they should be. Could this be the oil I spilled, and I'm just paranoid? Could I have forgotten to close or tighten the oil fill cap? I'm not that stupid, am I? I did feel rushed to get out of OSH...so decision time. Go on or turn back to FLD? If I turn back I'll have to be quick to get the ATIS and talk to the FLD tower. If I go on I'll have more time to prep the arrival but the closest airport with a tower (let alone services) is almost 30 miles away.
Screw it. Turn back. I pull out the NOTAM and dial up the ATIS. Get the information and start a 180 degree descending turn back to FLD.
"Fon du Lac, Debonair 48Y is 10 miles south of FLD descending out of 4,700. We have a possible oil situation and would like clearance to enter a left downwind for 27."
"Debonair 48Y, enter left downwind runway 27. Do you need assistance?" Now my buddy's son had never flown a small plane before, and we are going to have no problems making the runway if the engine quits. I'm about to enter downwind descending out of 3,700 and indicating 144 knots (the book's glide speed). Engine gauges look good and I've got 20.0/2300 set for throttle. Don't want to stress the plane, and even though I'm worried, there is no real emergency yet, no reason to create one either.
"48Y does not require assistance yet. Request a 360 turn in the downwind for altitude loss." After the maneuver I fly a quasi-normal pattern about 500 feet high and still fast. Slow the plane, lower gear and flaps, and make a nice smooth landing about 500 feet long from the normal touchdown point. Taxi, shutdown, and get out to see what the hell is going on. Take the cowling off and...
The oil filler cap is off. I had lost the quart of oil I put in at OSH. Luckily, that was all I lost. Whatever didn't spray out on the windshield and cowling was sprayed in the engine compartment. Clean up the engine compartment, inspect and clean the manifold and exhaust (I don't want a fire!), throw another quart in, make sure I tighten the oil filler cap, and finally head home.
I spent the majority of the rest of my flight nursing my pride as well as going over what I could do better.
I rushed that preflight. No doubt about it. I was teaching as well, which is a distraction. I just checked out in the BE33, so I haven't had to put oil in. Maybe I forgot to cap it, or I did cap it but I didn't know/remember to tighten the cap, who knows.
I was boneheaded, but the outcome of the flight was a good one. After some reflection, here were some things I did that I need to keep doing.
Always have an out. Not being 100% that the cap was on, I decided that turning around was a much better idea than pushing forward.
Pushing forward would limit my options if the engine quit. Use ATC whenever possible to help out, that's what they (and me) are here for.
Keep your flight area organized. I had my checklist in the left pocket, my iPad wedged in the seat next to me, and a copy of the NOTAM next to me. I used all three within seconds of making my go/no go decision. Carry a hard copy of important things related to the flight just in case your electronic goes down.
Fly the airplane. Once I had my plan set, staying in control of the airplane and flying it to landing, or crashing if need be, became my number one goal. Put the NOTAM away, iPad down, checklist aside. Fly the airplane.
Finally, know your airplane. The only sign I had to tell me something was wrong was my oil temperature and CHT temps. They were green from takeoff that morning until landing late that night. They were however at 400 degrees, and while still green, they were not where I knew they should be.
I wanted to share this adventure with you guys, it was definitely one I will remember!
This is long, but I hope you enjoy the story as much as I did writing it.
I took my flying club's BE33 yesterday morning from LL10 (Naper Aero), picked up a buddy who works at the TRACON and his son to head up to OSH. His son had never flown in a small airplane, so I knew this would be an experience for him. We filed IFR with a reservation from 3CK. Chicago approach was great, but MKE seemed a bit less than accommodating. I cancelled IFR soon after checking on and proceeded to RIPON.
At Fisk ATC let me pick the runway, being able to take advantage of Vintage parking I asked for 36. We were cleared to land on 36L, and I proceeded to the runway to land on the purple dot. On short SHORT final (about 1/4 mile out) I saw an aircraft taking runway 36L. Normally I would go around but my passenger (who has a couple hundred hours experience and is a fellow ATC) and I figured, "hey, it's AirVenture! They run 'em tight here!" I slowed the BE33 to MCA to give a bit more room.
ATC immediately comes on: "red bonanza, can you sidestep to the right?" No problem, I line up with 36R. As I set to touch down ~800 feet past the threshold, ATC asks me to land long and fast. I let them know unable so they ask for a fast taxi to the end. That....I can do. Land, raise the flaps, and taxi 8 knots shy of Vso to the end where the EAA flag person asks me to slow down. We put up our VAP sign and taxi fat dumb and happy down the 36L parallel...
... Further, and further, and further down the taxiway. After seeing a couple of vintage aircraft turn behind me into parking, I realize that the EAA volunteers think we are a VFR departure rather than parking so I change the location of the sign to the right front. That did the trick! Turn 180 degrees, head to a premium parking spot, tie down, and head into expo.
My buddy, his son, and I had a great day at the airshow. As the show was nearing a close, I showed his son how we pre-flight the aircraft for departure. The BE33 burned a bit of oil on the ride up so I threw an extra quart of oil into her. It was windy, and I spilled a bit. Damn, but oh well the airshow is over and we gotta go! Lock everything up, pull the plane out of the parking spot, and now we and a dozen other aircraft in our immediate area are in the mad rush to get to the 36L departure area.
ATC did a spectacular job getting us out. On advice from other pilots, I did the runup and pre-takeoff checks on the taxiway before we got close to the departure runway. I noticed the oil temperature was already above 75 degrees, but heck the airplane has been sitting outside all day so that's not a huge deal.
"Red bonanza, line up and wait 36L left side behind the amphibian." Looks like a slow amphibian and a few Cessna 140's will depart before us. I'm already planning a way to miss these aircraft since my Debonair climbs out at these aircrafts' cruising speeds.
"Red bonanza, make the turn before the tower, miss the amphibian and two high wings, runway 36L cleared for takeoff." As the tower says "cleared" my throttle is fire walled and off we go! Gear up, right turn at 90 knots, and I'm already catching up to my traffic. On the 150 heading, I turn to a 180 heading to miss the amphibian who descends towards the lake. One Cessna keeps climbing past 1300, so I hold 1300 and accelerate to 140 knots and pass well clear and right if the second high wing. Now clear of the Class D airspace, I hold 1300 for another mile as three warbirds fly overhead opposite direction towards 36L.
Knowing I'm approaching Fon du Lac, and clear of traffic, we climb! In no time at all I'm up to 4,500 enroute to our cruising altitude of 9,500. Seeing my Deb overtake a white Cherokee off the left wing, as we are established in climb configuration, I smiled on the inside. I felt I accomplished something! I started training in the very Cherokee that I was smoking past. My passenger got my attention and pointed out ahead of us.
We saw some splatter on the windshield. It looked like water, but from what? Worse yet, is that oil? Could it be oil? How the heck did that happen? Ok, let's look at the gauges: pressure is good, oil temperature is good, but my CHT IS right at 400 for all six cylinders, and rising. Well that only happens when I am climbing out at Vy, did I lose track of airspeed? Nope, I'm still climbing out at 105 knots indicated, so those temperatures are higher than they should be.
Something's not right. We are flying 10 miles south of FLD out of 5,500 for 6,000. I have splatter on the windshield and my temperatures are higher than what they should be. Could this be the oil I spilled, and I'm just paranoid? Could I have forgotten to close or tighten the oil fill cap? I'm not that stupid, am I? I did feel rushed to get out of OSH...so decision time. Go on or turn back to FLD? If I turn back I'll have to be quick to get the ATIS and talk to the FLD tower. If I go on I'll have more time to prep the arrival but the closest airport with a tower (let alone services) is almost 30 miles away.
Screw it. Turn back. I pull out the NOTAM and dial up the ATIS. Get the information and start a 180 degree descending turn back to FLD.
"Fon du Lac, Debonair 48Y is 10 miles south of FLD descending out of 4,700. We have a possible oil situation and would like clearance to enter a left downwind for 27."
"Debonair 48Y, enter left downwind runway 27. Do you need assistance?" Now my buddy's son had never flown a small plane before, and we are going to have no problems making the runway if the engine quits. I'm about to enter downwind descending out of 3,700 and indicating 144 knots (the book's glide speed). Engine gauges look good and I've got 20.0/2300 set for throttle. Don't want to stress the plane, and even though I'm worried, there is no real emergency yet, no reason to create one either.
"48Y does not require assistance yet. Request a 360 turn in the downwind for altitude loss." After the maneuver I fly a quasi-normal pattern about 500 feet high and still fast. Slow the plane, lower gear and flaps, and make a nice smooth landing about 500 feet long from the normal touchdown point. Taxi, shutdown, and get out to see what the hell is going on. Take the cowling off and...
The oil filler cap is off. I had lost the quart of oil I put in at OSH. Luckily, that was all I lost. Whatever didn't spray out on the windshield and cowling was sprayed in the engine compartment. Clean up the engine compartment, inspect and clean the manifold and exhaust (I don't want a fire!), throw another quart in, make sure I tighten the oil filler cap, and finally head home.
I spent the majority of the rest of my flight nursing my pride as well as going over what I could do better.
I rushed that preflight. No doubt about it. I was teaching as well, which is a distraction. I just checked out in the BE33, so I haven't had to put oil in. Maybe I forgot to cap it, or I did cap it but I didn't know/remember to tighten the cap, who knows.
I was boneheaded, but the outcome of the flight was a good one. After some reflection, here were some things I did that I need to keep doing.
Always have an out. Not being 100% that the cap was on, I decided that turning around was a much better idea than pushing forward.
Pushing forward would limit my options if the engine quit. Use ATC whenever possible to help out, that's what they (and me) are here for.
Keep your flight area organized. I had my checklist in the left pocket, my iPad wedged in the seat next to me, and a copy of the NOTAM next to me. I used all three within seconds of making my go/no go decision. Carry a hard copy of important things related to the flight just in case your electronic goes down.
Fly the airplane. Once I had my plan set, staying in control of the airplane and flying it to landing, or crashing if need be, became my number one goal. Put the NOTAM away, iPad down, checklist aside. Fly the airplane.
Finally, know your airplane. The only sign I had to tell me something was wrong was my oil temperature and CHT temps. They were green from takeoff that morning until landing late that night. They were however at 400 degrees, and while still green, they were not where I knew they should be.
I wanted to share this adventure with you guys, it was definitely one I will remember!
