SkyChaser
Pattern Altitude
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2020
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SkyChaser
And the saga continues with my first quasi-emergency. LOL
I was supposed to fly my first solo cross-country today. I had everything planned out, the weather was beautiful - sky clear, wind calm, and 43*, and everything checked out on my preflight. After a lot of last-minute checks and assurances that if I needed anything I could just call her, my instructor told me to go have fun. I was super excited and I taxied out and took off. It was a little bumpy, but not bad. I climbed out, and then after radioing my intentions to depart to the south, started a climbing right turn to my desired heading.
As I was turning, I glanced out over the right wing...and there was fuel flowing out from the back of the cap and out over the wing. My first thought was, "I can't believe I messed up something so simple". I was pretty sure that I must've put the cap on crooked or not screwed it on right. Anyway, I was still super close to the airport, but I was almost at 3,500', so I did a pretty aggressive slip to lose enough altitude and entered downwind for a normal traffic pattern and landing. I got down, shut down, and hopped out. My instructor and another student were already out on the apron, wondering what happened since they heard me on the radio saying I was returning to the airport. I said I didn't put the fuel cap on right, but then when I walked over, it was obviously on right. I unscrewed it and put it back on, and it felt right, so I unscrewed it and turned it over. The seal had cracked through. It was still around the cap, so it felt right, but there was about 1/2" gap between the two ends of the seal, which let the fuel leak out when I was climbing. Now there's another thing to check when preflighting!
I didn't fly today, even though I could have just let it leak out until the tank wasn't full enough to drain out when climbing. I decided I didn't want to have that to think about when I was flying 64 nm away by myself for the first time, plus gas is expensive.
It turned out just as well - by the time I got down and the plane buttoned up, there were little clouds all over, which according to the ASOS were at the exact altitude I was planning to fly at. So, even though I'm on the ground wishing I could have flown, I am very glad I wasn't up in the sky wishing I could get down!
I was supposed to fly my first solo cross-country today. I had everything planned out, the weather was beautiful - sky clear, wind calm, and 43*, and everything checked out on my preflight. After a lot of last-minute checks and assurances that if I needed anything I could just call her, my instructor told me to go have fun. I was super excited and I taxied out and took off. It was a little bumpy, but not bad. I climbed out, and then after radioing my intentions to depart to the south, started a climbing right turn to my desired heading.
As I was turning, I glanced out over the right wing...and there was fuel flowing out from the back of the cap and out over the wing. My first thought was, "I can't believe I messed up something so simple". I was pretty sure that I must've put the cap on crooked or not screwed it on right. Anyway, I was still super close to the airport, but I was almost at 3,500', so I did a pretty aggressive slip to lose enough altitude and entered downwind for a normal traffic pattern and landing. I got down, shut down, and hopped out. My instructor and another student were already out on the apron, wondering what happened since they heard me on the radio saying I was returning to the airport. I said I didn't put the fuel cap on right, but then when I walked over, it was obviously on right. I unscrewed it and put it back on, and it felt right, so I unscrewed it and turned it over. The seal had cracked through. It was still around the cap, so it felt right, but there was about 1/2" gap between the two ends of the seal, which let the fuel leak out when I was climbing. Now there's another thing to check when preflighting!
I didn't fly today, even though I could have just let it leak out until the tank wasn't full enough to drain out when climbing. I decided I didn't want to have that to think about when I was flying 64 nm away by myself for the first time, plus gas is expensive.
It turned out just as well - by the time I got down and the plane buttoned up, there were little clouds all over, which according to the ASOS were at the exact altitude I was planning to fly at. So, even though I'm on the ground wishing I could have flown, I am very glad I wasn't up in the sky wishing I could get down! 
