AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2013 - 94

P&E

NEVER AGAIN

surely to the left. (You may already know
what’s coming.) Since the engine was purring beautifully and all the other needles
were where they should be, I wasn’t too
concerned. Then, just as we cleared the
lake and were on a direct course for TriCity, all the electricals shut down with a
barely audible thump. Everything went
dim at once and, realizing we were draining the battery, I shut off the master switch
and kept the Tri-City beacon on the nose.
(Oh, I also continued to fly the airplane and
dad was still asleep.) The remainder of the
final leg went by without further notice,
and, if memory serves me, there was no
operating tower at that time of the night.
We landed without problem; with
plenty of battery left for lights and gear, we
taxied up to a hangar and shut down. As
I stepped out of the sliding canopy, imagine my surprise when I saw that the side
of the airplane—from the back of the cowl
to the tail—was covered in oil. Opening the
cowl and looking inside, there—resting on
a narrow metal ledge, looking accusingly

back up at me—was the oil filler cap, right
where the line guy had left it after putting
in a quart; right where I had failed to look
before taking off because my fingers and
feet were a little chilly. The leaking oil had
caused a short.
There was no repair shop at Tri-City.
The next morning I took off solo to go
the short distance to Saginaw Municipal
for what was to be a wash job and engine
steam cleaning, but turned out to include
the replacement of a cylinder that blew out
as I landed at Saginaw.
It is readily obvious what I learned: No
matter how much of a hurry you may be
in, or how much you have on your mind,
or whether your arms are loaded, do not
get into the airplane, start it up, taxi to the
active runway, and take off without first
doing a complete preflight—including
looking at and touching the oil filler cap to
make sure it is snug.

WEB

I have gone over the “what ifs” time and
time again. What if it had not been a beautiful clear night and, because of reduced
visibility, I had not had the Tri-City beacon
on the nose and could only do an occasional radio check? What if I had decided
to go on to Detroit the next morning after
concluding our early morning business
meeting, as some wanted us to do, instead
of getting the airplane detailed with a complete wash job? Emergency blown-jug
landing, anyone?
Therefore, even though you have heard
it many times before, every flight should
begin with a thorough preflight inspection,
without exception—and a look under the
cowl after refueling.
AOPA
MEL CALVERT has been flying since 1954,

accumulating more than 2,600 hours. He
is the author of How I Quit Smoking and
Lived to Tell About It.

www.aopa.org/pilot/never_again

NEVER WORRY ABOUT

RUNWAY LENGTH
AGAIN.

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2013

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