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Can anyone top this maintenance screw-up?

dabney

Well Known Member
Friend
Today I was in the midst of my annual condition inspection. I actually look forward to this rather than dreading it. Got the RV6A uncowled, did a thorough visual inspection, greased the prop etc. Next job was the oil change. Got the oil warmed up prior to draining it into a plastic bucket. I attach a hose to the oil drain tip on the engine and put that into the bucket. While that was occurring I got the new Phillips XC 15-50 oil ready on the other side of the plane. When I pulled the dip stick out I noticed the filler neck was a little loose. So I snipped the safety wire at the base, tighten the neck, and re-safetied the neck. I was pretty proud of myself that I got the safety wire right the first time. Not much room in there to work the pliers.

With that task completed I added six quarts of oil then paused to check the oil level. What the heck, no oil! You probably guessed by now I did not close the oil drain and poured 6 qts out the bottom! For a second I contemplated trying to slavage that beautiful honey colored good oil now mixed with the old black oil.

I drove to the nearest senior home, turned in my pilot certificate, drivers license and checked myself in.
 
Reminds me

Another good way to drain fresh oil is to test run the engine without plugging all the holes at the back. I didn't lose the whole 7 qts, but one quart drained into the prop blast makes a heck of a mess.
 
An AP/IA at my airport once forgot to tighten the hoses after he put a new oil cooler on an Arrow and also did an oil change at the same time. At least he pushed it out in front of the hangar door before firing up the engine to check for leaks.:eek:
Leaks were found!
 
I stopped to visit a friend who was changing oil once. The hose and bucket had been pulled but the quick drain wasn't closed. It was around quart number 5 that we spotted the growing pool of oil under the airplane.
 
Another oil "spill"

About 20 years ago, I was changing oil in my (then) newly purchased T-6G, in Denton TX. It was a cold autumn day, and the Aeroshell 120 W (60 weight) was like molasses flowing out of the 55 gal drum.

Being in a hurry, (!), I decided to do another task while waiting for the 2-gal oil container to fill.

You probably know where this is going..............:rolleyes:

Some time later, I remembered the oil, and when I looked at the drum, there was a 20 FOOT diameter pool of oil on the hangar floor. :eek:

It took me about 3 hours to clean up the mess, and I bet there is still a 20' diameter mark on the hangar floor there.

So much for being in a hurry!
 
I feel pretty good! In 45 years of flying, I've only done this very thing once (so far).

Dan
 
Sometimes . . . .

<snip>
I drove to the nearest senior home, turned in my pilot certificate, drivers license and checked myself in.

This is the funny part :D

Sometimes I think this too . . . .thanks for sharing:eek:
 
Hmmmmm...

I thought you were supposed to do that to rinse all of the old oil out of the crankcase? Sometimes it can even take more than 1 quart. At least that's my story and I am sticking to it. :)

Vic
 
Since the OP asked if anybody could top that maintenance screw-up, I'll toss one in here that haunts me to this day, nearly 35 years after the fact.

Working as a line-boy on a fine summer CAVU day, I was busy at the gas pumps, squeezing in other activities at the hangar between runs down to top up customer's airplanes. One of those other activities was a request from our chief charter pilot to check the oil in the King Air's PT6's so it would be read for a charter the next morning.

Dutifully I checked the oil and discovered one engine down a quart, so that quart was added. Before the task was completed I was summoned to the pumps so I hastily buttoned up the cowls of the King Air and headed off to the pumps.

Later in the day I had a nagging feeling about whether I had finished the job on the King Air and, being a conscientious fella, I popped open an engine cowl to confirm I had indeed completed the maintenance task properly.

Fast forward to the next day when I show up at the hangar and the King Air is, as expected, away on charter. I barely had my coveralls on before I was summoned to the office of the maintenance director. He was beet red, absolutely livid. He asked for a description of what I had done to the King Air the day before, then, barely containing his anger, told me to get out of his office. Oh Lordy, what had I done?!?!

The news slowly filtered across the hangar floor. The King Air had gone into a very busy airport with one engine feathered. As it turns out, that same engine cowl had a fine pink tinge to its otherwise white color. Yup, that engine had leaked a lot of oil, with the leakage having been detected by a paying passenger. It started when the power was pulled back at the top of descent - the passenger spoke up before there was any fluctuation in oil pressure so the engine was secured without damage..

On the ground the flight crew discovered the engine oil dipstick was laying atop the engine. That was the engine I'd put a quart of oil in the day prior.

You guessed it - I had been interrupted and had not completed the task of adding oil and re-inserting the dipstick. I had gone back to double-check but had checked the wrong engine!!! :eek::eek::eek:

No real harm came of this event; a couple of quarts of oil were added to the engine and it was flown back home without further ado. The post-action debrief was pretty explosive. I had a major strip torn off me, which was deserved, but I continued to work and was thankful for the job. The chief charter pilot and his F/O (a close friend) were stood down for 30 days without pay for having failed in their duty to conduct a thorough pre-flight inspection. AND they had to wash the airplane (normally a duty reserved for the lowest man on the totem pole... me!).

To this day I don't recall the details of the dressing-down I received as a result of my maintenance oversight. However I DO recall in vivid detail the shame and horror that I felt the moment I learned that I had not properly replaced the engine oil dipstick. It was the most awful stinging painful sensation that almost made me double over - like a hard kick in the guts.

It's the memory of that feeling that makes me check and double-check to ensure dipsticks, fuel caps etc are secure before a flight. That one small screw-up has kept me vigilant for years.
 
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Several years ago...

A Cessna 210 based on our field had its oil changed by the owner who was in a hurry to go somewhere. He left the drain open. The drain hose ran in to a large enough closed container that he did not catch the fact that the cold oil was slowly draining out. He hurriedly fired up, taxied out, took off, lost oil pressure and in the ensuing emergency forgot to lower the gear. One prop strike later he was several thousand dollars in the hole. One expensive mistake.
 
This is still better

than not adding the new oil at the end of the job. Thankfully Ive never done that - but my car mechanic did it to me once. I got about a hundred yards.
 
Watched it

Watched as a friend A/P of mine serviced an 182. Maybe we were having too much fun and talking too much. After about one half or so quart flowed to the ground, I asked him is he wanted to close the quick drain? Neither he nor I noticed that he hadn't done so.

Moral of this story is to never turn your back on flowing oil!
 
"Standard aviation warranty:

Our work is covered for thirty seconds or thirty feet - and if it breaks, you get both pieces."

I think I see how this policy came into being :eek:
 
And then there's the Bell 206 with one tank installed and 2 filler holes. Which hole do you think the line guy put 80 gallons in?
 
I added a quart of oil to my Cessna 140A and set out on a local flight of about 25 miles distant. When I landed back at my home base and got out to push the plane back in the hanger, I was horrified to see puddles of oil collecting on the ground from the engine to the tail feathers, not to mention the sticky film of oil on the fuselage. This is the result of leaving the dip stick out and 2 quarts of a 4 quart sump slinging out. I never saw a drop on the windshield nor did the oil pressure indicate a problem. I guess the engine would have ran out of oil before I would have known anything was wrong. Another case of being distracted when adding oil.
 
Process

The short answer is yes' I have.
My position at work inspired some processes to cope with distractions.
For a quik drain, all ways connect a rubber drain tube. When it comes off, all ways close the drain. Oil caps and drain plugs belong all the way on, or all the way off and placed with the new oil. Never walk away from an open oil cap to get oil. All ways keep a dip stick stowed all the way in it's hole or in my hand. The engine compartment is never used as a bench top. (same thing inside inspection panels)
For everything else, all the way on, all the way off, flagged or written up. The hardest thing to learn is acknowledging "this is a distraction, what do I do now to pick work up later?"
This all ways and never concept has served me well, I all ways make sure there is toilet paper, I am never stranded with a mess.;)
 
Twice

Wondered why there was a shine in the deep grass at the from of my plane after cleaning up and standing 50' feet away in front of the hangar admiring my aircraft. Just happy the place was deserted that day.:eek:
Hurt my pride more than anything else.
Flash back to my teen years changing oil while parked on my Fathers new blacktop driveway. :eek: I never scrambled so hard to clean that up before he got home. Took five times as long as the oil change.:p
 
I added a quart of oil to my Cessna 140A and set out on a local flight of about 25 miles distant. When I landed back at my home base and got out to push the plane back in the hanger, I was horrified to see puddles of oil collecting on the ground from the engine to the tail feathers, not to mention the sticky film of oil on the fuselage. This is the result of leaving the dip stick out and 2 quarts of a 4 quart sump slinging out. I never saw a drop on the windshield nor did the oil pressure indicate a problem. I guess the engine would have ran out of oil before I would have known anything was wrong. Another case of being distracted when adding oil.

I'm embarrassed to say I've done similar in a friends RV-4. I was headed out on a 175mi x-country flight for a weekend stay and figured I'd top the oil off. I used a funnel to add the quart then when cleaning the funnel I lowered the dip stick in the tube and thought "I'll come back and check the level when it settles some". Hurrying to finish the preflight I secured the oil door w/o tightening the cap.

I went weak in the knees on preflight after the weekend for the return trip when I opened the oil door and the dip stick was sitting in the filler neck with off to the side and had obviously been like that since I added oil. I kept thinking of all the inhospitable terrain I flew over enroute. Funny thing though not a drip of oil came out on the flight. I sometimes wonder if it was partially secured and only let go in the landing phase? Not sure how it never blew any oil out.

No oil spill or issue but I darn near had to change my short when I found it on preflight days later.
 
there are those that have

Come on guys, this is just a vocabulary building event....one of many sometimes, we just hope it is not the same one we did before.
 
One nice thing about having an electric preoiler is that I presurise the system after each oil change. Checks for leaks and yes, oil.

Dave
 
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