Low oil press false alarm

[Brian Denk]

Went flying this morning in the cool air with 4yr old son Skyler in back and loving life. Look down to scan panel and find oil pressure at about half it's normal value.

Scan of oil temp, CHT/EGT shows normal. No smoke spewing forth from the back either. So, climbed high and pointed nose at home base, a few miles away. Could glide there if needed. Landed and hooked up air hose to pressure sender unit on firewall. Pumped it up and noted the old Isspro gauge would only show about half actual pressure. Whew! No engine issues. So, for those with the old Van's steam guages, don't hit the silk if your pressure or temp gauge gets lazy. Size up the situation, cross-reference with other indications and keep your head on straight.

New Van's gauges for both temp and pressure are now on the way. Oh well, got almost 500 hours on the old ones.

Fly safely.

[redbeardmark]

Your situation(low indicated oil pressure) would have generated a little more adrenalin than the situation I ran into. The oil pressure sender for the EIS4000 started to poop out and was reading HIGH oil pressure. A new sender unit put things back to normal... also about 500 hrs.

No complaints here. This is way cheaper than paying someone else to do the annual on a certificated airplane.