n5lp
fugio ergo sum
This morning I took off for "The Other LOE" fly-in; the EAA one at Moriarty, NM. I was about 80 miles out, cruising along at 10,500 MSL, sort of planning the descent, when I glanced over to see my engine monitor flashing 12 PSI on the oil pressure. I immediately used the nearest function on the Garmin 496 and found that I was only about 9 miles from Roswell, NM, fortuitously an airport with facilities.
A lot was going through my mind, and in fact I am surprised at how I got sort of overloaded in a very simple situation. I found out that even though I have been to Roswell quite a few times, when you are not planning to go to a place it takes you a while to get up-to-speed. Where is the airport (it was below a cloud layer)? What are the frequencies? Should I call approach (I didn't)? Should I listen to the ATIS (I did but shouldn't have wasted my time)? Did I leave the dipstick out (no)? What should I do about the engine? I will be castigated for this statement, but yes I did consider stopping the engine but did not, based on the fact that it was showing some oil pressure, was running fine, and I was not familiar enough with the area. Close in, over my home airport, I probably would have stopped the engine.
I called the tower and told them I had had a loss of oil pressure and wanted to land. A different (more seasoned) controller came on immediately and cleared me to land on any runway. Not much point in declaring an emergency in this situation and this pretty sleepy airport. I would have if it would have looked like there was going to be any kind of a delay at all.
During the descent, at idle, the oil pressure indication came up some, to sometimes as high as 25 PSI. After landing the indication was reasonable and I taxied to the FBO.
It took a couple of hours for a mechanic to come out. The maintenance hangar is about a mile away and they said they couldn't tow the airplane. I couldn't believe they couldn't come up with a bit of rope from somewhere, but there you go. The mechanic and I decided to try starting up to taxi over. The oil pressure was entirely normal.
We decowled and looked the engine over. Everything looked fine and they didn't have any kind of oil pressure gauge to check against mine, not that there were have been much point, as mine was now showing normal.
We buttoned everything back up and took a test flight. Everything looked normal for about 15 minutes then the gauge started showing lower pressures in kind of a down then up way. Must be the transducer. We couldn't think of anything else that would cause these symptoms. The indication got as low as about 40 PSI from a normal 70 or so.
The young mechanic was pretty cool. He is a glider pilot that flew with the Alamogordo, NM club. He had never been in an RV and after I let him fly it and showed him the maneuverability he said "I'm, going to build one of these."
So we both agreed that a ferry flight back to Carlsbad would be safe and that is what I did, with the same patterns of normal pressure indications, dropping later in the flight.
I am using a the modern/obsolete Vision Microsystems VM-1000 and don't like what I have been hearing about the company. I sure hope I can find a new transducer.
How do these transducers work anyway, and how could one fail in this way?
Parked next to me at Great Southwest Aviation were a couple of Eclipse Jets that seemed to be very much still in test mode, which was surprising to me, because I haven't heard of any more problems since the freezing static? lines and electronic panel problems.
Two experimentals, parked side by side.
If you go by the unpainted parts, they were doing something with the tip tanks and rudder trim.
What is with the little wing deal at the top of the trim tab? Was that there before and what does it do?
Lots of old decrepit airliners at Roswell. My mechanic was telling me how fun it is to taxi a 747. He is not a power pilot.
Small engine but a big bulge underneath for something?
A lot was going through my mind, and in fact I am surprised at how I got sort of overloaded in a very simple situation. I found out that even though I have been to Roswell quite a few times, when you are not planning to go to a place it takes you a while to get up-to-speed. Where is the airport (it was below a cloud layer)? What are the frequencies? Should I call approach (I didn't)? Should I listen to the ATIS (I did but shouldn't have wasted my time)? Did I leave the dipstick out (no)? What should I do about the engine? I will be castigated for this statement, but yes I did consider stopping the engine but did not, based on the fact that it was showing some oil pressure, was running fine, and I was not familiar enough with the area. Close in, over my home airport, I probably would have stopped the engine.
I called the tower and told them I had had a loss of oil pressure and wanted to land. A different (more seasoned) controller came on immediately and cleared me to land on any runway. Not much point in declaring an emergency in this situation and this pretty sleepy airport. I would have if it would have looked like there was going to be any kind of a delay at all.
During the descent, at idle, the oil pressure indication came up some, to sometimes as high as 25 PSI. After landing the indication was reasonable and I taxied to the FBO.
It took a couple of hours for a mechanic to come out. The maintenance hangar is about a mile away and they said they couldn't tow the airplane. I couldn't believe they couldn't come up with a bit of rope from somewhere, but there you go. The mechanic and I decided to try starting up to taxi over. The oil pressure was entirely normal.
We decowled and looked the engine over. Everything looked fine and they didn't have any kind of oil pressure gauge to check against mine, not that there were have been much point, as mine was now showing normal.
We buttoned everything back up and took a test flight. Everything looked normal for about 15 minutes then the gauge started showing lower pressures in kind of a down then up way. Must be the transducer. We couldn't think of anything else that would cause these symptoms. The indication got as low as about 40 PSI from a normal 70 or so.
The young mechanic was pretty cool. He is a glider pilot that flew with the Alamogordo, NM club. He had never been in an RV and after I let him fly it and showed him the maneuverability he said "I'm, going to build one of these."
So we both agreed that a ferry flight back to Carlsbad would be safe and that is what I did, with the same patterns of normal pressure indications, dropping later in the flight.
I am using a the modern/obsolete Vision Microsystems VM-1000 and don't like what I have been hearing about the company. I sure hope I can find a new transducer.
How do these transducers work anyway, and how could one fail in this way?
Parked next to me at Great Southwest Aviation were a couple of Eclipse Jets that seemed to be very much still in test mode, which was surprising to me, because I haven't heard of any more problems since the freezing static? lines and electronic panel problems.
Two experimentals, parked side by side.
What is with the little wing deal at the top of the trim tab? Was that there before and what does it do?
Small engine but a big bulge underneath for something?