killbilly
Vocals, Lyrics, Triangle, Washboard, Kittens
This comes from the It-Can-Happen-To-Anyone-Department. Or the How-I-Screwed-Up-But-Learned Department.
The setup for this story is a little bit long, because I want you to understand HOW I got into this mindset.
Flew the RV down to FL for a couple of days to help my Dad out on his property with hurricane damage. Landed at VNC, he picked me up, and informed me that everything was pretty much done so what I expected to be a couple of days of hard labor turned out to be mostly hanging out and BSing with the Old Man, which was good and I'm grateful for the time spent. Looking at the Wx and my schedule, made the decision to come home yesterday. Took off from VNC just a hair before noon, got up above the broken layer, and headed north, skirting the TPA bravo.
Clouds were building up so I kept climbing, and around 10,500' between JAX and OCF it was clear I wasn't going to get over them. No convective development, but well above 13000' and I didn't have O2 nor had I taken the RV up past 12000' before, so I opted to descend below the layer and continue to BNL, which was my first refueling stop.
Note that filing IFR was an option, but I hadn't shaken down the plane for IFR ops yet since installing the new panel, and decided that testing in actual wasn't smart. So it would have been a legal option, but I didn't think it was a smart one. So I find a big hole and circle-descend to get below the layer while keeping VFR legal.
I finally get below it around 2700' or so, which is fine - there's no real terrain or obstructions to worry about. I'm flying slower, which is annoying. Fuel state changes, of course. Other than a hazy, bumpy ride for the next 45-50 minutes and having a hard time keeping radio contact with JAX and SAV approach freqs, it's not a big deal. Flight Following is a nice-to-have, but I don't actually NEED it, and again, aside from the annoying bumpy ride, things are fine. Visibility is deteriorating but it's still VFR.
About 6-7 mi from BNL visibility rapidly - and I mean RAPIDLY - goes from marginal to sub-VFR. Big, fat, wide rainshaft. Okay, no big deal. U-turn, reassess. I've still got a little less than an hour of fuel and TBR is right behind me, so I decide to land at TBR and take a break. Was last there in 2016, I remember where the fuel pumps are. Landing is fine and uneventful.
I get out of the plane, note the time and realize I can get back home by 1800, 1830 if I take my time. Still, TBR is a minor change in my planning, right? So I'm thinking about the next leg while I'm putting my credit card in the fuel machine, and grounding the airplane, and pulling out the fuel hose and heading to my left wing to start fueling. I'm thinking about altitude, looking at the sky, yep, it's looking better, I bet I can stay VFR at 8500 and just so some slaloming, that'll be fun...what a better plan/fuel burn will be, etc....
A guy comes walking out of the hangar near the pumps and gives me a nod - I nod back, say, "Hey, how's it going?"
He says, "Wrong one."
I blink. "What?"
"Wrong one." He goes to the fuel pump and points. "Wrong one," he says.
I still don't see the problem and stare for a good 3 seconds before the penny drops.
I had pulled out the hose for the Jet A.
"Whoa. Thank you," I say, somewhat embarrassed. And then grateful. Reel the hose back up, shaking my head, and proceed to fuel with 100LL like I'm supposed to. There are signs on the enclosure that clearly specify what is what.
I never saw them. Just didn't register.
Now - the way these QT pumps work these days, you authorize the fuel type first, but I don't know if that's a failsafe to the correct pump or not. You'd think it was. And I cannot remember now if I had turned on the pump or not. So let's hope that the machine wouldn't have allowed me to pump the gas.
But what if it had?
Or, it doesn't work, but I fuel some quantity of Jet A that was laying in the hose into my tank without noticing how much because there's just a little residual pressure in the hose. Massively inconvenient at that point to drain and re-fuel. Not to mention expensive.
That guy, who was paying attention, saved my ass from, at best, a pain in the ass Mx task on a long XC and at worst, potentially saved my engine and/or life. I should have gotten his name, thanked him properly and offered to buy him a beer. I didn't. Too shocked at my incompetence at that point.
Woke me up, it did.
Here's the big takeaway for me, and something I'm adding to my Bag Of Experience: Pay attention. Be present in what you're doing.
Lesson learned.
The setup for this story is a little bit long, because I want you to understand HOW I got into this mindset.
Flew the RV down to FL for a couple of days to help my Dad out on his property with hurricane damage. Landed at VNC, he picked me up, and informed me that everything was pretty much done so what I expected to be a couple of days of hard labor turned out to be mostly hanging out and BSing with the Old Man, which was good and I'm grateful for the time spent. Looking at the Wx and my schedule, made the decision to come home yesterday. Took off from VNC just a hair before noon, got up above the broken layer, and headed north, skirting the TPA bravo.
Clouds were building up so I kept climbing, and around 10,500' between JAX and OCF it was clear I wasn't going to get over them. No convective development, but well above 13000' and I didn't have O2 nor had I taken the RV up past 12000' before, so I opted to descend below the layer and continue to BNL, which was my first refueling stop.
Note that filing IFR was an option, but I hadn't shaken down the plane for IFR ops yet since installing the new panel, and decided that testing in actual wasn't smart. So it would have been a legal option, but I didn't think it was a smart one. So I find a big hole and circle-descend to get below the layer while keeping VFR legal.
I finally get below it around 2700' or so, which is fine - there's no real terrain or obstructions to worry about. I'm flying slower, which is annoying. Fuel state changes, of course. Other than a hazy, bumpy ride for the next 45-50 minutes and having a hard time keeping radio contact with JAX and SAV approach freqs, it's not a big deal. Flight Following is a nice-to-have, but I don't actually NEED it, and again, aside from the annoying bumpy ride, things are fine. Visibility is deteriorating but it's still VFR.
About 6-7 mi from BNL visibility rapidly - and I mean RAPIDLY - goes from marginal to sub-VFR. Big, fat, wide rainshaft. Okay, no big deal. U-turn, reassess. I've still got a little less than an hour of fuel and TBR is right behind me, so I decide to land at TBR and take a break. Was last there in 2016, I remember where the fuel pumps are. Landing is fine and uneventful.
I get out of the plane, note the time and realize I can get back home by 1800, 1830 if I take my time. Still, TBR is a minor change in my planning, right? So I'm thinking about the next leg while I'm putting my credit card in the fuel machine, and grounding the airplane, and pulling out the fuel hose and heading to my left wing to start fueling. I'm thinking about altitude, looking at the sky, yep, it's looking better, I bet I can stay VFR at 8500 and just so some slaloming, that'll be fun...what a better plan/fuel burn will be, etc....
A guy comes walking out of the hangar near the pumps and gives me a nod - I nod back, say, "Hey, how's it going?"
He says, "Wrong one."
I blink. "What?"
"Wrong one." He goes to the fuel pump and points. "Wrong one," he says.
I still don't see the problem and stare for a good 3 seconds before the penny drops.
I had pulled out the hose for the Jet A.
"Whoa. Thank you," I say, somewhat embarrassed. And then grateful. Reel the hose back up, shaking my head, and proceed to fuel with 100LL like I'm supposed to. There are signs on the enclosure that clearly specify what is what.
I never saw them. Just didn't register.
Now - the way these QT pumps work these days, you authorize the fuel type first, but I don't know if that's a failsafe to the correct pump or not. You'd think it was. And I cannot remember now if I had turned on the pump or not. So let's hope that the machine wouldn't have allowed me to pump the gas.
But what if it had?
Or, it doesn't work, but I fuel some quantity of Jet A that was laying in the hose into my tank without noticing how much because there's just a little residual pressure in the hose. Massively inconvenient at that point to drain and re-fuel. Not to mention expensive.
That guy, who was paying attention, saved my ass from, at best, a pain in the ass Mx task on a long XC and at worst, potentially saved my engine and/or life. I should have gotten his name, thanked him properly and offered to buy him a beer. I didn't. Too shocked at my incompetence at that point.
Woke me up, it did.
Here's the big takeaway for me, and something I'm adding to my Bag Of Experience: Pay attention. Be present in what you're doing.
Lesson learned.