Always Pay Attention, Personal Limits

GlenA

GlenA

Senior Chicken Counter
Two things happened in the past few days that I wish to share. These two things helped reinforce to me that it doesn't matter how many hours you have, you can't get complacent, because that's when things will get you. They both became non-issues because they were caught early enough, but they could have been worse if allowed to continue.

First today, as I was flying along doing my photo work, I called up approach to get flight following (always nice to have another set of eyes). I got my squawk and everything happened as per normal. A few minutes later, another plane calls for flight following, also gets a squawk. several seconds after that he is reprimanded by approach and told to enter the "correct" squawk. The corrected squawk was the same number approach had given me. I called it in and it was a non-issue and corrected immediately. But it helped me remember people make mistakes and that could have resulted in some serious in air confusion.

Lesson: Always pay attention, you are always the final authority on your own safety.

Second: Over the past week or so, I began to notice my aircraft was starting to take a little more oil than it normally did. The amount wasn't alarming since it was well inside normal usage, but rather the change is what started to concern me. I couldn't see anything else wrong so I continued flying, but kept an eye on things. A few days later I noticed that my oil temperature gauge was running hotter than normal. It was still well in the green, but it was noticeably warmer. I thought maybe the fairly warm air may have been the culprit, but I ran the engine a little cooler in case. Then the engine started running a little rough, and that was enough for me, I brought the plane back in. After I landed I noticed oil dripping from under the cowling, turns out I had a leaking oil filter. The roughness turned out to just be a plug that was fouling but it helped me make my decision. I always had a rule of 1 Big Concern or 3 Smaller Concerns that would determine when I would not continue my flight. I hit my limit, so I came down and I am glad I did.

Lesson : Always have your personal limits and stick to them

I'm always learning, and it's thing like this that make me glad I am.
 
First off great post GlenA... nowadays most people just hop in a good and don't notice a thing until the problem gets serious.

I like to think of it this way (and for the record this is not a slight to women)... planes are like women.... they talk to you every single second you have them going.... whether you choose to listen to them is your choice however if you don't you cannot determine whether there is something wrong with them or not... engines drone all the time without fail.... sometimes there is a high pitched whine associated.... sometimes they run hot/cold... as they get older they tend to creak a bit.... and sometimes they just don't like what you do to them at all.... and lastly if you don't like something about the plane you can always get out and walk away.

That my friends was passed on to me from an old redneck crop duster and it was pretty eye opening for me when I was "low time."
 
So true, it's amazing how easy it is to be complacent after a few hundered hours of the "same old same old" so to speak. I wonder if different fields of aviation allow some pilots to be more complacent than others. For example a pipeline pilot vs. an airline pilot, or a flight instructor teaching chinese vs. domestic (just kidding about the 2nd example :crazy:) but I've noticed that when I imagine myself flying with passengers I seem to always be more attentive. IDK , what do you guys think?
 
granlistillo said:
Is this sarcasm?

Assuming you're serious at what hour point should the two lessons learned by the OP be discarded? I know some high hour guys that could learn from that too or relearn.
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I'd be guessing he meant those two particular points have already been learned by the time the average person has a couple thousand some hours, not that they should be discarded.
 
granlistillo said:
Is this sarcasm?

Assuming you're serious at what hour point should the two lessons learned by the OP be discarded? I know some high hour guys that could learn from that too or relearn.
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Give me a break. It's a good read for everybody. Lower time guys may be more hesitant to heed the warning signs which the airplane is giving them due to unfamiliarity, less experience, you name it. Some people pick it up faster than others. Reading posts such as the OP and others by a couple guys who have had engine failures and other various emergencies recent might make somebody who otherwise wouldn't be more likely to declare an emergency, get help, get their airplane on the ground and potentially save their life.

FWIW, I am not a high time guy at 2000TT. I do know, however, that now with that experience under my belt I am much more inclined to get help or ask questions now than I would have been 200TT when I was 20 years old. The more I fly, the more skeptical I become of all things related to my machine.
 
popaviator said:
So true, it's amazing how easy it is to be complacent after a few hundered hours of the "same old same old" so to speak. I wonder if different fields of aviation allow some pilots to be more complacent than others. For example a pipeline pilot vs. an airline pilot, or a flight instructor teaching chinese vs. domestic (just kidding about the 2nd example :crazy:) but I've noticed that when I imagine myself flying with passengers I seem to always be more attentive. IDK , what do you guys think?
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Well when the Autopilot has been on and its clear and a million and you've flown the route 200 times. Its very easy to get complacent.
 
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