Gas cap....

ozone

ozone

Well-Known Member
....I dont need no steenking gas cap!

Or, perhaps I do. Good lesson learned today that, despite a typed-out checklist, it's always good to do ONE MORE walk around.

So, in the interest of mea culpa here's my story:

Rented a plane this morning to fly from KBED to KEEN to get Indian food. I have a nice pro-pilot pre-printed checklist in the flip book format. I went through it item-by-item. The FBO guy told me that the prior pilot had just flown around the pattern, but that I might want to fill the fuel to the tabs just in case (SOP at the FBO). So, i dutifully pulled the plane over to the pump, and filled the tanks to the tabs. Under the left cap...already to the tabs, screwed back on, no problem. Right cap: little low, so i placed the cap between the door and the fill-hole. Filled up about 2 gallons, retracted the fuel pump thingy. Un-clipped the static line. Pushed the plane back using the tow bar. Threw the tow bar in the back of the plane. Closed the door. Started up the engine....and off into the wild blue yonder i went.

Flew and landed with no problems. BUT, the FBO at KEEN somehow knew my name...and had a message for me. The FBO guy had been talking with another pilot, saw an object on the ramp....and well you can guess the rest. Luckily, a pilot from the club was poking holes in the air so he agreed to fly the cap out to me.

I did have delicious Indian food at KEEN. And i got to think of all the what-ifs while i waited for the cap. My best guess is that, by placing the cap on the wing, from the inside...it kind-of , sort-of looked like it was on....if one were not paying close attention.

Incidentally, I only burned about 7 gallons on the way out and about 6.1 gallons on the way back. I would have thought that the plane would have sucked the fuel right out of the wing; guess not.:confused:

Lessons learned:
1. one more walk around, with actual touching of important items is not a bad idea.
2. The FBO at KEEN had some good ideas like: when you go to check that the controls are free and correct, look at the gas cap (in the low wing that i fly) and visually notice if it's on and secure.
3. Checklists are not fool proof, 'cause fools are really clever sometimes.:o
 
Reminds me of a time in a skyhawk I didn't check to make sure the student put the fuel caps on properly before flight. As we were taxiing out, i noticed the guy in the backseat getting gas all over him. I now double check those caps every flight.
 
Glad it tourned out OK. Fill out the ASRS report just to CYA.

When I worked in the line department I personally had my own routine of always putting the cap on before doing anything with the hose or static lines. If you get into a routine everytime it will become automatic to check the caps.

Never trust fuelers. I have had fueling panels left on, doors open, and single point caps left hanging out side a closed fuel door.

Glad it turned out ok and you had some yummy food.
 
dc3flyer said:
I wouldn't fill out a report... is it illegal to fly without a gas cap???? (I wouldn't recommend it, but I don't think you need to fill out a ASRS)
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He probably does not need to worry about obtaining immunity, but he should still fill out an ASRS.

There was an anomaly that could have ended badly. If that kind of stuff gets reported often, it could lead to guidance with more emphasis on pre-flight inspections, or a new safety device.
 
ozone said:
A what?
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http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/report/electronic.html

Muy importante

Oh, and something I've learned during my short time flying airplanes. If you, or someone else, does something to the plane, be it fueling it, or doing maintenance, finish your deal. Then go back and check that specific item again. Make sure the fuel caps are on tight (you'll do that I have no doubt), or check and see that all the bolts are put back on and anything that needs safety wire has it.
 
Polar742 said:
Oh, and something I've learned during my short time flying airplanes. If you, or someone else, does something to the plane, be it fueling it, or doing maintenance, finish your deal. Then go back and check that specific item again. Make sure the fuel caps are on tight (you'll do that I have no doubt), or check and see that all the bolts are put back on and anything that needs safety wire has it.
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:yeahthat:
My best pre-flights are after the plane has had maintanence done on it. I have also caught on a few occasions the fuel cap off and door open (on a jet after single point refueling), as well as cowling latches undone or screws loose. Never ever ever trust the person before you, and as you found out you can be the one that forgets!
 
Report to NASA enroute. I hope they dont think this is too trivial. If nothing else, filling out the form made me think about the factors that led to me forgetting to replace and secure the cap.

Questions that popped into my head while I was filling out the form:
1. Why do cessnas, with high wings, have bright red gas caps and pipers do not?
2. Why is there not a metal spring door on the fill-hole, like in cars?
3. Why no cap retention chain or some such thing?

I did this flight today to get some stress relief....next time i will go to a movie or go swimming. Flying when stressed can make you forgetful.
 
ozone said:
Report to NASA enroute. I hope they dont think this is too trivial. If nothing else, filling out the form made me think about the factors that led to me forgetting to replace and secure the cap.

Questions that popped into my head while I was filling out the form:
1. Why do cessnas, with high wings, have bright red gas caps and pipers do not?
2. Why is there not a metal spring door on the fill-hole, like in cars?
3. Why no cap retention chain or some such thing?

I did this flight today to get some stress relief....next time i will go to a movie or go swimming. Flying when stressed can make you forgetful.
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Read up a bit on the ASRS system. I'm no expert on that, but nothing is too trivial. I believe the main point of ASRS is to collect data, and every data point is a help. If it gets published in "Callback" (subscribe if you haven't), it's like hangar flying on a huge level. We all learn from other's mistakes.

I think the C150s had retention chains and maybe 172s. It's been years.

Keep up the good work. Don't forget I'M SAFE.

:beer:
 
KBED to KEEN?

Thats awesome, I plan on doing that exact flight sometime this summer... if I have the money. Its seems like it would be a nice mix of easy and interesting.


EFA or East Coast?
 
Polar742 said:
Make sure the fuel caps are on tight (you'll do that I have no doubt), or check and see that all the bolts are put back on and anything that needs safety wire has it.
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Yup.

I flew to an airport that wasn't a typical spot for me to go to and I asked them to fuel the plane. Well, I guess it was practice there to leave the fuel caps off so that the pilot could see that the plane was filled.

How did I learn this? I went to my plane, did a quick preflight, and noticed that both of the caps were off. So I went in to the FBO and said, hey guys, I don't mean to be rude, but your line guy left the caps off the tanks.

So let's say I didn't check. Those things come off, the Bernoulli effect sucks the gas out, and I'm doing a forced landing somewhere.
 
A few of lessons I learned.

1. Always check the fuel receipt for the proper grade of fuel. I did have Jet A put in a 402. This could have been bad if I took off.

2. Always do the coversion from gallons to lbs to make sure you got what you needed and it double checks your gauges. I ordered 30000 lbs once and only got 4030 gallons (27000 lbs). It turns out I had a remote gauge go bad and it begain reading 3000 lbs high

3. Check and double check your fueler.
 
Tangodelta29 said:
KBED to KEEN?
Thats awesome, I plan on doing that exact flight sometime this summer... if I have the money. Its seems like it would be a nice mix of easy and interesting.
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Neither....there's another FBO on the field that rents warriors for $90/hour wet. You have to join the Civil air patrol or be any kind of former military to join. But, guests can come as well without those credentials.

PM me if you ever want to split the flight costs.

And yes, it was a great flight. The indian food was in the top 10% of indian food i have eaten. I want to promote KEEN because the indian restaurant was empty when I got there. I would hate to see the only on-field indian restaurant i know of disappear.


For those interested in keeping current on their IFR, I overheard some of the pilots at the FBO talking about how the IFR pattern (or whatever it's called) at KEEN is "interesting" and "good practice"...so that's another good excuse to fly for indian food.
 
Ah yes, this reminds me of my long solo X/C. Went RCM-SGF-IXD-RCM. Was instructed that I had to take fuel in SGF. Good enough, I'll stop, put what I burned on the way back in, and be on my merry way, or so I thought.

Got the fuel, preflighted (not very well, shall we say). Get ready to taxi, "hmm, I wonder why the low fuel pressure light is on?" God knows how I even saw that it was on, because I didn't know it was there. So, shut down, and low and behold, both fuel caps were off. So, I got out, did a good preflight and went to start up again. Well, this time, I forgot the engine was hot, and nearly drained the battery trying to start, due to my lack of ability to recognize that I had flooded it. After that whole ordeal, I finally got on my merry way, calling up ground. Mistake number 3, should have called clearance first. Didn't know that, was my first trip into a class C airport.

Long story short, I'm glad something caused me to look at that light. Probably saved my life, or at least saved me from having to do an off-field landing.
 
With my more advanced students (comm, cfi, etc) i'll casually watch them preflight. I will every time, however, ask them about fuel and oil, and then I ME will check caps and the oil dipstick. Dipstick gets forgotten almost as much as the fuel caps.
 
In high wings, I used to look behind through 1000' to make sure I wasnt streaming fuel everywhere, as a final check. I've had fuel caps come lose during t/o too.
 
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