Over The Airwaves
Bad Things Happen to Good Pilots, Too!
“There are those that have and those that will . . .” This classic quote, of course, refers to the inadvertent gear-up landing. Sadly, the C-210 belongs to a very capable pilot friend of mine here in Buffalo, NY. This event happened just several days ago. “What happened?” I asked when talking with my buddy shortly after this unfortunate incident. “Simple . . . I screwed up, plain and simple. No excuses,” he replied. I thought to myself, if it could happen to him, it could happen to any of us who own and/or operate retracts. My friend did note that his pre-landing check-list was interrupted by radio chatter from the tower. “I’m not making excuses here,” he said. “It was my fault, pure and simple, but for some reason I allowed the radio distractions to get in the way of my flying the airplane,” he added.
Therein lies a valuable lesson . . .
Above all . . . fly the airplane. This little piece of advice has saved literally thousands of pilots over the years. My instrument instructor also taught me to make one last audible call-out just before every landing. That call-out is “GEAR/PROP.” Thus, whether flying my T-210 (retract) or any other of the many fixed-gear trainers I fly, I always call out “GEAR/PROP” just before touching down. This mantra is engrained in my aerial brain. Thus, no distraction, large or small at this critical stage of flight will likely ever result in an inadvertent gear-up landing! In summary, add the “GEAR/PROP” mantra as the last item on your pre-landing checklist. If you do, you’ll not likely ever experience a gear-up landing either.
Want to abuse your engine? Start it cold!
With winter rapidly approaching in the Northern Hemisphere, now is the time to begin thinking seriously about the damaging effect of sub-freezing temperatures when starting our aircraft engines. Is this really a serious concern? Nationally recognized engine guru, Mike Busch, A&P/AI, “AMT of the Year,” and OTA reader, recently had this to say about cold engine starts: “In less than a minute, a single cold start without proper preheating can produce more wear on your piston aircraft engine than 500 hours of normal cruise operation. If it’s cold enough, a single cold start can cause the catastrophic destruction of an engine shortly after takeoff.” In a wonderful article published on AVWEB about the critical importance of proper engine pre-heating (found HERE), Mike Busch explains why starting a cold engine causes damage. Busch points to a popular misconception held by many pilots that pre-heating is necessary to allow cold-soaked, thick viscous oil to get moving throughout the engine. While this may play a role in premature engine wear, the real heart of the problem lies in the fact that our engines are constructed with dissimilar metals with radically different expansion coefficients.
The aluminum alloys that are used to make up the crankcase, pistons, and cylinder heads of our engine shrink twice as much in size when cold than do the steel that makes up the crankshaft, camshaft, connecting rods and cylinder barrels.
The net effect of this cold temperature-induced unequal shrinking of these dissimilar metals is the loss of the tiny clearance between each that permits oil to flow through. Hence, we experience the damaging results of metal-to-metal when we start a cold-soaked engine.
How cold is COLD?
Lots of studies have been performed on the effects of cold temperatures on aircraft engines, but most authorities agree that temperatures below 32d F. require pre-heating before engine start.
What’s the best way to pre-heat a cold engine?
Clearly, the best way to prevent cold temperature engine starts is to keep our airplanes in heated hangars. But few of us have this option, but those that do still face the problem of pre-heating when away from home.
Thus, no single solution works all of the time. I keep the TSIO-520 engine in my C-210 toasty warm in my unheated hangar here in Buffalo by placing a 250 watt heating lamp tucked up inside the nose wheel well along with an insulating blanket draped over the cowl.
At roughly 10 cents per kilowatt hour (national commercial rate average), this works out to about $90 for our entire six month long heating season.
On really cold nights, I’ll keep a small, thermostatically controlled electric heater running inside my airplane on the floor in front of the pilot’s seat. This offers the added benefit of keeping my instrument gyros warm as well, plus it is always nice climbing into a warm cockpit.
My engine is also equipped with a Tanis Aircraft Services electric multi-point pre-heating system that when on the road I can plug into any FBO 110v AC power source via a 100’ long extension cord that I always carry along in the winter. The Reiff Corporation manufactures an equally good engine pre-heating system.
There are other types of engine pre-heating systems as well, including forced hot air produced either electrically or with propane or kerosene.
Whatever system we use, the important thing is that we use it - EVERY time the engine block is below 32d F. We will more than pay for it in the long run . . . . and it could save our lives.
OverTheAirwaves.com
The Journal for the Proficient Pilot