----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]----
I had this happen to me twice when I first got my 'Coupe. I now have an item on my pre-flight check list to double check the oil cap. The first time it happened was the second time I flew my 'Coupe. I had all of 5 hours in 'Coupes at that point. I was flying it open canopy, and noticed a fine spray of schmutz on the windshield in the lower left corner on the pilot's side. So I stuck my hand out and ran it along the windshield and saw that it was oil. I leaned my head out of the cockpit, and saw a little river of oil running down the wing root. Luckily, I was only about two miles from 3B9, so I just landed her, put more oil in, and mopped her off. I lost about a quart. I have done a couple of things that fixed it for my Alon. First, I bought a new oil cap/dipstick assembly. My old one had gotten rusty under the cap, and was not holding together particularly firmly. Next, I had my AP grind down under the lip a bit so that the cap can get a firmer hold. The other thing I do is to every so often degrease around the lip so that the cap will really grab hold. Since doing this, I haven't had the cap come open in flight again. My AP tells me that when he was training they built an O-200-A from scrap, and ran it without any oil to see what would happen. They never got the thing to seize. Not that you'd want to try that with your engine, and I'm sure it was worse for the wear, but my understanding is that these little old Continentals may not have a lot of finesse, but are tough as nails. Leslie Holbrook Alon A2 N161LH Chester, CT 3B9 >From: Alan Fairclough <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: [COUPERS] Not oil goes well with a coupe. >Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 20:29:12 +0000 > >----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any >advice in this forum.]---- > >Last weekend I took a trip in my coupe down to Dauphin Island MS, which >by the way, is a real nice place to go. >I had just flown over lake Charles when I started to notice my oil >pressure was low. Temperature was lower than normal too. >The engine was running so from that moment on, I kept in mind the plane >was insured and I was flying the insurance company's plane. I came >first. I got hold of Lake Charles approach and they pointed me at the >nearest airport. Welch field was 8 miles off my 10 O'clock so that is >where I landed with the oil pressure almost down to zero. >Upon landing I nearly killed myself getting out of the plane, there was >oil all over the no-skid surface and I slipped and fell on the grass. >The oil cap had backed off and if it had no dipstick on it it would be >gone. There was oil all over the place except for in the engine. >I added 2 1/2 quarts and made sure the idiot that had put the oil cap on >earlier that morning put it on tight this time. (Said idiot shall >reamain nameless, of course). >It would make said idiot real happy to find out that this is a common >occurrence and could happen to anyone... >Has anyone thought of a way of keeping the cap on in a more secure >way?... >How long can a C-75 fly without oil? > > >Alan Fairclough <-- No family history of mental illness. >N87333 >Kingwood, TX > > _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aVxiLm.aVzvvT Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
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