Alan Gerber wrote in
:

Jay Beckman wrote:
Wasn't it Bill Cosby who did the routine about just going under the
anasthetic (sp?) when the surgeon says "Ooops..." ???

"What do you mean, oops? I know what I mean when I say oops, but what
the hell do you mean when YOU say ooops??"

My CFI was very clear on the idea that I should *never* say "oops" when
I'm carrying passengers. Ever.

... Alan

OK. That reminds me of a pilot story...

I had two passengers from Atlantic City in an Arrow II. We were returning
at night from a trip to Harrisburgh (KMDT) (Hershey, actually). It was
about 10pm or so...

We were heading to Bader (AIY). We had been at 5000', and coming up on the
field (KACY off to the left) I began a descent. After about 500', I decided
to pull out a couple of inches of Manifold Pressure to keep it below 24"
RPM.

As soon as I touched the throttle, the tach went redline on the RPM, the
engine revved like I was taking off. This was my first experience of this
type, so I was taken a bit by surprise. Before I realized the words had
come out of my mouth, I said ---

"Oh, SH-T!!"

Immediately, both passengers grabbed onto the doorhandles for dear life.

For the moment, appeasing my passengers was low priority. I reduce the
throttle to about half, and was able to get a reasonable prop response. I
then called ATC (I was still on with Atlantic City Approach) and indicated
that I had an onboard emergency, and would like to land on their runway 13,
just off to my left, instead of proceeding to Bader. They cleared me to
land and asked me the nature of the emergency.

By this time, I had noticed that the oil pressure was low, and so I told
them that I had the plane in a stable descent, had a low oil pressure
indication, and should be OK to make an easy landing on their Rwy 13.

He asks me, "Do you want me to roll the equipment?"

I say, "No, we've got it under control."

He says, "We're gonna roll the equipment anyway. They could use the
practice, and are probably bored anyway."

Sure enough, two fire trucks, a few ambulances, and a couple of police cars
followed me after an otherwise uneventful landing (actually, quite a
greaser!) down the runway and taxiway to the FBO. The engine actually
responded fairly well until we stopped the plane. Evidently, a seal had
leaked in one of the gaskets and I was left with about 3 quarts.

I'm not a mechanic, but as it was explained to me that when I adjusted the
throttle, after pretty much staying in the same spot for 90 minutes or so
enroute, the oil in the prop governer went back into the engine, and the
result was that there was not enough oil left in the prop governer to
govern the prop properly. (Say that 10 times fast!)

Incidentally, one of the two passengers has flown with me since, and the
other one hasn't, but did say he would fly with me again if the opportunity
presented itself...


It didn't take long for this story to be spread among everybody in our
industry. But somehow, no one really talks about how nice the greaser was,
or how I took command of the situation and landed us safely.

Nope, they mostly talk about my most memorable reaction to the problem in
the plane...

"Oh SH-T!!"