Fuel contamination and other basic survival instincts

Greg Farris wrote:

If you are to fly over an expanse of water or other inhospitible
terrain, for a distance long enough to require re-fueling immediately
prior (US-Europe ferry, for example) - You watch to see that they put
the right fuel in your plane, but you can really only see what's
stenciled on the side of the truck, not what's inside (call me paranoid
- what if the line guy is someone I owe money to). How long do you have
to fly before a fuel contamination problem manifests itself? Does this
depend on how empty your tanks were? I'm guessing no - I'm guessing this
type of problem - any serious fuel contamination problem - would show up
within minutes. Anyone really know this. Anyone here learn this the hard
way?

No way to know. It takes awhile for water to settle in avgas; it could
manifest itself immediately, or a few minutes after takeoff. Factors
such as fuel system layout, amount of water, and effectiveness of fuel
filters would all play a role.

I wasn't particularly thrilled about taking on fuel for a Hughes 500 I
delivered from Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico, in a number of, ah,
"isolated" spots. I was least pleased about taking fuel in
Providenciales and the Dominican Republic. However, your risk of
contamination (due to water, anyway) in Jet-A is lower than avgas,
because Jet-A (and turbine engines) are more tolerant of water than
pistons. In any case, I did a little 500 ft. traffic pattern after
departing my first fuel stop in the DR, Puerto Plata, then headed east
over the mountains.

I've also noted, though far less certain, a number of vacuum or AI
failures take place within the first minutes of flight, not to mention
engines throwing rods etc. You can see what I'm getting at - how useful
a survival instinct would it be to fly, say 20 minutes, up the Icelandic
coast, then double back before setting out across the great void?
(Obviously you've already taken the other measures, and you are wearing
your survival gear etc).

Sure, that's useful. Prove out the equipment before you commit.
Hopefully you've already had some trials or other proving runs so you
have a big-picture idea of what you're dealing with; the last test run,
just prior to flight, will be to catch any last-minute gotchas.

Another question : I read an official accident report (not a newspaper
report) in which ground personnel refilled a small plane's oxygen tanks
with compressed air before a mountain crossing. The pilot died in the
ensuing accident, but miraculously the single passenger survived to
confirm the oxygen-related unconciousness of the pilot as the cause of
the crash. What could this pilot have done to defend against this "rare
but not impossible" event?

Realistically? Nothing. We could probably make some guesses and
theorize about ways to prevent that from happening, but in the real
world, we trust that an O2 fill is an O2 fill. Supervise the recharging
of the tanks, is all I could say.

We assume that in aviation - unlike on the road - we may kill ourselves
by our own mistakes, but the likliehood of being killed by the mistakes
of others is very far removed. This is certainly justified, however very
far removed does not mean impossible, and our preventive measures should
try to preclude suce events if we can.

Absolutely. I've "prevented" problems by supervising the refueling of
the Hawker 700 which I fly. It's possible, via a refueling control
panel, for the fueler to put fuel where it doesn't belong, i.e. ventral
and dorsal tanks when all I asked for was the wings to be topped. Since
T/O with partial fuel in those tanks is not allowed, I'd have a real
problem if the fueler accidentally fueled those tanks. Even worse is
when the fueler tries to fill tanks that are already full and the
airplane starts discharging fuel onto the ramp via a surge overflow
vent. The EPA comes runnin'! My policy is to always be present when
the aircraft is fueled.

Good thoughts, Greg.

-Ryan