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The mistakes I did

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Michel

Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 966
Location: Norway

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 12:31 am Post subject: The mistakes I did

Friends, I suggest that we post here mistakes we did, in order to learn from each other.



Here is my latest: Last Saturday, I refueled Avgas to the top (about 60 liters) prior to flying to another airfield, only 15 minutes away. Behind me was a Cessna that was in a hurry so I did a quick tanking.

Landing at the other airfield, I see fuel pouring down my left wing: I forgot its lid and lost about 30 liters! Luckily, it was only a short flight and I have two wing tanks. I remember reading on this forum, some years ago, about a Kitfox pilot who did the same, but needed to do an emergency landing after a while.

I managed to tape the tank opening for the flight home, then found my lid in the grass, near the Avgas station.



I have now edited my run-up checklist with a new item! CHECK TANK LID!



Cheers,

Michel Verheughe

Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200

Norway

_________________
Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200

Tom Jones

Joined: 12 Mar 2006
Posts: 752
Location: Ellensburg, WA

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 5:00 am Post subject: Re: The mistakes I did

After the second time I took off with my seat belt flapping outside the door I added "Seat belts fastened" to my take off checklist.

_________________
Tom Jones
Classic IV
503 Rotax, 72 inch Two blade Warp
Ellensburg, WA

Lynn Matteson

Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 2778
Location: Grass Lake, Michigan

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 5:35 am Post subject: The mistakes I did

Thanks for the suggestion, Michel. I did nearly the same thing....I  

was *talking* while adding 5 gallons to each of my two wing tanks (13  

gallon capacity each), and forgot the cap on one side. Thank God I  

didn't fill the plane as I was only going to fly around for an hour  

or so. While flying, I noticed that the left side tank seemed to be  

getting more full of fuel while the right side was going down. When I  

landed, I saw the left cap missing....found it on my runway....and  

now realized that the pressure being created in the right tank, and  

the suction of air passing over the (open) left tank was causing the  

fuel to migrate over to the left tank. Because I hadn't filled the  

tanks to the top, the left tank had room to accept the migrating  

fuel, and I landed before it had a chance to fill the left tank and  

then siphon that fuel out into the airstream.



Lynn Matteson

Kitfox IV Speedster, taildragger

Jabiru 2200, #2062

Prince prop 64 x 30, P-tip

Electroair direct-fire ignition system

Rotec TBI-40 injection (sleeved to 36mm)

Status: flying with "Ramcharger" intake manifold...1187 hrs (since  

3-27-2006)

On Oct 11, 2011, at 4:31 AM, Michel wrote:



 	  Quote: 	
		   



 Friends, I suggest that we post here mistakes we did, in order to  

 learn from each other.



 Here is my latest: Last Saturday, I refueled Avgas to the top  

 (about 60 liters) prior to flying to another airfield, only 15  

 minutes away. Behind me was a Cessna that was in a hurry so I did a  

 quick tanking.

 Landing at the other airfield, I see fuel pouring down my left  

 wing: I forgot its lid and lost about 30 liters! Luckily, it was  

 only a short flight and I have two wing tanks. I remember reading  

 on this forum, some years ago, about a Kitfox pilot who did the  

 same, but needed to do an emergency landing after a while.

 I managed to tape the tank opening for the flight home, then found  

 my lid in the grass, near the Avgas station.



 I have now edited my run-up checklist with a new item! CHECK TANK LID!



 Cheers,

 Michel Verheughe

 Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200

 Norway



 --------

 Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200





 Read this topic online here:



 http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=354637#354637

_________________
Lynn
Kitfox IV-Jabiru 2200
N369LM

Pat Reilly

Joined: 06 Aug 2009
Posts: 345

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 6:34 am Post subject: The mistakes I did

Mike, I did the same thing with a Cessna 150. I left the caps (both ) on the wing. I never set the cap on the wing now. I always set the cap on the ladder when gassing up.

 

Pat Reilly

Mod 3 582 Rebuild

 Rockford, IL 

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 3:31 AM, Michel <michel(at)online.no (michel(at)online.no)> wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		   --> Kitfox-List message posted by: "Michel" <michel(at)online.no (michel(at)online.no)>

 

 Friends, I suggest that we post here mistakes we did, in order to learn from each other.

 

 Here is my latest: Last Saturday, I refueled Avgas to the top (about 60 liters) prior to flying to another airfield, only 15 minutes away. Behind me was a Cessna that was in a hurry so I did a quick tanking.

 Landing at the other airfield, I see fuel pouring down my left wing: I forgot its lid and lost about 30 liters! Luckily, it was only a short flight and I have two wing tanks. I remember reading on this forum, some years ago, about a Kitfox pilot who did the same, but needed to do an emergency landing after a while.

  I managed to tape the tank opening for the flight home, then found my lid in the grass, near the Avgas station.

 

 I have now edited my run-up checklist with a new item! CHECK TANK LID!

 

 Cheers,

 Michel Verheughe

 Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200

 Norway

 

 --------

 Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200

 

 

 

 

 Read this topic online here:

 

 http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=354637#354637

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  target="_blank">http://www.matronics.com/Navigator?Kitfox-List

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 le, List Admin.

 ="_blank">http://www.matronics.com/contribution

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-- 

Pat Reilly

Mod 3 582 Rebuild

Rockford,IL

  [quote][b]

KeysFox

Joined: 05 Jan 2009
Posts: 137

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 7:05 am Post subject: The mistakes I did

I encountered serious turbulence over extremely unforgiving terrain for

about 50 miles in alll directions and noticed a small amount of oil just

behind the right rudder pedals at the junction of firewall and floor

board. Made precautionary landing on small, ROUGH, exposed mountain

airport in very gusty cross winds. Pulled nose up into some scrub bushes

to tie plane so it would not blow away while I looked for cause. With the

plane bouncing around in the gusty wind, I found the oil header tank top

was not quite properly seated with its large "0" ring to the oil header

tank on my early Rotax 912 and reseated it.



I thought it was interesting that it had been about 25 hours since the

last oil change, so apparently the small leak occured due to turbulence

splashing oil around in header tank, otherwise there may not have been a

noticeable leak despite the poor "0" ring seal. Also, Despite seeing oil

in the cabin, the oil loss was so small it did not show on the dip stick

and turned out to be of no consequence although seeing oil puddleing on

the floor board in the cabin was alarming. The PRECAUTIONARY landing

turned out to be more hazzardous than the oil leak. Lots of precautionary

landings end up giving insurance adjusters work.



Of course I got a new "0" ring, and pay more attention to seating oil tank

lid during oil change. But the incident also reminds me that since i fly

over really rough terrain and water a lot, I need to look really carefully

for any chaffing of coolant and oil lines during conformity inspections to

guard against engine stoppage or potentially hazzardous unplanned

landings.



BJ

Kitfox IV 912

_________________
B Jones
N154K
443-480-1023

Michel

Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 966
Location: Norway

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 2:29 am Post subject: Re: The mistakes I did

 	  Pat Reilly wrote: 	
		  I never set the cap on the wing now. I always set the cap on the ladder when gassing up. 	




... that sounds like a good idea, Pat! I think I'll do the same!



Cheers,

Michel Verheughe

Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200

Norway

_________________
Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200

lcfitt(at)sbcglobal.net
Guest

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 6:44 am Post subject: The mistakes I did

The mistake I made in this regard was allowing the line boy to top up the 

tanks.  He did his job flawlessly until he reinstalled the caps.  On the 

left wing, he only engaged one side of the cap.  With the cap present but 

unsealed, it siphoned fuel.  Our leg was a short one, but the fuel drain was 

obvious from the site gauges.

Lowell Fitt

Kitfox IV-1200 900 hrs

912UL

Kitfox IV-1200 Close

912UL

Cameron Park, CA



--------------------------------------------------

From: "Michel" <michel(at)online.no>

Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 3:29 AM

To: <kitfox-list(at)matronics.com>

Subject: Re: The mistakes I did



[quote] 



 [quote="Pat Reilly"]I never set the cap on the wing now. I always set the 

 cap on the ladder when gassing up. 	  Quote: 	
		  



 ... that sounds like a good idea, Pat! I think I'll do the same!



 Cheers,

 Michel Verheughe

 Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200

 Norway



 --------

 Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200





 Read this topic online here:



 http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=354776#354776

Michel

Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 966
Location: Norway

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:00 am Post subject: Re: The mistakes I did

That is interesting, Lowell, because on all the airfields I have been, in Europe, no one has ever proposed to fill my tanks for me. It is always the pilot who does it.



Cheers,

Michel Verheughe

Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200

Norway

_________________
Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200

Fox5flyer
Guest

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 3:19 am Post subject: Re: The mistakes I did

I left a cap with only one tang locked in and fortunately I wasn't far from my strip before I noticed one tank going down and the other overflowing.  I suspected what the problem was immediately and made it home with one tank nearly empty.  Didn't take long and I vowed to not let that happen again!

When I gas up my car I always leave the cap on the pump rather than on the car so that if I later when I find out I forgot it, it will probably be where I left it.

Deke

S5

NE Michigan



 	  Michel wrote: 	
		   	  Pat Reilly wrote: 	
		  I never set the cap on the wing now. I always set the cap on the ladder when gassing up. 	




... that sounds like a good idea, Pat! I think I'll do the same!



Cheers,

Michel Verheughe

Kitfox 3 - Jabiru 2200

Norway

simonnelson(at)vodamail.c
Guest

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:17 am Post subject: The mistakes I did

Any reason why the caps do not have a light chain on them?



Sy

---

rhodes1

Joined: 15 Feb 2008
Posts: 20
Location: Us

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2011 5:28 am Post subject: The mistakes I did

When I fill my car or plane I always put the cap in my pocket

---

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