On May 30, 7:47 am, "Mortimer Schnerd, RN" mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com
wrote:
I've always been curious about one thing with these long transoceanic single
engine flights: how do you handle the oil consumption? It seems like most of
the planes I've flown over the years would have burned up much the oil in the
sump over 19 hours.

The plane I flew that burned the most oil was a 1955 TriPacer. At the
time, the engine had about 2200 hours (200 past TBO) and 42 years (30
years past TBO) since new - never overhaled! It had served as a cargo
hauler, had sat for years without flying, had racked up many of its
hours back when lubricants were nowhere near as good as they are now -
and it burned 1 qt every 4 hours. Sump capacity was 8 qt, and minimum
for safe flight was 2 qt. At that rate, it would need 24 hours to get
unsafe. That was at high power settings - at low power settings it
burned less.

I have no idea where you would find a plane that would use more oil
that someone would buy and pay to have flown transoceanic - and who
you would find to do a transoceanic ferry in it even if someone was
going to pay for it.

Personally, I would think twice about flying such a plane at all - and
certainly would only fly it day-VFR over relatively good terrain for a
forced landing.

Michael