Emergency Landing today

Took off from KASH this morning and, shortly after take-off, noted that my
oil pressure indicator was jittery -- usually it's pretty steady but today
the needle was a bit jumpy. Wanting to believe it due to a gauge
malfunction, I pressed on for a bit while trying to figure out what kind of
gauge malfunction would cause this problem. (This attempt was
unsuccessful).

The pressure remained in the green, and there were no changes in oil temp
or engine sounds.

However, when directly over KSFM some of the needle jumps were hitting the
top of the yellow, so I decided (finally) that being on the ground was a
real good idea. Declared an emergency and asked for the fire/rescue
equipment to be available (note to self: call back FAA Monday; first time
after an emergency that they've called me).

On the ground there was a definite oil leak coming out where the vacuum
pump is mounted. And I'd lost two or three quarts of oil.

The rear accessory case of my Lycoming IO360 has an oil scavenger pump (for
my RayJay turbonormalizer) and then, attached to this pump, my vacuum pump.
When we removed the vacuum pump, the Garlock seal that belongs in the
scavenger pump was loose and sitting on the vacuum pump shaft.

That Garlock seal was changed last December -- about 70-75 hours ago. It
was still in place on that occasion, but was clearly leaking.

The vacuum pump was changed about 15 hours ago due to malfunction of the
previous one after about 750 hrs.

The mechanic cleaned things up; replaced the seal; checked the screen and
filter (found what he considered an acceptable amount of metal); and
changed the oil. He ran it up and found no evidence of an oil leak after
this repair.

But what could have caused the Garlock seal to come out of the pump? He
did not know. Could there be something else going on with the engine or
the pump? Or is just one of those things unlikely to recur?


Ron (EPM) (N5843Q, Mooney M20E) (CP, ASEL, ASES, IA)

On the ground there was a definite oil leak coming out where the vacuum
pump is mounted. And I'd lost two or three quarts of oil.

I'm not sure I would have pulled the trigger as quickly on the "Emergency"
declaration, which certainly could have become a disaster.

Your post taught me something. Good call, Ron.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Sun, 07 Aug 2005 22:52:19 GMT, "Jay Honeck"
wrote:

On the ground there was a definite oil leak coming out where the vacuum
pump is mounted. And I'd lost two or three quarts of oil.

I'm not sure I would have pulled the trigger as quickly on the "Emergency"
declaration, which certainly could have become a disaster.

Your post taught me something. Good call, Ron.

In the air, all I knew for sure was that my oil pressure indicator was
flaky. I did not know what was going on inside the engine, or possibly
even behind the control panel. It was that uncertainty, along with the
possibility of something really bad going on, that lead me to declare an
emergency.

There was really no question in my mind that if I am going to make a
decision to divert because of possible but unknown engine mechanical
problems, that I'd want to have the fire and rescue people close at hand.

I've never been one to hesitate to declare an emergency. I don't see any
down side. My self-critique though includes that fact that if this recurs,
I will definitely make the decision to land earlier. In addition, I fault
myself because I did not mentally prepare myself to shut down the engine if
the pressure dropped to some low number. (So although I think I would have
shut it down, I can't be sure that I really would have).

But no one has volunteered any thoughts as to why the Garlock seal blew off
the scavenger pump. And it had been replaced about 75 hours previously.




Ron (EPM) (N5843Q, Mooney M20E) (CP, ASEL, ASES, IA)

In article , Ron Rosenfeld wrote:
In the air, all I knew for sure was that my oil pressure indicator was
flaky. I did not know what was going on inside the engine, or possibly
even behind the control panel. It was that uncertainty, along with the
possibility of something really bad going on, that lead me to declare an
emergency.

I've been there, and I made the opposite decision.

I was 30 miles from Raleigh when my oil pressure gauge got flaky
exactly like that. I figured it was just the gauge, and kept going.
I almost declared (I was talking to approach), then I almost declared
again when I got handed to tower (who vectored me away from the field).
But I didn't, because I figured I'd look like an idiot if it just
turned out to be the gauge.

When I finally got on the ground, I opened the cowling to find that my
right mag had backed off it's studs, and was dumping oil everywhere.

I had between 1 and 2 quarts left in the engine.

You made a good call.

Tina Marie
--
http://www.tripacerdriver.com "...One of the main causes
of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way
to indicate successful termination of their C programs." (Robert Firth)

On Wed, 10 Aug 2005 11:43:59 -0500, Tina Marie
wrote:

But I didn't, because I figured I'd look like an idiot if it just
turned out to be the gauge.

I've never worried about looking "like an idiot". Or at least, I never
figured that declaring an unneccessary emergency would make me look more
like an idiot than my usual appearance :-))

But, I've also not worried about talking to the FAA about my flying.

What has me worried, with regard to others, is the apparently new reporting
policy in this region (Northeast) with regard to emergencies. Apparently
they are all getting reported to the FAA, and the FSDO is then obliged to
follow up. Although the follow up is benign (at least it was in my case),
I fear some will use it as a reason to avoid declaring an emergency.

Thank you for your thoughts.


Ron (EPM) (N5843Q, Mooney M20E) (CP, ASEL, ASES, IA)

You should never go to that mechanic again.....

FWIW - an engine will probably keep running at moderate power with
surprisingly low oil pressure (but not zero!), but of course it doesn't
do the engine any good.

On 10 Aug 2005 13:57:46 -0700, "nrp" wrote:

You should never go to that mechanic again.....

And you say this because ???


Ron (EPM) (N5843Q, Mooney M20E) (CP, ASEL, ASES, IA)