Warbird Information Exchange

I'll start. This happened several months ago....& I need to point out that no aircraft were harmed during this fiasco...


Had drained the oil from a P51 which about fills 3 5 gal buckets & part of a 4th one... The oil is straight 60 weight so it's a bit viscous...

In the corner of the other hangar are a group of 55gal drums for waste oil, fresh oil, avgas, smoke oil etc... There was also a Staggerwing parked in there which meant access to the corner was a bit restricted & I had to lift the full 5gal buckets above my head & step sideways to avoid the aircraft...

However, I failed to see the pump handle on top of the smoke oil drum sticking up as I lowered the bucket.. this resulted in the bucket jerking violently sending at least half a gal almost straight up in the air..... not quite so straight that it came back down into the bucket it had just left tho.. It came down just to the side of the bucket.... on the side I was standing & I managed to stop most of the oil reaching the floor by using my head/hair to arrest it's plummet...Washed it out of my hair etc with avgas & dawn dishsoap... the Tshirt was a total loss...

If you want the full experience for yourself, next time you do an oil change on the bike or car just take the drain pan & tip it over your head...

I had a similar experience back in college. I was working part-time at a Texaco service station (back when there WAS such a thing). On a hot summer day, I had a car up on the lift for an oil change. I had the oil catch barrel (on wheels) with its telescopic catch pan all positioned just right and I was just about to remove the drain plug from the oil pan when on of my co-workers took a shortcut under the car to get to the other side (instead of going around!). He slipped on some spilled oil, lost his footing, and down he went. As he fell, he grabbed the handle on the oil barrel to try to stop his fall, and in the process, he pulled the oil barrel out of position. . . just as I pulled the drain plug from the engine. . . and all of that scalding hot oil came pouring out of the engine, right onto my head, in my face, and down the front of my coveralls! I was soaked in hot oil clear down to the "family jewels". AARRGGHH!!

I'll bet most of us have had something stupid like that happen. . .

Don't forget to put the drain plug back in before servicing with fresh oil. I've never done that...

Nope...never had one of those days.

Not oil but I had a merlin radiator full of luke warm water and old coolant run down my arm while trying to remove the drain plug..!

Brad wrote:Nope...never had one of those days.

That's a great picture! I can identify after working on the sumps of a certain silver aircraft in the past! I have learned my lessons!

flyingsailor wrote:That's a great picture! I can identify after working on the sumps of a certain silver aircraft in the past! I have learned my lessons!

Last week I wore a WHITE t-shirt on a day I worked on a T6 & a Staggeriwng... Shirt was still white when I left work

Altho to be fair the staggerwing was only getting detailed for return to owner & the T6 had the primer lines blown out, so I wasn't exactly flirting with danger...

Ever have one of those WEEKS?

I know what you mean. Just be glad warbirds don't use Skydrol Hydraulic fluid. That stuff is nasty and burns! Don't scratch your when you've got it on your hands!

Try catalyzed poly resin in the eye (before we were smart enough to wear eye protection ) only way to wash it out was with acetone!

Only had to do that once...

ZRX61 wrote:
If you want the full experience for yourself, next time you do an oil change on the bike or car just take the drain pan & tip it over your head...

Or change a few cylinders on the bottom of a 3350

Hal B wrote:Or change a few cylinders on the bottom of a 3350

Or dismantle a Ford 460 on an engine stand while your arm is in a cast...

Engine on stand? check

Drip tray on bottom of stand? check

Drain pan full of oil/cooant mix in drip tray? check...

Arm in a plaster cast following surgery? check?

Head full of medications/thinking process not quite on par with usually alert self? check/check

So I remove the last bolt holding one of the heads on & then lift it off the locating dowels. At this point I realise just how weakened my grip is as the head starts to slide from my hands & head for the floor. Now this head probably weighs about 90lb & I don't want it to hit my foot so I make an attempt to impede the plummet earthwards.

I'm *somewhat* successful in this attempt & I manage to not allow it to hit the ground.. or my foot.

Instead, it hit the end of the aforementioned drip tray which promptly launched the drainpan skywards, spinning wildly like a flipped coined. It didn't get too far as it hit the bottom of the engine block & arrested it's low Earth orbit trajectory. The top of the drain pan was facing me when this happened & the contents continued onwards until they collided with the walls & ceiling of my garage... or me..

For ages afterwards there was a "Rick" shaped outline of me, in oil/coolant mix on the garage door... oh how I laughed...

Man that brings back memories of when I was working for the military as a test engineer testing a replacement tow tractor that was suitable for REAL-HEAVIES.. (C-5A and the Anatovs) and one of the many temperature sensors I had wired into the power-plant had failed. I must have been suffering from diesel fume inhalation because I just removed the sensor while the system was still hot AND still under pressure.. The instant I popped off the sensor I realized what I had done and just closed my eyes in the nick of time as I got about 2 gallons of "power sprayed" coolant on me. I was so pissed off at myself because now I had to strip down in an awful hurry in the middle of the shop floor (did I tell you that it was hot?) while about 40 of the mechanics were laughing at the stupid test engineer who had just gotten a green shower.

After that they always teased me about it. God I loved that job...

Mark