Val-Halla sans engine, prop & scoop?

[snj-5]

Saw this at Boeing Field (KBFI) in Seattle today. Normal maintenance / engine change or...???




Also saw the Boeing T-33 getting prepped for a flight:



Bela P. Havasreti

[spookythecat]

This is what Greg Angers wrote in the last Cascade Warbirds newsletter.

I wanted to relay a personal story where I almost allowed
the “Get-there-itis” bug to bite me.
I finished flying our P-51 “Val-Halla” for the SeaFair
air show and left it down at Boeing Field while I went on a
business trip to Orlando. I had to fly the Fairchild air show
the next weekend so this was a very convenient plan.
A 0500 departure from the hotel in Orlando, and a 1300
arrival at SeaTac, sounded like perfect scheduling but I was
pretty tired and decided that in the future, I would attempt
to avoid such tight scheduling. One hop to Fairchild in
perfect weather wouldn’t be too much of a demand though
so I chose to press on.
On top of my tight scheduling, the Colonel from Air
Combat Command (ACC) that owns the whole Heritage
Flight program was meeting me at SeaTac to catch a ride
to Fairchild so he could watch the Heritage Flight and the
Raptor demo. ACC tries to get someone to watch all of
the demos out on the road at some point during the season.
While it isn’t really a check ride, it is a time that I want to
put on my most professional show.
The rejoin with the Colonel at SeaTac went perfect and
as an added bonus, I bumped into my neighbor who was
picking someone else up and he gave us a ride to Boeing
Field. We checked the weather, preflighted the aircraft,
loaded our bags on the plane, got in the aircraft, and
cranked her up. All the while I’m thinking that if I were
any more tired than I was, I’d cancel the flight and head to
Fairchild in the morning.
A little mechanical lesson on Val-Halla: We recently put
a Hinz filter on the oil system of our Mustang. The Hinz
filter has a chip detector, a fine screen to catch particles
in the oil and a by-pass valve if the particles overload the
screen. The clear indication of the fact that your engine is
coming apart is having the chip light come on, followed
closely by the by-pass light as the metal fills the screen.
My plan if I see this sequence of events is simply “LAND
NOW” and kiss the ground when you do. And oh by
the way, if you can, get to a high key while on the way
to landing and glide speed is a good speed to be at. Any
individual light (chip or bypass) while in flight is a “Land
Now” and check it out scenario. I’ve had to clean that
screen twice while on the road because of the by-pass valve
but each time it was just regular old dirt and completely
normal metal bits in the screen. No cause for concern. I’ve
also had the chip light come on because of a tiny hair of
metal getting in just the right spot and completing the chip
detector circuit. So I have had a certain de-sensitization to
these lights on our new system.
So, back to the plane. I taxi her down to 13R at BFI and
am waiting for the oil to warm up and the bypass light to
go out (bypass valve opens when the oil is cold) and about
the time the bypass light goes out and the oil tops 40ºC, I
push the throttle up for the run up and notice the chip light
is on. Rats!! I’m sure it’s just another metal hair in just the
right spot. And I know I’m too tired to shut down, check it
out, and still safely fly to Fairchild. And the Colonel is in
the back seat ready to go. And I’m at the hold line ready
to go. And what a shame to waste all of this effort for a
stinking tiny metal flake in just the right spot. And it really
is a lovely afternoon for flying. And the rest of CWB is
headed to Fairchild and it would be silly to be the one that
didn’t show up for tonight’s beer call because of that stupid
little light that’s just a little metal hair in just the right spot.
And Fairchild is such a great show, I don’t want to let them
down. And…. “Boeing ground, the Mustang would like to
taxi back to Galvin.” Boy did I hate saying that.
We taxied in, shut down and pulled the chip light plug
and the oil that came out looked like gold metal flaked
black car paint. It was silver metal but being in the oil
made it look gold. I quote the Colonel: “Oh boy, that doesn’t look good.”
I fully believe that had I launched,
the engine would not have lasted long.
Maybe just long enough to get me out of
the Seattle basin and over the Cascade
Mountains. Maybe just long enough to get
me to 200 feet at the departure end of the
runway. Now what?
I was amazed and disappointed that
at my experience level, and my personal
commitment to safety, it wasn’t a much
cleaner decision. It was probably less than
a minute worth of temptation but it was
powerful. I take it as a humbling personal
debrief note that the momentum of the
current plan can be significant. I forgot my primary
underlying plan is to fly safe, or not
fly at all. And that is always my primary plan.
So, what’s your primary plan? Is it going
to Fairchild?... Getting in a quick proficiency
sortie after a long day at work?...Getting to
your weekend destination because you have a
hotel reservation and a hot date?... Flying the
air show?... Flying home?... Or is that really
a secondary plan? Let me repeat: My primary
plan is Flying Safe, or don’t fly at all. I was
tempted by circumstance and momentum to
forget that more than I like to admit.
Work the task at hand, but always
remember your primary plan.

[b29flteng]

Great flying safety story! (Is this trip really necessary?)

[RMAllnutt]

That is one hell of a frank and sober statement... thanks very much for posting it!

All the best,
Richard

[snj-5]

Ditto, great story. Thanks for posting it!

Bela P. Havasreti

[spookythecat]

I thought it was pretty good. I hope more of the pilots on here see it.

[daveymac82c]

Boy, that was a very sobering story. Thank you for posting it.

Too bad about Val-Halla, but I'm thinking that it's current state of disrepair is a whole lot better than what could have been.

-David

[mlenoch]

Simply with that much metal flake in the oil, it is prudent to remove the oil cooler & have it cleaned.
VL

[Chris]

I had a similar situation last week with Cripes A Mighty. Larry Perkins was taxing our for a flight and the chip light came on. He turned around and taxied back to the hangar and shut down. I was cross the way working on SUSU at the time and he called asking for my help. The bypass light never came on but we pulled the chip detector on the Hinz filter. The oil and detector were absolutely clean as could be. The only mess we have is a quart of oil on the floor. I put everything back together and had Larry turn the power back on. The darn chip light comes on again. Now What!! Larry reaches down and flicks the light and it goes out. The press to test was stuck. Whooda thunk? But at least the owner of the plane knew his oil was clean and I learned another lesson.

[snj-5]

What's the joke about the only guys who have to overhaul
their engines are the ones with chip lights...? <grins>. Those
without chip lights have engine failures and crash (so they don't
have to worry about chip lights or overhauls!).

Bela P. Havasreti

[Hal B]

I was wondering how long it would take for someone to notice this

Val-Halla should be back in the air sometime early next year. The replacement engine just showed up Monday and we're busy hanging accessories and etc. And Vlado, we have the freshly flushed oil cooler waiting to be re-installed. I'll be assembling the oil tank after cleaning today.

Chip lights; ya gotta love 'em.

[Ken]

Greg Anders has the class to admit:

"I was amazed and disappointed that
at my experience level, and my personal
commitment to safety, it wasn’t a much
cleaner decision. It was probably less than
a minute worth of temptation but it was
powerful. I take it as a humbling personal
debrief note that the momentum of the
current plan can be significant. I forgot my primary
underlying plan is to fly safe, or not
fly at all. And that is always my primary plan."

There is a fine line between robots who always do what the light says and pilots who apply the right judgement at the right time. I've always liked the definition of responsibility that questions if you have the correct "response ability" to truly accept responsibility. I'll wager that most of us have pushed a bad situation or ignored a warning sign because it wasn't the convenient answer. I don't know Greg Anders but he sounds like the kind of pilot I'd want to hang around with.

Ken

[Michel C-GNCJ]

Very touching post indeed.

Once I failed to resist temptation and did something that was going flat against my "prime directives" as a pilot. Nothing bad happened, except getting stupid scared and regretting the event for months afterwards. I still can't beleive I did what I did... I was lucky, fortunately.

So I can really connect with what you felt. The difference is that you had the right reaction. Kudos for that ! A great lesson for me anyway...

The line is fine indeed between being safe and pressing on sometimes... it is probably as fine between a non-event and an accident !

Thanks much for sharing.

Last edited by Michel C-GNCJ on Wed Nov 26, 2008 12:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Forgotten Field]

I read that, and it is hard to know what to say about it. I do appreciate it being posted. I try to be as careful as I can be flying my ship, but I've made mistakes. Thankfully, I have some good mentors who have helped me learn from them. If you don't have a constant safety awareness about yourself when flying these things, they are going to bite you, and you aren't going to get any hints before it happens. Thanks again for the post.

[Hal B]

Well, glad to report that tomorrow morning we're finally off to BFI with the replacement Merlin for Val-Halla. Back in a few days...