|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Like a lot of pilots, most of my flights are around my home field in Andover, New Jersey, since I long ago gave up IFR currency (my plane is a 1963 Super Cub and strictly VFR). I suppose a trip to OSH was on a bucket list somewhere in a drawer, but ingrown laziness and insecurity had kept it a wish list rather than a to do list. Until one day in July 2014 my old flying buddy Lyle raised the possibility that I might try to make the trip.
Despite a lot of hours—but accumulated slowly over 50 years—I had a lot of trepidation. A decision was finally forced on me when Lyle, a CFII and ATP with 5000 hours, surprisingly agreed to come from Chicago to share the trip with me. Lyle wasn’t current in the Cub and scheduled some dual with Damian DelGaizo at Andover. I thought that would buy me some time, further delaying a trip that I felt was beyond me. No luck! Lyle was checked out in one hour and we were good to go the next day.
From Andover I flew the first leg to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, the Cub’s birthplace. I was so nervous that my first move was to the bathroom, where the facility was probably rendered NOTAM closed for an hour. We topped off and I climbed up to check the tanks, which was probably my first mistake. Lyle took the front seat and I squeezed all 6‘ 1” of me into the back. Lyle cranked the starter and we heard a bang like something hitting the plane. We ignored it. Second mistake.
The perfect airplane for a trip to OSH—if you have enough fuel.
The next stop was New Castle, Pennsylvania. I got on a ladder and started to top off the starboard tank and was surprised to see a lot more than 18 gallons going in. But where was it going? We’d only been flying a bit more than two hours or so from Lock Haven and could not have burned that much. Moving over to the port wing I saw what was happening: the gas cap was gone, and it dawned on me what that bang noise was back in Lock Haven. I’d failed to secure the cap and the fuel had been sucked out all over the state of Pennsylvania for 180 miles. I got this sinking feeling that our trip to Oshkosh was over almost before it started. It did not even occur that we could have been forced down by fuel starvation as well.
A couple of the locals in the hangar tried to help us out finding some sort of replacement cap but nothing was really going to work. On a lark we decided to call the FBO at Lock Haven in a desperate attempt to find the missing gas cap. In a remarkable stroke of luck, the lineman came back with the cap—which was laying on the ramp. Would we pay to have it shipped to New Castle? Absolutely! It meant staying overnight in Ohio in a smoking room at a local motel, but the next morning the gas cap arrived by FedEx and we were on our way.
Dodging a hailstorm and hanging below low overcast, we arrived at Waukegan late in the day and hung out in Chicago until Monday morning, when we completed the trip and entered the conga line to Oshkosh. We spent a great day hanging out seeing the exhibits and air show. We also got a kick out of being ushered to the vintage lot.
Leaving late that afternoon, we returned to Chicago and eventually I flew back to Andover solo, talking to the greatest folks in flight following from O’Hare to Lock Haven and into Andover. And despite a bad start, I finished one of the greatest experiences in flying and crossed off one more item from the “to do” list.
Editor’s Note: This article is from our series called “I Can’t Believe I Did That,” where pilots ‘fess up about mistakes they’ve made but lived to tell about. If you have a story to tell, email us at: [email protected].
- A night flight I’ll never forget - August 2, 2023
- A simple oversight almost ruins a bucket list trip - September 26, 2022
Thanks for your story!
Glad you liked it.
Good Story.. just about all of us over the years have a similar story.
Heard an FBO call on CTAF just last week requesting that one of their training flight return to the field & put the gas cap crew left at the pumps back on the company Cessna.
Guess I’m not the Lone Ranger
I learned you can “secure” a fuel cap on a 172 with only one side in the notch. I lost 18gal in a two hour instrument training flight. I caught it because I always stick the tanks before each flight. Two lessons learned. Always be high enough to visually see the cap is on correct. Two, that fuel totalizer is amazingly accurate but it won’t tell you what you’re losing before the fuel gets to it. Those Cessna fuel gauges are now back in my scan.
Yeah , those originally installed fuel gauges that ‘don’t get no respect ‘ still have an important use, as your last two sentences bring out .
When they’re ticking off more fuel disappearing than the high-tech fuel flow gadgets and clock indicate , it’s time for a precautionary at the closest available field to look into it .
The fuel gauges on a Supercub are see through sight gauges; tubes with a floating ball and are a good and direct indicator of fuel levels. However, they require twisting left or right to check them and a lot of body flexibility to accomplish it. The cub does not allow much gymnastic wiggle room.
Too bad after all that, that you didn’t stick around OSH longer. There’s so much to see that every time I go, I leave realizing I didn’t see this or that—but I’ll do it next time. Things like the EAA museum, the Pioneer Airport, the Seaplane Base—all those should be included in your next soirée to OSH. And the night air shows! Oh my, those are terrific.
Next time. No overnight accommodations and too old for a tent experience.
The UWO dorms aren’t a bad choice and the bus takes you there and back many times each day.
I got my tailwheel endorsement at Andover with Damian years ago. Great aerodrome and great instructor. Regards.
I received my tailwheel endorsement at Andover years ago. Great aerodrome and Damian is a great instructor.
Great place to train and fly. Great manager John Flyntz.
Fuel exhaustion, not starvation.
LOL
My Dad did this once and in an endeavor to learn from his mistake I have so far not repeated it. This was in our early model Cessna 180, and it has a cover over a small reservoir containing the opening capped with the gas cap. Thus, if the cap hasn’t been replaced, but the cover is re-latched, you can’t tell visually without getting up there. There was a time when we believed one could not re-latch the cover if the cap was sitting in the well not replaced. (Wrong.) Anyway, his next flight was only around the pattern. In that short time, all the fuel in that tank was gone. All of it. (So not all over the state of PA – only near your takeoff point!)
Thanks, Bill, for what remains my most memorable ride to OSH. Next time I’ll bring a pillow for the back seat.
thanks for the story. gives me hope, working on my licensure at “just turned 60”!
Hang in with it. Worthwhile. I still get a kick out of it at 84.