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I will try to keep this relatively short…
Yesterday while getting ready to depart U60 (Big Creek) alongside a Maule we were chatting on the radio while waiting on the oil to heat up. We both started our engines at the same time, and my oil temperature was reading 90° and the Maule driver asked if I was ready to go. I told him I only had 90° and his reply was his was showing in the “go zone”… yeah he had an old round gauge.
Fast forward an hour and 45 minutes and my oil pressure started to rise, I got an alert on my HDX. I was watching it closely as I was approaching midfield as the temps were slowing and continuously increasing, then there was a spike. My screen was set up to give constant WARNING alerts with any pressure about 95PSI.
Bottom line, an old style analog gauge would not have caught this or certainly not have given an audible alert. I subsequently called the tower and did a dive into KSUN… of course the freaking tower upon me declaring I had an oil pressure issue declared an emergency so I was lucky to get a emergency firetruck escort to the apron.
Bottom line, we are lucky to be experimental and have the most modern avionics in our planes.
I will diagnose the problem and give an update, but I removed and checked the oil filter, put it back on, did a big/long run up with all showing good. I took off and the pressure hovered between 74-76° for the 2 hour 15 minute flight home so all was good.
Yesterday while getting ready to depart U60 (Big Creek) alongside a Maule we were chatting on the radio while waiting on the oil to heat up. We both started our engines at the same time, and my oil temperature was reading 90° and the Maule driver asked if I was ready to go. I told him I only had 90° and his reply was his was showing in the “go zone”… yeah he had an old round gauge.
Fast forward an hour and 45 minutes and my oil pressure started to rise, I got an alert on my HDX. I was watching it closely as I was approaching midfield as the temps were slowing and continuously increasing, then there was a spike. My screen was set up to give constant WARNING alerts with any pressure about 95PSI.
Bottom line, an old style analog gauge would not have caught this or certainly not have given an audible alert. I subsequently called the tower and did a dive into KSUN… of course the freaking tower upon me declaring I had an oil pressure issue declared an emergency so I was lucky to get a emergency firetruck escort to the apron.
Bottom line, we are lucky to be experimental and have the most modern avionics in our planes.
I will diagnose the problem and give an update, but I removed and checked the oil filter, put it back on, did a big/long run up with all showing good. I took off and the pressure hovered between 74-76° for the 2 hour 15 minute flight home so all was good.
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