A Trip to An Accident

PART ONE (Link to pictures for the story)

Preparation

The trip was going to be the longest flight I have ever made. I was planning to fly to the 1999 Cessna 170 convention in Durango Colorado. This flight from Minneapolis was planned at about 900 nautical miles. I had been watching the weather forcasts for at least a week before my planned departure on Saturday, June 27, 1999. As I remember they did not look too bad early in the week. I made all the flight preparations including getting a new GPS database for my Garmin 190. I have some flight planning software on my computer so I was making all the preparations there. I had also packed the plane including 2 gallons of water (in case of an emergency) in my emergency kit.

As Friday approached the weather got worse. My plan was to leave Saturday at 7:00 am or as close to it as I could. Saturday, I was up early checking the weather on TV and calling WX BRIEF. I was advised not to proceed. The weather in Minneapolis was OK but 50 miles south it deteriorated into IFR conditions. I continued to call through most of the morning but the weather did not improve. Around Noon, I gave up and decided to try on Sunday.
Sunday morning, and I am up at the "crack of dark" checking the weather. Seems OK. I can go. I am out at the airport by 7:15 and ready to go. Everything is ready, weather good, fully packed, full of gas (I have 50 gallon tanks) and just under 2000 pounds. I taxi out to runway 18 and start the runup check. Engine sounds good, mag. and carb. heat drop are correct but ------ what is that smoke coming into the cabin. Black smoke; not too much but no take off for me. I am not sure what to do. I taxi back to the FBO but no one is there. My mechanic is not available. I look into the engine compartment and find oil on the exhaust manifold. Seems to be leaking from the right side at the valve covers. I had recently put new expensive gaskets and reworked valve covers (need new looking covers so the engine runs good - right?). I give up and return to the hanger. The Sunday afternoon plan is now to be at Buldoc aviation at 8:00 on Monday morning. They sold me the covers and gaskets and will know what is wrong and how to fix it.

Monday morning and I am at Buldoc Aviation at 7:50 with 4163V waiting for Kevin to arrive. Plane does not smoke at idle. Hum - must be a pressure leak. Kevin arrives (he helped me before when I blew a cylinder over Wisconsin - see other write up) and takes a look. New gaskets are leaking. Leaking because I tried to tighten them to much. The solution is to replace the gaskets on the left side with new cheap ones (like the ones I had). Kevin has this done in short order. By 9:00 I am taxing out to do a check ride around the patch. Still some smoke during run up but not as much. Plane flies great and smoke is gone by the time I land. I return to Buldoc to have it checked. Kevin says it is OK. I taxi over to top of the tanks with gas. I am ready to go. I call the tower and ask for flight following. Taxi out, run up goes great. On the runway and the "pedal to the metal" or throttle to the firewall. I am off to Durango.

The First Leg

My plan is to keep the throttle full, and climb to 8500 feet. Flight following says climb to 3000 msl and before I get there they clear me to 8500. I have left MSP class B airspace. While I climb at a constant 90 knots, I watch my GPS for the best ground speed. While I do gain some speed at 4500 I continue to 8500. At 8500 I am only a little slower than at 4500 but I decide to stay put.
I am cruising alone and everything is great. Every once in a while Flight Following contacts me with mostly hand offs. This is great - like an IFR flight but without the IFR training. I am happy and comfortable. I pass the junction of Minnesota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. I am in 3 states in about 5 minutes. Some times I have to let down a bit because the clouds are to low. I am tracking my GPS data with my map and can find all the checkpoints I planned. I am heading for EAR, Kerney NE field, and if I get there in enough time I will continue on to LVS, Las Vegas NM.

I decide to drain one tank dry. I select and fly on the right tank for some time. Then I feel a little roughness and decide the tank is empty enough. (I do not lower the left wing to get more gas out of the right tank) I switch to the left tank and N4163V flies on. Now I can find out how much gas it will take to fill when parked with the tail down. Maybe this is the useable amount. I have calculate that I can get 5 hours out of full tanks on cross country flights. I get between 8 and 9 gph when I fly around home and figure 8 gph for 5 hours is 40 gallons with 5 for spare and 5 for unusable.

I fly on. I start my decent from 8500 to 3000 as the elevation of EAR is 2300. As I approach EAR I check the left tank (right is already dry) and the left gauge shows considerable gas above the no take off mark. I also calculate that I have enough to make it to HDE, Holdrege/Brewster that is only 22 miles farther and has cheaper gas. I am still comfortable on the seat after more than 4 hours. I have planned well. Drank very little coffee and only before 8:00 am. I have water and have been drinking as needed. No problems. I have a Little John but do not have to use it. I press on. Soon I am within 5 miles of HDE and I start to prepare for landing. I am approaching from the north and will land on runway 18. Plan to enter a left base. One of the items on my landing checklist is "tank switch on both" (you can see it coming can't you). I switch to both tanks - and - sputter, sputter, sputter. Maybe I miscalculated. Maybe I do not have enough gas to make it. I am now down to pattern altitude and can see the field. I look for other landing sites and see a road that I could use. I abandon my base leg approach and decide on a straight in to runway 18. Sputter, sputter and I keep going. I think I can. I think I can. I call on Unicom or CAF and announce my intentions for a straight in approach due to engine problems. No one is around. I fly the final and make it to the runway and am in good shape. Whew!!

The landing is another thing. Everything is fine down through the flair but I revert to my trike landing procedures that I learned 40 years ago. I do not make a 3-point and do not make a wheel landing either. It is exactly how one lands a tricycle gear airplane. I do not know why except that I am still shook because of the sputter, sputter. I do get all the wheels on the ground without a problem except a little bounce. I learned, years ago, to control a bounce by adding a little power. I am down on all 3 and roll out is ok. I pull up to the gas pumps and get out. I have been in the seat for 4 hours and 45 minutes and have traveled 394 nautical miles. I am ready for a coke.

When I fill the tanks, the right (dry one) takes 22.4 gallons. This is about what is listed as useable for the '48 170 right side (total is 37.5 useable.) The left tank (actually 2 12.5 tanks installed in the 1950's) take 16.6 gallons. Total fill is 39 gal. And that means I had 6 gallons left including the 5-gallon spare I count. I could have flown on for about 60 minutes but not with that sputter, sputter and then both tanks would be dry and it would not be sputter, sputter but silence. Thus I figure I can get 45 gallons into the plane in a 3-point stance. I now figure that with full tanks I can fly for 5 hours at high altitude leaned cruise and still have a 7-gallon reserve. That is almost a full hour.

I take an hour break. Make log book entries and look at my next destination which is LVS, Las Vegas NM and is a good 4 hours away. I check the weather. Seems that some storms are moving in around Las Vegas New Mexico. I will check again with flight service when I am in the air. I am not shook any more. I figured out that the sputter was due to sucking air from the right tank. I modified my checklist to now select the tank with gas if I have emptied one. I had plenty of gas.

To Part Two