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From: glenb@hpnmdla.HP.COM (Glen Baker)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Subject: Cheap lesson in complacency last Sunday
Message-ID: <7480069@hpnmdla.HP.COM>
Date: Tue, 29 May 90 08:23:05 PDT
Organization: What, me? Organized?
Lines: 45


I had an "interesting" experience yesterday, which turned out to be a cheap
lesson in complacency. One of the local FBOs recently acquired a Cardinal RG
and I signed up to get checked out on Sunday morning. The flight was the normal
stuff: slow flight, stalls, engine out, emergency gear extension, etc. 

On returning to Sonoma County we did a touch-and-go, I selected gear up, and 
huh...no gear retraction. Cycled the gear again. Still no motion, but a 
*strong* glitch on the alternator. Check the circuit breaker...still in. Hmm.
Gear indicator still shows green, but I'm a bit concerned because I know I've
got *some* sort of malfunction of the gear. The instructor can't figure it
out either so we decide to stop messing with it. Did a low pass at the tower
just to be real sure about the nose gear (the mains are visible). Tower asks
"do you want the equipment" and I respond "negative"...they roll it anyway
(guess they're bored on Sunday mornings...).

Landing was uneventful (soft field, held the nose off) and we returned to the 
FBO. The instructor carefully writes up the incident and talks to the mechanic
who says "hmm...we'll probably have to replace the motor, it's about due 
anyway". We walk into the FBO, the instructor mentions the incident to the
folks at the desk and their first words are "did you do an emergency 
extension?" "Yes." "Did you pull the pressure release valve?" "Huh?"

Turns out the 177 has a pressure release valve for the hydraulic system that
must be pulled for a "minimum of 5 seconds" following an emergency gear 
extension, or else the gear will not subsequently retract. This is placarded
on the pump handle cover (but it's illegible there) and, more importantly, 
it's clearly stated in the manual.

The point of this story is that I trusted the instructor to be intimately 
familiar with the airplane and its systems. When something went wrong, I 
somehow deferred to that *assumed* familiarity, instead of doing what *I* would
have done were I alone. If there had been no instructor aboard I would have
exited the pattern, climbed to a safe altitude, and pulled out the manual.

I trusted the instructor in another more subtle way too...I assumed that I
would be getting a complete checkout on the aircraft and its systems. Prior
to the checkout I should have grabbed the manual and done some reading (I did
take a look at it the day before to get some performance numbers, but I
didn't look at the emergency procedures since I *assumed* that I would get
instruction on them).

Ah well, I was never in any danger, but "I learned about flying from that"

 gleN "a little more careful now" baker