Who Did The Preflight?

Editorial Staff

Tuesday, November 22, 2022 at 12:53 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

During a test flight of a potential club aircraft, engine oil began spraying onto the windscreen shortly after takeoff, severely obscuring the pilot's view and making landing challenging.
The cause was identified as an unsecured engine oil dipstick, which the author, as pilot in command, attributed to a lapse in preflight diligence and distraction from other pilots.
The experience underscores the critical importance of the pilot in command rigorously performing and verifying all preflight checks, as even a seemingly minor oversight can lead to a dangerous in-flight emergency.

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I was tired of renting from the local FBO and needed a larger airplane, anyway, for the growing family, so I looked at a few flying clubs. One situation caught my eye, in which a long-time owner wasn’t flying his big Cessna much and wanted to form a club around it. I was game, and met the owner and another prospective club member at the airplane one day.

After poking and prodding it, he asked if we wanted to fly it. I was the high-time and most-current pilot among us, so I agreed to the left seat. We mounted up, cranked up and taxied out. The run-up was unremarkable and soon I rolled onto the non-towered airport’s runway and applied full power for takeoff. Right about the time the end of the runway slid beneath us on initial climb, engine oil started appearing on the windscreen. This was going to be a short test flight.