Warning about fumes in the cockpit.

[Rupert S]

A few days ago I went flying with an instructor in a Warrior III. Literally, while I was checking the temps and pressures while holding the brakes on at half full throttle on the runway just before taking off, I thought I smelled engine fumes but it was very faint. Just before taking off the brakes and starting the take off run, I asked the instructor if he could smell anything but he said he couldn't. The smell wasn't at all that strong and it may have been that someone had spilled a little avgas in the cockpit out of a fuel strainer so I decided to go ahead with the take off since the instructor couldn't smell anything. Just as I was taking off the brakes and applying full throttle, I decided that I could definitely smell fumes so I aborted the take off. Once clear of the runway, I powered up the aircraft with the brakes on and the smell became stronger. It turned out my instructor had a blocked nose and couldn't smell anything anyway and within a few seconds the smell became much stronger. In fact, it was so bad that we opened the DV window and had the door open ajar while we taxied back and even at that low power setting, we were both feeling quite nausius by the time we reached the parking stand, two or three minutes later. So just a warning to everyone, if you even suspect that there might be fumes in the cockpit, don't fly it! I don't think we would have made it down had we gone ahead with the flight.

[kabz]

hehehe, the exhaust muff heaters on 172's and the like often seem to smell terrible. I've been told this is normal .... can anyone else verify ?

Did you find if there was anything actually wrong with the plane Rupert ?

[Rupert S]

Kabz, you'll have to understand I'm not an engineer but after shutting down the aircraft and looking under the cowling there was an abnormal and very strong smell of fumes and everything in there seemed slightly blackened. That said I couldn't find anything that was obviously out of place. It smelled like the oil had been burning.

[TheKentishFledgling]

Good call mate - MUCH better safe than sorry.

Also a good idea opening the door and windows - a good friend had carbon monoxide in his TB10 while on the ground once. All ocupants were ok, but if they'd been in the air.....:hmm:

IMHO, it also wasn't a good example on the instructor's part to fly with a blocked up nose - any form of cold can be very dangerous even 1000' up.

Happy Christmas to all,
tKF

[andyb79]

fumes of any sort could be the start of many things

an example of a potentially serious problem(although thankfully nothing major)
link (http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_avsafety/documents/page/dft_avsafety_502335.hcsp)