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When faced with deteriorating engine oil pressure during a return to his departure airport an SR22T pilot learned an important lesson about declaring an emergency in a timely fashion in order to obtain the priority handling from ATC commensurate with his situation.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1132752 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201312 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.Airport |
| State Reference | US |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | SR22 |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
| Flight Phase | Landing |
| Route In Use | Direct |
| Flight Plan | VFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Pilot Flying Single Pilot |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 85 Flight Crew Total 534 Flight Crew Type 162 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | ATC Issue All Types Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy |
| Miss Distance | Horizontal 300 Vertical 0 |
Narrative:
Departed ZZZ for cross country flight VFR. Climbing through 6;000 ft the indicated oil pressure fell below 30 psi. I immediately started a precautionary descent back to the airport and contacted tower 10 miles northwest; then again at five miles. Oil pressure was in the low 20's by this time. Tower told me to turn right base. Oil pressure kept dropping. Turned final; my oil pressure dropped to seven psi. Tower told a king air to line up and wait while I was on short final. Tower told me to execute a go-around; but by this time my oil pressure had dropped to two psi and I was unsure about safely executing a go-around. I declared an emergency and the tower cleared the king air for departure. I landed behind the departing king air. Clearing the runway I contacted the tower and discussed the preceding actions. I realize now that I should have communicated my falling oil pressure at initial contact with the tower; and perhaps declared an emergency much earlier in the process.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: When faced with deteriorating engine oil pressure during a return to his departure airport an SR22T pilot learned an important lesson about declaring an emergency in a timely fashion in order to obtain the priority handling from ATC commensurate with his situation.
Narrative: Departed ZZZ for cross country flight VFR. Climbing through 6;000 FT the indicated oil pressure fell below 30 PSI. I immediately started a precautionary descent back to the airport and contacted Tower 10 miles northwest; then again at five miles. Oil pressure was in the low 20's by this time. Tower told me to turn right base. Oil pressure kept dropping. Turned final; my oil pressure dropped to seven PSI. Tower told a King Air to Line Up and Wait while I was on short final. Tower told me to execute a go-around; but by this time my oil pressure had dropped to two PSI and I was unsure about safely executing a go-around. I declared an emergency and the Tower cleared the King Air for departure. I landed behind the departing King Air. Clearing the runway I contacted the Tower and discussed the preceding actions. I realize now that I should have communicated my falling oil pressure at initial contact with the Tower; and perhaps declared an emergency much earlier in the process.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.