Military trainer pilot reports high oil and cylinder head temperatures on base leg due to closed cow...

Attributes
ACN	912223
Time
Date	201010
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Military Trainer
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Other Traffic Pattern
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Oil Cooler
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 36 Flight Crew Total 3820 Flight Crew Type 44
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural FAR Deviation - Track / Heading All Types

Narrative:

Upon entering the base leg; I noticed that the cylinder head temperature and the oil temperature were both well into the red. I pulled the power back and began to trouble shoot the cause. The gill shudders (cowl flaps) were closed; so I opened them. While flying at reduced power and being distracted while trouble shooting the problem; I flew too far on the base leg; overshot the runway center line; and descended too low. When I turned towards the runway; I probably flew too low over a residential area. I failed to properly monitor temperatures during the crosswind and downwind legs; probably because of looking for other traffic; since this was during an airshow at our home field. Since many war birds and others were flying passes; I figured it must be ok to do so. Therefore; I flew several passes to allow the crowd to better see this war bird in flight. At no point did I fly aerobatic maneuvers or fly over the crowd; and in fact flew outside the boundary markers in the air boss' proposed waiver.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Military trainer pilot reports high oil and cylinder head temperatures on base leg due to closed cowl flaps. Trouble shooting distraction results in low flight over residential area.

Narrative: Upon entering the base leg; I noticed that the cylinder head temperature and the oil temperature were both well into the red. I pulled the power back and began to trouble shoot the cause. The gill shudders (cowl flaps) were closed; so I opened them. While flying at reduced power and being distracted while trouble shooting the problem; I flew too far on the base leg; overshot the runway center line; and descended too low. When I turned towards the runway; I probably flew too low over a residential area. I failed to properly monitor temperatures during the crosswind and downwind legs; probably because of looking for other traffic; since this was during an airshow at our home field. Since many war birds and others were flying passes; I figured it must be OK to do so. Therefore; I flew several passes to allow the crowd to better see this war bird in flight. At no point did I fly aerobatic maneuvers or fly over the crowd; and in fact flew outside the boundary markers in the air boss' proposed waiver.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.