Oil temperature gauge

You guys remember the discussions we had in the past whether to spell the instrument “gage” or “gauge”?
I think Sikorsky and my current employer must have had the same discussions in the past since all their manuals call everything an “indicator”, HAHA. I just looked it up!

And who of you has not tapped the old gauge here and there “just to make sure”? Let’s hear some stories!

What I find even funnier is our current switch from the old, what we call “museum models”, to newer glass cockpits. You won’t believe how many fingerprints I keep finding on the screens!
Are there pilots out there who are tapping the indication on the glass screens!?? Who does that!?
And, more importantly, does it actually work?
Maybe Chuck is working my cross shift! 😉

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7 comments on “Oil temperature gauge
  1. Antares says:

    We used to tap at our altitude-gauge in the good old ASK13, when in pre-flight check on the ground. It wasn’t that sensitive on small pressure-changes and one was able to see a tendency. That tapping was kind of an unwritten point of the checklist.
    Nearly the same but much different situation: My parents tap the barometer looking for weather-changes. That way it’s easy for them to encounter rising or falling pressure-conditions.

  2. Denton says:

    My old chief pilot used to put finger prints all over our glass screen after we received our first airplane with an Avidyne panel several years ago. I wouldn’t be the least surprised if he was trying to tap away the red “X’ that we occasionally saw when the DAU (Data Acquisition Unit) would give us trouble.

  3. JKelley says:

    Sometimes “tapping the gage” is simply a touchstone for “Yep, I checked it.”

    I’ve been known to do that with certain critical gages (like pressure gages on welding tanks, to estimate gas remaining.)

    It’s a bit like using a flashlight to search for something in a LIGHTED room – I don’t need the additional light, but it does help to focus my attention on my looking, and can make it a more effective search…

  4. Awesome says:

    Kelley, I use my finger for that purpose. I point at what I am looking at. It really does help.

    90 degrees seems awfully low for oil. Do those helos run a really efficient oil-cooling system?

  5. markm says:

    Is that 90 degrees F or C? I don’t know about helicopters, but for a water-cooled car engine, 90C would be just about where the thermostat between the engine and radiator should open fully, a little below the boiling point of water.

  6. mike says:

    To lay any rumors to rest, 90 degrees Celsius (centigrade, or whatever you may call it) is a fairly normal temperature. I have only flown the Hughes 500C once and can’t remember how exactly the gauge looks like (could be the C model just has a light even) but plenty of the Allison 250 engine. I’d venture to say the oil temp probably runs in the range of 90-100C, just like every other helicopter I’ve flown so far. 😉

    And I also use the flashlight trick JKelley speaks of for my preflight most of the time (less on the Crane since I rather hold on to something in order not to fall of this thing, but on everything with a cowling)
    Still I’d prefer pilots “pointing” at the glass, rather than touching those screens. Or glass is not a touch-screen! HAHA!

  7. Yawnitz says:

    It seems funny that one would have to tap on a gauge in a helicopter, since it has a rather effective vibration generator right above your heads.

    Must be one sticky gauge.

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