As I type this, I'm supposed to be in Wichita, KS, visiting my former boss (now retired) and then flying on to Colorado Springs on Saturday. But I'm at home, not on vacation. Taxiing out this morning in my Piper Arrow, the CHT/EGT on cyl 1 went to ZERO on the digital engine monitor. That's odd, I thought. On the run-up, it came back up and in line with the other cylinders. Since the reading had gone to zero, my thought was the instrumentation probe had quit. On takeoff, all the numbers where right where they were supposed to be, so I continued. I leveled off at 6500, on course for Wichita. Then I started thinking. What if this was a different problem? The engine had some oil leak issues and is right about at TBO (it was scheduled to go in for that at the end of the month). I had been waiting to take this trip since last fall and was desperately looking forward to it. The temptation to continue on was overwhelming. Then I asked myself what I would tell somebody else to do if they were in the same situation, and what the accident investigators would ask if it turned out to be a problem, and how I would respond when they asked why I continued on when I saw the strange readings.
With great reluctance, I turned back and landed. The maintenance crew all said, to a person, that it was most likely a sensor issue. They'd look at it while I went and had lunch and fix it for me, and I'd be on my way. While at lunch, my cell phone rang. It was not an instrumentation issue... the engine block was cracked. Had I gone on, I may well have ended up landing in a field someplace, possibly with a blown cylinder or worse.
The vacation I've been dreaming of for about six months is now scrapped. Disappointed doesn't begin to describe my feelings at not being able to fly, have fun, and see my friends. But... the airplane is back at home base in one piece, and we're going to bump up the overhaul by a couple of weeks. I'm sure in a few months, I'll be happy with how it worked out.
TM
