First flight in a small plane

Wow! If I had known what was happening, I might have been scared...

We were scheduled to fly from our local airport in Poughkeepsie to Bridgeport on business with two of the owners of my company in their plane along with my co-worker Denise and our company pilot Bob.

We got to the airport and boarded their 8 seater about 9AM. Bob informed us that President Bush was scheduled to be in the Bridgeport area later that day and that if we didn't get there in time they may close the airspace. It was a nice day out - scattered clouds although a bit chilly.

Bob fired up the plane and we took off - one of the owners up front in the co-pilot's seat with Bob and the rest of us in the back. We climbed out heading east and then turned toward the southeast. A few minutes into the flight, I noticed that we banked and turned back to the west - I figured that we missed our window for Bridgeport because of the President. The other two passengers didn't notice that we turned back until I pointed out the Hudson River and some local landmarks to them. The owner in the back with me checked with his brother and then turned around for the landing.

After we landed, the pilot opened the curtain and told us that we returned because the engines were overheating and that we were going to taxi over to the maintenance hangar to have things checked out. Once we got there, we shut down and the owners went off to look at another plane on the tarmac.

As we sat there inside the cabin door, Denise and I watched as Bob and the mechanic looked for stuck vents and checked the fuel pumps and other engine hardware - but didn't find any problems. Denise and I noticed the smell of fuel wafting in through the door, but it didn't bother us much as we work for a fuel company and smell it all the time. However, when we pointed that out to the pilot - he noticed it too and thought it was unusual.

We went to check the fuel tanks and discovered that we had been mis-fueled! The plane is a has turbocharged piston engines that take basically high grade gasoline fuel. When we opened the tank, the smell was wrong and the fuel felt oily, as opposed to gasoline, which evaporates off your hand readily and smells distinctively. The ground crew had fueled our plane with JET FUEL instead! Jet fuel is basically kerosene and has radically different properties than gasoline. This was the cause of the engine overheating and lack of performance.

Bob explained to us that we were quite fortunate to make it back to the airport - that the engines had been destroyed by the mis-fueling and that we had made the landing with little or no power from the engines; ATC had offered to him to declare an emergency and we would have had fire trucks and rescue people waiting for us when we landed!

Overall, not quite an auspicious first flight, eh? I guess I must really like flying in small planes because I want to go again! I think had I known what was going on while we were still in the air I would have been much more freaked out... not that we could have done anything about it other than pray.

From later conversations, I gather that Bob is a heck of a pilot for recognizing the problem and making an underpowered return and landing - a few people I've mentioned it to around the airport said "OH! You were on that flight!". Wow.