Bonehead

You know how you have those bonehead moments where you can’t belive you just did something? Like in 9th grade when I went to a school band concert and forgot to bring my flute. Well, I had one of those a couple days ago when I went flying.

I was chatting with my instructor while pre-flighting the airplane. One of the steps is that you get up on the wing and measure the fuel remaining by dipping a ~14" long plastic stick into the tank. I stuck the stick in upside down first, and had to pull it out and turn it over to read it correctly. Thus the part of the stick in my hand was wet with av gas when I stuck it in the second time.

Me: "Yeah, I was a little worried when I called earlier and the wind was gusting to 18... Oh, shit."

Instructor: "What?"

Me: "Um..."

Instructor: "Did you drop it in there?"

Me: "Uh, yeah." ... blushing ... "Can you get it out?"

Instructor: "I’m not sure I have anything here..."

As it turned out, we did fish it out. Or rather, he and another pilot did. My pregnant belly wouldn’t even let me get up there enough to look in the hole. It took pushing the plane up onto a little hill to get the probe to roll to the front of the tank, my instructor lying on his belly on top of the cabin, and ther other guy on a ladder holding the flashlight and one gripper. And 20 minutes. But, we got it out.

I was very careful when I measured the fuel in the other tank to hold on to the stick.

Anyway, I’m sure it wasn’t the first time it’s ever happened in the history of aviation. But, it was the first time for my instructor, and when you’ve flown as many hours and instructed as many students as he has, that’s saying something.