Our New Cessna 210 Tried To KILL US Just ONE DAY After Buying It...

Well, our new to us 1961 Cessna 210a already broke... The plane lost oil and oil pressure rapidly and the engine died. We bought this plane sight unseen and proceeded to fly it home 1000 miles from Texas. If the plane was in the air this situation most certainly would have warranted declaring an emergency. We are very lucky that everything happened how it did and when it did. We think we know what caused this issue. It might have to do with the STC spin on oil filter adapter which has been linked to multiple accidents.

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[thomaskeysiv]

Sounds like you found the issue and glad it didn't happen in a more risky fashion. But dude... I hope you understand now how you have to stack the deck in your favor. You absolutely should not have been out there over the mountains at night, even in a plane you're confident in. Flying that leg was a poor decision by the pilot, hope that lesson is learned.

[iammrvain]

I have a 1963 210c. February of this year on my way back from Bethel Alaska to Kenai Alaska at night climbing over a 11, 000 volcano I started to get a vibration in the engine. I wish I could show you the picture. Upon landing, we discovered Three of the eight bolts holding on the number for cylinder severed from engine. I can understand what you’re talking about when you think oh, but the grace of God I am still alive today. Flying is not for the fainthearted. You’re taking a 3000 pound machine 12, 000 feet in the air with a World War II era engine. $51, 800 later we will be installing a new IO 470 into it this month. I’m very thankful I have the opportunity to spend the money and my family is not scraping parts of me off the side of Mount Redoubt. Keep the blue side up gentlemen.

[robertbarnes]

The 182 that crashed in Mill Creek is a friend of mine. A real tragedy there. I also had that same brand/type adapter on my 1965 C33 Debonair with the IO-470K. In the 20 years I had it installed I never had a leak or any issue with it. I complied with the AD regarding the new seals, torques and additional safety wire and had nothing but problems with it leaking. I removed it and reinstalled the screen assembly I had removed 20 years previously. Now I change the oil every 25 hours and don't worry about the AD and the filter adapter.

[Sebastopolmark]

You guys have been very successful with the "grab and go" philosophy.
Cars = not a huge risk Planes = you dodged a bullet on this one. Might tighten up the policy on the planes! !! !!!

[amillerhighlife]

As a pilot that is about to buy my first plane, this information is invaluable. I really appreciate you posting this because it could save lives. Thank you!

[stephenreese]

This episode puts chills in my spine. As an A&P/IA, who once had an inflight electrical (not oil pressure) emergency, at night, over the ocean, that I survived a successful landing Thank God!). I shutter to think of what may have happened over mountains, at night!

[mustardseedsociety]

Even if you find it's the oil filter adapter and you resolved the issue, if it were me, I would run the engine for a good hour plus and DURING THE DAYTIME do a half dozen trips down the runway with planned RTO's. Obviously do your calculations so you know 100% sure that your planned RTO's will have you stopping with a good cushion of distance remaining. If you can, take your RTO's to perhaps 5 knots below rotation then go into RTO mode. The idea being you want the engine to go to max power a half dozen times. If the engine is going to BREAK, this is when you want it to break - on the ground. Then after getting a good workout on the engine, I would do a compression check then do a complete oil change. Take the filter off and saw the top of the "old" filter off and take the element out and spread it open and see if you see chunks of metal. By the same token, take an oil sample from the drained oil and send it to a lab for an oil analysis. If the compression is good, and the filter element is clean, and the oil sample results are "negative" {which by that I mean "good"}, then you're probably safe to fly the aircraft. Remember, a lab oil analysis all by itself is NOT a complete "health check" of the oil. You need to do the lab analysis WITH inspecting the elements in the oil filters. You need to do the 2 TOGETHER because the lab will detect micro wear. The element inspection will detect the engine falling apart inside. Think of it as a flowchart - "did the element inspection pass ??". If not, you need to overhaul the engine. If "yes", then you go to lab engine oil analysis. If that fails, then you have an engine overhaul. If it passes, then you're good. {assuming compression is good} - but also check your valves too. Continentals tend to have burnt valves and Lycoming tend to have sticking valves. Be safe out there !!

[jeffX]

As everyone has already commented...you were incredibly lucky! This is the engine out at night procedure in a single: 1. Establish best glide speed. 2. When approaching the terrain, turn on landing light. 3. If you don't like what you see, turn landing light off! Brace for impact. Valuable lesson learned - do NOT fly a single over mountainous terrain at night. Period.

[BryantVucich]

As someone who owns a T210N, I would not buy an early model 210 (pre 1972). By then they got rid of most of the issues. We haven't even needed maintenance with the landing gear in over 500 hours, I was expecting a gear issue with the title. Glad it worked out, can't wait for more.

[reyesben]

Glad you’re alive. Apply Mike Patey’s rules based on experience. No night flying over mountain terrain unless following major highway or you have a whole airframe parachute. It’s not worth it

[baron]

In 1981 I was an intern at the Pontiac Motors Engine Durability and Testing Labs (DURATEST) in Pontiac, MI. This is the lab where engines are put on dynamometers to determine all manner of performance data. The fun tests were the ones to determine redline, and to determine oil starvation characteristics. For redline, we would run the engines with higher and higher RPM until a rod was thrown (the dyna rooms had bulletproof glass protecting the operator, and the ceilings had numerous large dents). We would run engines and starve then of oil while running. Interestingly, the engines would run for about 5 minutes before seizing. This was due to residual oil in the system and then MELTED METAL acting as a very poor lubricant. Obviously, the melted metal regime was the kiss of death for the engine. If you stop the engine in the melted metal regime, it will cool, essentially welding the pistons to the cylinders. If you let it run, the pistons melt enough to cause the piston/rod system to become unstable leading to a seize. A very sad and painful death to a finely honed piece of engineering. A less aggressive but equally destructive test was to run the engines with knocking. Eventually, this will cause holes to form in the top of the piston (can you say zero compression). Truly a rare and fun opportunity to play with production car engines.

[camerongoodwin]

Guys, I love your videos and you make great content, but this is different than the car world where you can find good deals on old cars and buy them sight unseen. You guys bought a 1960s plane without a prebuy or checking to make sure all the ADs are taken care. Not even scoping the engines or performing a compression check and then you put four people in it and fly it over mountains at night. That was awful decision making. You learn about these things during the written part of your training learning the 5 hazardous attitudes pilots need to avoid and you guys had many of them on this trip. This needs to be a wake up call and you guys need to slow down and do things right in this industry or you will die. I dont want that at all, god forbid it happens. WAKE UP AND SLOW DOWN.

[johncarr]

When I decided to get a night rating flying circuits was my limit in a single engine and all cross country night trips was always using a twin engine. I never changed from that minimum and that was over 40yrs ago.
I enjoy your channel and keep up these great refurbs you’re doing

[socalfun]

Thats why you never fly single engine over mountains at night. The only thing worse would’ve been adding IFR conditions as well, or single pilot. It doesn’t matter how good the pilots are. Very happy you didn’t end up n Dan Gryders (sp?) Sunday night fatal accident video. 👍🏻

[danpage]

Never, ever, ever buy another airplane without doing a through pre-buy inspection and make sure all AD’s are complied with and know the weaknesses of each airplane. You are lucky this one time and no one was hurt or killed.

[Riverdale]

Glad you guys are ok. But it shouldn’t be hindsight to realize that flying a 60 year old plane home at night over that terrain after buying sight unseen with no pre-buy inspection, was a very risky move. I hope you realize how lucky you are to be alive.

[lindawilkins]

Remembering that GA is 9.6 times more dangers than the airlines. If you are going to fly GA you better make sure eyes are dotted and your T's are crossed. Fly at night over the mountains in a single engine plane was really a roll of dice and you lucked out big time. If you are as smart as I think your are then don't do it again. You are playing with fire and you will get burnt.

[ethanfiorito-gross]

I had this filter adapter on my plane and removed it for this exact reason. I installed the AirWolf STC’d filter adapter which has a much better design and doesn’t have the chance of loosening.

[stevehammond]

Watch Blancolirio before you're in his next video. Mike Patey did an interesting vid lately. 3 strikes. Strike one, flying at night, strike two, over mountains, strike 3, unfamiliar plane.... any one of these should have grounded you. Any one of these could have ended you. You got lucky dude.

[larryweitzman]

You guys have been lucky. I've been around airplanes for over 60 years, flown over 60 different types extensively, including many transport category birds and have bot and sold over a two dozen airplanes or helped others to do so. I've read several hundred log books as well. Anyway, you guys have been lucky. You are buying 60 year old birds, they need prebuys!!! Even 10 year old birds need prebuys. You have to know their history. Read the December 2023 issue of Aviation Consumer, there is an article about flying for less and one of the topics is buying the right airplane.