Kenny Keller describes seeing an engine chip warning light in a Bell JetRanger mid-flight and why staying calm to check temperatures and the POH matters more than panicking. He shares a story about Dr. Nick Nakis's father getting similar advice from a mechanic: don't wreck the helicopter over a warning light.
Foreign don't wreck the helicopter over a chip light. Welcome to day 102 Coffee with Kenny. Haha. I've just always wanted to do that. Welcome to day 102 Coffee with Kenny. Don't wreck the helicopter, Particularly a jet Ranger over a chip light that pops on flying cross country one time with a passenger, chip light comes on or engine chip light comes on. The jet Ranger. I'm close to the airport where I'm going, actually going for maintenance. I check temperatures, pressures. I'm very close. So I just proceed with caution. Land at the airport. And the mechanic who had just returned from bell school said nice job not wrecking the helicopter. And the reason he said that was because he had just come back from bell school and there had been an accident where an engine chip light come on. A guy did an auto rotation because of an engine chip light. After the investigation, they found out there was nothing wrong with the engine. It was a bad sensor. The guy did an auto rotation, destroyed the aircraft all over a chip light over an engine that was not failing. And the story is inspiring to me because I was flying. The father of my good friend Dr. Nick Nakis, who owns the beautiful black instrument that we use. My good friend, student, long time student, one of my first students of all time and has remained one of my best friends of all time. His father was very instrumental in inspiring both of us. Nick would always tell me these cool quotes from his dad who was really, really super wise. So many life lessons that we learned. And one day I had the opportunity to get to fly Nick's dad. I needed to move the aircraft for maintenance and of course Nick wanted to go, but I think he was busy that day and he's like, dude, can you take my dad with you? I would love it if you'd take my dad. So I did that. It was a privilege to get to fly Nick's dad. Nick's dad was my passenger that day. Warning and caution lights. A mechanic taught me early on, a mechanic that I've known for years, guy I trust with my life, he said, Kenny, anytime a warning or caution light comes on, it's drawing your attention to the panel. It's drawing your attention to gauges, instruments, temperatures, pressures. Is the aircraft vibrating? Is there anything going on? Anytime a light comes on, go to the panel to figure out what's going on. So again, of course, know your POH for any aircraft, but don't wreck the helicopter because a chip light comes on. You know, tail rotor gearbox chip lights, main rotor gearbox chip lights, those are all very common with break in fuzz. There's a number of things that can happen, a number of warning and chip lights that can go off. Know your aircraft, stay calm, go to the temperatures and pressures, go to your POH and figure out what's next. All right, my ground school member is on his way up so I got to get out of here. Had to cut this one short today, but we're excited he's coming back. Hasn't been here since last week. This is midweek, so we'll freshen him up. Get out there. I'm going to try to wrap him up in a couple weeks because guess what, the gentleman from day 97, remember throwing in the towel guy. It's not set in stone, but he may be very well traveling here to Indiana to have me help him finish up, get through his struggles with the cross countries and still might fall through. But if it does, he's talking about coming out and he's also willing to go on camera and be part of the story of the part three of that story. That will be a blast. That will be awesome. All right, gotta get going. Like subscribe. Leave your comments down below. Remember, don't wreck their craft over Chiplight.
