Recently, I had just had a 25 hourly service done on my Jabiru LSA-55by a local L2 at a local aerodrome. An oil and filter change mainly. I also had some other minor jobs done that were unrelated, a tire replacement, and some fiberglass patchwork. It was the first time since I purchased the aircraft that an L2 looked over it.
Anyway, after the service, I taxied her out to the runway, the L2 asking me to just keep an eye on the oil pressure gauge. All was good, it was reading a nice solid 4 in the green.
I took off with nothing out of the ordinary, I continued to monitor the oil pressure, normal, stayed at 4. I entered the downwind leg and started thinking of departing the circuit. It was then, I smelt smoke, looked down and saw smoke in the cabin, looked at my instruments and saw that my oil pressure was now reading zero, it was reading a steady 4 only a few seconds earlier.
I was at the base turning point, so things happened quickly, I discarded all chances of exiting the circuit, and committed to landing back at the aerodrome I just took off from. I throttled back to idle, turned base and made my base call. I came in for a glide approach and landed with no incident, exited the runway and shut down as soon as possible. I got out and saw oil flooding down the front wheel.
I didn't call a pan pan or mayday, as the smoke dissipated when I reduced power to idle, and I didn't lose engine power or performance. To be honest, I never thought I was in any danger given my proximity to the aerodrome. Once I made the decision, thanks to my training, it was all automatic, engine to idle, get the plane heading to the field whilst lowering the nose for best glide and land her. I think my instructor would've been proud of my performance, it was just like my EFATO training.
But yes I reported it to RAA as an incident.
The culprit: a split oil hose near the oil filter. Last time it was replaced, 3.5 years ago, required replacement time: 5 years. Possibly a faulty hose. The L2 replaced the offending hose, plus one beside it, and refilled the oil.
I flew her back to my home field with no further incident.
I praise the quality of our training, it paid dividends for me. Mind you, if that hose blew further away, I wonder how long I had till I had an engine failure? Now that would've been a pan pan situation.
Tony