Narrative:

I called the FBO as we were approaching and asked that they fuel my plane; then I planned to refuel upon returning and thereby learn the fuel burn for the trip. The fuel truck was parked in front of my plane; obscuring the front view; when we pulled up. We also had the distraction of the ramp worker who drove our luggage to the plane arriving. Normally; my first action on arriving at the plane is to pull the cowl plugs and toss them in the baggage compartment; the compartment is the first thing I unlock on the plane and gives me access to the doors; which I access through the compartment. Normally I toss the plugs in the compartment just after I unlock the doors. I proceeded with the rest of my pre-flight check; I checked the oil; the fuel sumps; the flaps; ailerons and empennage; untied the tiedowns and unlocked the tail holddown. At one point; I turned on all the lights and stepped back to view the plane from the front (the fuel truck was now gone) to make sure the lights were working. I referred to my checklist card for preflight inspection when I thought I had completed all the items and scanned the list to make sure I'd covered everything. To be honest; I don't know whether it even contains a line regarding cowl plugs--as I said; it's a new plane (to me) and at the moment; it's too far away for me to drive to check the checklist. In any case; I did not pull the cowl plugs from the front of the plane (by the way; these plugs are not connected with a strap that the propeller pulls out on turning; nor do they have warning flags that rise above the level of the cowl. I was obviously unaware of my incomplete (and stupid) preflight inspection. I'd checked everything but left the cowl flaps in place. Oil temperatures looked normal when I finished my taxi and run-up; and I was cleared for takeoff. I took off then turned right to a heading of approximately 100. As I reached 2;500 ft; tower told me to look for a jetliner inbound from the north (my left) at 2;500 ft; heading for a landing. My attention was occupied with finding the jet and avoiding it. Once I did so; I leveled off at 3;000 ft and began to trim the plane and set my prop pitch. I noticed my prop was spinning faster than usual; at one point I saw it reach 3000 RPM; way above its redline speed of 2600 RPM. I pulled back on the power; but the power adjustment kept sliding forward; as though a vacuum were pulling it back to full power. I messed with the locking hub to try to get it to stay in place and was baffled as to why it was acting in a way I'd never seen it do before. All of these distractions--the inbound plane; the power setting; the overspeeding prop--kept me from realizing my real problem--I had left in the cowl plugs and my engine was burning up. Once I got the power lever lock to hold; I began looking at my other instruments and noticed that the oil temperature was pegged at the right end of the scale. My engine was already blisteringly hot after just 10 mins or so in the air; that's when I figured out my mistake. The engine still sounded good; but I knew I was in trouble with essentially no air flowing through the cowling. I opened the cowl flaps all the way and pulled way back on the power. I then looked on my ipad chart for the nearest airport; which appeared to be ZZZ about 10 miles east; and dialed in their tower frequency. Although I was trying not to panic; I made mistakes 3 times in trying to dial in the proper frequency; 2 of those times; I called on the radio to tower and waited for a response; not knowing they couldn't hear me because I'd misdialed the frequency. Once I had the correct frequency and reached the tower; I announced that I was a 182 10 miles to the west and would like to come in to land. They told me I first needed to call approach. I replied that I had an overheating engine and wanted to get on the ground. I did not declare an emergency. As I made my way toward the field; I noticed that I'd lost significant altitude--droppingfrom 3;000 ft MSL to about 900 ft MSL. I'd pulled the power way back to try to keep the engine from destroying itself; but hadn't adjusted the trim to retain altitude. So with the airport getting closer and; I believed; reachable if I lost all power; I added some power and climbed to 1;500 ft. Tower had asked me 'how many souls onboard'; so I knew they understood it was something other than a normal landing. They told me to make left downwind. Fire trucks were in position at the approach end and I think departure end; which I found more irritating than comforting. I made an expedited approach; base and final and touched down normally. There was no other traffic in the pattern at that time and; as far as I remember; no one else landed or took off during the next 10 minutes or so. Upon clearing the active runway; I shut down the engine; exited the plane and removed the cowl plugs; then restarted the engine and taxied to the ramp as directed by the tower--my hope was to get enough air running through the engine to perhaps cool it and salvage it; and possibly even the remaining leg of my flight. That wasn't to be; the engine (which was near tbo anyway) was in bad shape with many burned and damaged components; as a result; mechanics are now overhauling the engine and prop. I'm lucky the overspeeding propeller didn't throw a blade and tear the engine from the frame in the process. Some conclusions: it was clearly my own stupidity that caused this problem. The fuel truck blocking my view of the front of the plane was a factor; but not an excuse for my failure to pull the cowl plugs. The plugs--which came with the plane--don't have that connecting strap. It's my first set of cowl plugs and it never occurred to me why that strap is important--to pull the plugs once the prop starts to turn). I'm not a big fan of new laws and regulations; but I think it should be mandatory that cowl plugs have such a strap to prevent more incidents like mine. My flight ended with only a damaged engine; but it could have been much worse. It didn't occur to me as I was trying to land how frightening the results of the overspeeding propeller could have been. It was almost a no-wind night--a few knots of wind at most--and it seems it might have been smart of the tower to offer me a straight in approach from the start; and I probably should have insisted on it. Yes; I had the extra 30 seconds; but had I known then what I know now about what can happen if the prop throws a blade; I would have landed straight in. I'm guessing safety protocols tell the tower to use the longest runway available; but in my case; in a 182; I think a direct approach would have been the safest option. I will also never again do a preflight inspection without the checklist in hand throughout. Also; I need to ensure that 'cowl plugs removed' is an item on my checklist. I also intend to retrofit my plugs with a propeller-removal strap. This stupid mistake will make me a better; safer pilot--but I'm sorry it took this kind of incident for me to realize the many little things I did wrong that could have resulted in a horrible tragedy.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C182 pilot describes a diversion due to extreme oil temperature after forgetting to remove the the engine cowl plugs during preflight.

Narrative: I called the FBO as we were approaching and asked that they fuel my plane; then I planned to refuel upon returning and thereby learn the fuel burn for the trip. The fuel truck was parked in front of my plane; obscuring the front view; when we pulled up. We also had the distraction of the ramp worker who drove our luggage to the plane arriving. Normally; my first action on arriving at the plane is to pull the cowl plugs and toss them in the baggage compartment; the compartment is the first thing I unlock on the plane and gives me access to the doors; which I access through the compartment. Normally I toss the plugs in the compartment just after I unlock the doors. I proceeded with the rest of my pre-flight check; I checked the oil; the fuel sumps; the flaps; ailerons and empennage; untied the tiedowns and unlocked the tail holddown. At one point; I turned on all the lights and stepped back to view the plane from the front (the fuel truck was now gone) to make sure the lights were working. I referred to my checklist card for preflight inspection when I thought I had completed all the items and scanned the list to make sure I'd covered everything. To be honest; I don't know whether it even contains a line regarding cowl plugs--as I said; it's a new plane (to me) and at the moment; it's too far away for me to drive to check the checklist. In any case; I did not pull the cowl plugs from the front of the plane (by the way; these plugs are not connected with a strap that the propeller pulls out on turning; nor do they have warning flags that rise above the level of the cowl. I was obviously unaware of my incomplete (and stupid) preflight inspection. I'd checked everything but left the cowl flaps in place. Oil temperatures looked normal when I finished my taxi and run-up; and I was cleared for takeoff. I took off then turned right to a heading of approximately 100. As I reached 2;500 FT; Tower told me to look for a jetliner inbound from the north (my left) at 2;500 FT; heading for a landing. My attention was occupied with finding the jet and avoiding it. Once I did so; I leveled off at 3;000 FT and began to trim the plane and set my prop pitch. I noticed my prop was spinning faster than usual; at one point I saw it reach 3000 RPM; way above its redline speed of 2600 RPM. I pulled back on the power; but the power adjustment kept sliding forward; as though a vacuum were pulling it back to full power. I messed with the locking hub to try to get it to stay in place and was baffled as to why it was acting in a way I'd never seen it do before. All of these distractions--the inbound plane; the power setting; the overspeeding prop--kept me from realizing my real problem--I had left in the cowl plugs and my engine was burning up. Once I got the power lever lock to hold; I began looking at my other instruments and noticed that the oil temperature was pegged at the right end of the scale. My engine was already blisteringly hot after just 10 mins or so in the air; that's when I figured out my mistake. The engine still sounded good; but I knew I was in trouble with essentially no air flowing through the cowling. I opened the cowl flaps all the way and pulled way back on the power. I then looked on my iPad chart for the nearest airport; which appeared to be ZZZ about 10 miles east; and dialed in their Tower frequency. Although I was trying not to panic; I made mistakes 3 times in trying to dial in the proper frequency; 2 of those times; I called on the radio to Tower and waited for a response; not knowing they couldn't hear me because I'd misdialed the frequency. Once I had the correct frequency and reached the Tower; I announced that I was a 182 10 miles to the west and would like to come in to land. They told me I first needed to call Approach. I replied that I had an overheating engine and wanted to get on the ground. I did not declare an emergency. As I made my way toward the field; I noticed that I'd lost significant altitude--droppingfrom 3;000 FT MSL to about 900 FT MSL. I'd pulled the power way back to try to keep the engine from destroying itself; but hadn't adjusted the trim to retain altitude. So with the airport getting closer and; I believed; reachable if I lost all power; I added some power and climbed to 1;500 FT. Tower had asked me 'how many souls onboard'; so I knew they understood it was something other than a normal landing. They told me to make left downwind. Fire trucks were in position at the approach end and I think departure end; which I found more irritating than comforting. I made an expedited approach; base and final and touched down normally. There was no other traffic in the pattern at that time and; as far as I remember; no one else landed or took off during the next 10 minutes or so. Upon clearing the active runway; I shut down the engine; exited the plane and removed the cowl plugs; then restarted the engine and taxied to the ramp as directed by the Tower--my hope was to get enough air running through the engine to perhaps cool it and salvage it; and possibly even the remaining leg of my flight. That wasn't to be; the engine (which was near TBO anyway) was in bad shape with many burned and damaged components; as a result; mechanics are now overhauling the engine and prop. I'm lucky the overspeeding propeller didn't throw a blade and tear the engine from the frame in the process. Some conclusions: It was clearly my own stupidity that caused this problem. The fuel truck blocking my view of the front of the plane was a factor; but not an excuse for my failure to pull the cowl plugs. The plugs--which came with the plane--don't have that connecting strap. It's my first set of cowl plugs and it never occurred to me why that strap is important--to pull the plugs once the prop starts to turn). I'm not a big fan of new laws and regulations; but I think it should be mandatory that cowl plugs have such a strap to prevent more incidents like mine. My flight ended with only a damaged engine; but it could have been much worse. It didn't occur to me as I was trying to land how frightening the results of the overspeeding propeller could have been. It was almost a no-wind night--a few knots of wind at most--and it seems it might have been smart of the Tower to offer me a straight in approach from the start; and I probably should have insisted on it. Yes; I had the extra 30 seconds; but had I known then what I know now about what can happen if the prop throws a blade; I would have landed straight in. I'm guessing safety protocols tell the Tower to use the longest runway available; but in my case; in a 182; I think a direct approach would have been the safest option. I will also never again do a preflight inspection without the checklist in hand throughout. Also; I need to ensure that 'cowl plugs removed' is an item ON my checklist. I also intend to retrofit my plugs with a propeller-removal strap. This stupid mistake will make me a better; safer pilot--but I'm sorry it took this kind of incident for me to realize the many little things I did wrong that could have resulted in a horrible tragedy.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.