HS125 captain experiences smoke from APU bleed air during preflight which quickly dissipates and con...

Narrative:

On the morning of departure; it was rather cold; so we ran the APU and turned the APU bleed on to warm up the cabin. As so often happens when we run it we will get some smoke in the cabin (when the heat is turned-up) at first; which we did. It soon dissipated and I thought nothing more of it. On the approach I had the APU started; at that time we noticed 'some' smoke. It was not a large amount; but enough to be noticed. It did not have an odor and I just assumed it was residual smoke from the bleed earlier. After landing; the passenger stated he noticed the smoke in the cabin. I then had the director of maintenance come and examine it. Turned out to be oil leaking from the APU. Guard against complacency and report everything that isn't normal to maintenance and operations.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: HS125 Captain experiences smoke from APU bleed air during preflight which quickly dissipates and considers it normal. During approach with the APU running more smoke is noticed and post flight maintenance reveals an APU oil leak.

Narrative: On the morning of departure; it was rather cold; so we ran the APU and turned the APU bleed on to warm up the cabin. As so often happens when we run it we will get some smoke in the cabin (when the heat is turned-up) at first; which we did. It soon dissipated and I thought nothing more of it. On the approach I had the APU started; at that time we noticed 'some' smoke. It was not a large amount; but enough to be noticed. It did not have an odor and I just assumed it was residual smoke from the bleed earlier. After landing; the passenger stated he noticed the smoke in the cabin. I then had the Director of Maintenance come and examine it. Turned out to be oil leaking from the APU. Guard against complacency and report everything that isn't normal to Maintenance and Operations.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	941414
Time
Date	201102
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	HS 125 Series
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	APU
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Smoke / Fire / Fumes / Odor

HS125 captain experiences smoke from APU bleed air during preflight which quickly dissipates and considers it normal. During approach with the APU running more smoke is noticed and post flight maintenance reveals an APU oil leak.