Narrative:

After taxi I was cleared for takeoff with a clearance to climb to 5;000 ft and a left turn to a heading of 350. After a normal takeoff I started the left turn at about 600 ft AGL and hand flew the aircraft with a 1;200 FPM climb rate. Tower asked me to contact departure at about 1;200 ft MSL. I called departure and we were cleared for a further climb when I suddenly noticed a clear liquid running over the windshield. I called departure and told them that we have an issue with the engine and that I would need to return back to the field immediately. Departure gave us a few vectors to intercept the final approach course. When I noticed the liquid I was first assuming it was water since it appeared completely clear; but after checking the engine instruments I noticed the drop in oil pressure and it was confirmed that we had an oil leak somewhere in the engine. Visibility through the windshield quickly dropped to zero and the only way for me to fly the tbm was with the instruments and a little area that I could see through in my left side window. After lining up with the centerline on final I ask the tower to give me some altitude reading to avoid obstacles. At approximately 100 ft above the runway I was able to see the left edge of the runway through the side window and I used that as a reference for the landing process. The landing was a little harder than usual; but no damage was done to the gear. I was able to slow the plane down and exited the runway at taxiway M and shut down the engine. The 2 passengers and I left the aircraft shortly after that. I have been going to the recurrent training for the TBM700 every year for the last 10 years. There have been times when I felt that doing it every 12 month is more of a hassle than actually helping me improve my skill. I had grown so confident in this aircraft after flying it for over 10 years and my ability to control it; that I would make a comment that proved so wrong. I had built my confidence based on eventless flying and had pushed back the possibility of something going wrong in 'real life.' after encountering this situation I learned to never question the amount of training required of me over the years and I will encourage others to be grateful for any additional training received.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A TBM700 developed an oil leak immediately after takeoff and returned to land safely with an oil obscured windshield.

Narrative: After taxi I was cleared for takeoff with a clearance to climb to 5;000 FT and a left turn to a heading of 350. After a normal takeoff I started the left turn at about 600 FT AGL and hand flew the aircraft with a 1;200 FPM climb rate. Tower asked me to contact Departure at about 1;200 FT MSL. I called Departure and we were cleared for a further climb when I suddenly noticed a clear liquid running over the windshield. I called Departure and told them that we have an issue with the engine and that I would need to return back to the field immediately. Departure gave us a few vectors to intercept the final approach course. When I noticed the liquid I was first assuming it was water since it appeared completely clear; but after checking the engine instruments I noticed the drop in oil pressure and it was confirmed that we had an oil leak somewhere in the engine. Visibility through the windshield quickly dropped to zero and the only way for me to fly the TBM was with the instruments and a little area that I could see through in my left side window. After lining up with the centerline on final I ask the Tower to give me some altitude reading to avoid obstacles. At approximately 100 FT above the runway I was able to see the left edge of the runway through the side window and I used that as a reference for the landing process. The landing was a little harder than usual; but no damage was done to the gear. I was able to slow the plane down and exited the runway at Taxiway M and shut down the engine. The 2 passengers and I left the aircraft shortly after that. I have been going to the recurrent training for the TBM700 every year for the last 10 years. There have been times when I felt that doing it every 12 month is more of a hassle than actually helping me improve my skill. I had grown so confident in this aircraft after flying it for over 10 years and my ability to control it; that I would make a comment that proved so wrong. I had built my confidence based on eventless flying and had pushed back the possibility of something going wrong in 'real life.' After encountering this situation I learned to never question the amount of training required of me over the years and I will encourage others to be grateful for any additional training received.

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.