There I Was: Clanking sound on takeoff.

So there I was, taking a short trip with my kids in our 172. I gassed up and took off, and at about rotation speed I started hearing a rhythmic clacking/clanking sound.

I went ahead and took off, but immediately regretted it. The sound was definitely coming from the right side of the ship, and it was loud enough to be noisy over the sound of everything else.

“Well,” I thought, “I’ve finally fucked up and left a gas cap off.” The gas caps have little chains to keep them thereabouts of the filler hole, and the more I listened the more sure I was that I was hearing the damn gas cap flopping around on top of the wing.

The kids did seatbelt checks to make sure it wasn’t an errant belt sticking out the door. That wasn’t it. Had to be a fuel cap. Damn.

I headed back to the field and asked my back-seat kid if they could see gas flying off the right wing. No fuel was visible.

We landed, shut down on the taxiway, and I hopped out to face my shame — again. I smashed my fin cap on the hangar door a few weeks ago, and once again felt like the biggest shitbird on the planet. But the gas caps were tidy and tight. Bigger problems? Is something more expensive flapping around?

Nope. About five inches of a lightweight nylon strap from my son’s backpack was hanging out the door. I would never have dreamed that a little piece of nylon strap would make so much noise.

That is all.