FUEL CAPS
by Dave Wilkerson
Christians’ Inner Power Warrants Protection and Inspection.
Among the first skills new pilots learn is the preflight inspection. Preflight is one’s last chance before starting a flying machine to detect visible potential hazards. One triune focus of preflight inspections is fuel caps. These must be the correct type, and normally, this is rarely a problem. Still, with airplanes in mixed-mission fleet service, or airplanes coming out of extended maintenance involving unusual disassembly, mismatches do occur. Also, each fuel cap gasket must be serviceable, which is a far more frequent challenge than a cap being the correct type, because gaskets age. Old gaskets crack, harden, and leak fuel in such ways that pilots cannot always see the leakage. Naturally, because aviation gasoline is colored, stains around fuel ports may give pilots a strong clue of something amiss. Human nature being what it is, though, most pilots rationalize such staining as a result of refueling spills. Finally, fuel caps must be securely in place. Ah, here is our most common fuel cap failure. Pilots fall into complacent routines very quickly, especially in unexciting areas like preflight inspections. Line crews occasionally do not properly secure fuel caps, but pilots nearly always assume that they have. Normal engine vibrations combined with aerodynamic loads on the airframe further loosen already slackened fuel caps, which can ultimately depart their host airplanes. Then, the pilot has a problem. Proper type, good condition, and apt security are invariably pilots’ preflight fuel cap interests.
This trinity of concerns is not normally essential to take off, for as long as an airplane’s tanks remain properly vented and fuel flows unrestricted, gasoline will be available to produce takeoff power. No problem. Sustaining flight – now that that is another issue altogether. Airplane wings exist because they are lift-producing airfoils. Thick airfoils produce much lift; wing-tanks’ fuel caps are normally found at the thickest part of the wing because that is exactly the point of lowest pressure (greatest lift) in most situations. Low pressure is another way of saying ‘suction.’ Removing the fuel cap exposes fuel to low-pressure of the airfoil’s making. Fuel, being a fluid, escapes into the air to evaporate uselessly, expensively, dangerously, into the ether. Because he planned for the quantity of fuel available at takeoff, unaware friend pilot soon faces great risk for his lack of knowledge. Christian scripture notes that God’s people sometimes perish for lack of knowledge. Believers working in the aviation industry often insist that they can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. And as true as this is, the two scriptures together make it also true that we Christians need to examine ourselves often, and knowledgably.
There is good reason for us to do so. Like fuel caps and their gaskets, we age. Life changes how we look at life, and over time’s gradual influence we don’t realize how much we have changed. Our certainty in Christ, how firmly we are grounded in Him, in this regard equates to airplanes having the correct fuel caps. Using a wide, wide selection of people and aircraft types, aviation serves a wide, wide world of varied cultures, needs and perspectives. Just as every fuel cap exists to prevent fuel from escaping in flight, it also prevents harmful materials from contaminating the airplane’s fuel. Our familiarity with and commitment to God’s Word makes us exactly the same within the body of Christ. Our study of, meditation upon, and active belief in the Word not only prevent our inner power from escaping into life’s maelstrom, but also prevent the world’s spiritual impurities from contaminating the purity of our power. Just like fuel caps.
Most of us who have known the Lord for a decade or more have borne sad witness of wonderful, lively and strong brothers and sisters in the Lord who, over time, slowly changed. They became gradually more worldly, coarser in humor and entertainment, still naming the name of Christ, but . . . differently. We could never quite name the subtle change. Like a trusted fuel cap whose gasket dries slowly, gradually, we see slight but tangible evidence of the siphoning of their power. Emotionally involved, we don’t want to entertain the possibility that something might be wrong. We convince ourselves that evidence we see, like the fuel-colored stain atop the wing, is merely the result of one or two careless refuelings. Certainly some individual event has occurred, but it’s all right. The evil is evaporating, we tell ourselves, and our friend will be fine. We keep our faithful companion in service. Pressures pull at our friend’s power as life’s turbulence jostles his wings, thus the tanks, or repositories of power. Jostling separates fuel’s molecules, wave by sloshing wave, unseen in an airplane’s tanks as in a friend’s soul. Separated from the bulk of tank-bound fuel, bit-by-bit turbulence-displaced fuel slaps against the tank roof, and against cracked fuel cap gaskets. And bit-by-bit, the power for which we paid leaks away. Tiny, moist measures of precious fluid, the lifeblood of flight no less than His blood remains life-blood to the Body of Christ, wastes away.
Pilots must examine their fuel caps, exactly as we must identify and inspect ours. Too often in our Christian walk, we encounter friends that suddenly seem friends no longer. They are suddenly gone from our valued fellowship. Like a poorly secured fuel cap succumbing to the vibration and vacuum of daily life or the loose, comfortable security of a fellowship without accountability, that friend is gone. Fallen away. Lost. This portends ill for the Church as much as for him whose cap-insecurity escaped complacent preflight’s notice. Victory has hinged on fuel caps. Safety and efficiency surely do. But so can terror, tragedy, and irreparable loss. We often don’t think ourselves to be much. In humility is Christlikeness. Unless that humility grows with pride. Every member of Christ’s body is important. Just as the tiny fuel cap remains essential to safe flight, every believer’s inner strength is important to the Body of Christ, the Kingdom of Christ, and eternity.
Photo and Text © David R. Wilkerson, 2004
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