Another Mishap at OBA

[177Pilot]

Just on the news, an old training Cessna 150 had an emergency landing on highway I-95 in Ormond Beach, Florida. The owner of the aircraft was Ormond Beach Aviation. Both instructor and student landed safely and after a few hours, a repaired aircraft departed from the highway.:D

[Flex_Thrust]

I got my PPL there in 2006. I'd say it was due to the St Augustine Tower Controller attitude!

Glad they were okay... I95 is pretty busy, how they didn't hit wires I'll never know. Any landing you can walk away from is a good one!

[BigGrecian]

There's some cool traffic cam video of the take-off here:

http://www.cfnews13.com/News/Local/2008/6/17/plane_makes_emergency_landing_on_i95.html?refresh=1

[nich-av]

Good job! :ok:

[TicketyBlue]

Sh1t happens, that's why PFL's are such a big part of the PPL syllabus. I personally flew many times with the instructor involved and I say, "Well done, man!" :D :D :D

http://www.news-journalonline.com/index.htm

[99jolegg]

Old Golf Zulu is still doing the rounds!!! If I remember correctly, she was the bird with the broken accelerator pump in 06 :D

Video of the takeoff:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1541042960/bclid1134198054/bctid1612710891

[Dash Decent]

Amazing would love to have seen the landing.
Over here Ive been taught a motorway is not an option for a forced landing but when S... hits the fan theyve done a great job over there

[jayteeto]

Forced landing, repair, then take off is a great result. Well done to the instructor!!

[Leezyjet]

I wonder if that truck driver in the video took a pic of his rear view mirror with the Cessna in it - not something one would see too often !!.

Good job by all.

:D

[smith]

Looks like AT in the green shirt and brown hat.

[OBA]

Date: June 17 2008

Location: .5 Miles North West KOMN

Aircraft Type: Cessna 150

Year of Manufacture: 1977

Airframe Total Time: 9,780.7

Engine Type/Total Time: TCM 0-200/1,534.3 hours since major overhaul

Last Maintenance Date/Description/Hours: June 13 2008/100 hour inspection/1519.1 hours

Nature of Occurrence: Forced Landing Due Loss of Engine Power

Occupants on Board: 2

Nature of Operation: Primary Training Flight

Injuries: None

Aircraft Damage: None

Property Damage: None

Narrative

The subject aircraft departed KOMN at approximately 1131 hours EST on a scheduled primary training flight with two occupants on board.

Pilot in Command Statement Submitted to the FAA

“The flight started as usual with a north departure from KOMN.

On the climb out the engine was at about 2400rpm, at about 2000 feet MSL, the engine started running erratically.

I immediately pitched the airplane for best glide speed and consulted my engine failure checklist.

After completing the checklist without favorable results, I concluded we had serious engine trouble and were going to need to land the airplane as soon as possible.

At this point we were about 5 miles North of KOMN and I didn’t see any good safe landing areas, also I could tell we could not make the glide to Flagler airport either.

I started a shallow left turn back towards the south as I knew there were more farm fields there.

I contacted KOMN tower and declared the engine failure emergency. I entered 7700 in the aircraft’s transponder.

By this time we were losing altitude rather quickly and could not maintain level flight even at full power.

I alerted KOMN tower that we were going to make an emergency landing on I-95.

The tachometer was reading about 1200 rpm and this was not enough power to maintain level flight. We were in a slow descent at about 300-500 feet per minute. At this point I could see the cars on the freeway and saw a break in traffic. I aimed the airplane at the break in traffic and landed normally on the white segmented lines of one of the traffic lanes.

I then secured the aircraft by pulling the mixture control to full lean cutoff and turned the fuel selector valve the to off position then turned the master switch off while steering the plane to the left edge of the pavement and exited the airplane.

A few people that saw the landing stopped their cars and helped us push the plane onto the grass median so as to not block traffic. A few minutes later police and rescue efforts showed up.”

Neither the pilot in command nor the student suffered any injury, the aircraft was undamaged and there we no resultant traffic incidents or accidents.

Post Incident Action

Approximately thirty minutes after the incident mechanics from the operator were at the scene with recovery equipment.

It quickly established that the engine had suffered a failure of the number 1 cylinder head that had detached from the cylinder barrel.

A decision was taken with the cooperation and consent of the Incident Commander from the Florida Highway Patrol, (FHP), to execute repairs to the engine by replacing the number 1 cylinder in the field. This decision was based on the only other option that was to remove the wings from the aircraft and trailer the airframe off the Interstate. The former had an estimated accomplishment time of two hours, the latter six hours.

Repairs were carried out to the engine as described above, engine oil and filter changed and successful engine ground runs executed. The aircraft was declared serviceable at 15:05 hours EST.

At 15:10 hours FHP vehicles entered the Interstate at the slip road immediately north of the incident scene and slowed the traffic down to approximately 40mph, this created a clear area of the road in order to provide a sufficient time and distance for the aircraft to depart from the incident scene.

The aircraft departed the Interstate and was flown without incident to KOMN, a distance of approximately one half mile where it landed safely.

On arrival at KOMN the aircraft was placed in the operator’s maintenance department for further inspection.

Post Incident Findings

The following day, at the operator’s maintenance facility and in co-operation with inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) the failed cylinder was inspected.

It was determined that the cylinder had suffered a premature fatigue related failure the likely cause of which was resultant from repeated thermal shock (Shock Cooling).

The FAA inspector further determined and stated that no maintenance action by the operator could have detected or prevented the premature failure.

Additionally the FAA inspector reviewed and was satisfied with the post incident repair and all other maintenance actions executed by the operator to return the aircraft to service.

Footnote

Anyone who is interested in prevention of “Shock Cooling” that results in premature fatigue failure of aircraft engine cylinder heads or is just interested in reading about correct engine operation procedures generally, should read http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/sa25.pdf

This is an excellent and informative document produced by the AOPA USA.

It is regrettable, but predictable, given the track record of 177pilot, that this post was titled “Another Mishap at OBA” and attempts to solicit further negative comment with statements such as “an old training Cessna 150”. The age of the aircraft is not a material fact in this case. In fact a “fairly new Boeing 777” had a “double engine” failure very recently! Guess it happens to old and new, piston and jet!

My personal opinion, is that the PIC should be commended by all, (including 177pilot), for his decisions and actions in this situation that were clearly correct as evidenced by the result.

Having an engine failure or severe reduction in engine power is a very rare occurrence. This incident does however reinforce that the frequent practice of the emergency procedures associated with engine failure/power loss together with forced landing procedures is something that we all need to be familiar with and well practiced in. No one tells you in advance when it will happen!

The final result of this particular incident is a clear demonstration that the OBA instructor was well practiced and professionally competent in the execution of the emergency procedures associated with engine failure/power loss and forced landing procedures. Well done Eric!

Regards,

Adrian Thompson
President & Head of Training
OBA

[A and C]

"Another mishap at OBA" is a rather loaded statment and is rather like saying that the Isle of Man has a disproprtionately high motorcycle accident rate for a small island.

Yes a lot of incidens happen in one place but that is because on the large amount of flying & motorcycling that happens at these places, I would bet that if you loked at both these places objectivley the incident rate per hour or mile would be lower than average.

And one last thing big "well done" to the PIC.

[Dane-Ger]

well done to the instructor, he seemed to handle a dangerous situation with complete professionalism. I'm also sure the student pilot is extremely grateful for that. Good job!

regards D-G

P.S. the video of the 150 taking off from the highway is quite fascinating, not a sight you see every day!

[skylarker1983]

I got my PPL at OBA in november 2007, great school, good instructors and reasonable prices. I flew the old fleet of Liberty's which, in my opinion, were nothing short of properly maintained.
My best friend returned from OBA about 2 months ago with his PPL too, having flown the Cesnas, and was more than happy with all.

"another mishap"...more like another OBA hater!!

[OBA]

and 177pilot?

Where are you, oh and which school do you own or work for?