Engine failure in Vy climbout

[Big Pistons Forever]

I am posting a section of an article from the latest Transport Canada Aviation Safety Letter which discusses GA stall spin accidents

Quote


The occurrences broke down into three principal groups:

a. stall or spin accidents resulting from aircraft handling (27);

b. stalls or spins following engine failure (9); and

c. stalls or spins resulting from loss of control in IMC (3).

Handling Accidents

Twenty-seven accidents resulted from mishandling the aircraft into an aerodynamic stall. These accidents resulted in 26 fatalities and 16 serious injuries. In two cases, it appears that the engine was not producing full power but the aircraft was capable of controlled flight and the stall was avoidable. In all cases, the stall, which sometimes precipitated a spin or wing drop, occurred at low altitude and at low airspeed. The stalls and spins occurred at a height where recovery was very difficult and probably impossible. Sixteen stalls resulted from turning at low airspeed, 10 occurred in straight ahead flight, and one inverted spin developed when the pilot was practising aerobatics at about 1 500 ft AGL.

Most of the 27 handling accidents happened during the takeoff/initial climb-out or approach phase. There were 13 stalls during the climb-out after taking off and at least six of these occurred during a low speed, low altitude turn. Five stalls, all in turns, occurred during the approach/landing phase, most often on turning base to final. One practice overshoot ended in a stall when the instructor waited too long to take control and the airspeed fell too low.

Unquote

Lowering the nose after a low altitude engine failure, or even a inadvertant loss of airspeed, may sound obvious but in the heat of the moment the accident statistics say pilots are getting this wrong. I firmly believe this is an area where flight schools need to work harder to make sure students have an automatic condition response to lower the nose in the event of a loss of engine power or any stall indication.

Too many pilots are saying "well that will never happen to me", the problem is it IS happening to pilots just like you .......