Reason for accident - can any one help
Hi there
I hope you can help me find what caused me to do a forced landing a few days ago in a light aircraft. The incident took place at Upington (FAUP) in South Africa. The elevation of the field is 2791 feet. At the time of take off the temp was 38 degrees Centigrade wind was light and variable.
The aircraft was a Cessna 172 Hawk XP (195 hp 6 cylinder fuel injected engine) there were two people on board and 52 US gallons of fuel. We were well within the weight limit and the aeroplane was correctly loaded.
During engine run ups everything was normal and the mixture was leaned for peak power given the density altitude (6,500+feet). We were cleared to take off on rwy 01 (2438m long). Take off run was fine, rotation normal, climbed away at approx 80Kts until we were about 700 feet AGL, when the airspeed and the rate of climb both dropped.
There were plenty of thermals around so the updraughts and and down-draughts certainly had an effect on the rate of climb. 3-4 miles north of the rwy there is some high ground, so I commenced a very gradual turn to the left - certainly nowhere near as steep as a normal climing turn. During the turn the air was stable enough to maintain a good airspeed and good rate of climb so I contuned the turn on to our track which was about 150 degrees to the left of the rwy heading.
It was at this point that things began to go wrong. Shortly after completing the turn we began losing height at about 300fpm. The airspeed dropped to below 70kts. I was faced with a dilema of pointing it towards the ground and hoping that we would recover enough airspeed. We didn't. The rate of descent increased.
It was at this point that I thought that the best option was to carry out a forced landing - we had mostly flat ground below. Upington town was on our track if we managed to carry on for another two miles and we were 500feetAGL.
There were also power line which were ahead so I had to either pray that we would clear them or make a sharp turn close to the ground - i chose the latter as the terrain either side was flat and free from obstructions. 20 seconds or so from the possibility of a forced landing entering my head we were on the ground. Not a scratch on myself and my passenger. The aircraft had a slight crack in one of the spats on the main undercarriage.
Since then the aircraft was towed to a nearby road, and the engine run. All the indications were normal. The aircraft has since been flown back to Cape Town and there it is having it's MPI.
So to conclude my apologies for being long winded - just trying not to exclude anything. Does anyone possibly know what went wrong and why?
Many thanks for your help.