EFATO
It was a glorious August evening and my passenger and I had been determined to fly all day. The club only had a PA38 available and although I had amassed only about 10 hours on type I was familiar enough with the a/c and happy to accept it given the wonderful CAVOK conditions, panel similarity with PA28’s and the controlled environment in which we would fly (planned Woodford – inside Manchester’s TMA – to Liverpool). After a thorough check to the a/c we requested taxi.
Woodford has a very wide and long runway and it was common practice for GA a/c to start their take off run from an intersection – this allowed use of ¾ of the available length and for us represented a safe and sensible option. Company IFR traffic was already waiting clearance and the end of the runway.
Having completed all checks at a speed and accuracy I was comfortable with (rather than at the speed the controller expected – see company traffic above) I called ready and was given clearance to go.
Full power – everything normal – rotated at 60/65 knots and established positive rate of climb, go to about 80 feet or so and the engine failed completely. Oh ****** – or something similar – was the expression used I seem to recall. After that, training took over, check fuel, mayday, check fuel again, fuel pump on off, throttle forward back, nose down, runway ahead, doors un latched, seatbelts tighten, call landing ahead, do some other thing that I cannot recall now and landed safely on the runway despite it being reasonably hard. Maintained control of the a/c and tried to stop in the very short distance available.
Unfortunately didn’t although I did avoid the ILS equipment but ran on the overshoot collapsing the nose wheel in the process.
Turned everything that still on – off (Master switches I am sure were the only things on by this time), go out, decided that since the airfield fire people and some of Greater Manchester’s fire brigade were already on their way, having a cigarette would not be a good idea.
The thing is, I was P1 with about 120 hours total by this time, the incident it’s self has never caused me any worry rather the after events of “good I have done anything better” and all the forms and inquisitions were more traumatic than falling from the sky. Anyway the engine packed up as a result of some mechanical thing to do with pistons or something.
The next day however, I flew with an instructor in a BE80. It, having two engines, meant that I could be assured of getting over the fence that time.