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Old 2nd May 2014, 19:22
  #173 (permalink)  
shortstripper
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: South Norfolk, England
Age: 58
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I must be bloody unlucky then!

The first was indeed pilot induced. Botched aero's that stopped the engine It had a hand swing C90 and though I'd air-started it once before, this time I couldn't.

But ...

The next was fuel starvation with fuel in the tank! I suppose it did qualify as pilot induced but not in a classic way. I was unfamiliar on type and it was a homebuilt VP2 with a flat bottomed tank and tiny sump. I'd been circling in one direction looking for an airstrip and all the fuel slopped to one side. When the tiny sump emptied, the engine stopped resulting in a forced landing. It took a bit of figuring out why the engine had stopped because it started no problem on the ground? My LAA inspector and I figured it out later when we could find no other explanation. A larger sump was subsequently fitted.

The last was a sticking hot/cold air flap on a carb where it stuck in the mid position. It gave similar symptoms to carb icing but caused (I think) turbulent airflow at the mouth of the carb. Once fixed the problem never reoccurred. It was at Goodwood and resulted in an immediate landing on an adjacent runway.

I'm glad they were all in relatively low performance aircraft, but on no occasion did I think "oh f..k! I'm going to crash". Apart from the pilot induced engine stop one the others would have been outside a chute deploy envelope. They'd have been more "interesting" in a Cirrus but probably wouldn't have happened anyway to be honest.

No SkyGod, just a recreational pilot dealing with things that happen as best he can.

SS

I'll shutup now! lol

Last edited by shortstripper; 2nd May 2014 at 19:31. Reason: To add the last bit
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