Oh no - not again!
 

Luckily nobody hurt in this forced landing...

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=196177

However, the aircraft is getting plenty of practice....:ok:

http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...ec-2016-a.html

I've often thought a fairway would be pretty good for a forced landing. Decent length, short grass, no standing crop you can only discern from the flare, relatively empty of people, bar nearby.

Pal of mine did that in his Shadow microlight on the 18th at Therfield Heath nr Royston. The golfers demanded an extra shot to "play round an aircraft". After some thought the overnight parking fee was a round in the bar as a bribe to keep an eye on it overnight until we could collect it. Cause was a gearbox failure on the Rotax 582.

Classic... :ok:

There's a video of the landing doing the rounds on Facebook

Edit: Found - https://www.facebook.com/robthepostm...7156889312004/

The pilots in each of this Skybolt's forced landings was 'Dave' (a different 'Dave' in each case). But both Daves are ex-members of our well established Chippie group, so plenty of stick & rudder skills to ensure a safe outcome both cases.

Well done both Daves!

He handled the dogleg well.

As a matter of interest what does the CAA have to say (if anything) about landing in a congested area?
(Which a golf course is, of course)

I don't know; is it "Better to crash & burn"?


People have put-down on roads, football pitches and many other congested areas when they have no option due to an emergency. You can't use them for sole compliance with "land clear" rules but once the donk stops I think you can break any rule IF that is the best option to get the thing on the floor without loss of life and (ideally) damage to property.

As a foreigner, I am unsure how to interpret "congested" in this context. It must be close to "very much occupied" but occupied by what or by whom? I actually suspect some "deeper meaning" behind the (Which a golf course is, of course)

Most golf courses round here are only visited in the weekend, and not always intensively even then. To me they look like a very good choice for an emergency landing, far better than a supermarket parking or a motorway siding. There is one just before I join my homefield circuit and I always keep half an eye on it, in case the engine should give up right now.

...other than the laws of gravity and conservation of energy, perhaps...

:}

PDR

I would suspect that the engine having stopped during climb out from an airfield there wasn't much the pilot could do except land on what was available - which seems to have been very well done.

I wonder - what makes a golf course a 'congested area'? Quite possibly - I don't know the area - the golf course may have been the only (green) space available that was not 'congested'. Even on a Saturday, the occupancy on a golf course can be quite sparse, given the distance between playing groups.

An unusual hazard for the golfers - impressively well done the pilot.

Interestingly there's been a subtle change in the Standardised European Rules of the Air with respect to the (old) Rule 5 (low flying rule) in the UK Rules of the Air.

I've not got the precise rule in front of me but in relation to a congested area SERA states that in the even of engine failure you have to able to alight "safely" whereas the UK R of A stated you had to alight "clear of the congested area".

I guess a golf course might count as "recreational purposes".

.....and 18 little windsocks.

I've landed a couple of times on golf courses, at East Brighton and North Foreland, and the CAA made no comment. However, it was on a hanglider.

From past experience, different CAA ops inspectors have different views on whether a golf course is classed as a congested area or not.

But if it's a case of a forced landing, it's better to be alive in court than dead in the ground.

I managed to land on a tennis court on a paraglider !


( ssssssh, don't tell 'em. )

A hangie landed on a catch-fence surrounded tennis court too but there was a bit of a headwind.