Precautionary landing thoughts

[ben737800]

Hi all,

Been thinking recently about the scenario of a precautionary landing due to partial power loss. I know that for an ideal precautionary landing you would use slow safe cruise and make a couple of passes on chosen field to assess the 5 S's. However in the event of a partial loss of power (I know it depends on how much exactly) but would you just select the best field and carry out a short/soft field landing without attempting to overfly in case you find you are unable to climb away again and may be in a worse position than before? I was thinking it would be a pan call time permitting, but would you squawk 7700 also?

Any thoughts/opinions appreciated.

[Mach Jump]

Hi Ben.

Regard such a landing as a forced landing without power, make a Mayday call, Squawk 7700, and think of what little power you have left as a bonus that you might loose at any moment.


MJ:ok:

Ps. I'm assuming that you don't have enough power to maintain level flight at a safe speed, as in that situation the best option would be to head for the nearest airfield, at the same time preparing for the possibility of a complete failure. In that case it would be appropriate to send a PAN message, and Squawk 7700, upgrading to a Mayday in the case of further loss of power.

[Big Pistons Forever]

Best to start by considering the partial power loss as an imminent total power loss.

So point the airplane at the nearest field and perform a cause check to see if power can be restored.

Assuming you have enough power power to maintain level flight then you can consider going for the nearest airport but arranging your flight path to always have a field within easy gliding distance.

If you can't maintain altitude then treat the partial failure as a total failure and close the throttle after manoevering to a good position to start your forced approach

[Mach Jump]

Ah. I see BPF slipped in there while I was adding my Ps. Still, it's good to know we think alike.


MJ:ok:

[Jan Olieslagers]

Forget your radio and transponder when things begin to go pear-shaped. Listen to the engine, fly the plane. Put the bird down as soon as you can, with reasonable safety (and remember even landing on a 10000' concrete runway is not without risk). Only if any of your attention can be spared, you can consider setting a specific squawk, and if you have some more you could try calling on 121,500. Whether pan-pan or mayday isn't really relevant. Do think of activating ELT/PLB, though.

[john_tullamarine]

One point appears to have been overlooked.

Thinking back to glider retrieves in my early days, the croppie who checked me out for paddock operations demonstrated very clearly (using his "special" paddock) the need (providing you have the opportunity ie a discretionary landing) to fly a couple of wide circuits around the field .. amazing what you can pick up in the way of, for example, wires from one side but not the other .. depending on sun etc.

[Big Pistons Forever]

One point appears to have been overlooked.

Thinking back to glider retrieves in my early days, the croppie who checked me out for paddock operations demonstrated very clearly (using his "special" paddock) the need (providing you have the opportunity ie a discretionary landing) to fly a couple of wide circuits around the field .. amazing what you can pick up in the way of, for example, wires from one side but not the other .. depending on sun etc.

If you have enough power to

fly a couple of wide circuits around the field

I would suggest that you have enough power to head to the nearest airport.....

[Johnm]

I would suggest that you have enough power to head to the nearest airport.....

Which is what I did when I lost a mag between Basle and Troyes!

[john_tullamarine]

I was thinking more along the lines of a wx related precautionary outfielder .. either way, lines around the area are a real death trap as they can be absolutely invisible from the wrong perspective ..

[Big Pistons Forever]

A couple of other related points worth mentioning:

Flight schools teach the forced approach exercise as a binary event. Engine on, engine off. Unfortunately the real world is less black and white. Many, if not the majority of "engine failures" are partial losses of power, or power gradually fading to nothing. or power is available but high levels of vibration or other anomalous symptoms are present.

The flight school engine failure is all about the power off maneuvering to to a successful "landing", but this can sometimes be the easy part. That hard part is the pilot decision making needed when you have a sick but still functioning engine and are trying to decide whether to try for the airport, go for that nice field in the opposite direction or land on what is right below you. This kind of decision making never seems to get addressed in flight training....

Partial power failures are often pilot initiated. Carb icing and incorrectly set mixture controls are two common examples that will result in rough running and a loss of power. Therefore it is imperative IMO that all pilots have and practice a quick "cause" check that will verify all the pilot controllable modes of engine failure are quickly either rectified or eliminated as a potential cause of the engine problem.

Finally there have been numerous tragic accidents where the pilot was nicely set up for a forced approach, only to have the engine pick up again with the pilot electing to try to climb away. Too often this restoration of power is momentary and only serves to move the airplane to a location much less suitable for a forced approach. If you elect to proceed with a forced approach
I highly recommend when you commit to flying the forced approach, start by closing the throttle and placing the mixture to idle cut off so that this can't happen.