Practice your emergencies regularly!

[9 lives]

I am reminded that we can fall behind in our emergency skills. Two friends of mine were flying together, and the engine failure they had did not end well. Between the two of them, I estimate their total flying experience would exceed 10,000 hours in GA aircraft. One of then I have known as a pilot for more than 30 years. I don't know which of them was actually flying, but whomever, tried a turn back after an EFATO. It ended poorly, they are both in hospital with fractured spines, and in a world of hurt. The plane, which was a showpiece, is very badly damaged. I know the airport well, it is surrounded with gently rolling crop fields, a forced landing ahead would probably be damage free fore that aircraft, if flown on well.

I have yet to speak to either of them, but did receive an update on their condition from another multi thousand hour pilot friend who also tried a turnback a few years back, and broke his back in the resulting accident.

I would never have expected any of these fellows to be involved in an accident, much less hurt themselves trying a turnback. I reminded myself to be more careful yesterday and today while flying, and I practiced a few power off landings to the surface, just to be sure (though I practice regularly anyway).

So keep your skills sharp, and recent! Regular forced landing practice to the surface!

[India Four Two]

ST,

Sorry to hear about your friends.

I absolutely agree with your comment:

Regular forced landing practice to the surface!

I frequently fly a 265 HP C182 tow-plane and most days I try at least one glide approach from downwind, abeam the threshold. It's a stark reminder of how poor the glide ratio is, even with flaps up.

Glider pilots make glide approaches all the time of course, but the last part of the pre-takeoff check in Canada is Options - "Where will I go if the rope breaks or the tow-plane has a problem during the launch?"

This paid off for one of my club's pilots last week. He was doing a "passenger ride", flying from the back seat of a DG-1000. After takeoff at about 200' AGL, the audio variometer volume was overwhelmingly loud, so he asked his passenger to “flick the little switch on the control column” (which changes the vario setting in the DG-1000). The passenger asked if the pilot had meant the “yellow” knob?). The pilot misunderstood and heard“little”, not “yellow” and said “yes”. The passenger then pulled the release.

So from 250', the pilot made a perfect landing in a field with no damage to the glider. It was retrieved and after a de-brief with all concerned, the passenger went for another flight.

Of course, there has been a lot of analysis of what happened and the SOPs concerning passenger flying have been revised.

However, there was a large amount of luck in this incident. Of our four runways, only two have good landout options. If this launch had been on one of the other two, the outcome might have only been a "good" landing, rather than an "excellent" one.

[TimGriff6]

Thanks for the reminder. It is indeed important to practice the drills. I have a problem in that I have no way of practicing the initial decision making - has anyone got any advice on that?

To expand a little, I have had one emergency when all of my focus was on keeping the aircraft flying until I could sort out the problem and deal with it. At no time did I contemplate putting the aircraft down on the ground. In training, someone says 'engine failure, forced landing' and you go from there. As I see it happening in real life, the first thing that you have to do before putting emergency landing training into practice is to decide that you are going to put this very nice aircraft onto the ground away from an airfield. How do you make that decision correctly?

[Gertrude the Wombat]

As I see it happening in real life, the first thing that you have to do before putting emergency landing training into practice is to decide that you are going to put this very nice aircraft onto the ground away from an airfield. How do you make that decision correctly?

My one partial engine failure, the instructor took control, told me where was aiming for, sorted out the glide. Then we both started checking for what was wrong, and found it and fixed it. All exactly as per text book and training, and it all worked fine, and it was over in tens of seconds.

[9 lives]

I have a problem in that I have no way of practicing the initial decision making - has anyone got any advice on that?

What an excellent observation, and question!

This is a woefully overlooked element in pilot decision making training. It's the "fight or flee" decision making process, flight to continue to fly it, or flee to the ground, essentially giving up the flight to keep flying. The possible availability of a BRS adds a whole other element to that, however, the scope of this discussion is an emergency at a low enough that a BRS would not be of much use anyway.

I have had a total of six engine failures/major power losses during my flying, with three being EFATO. In all cases, I was able to land the aircraft ahead, in a place from which a later takeoff was possible - lucky me! But the "fly the plane" element remains vital in any case. A mentor of mine once told me: "point the plane at a place you think you could crash, then don't crash when you get there.".

The decision making as to "just land it ahead", or cause check and search for a good spot, will be based largely on the length of time available to you to glide to your short final approach, and arrive there with suitable speed for a power off flare and landing. In most power planes, and EFATO at less than 500 feet means that the time to do anything before committing to a landing ahead will be near zero - push the nose down, and land it.

In my considered opinion, pilot training and mentoring spends too much time teaching cause checks, looking for a good spot, and flying something like a circuit around it, without actually landing on it. Looking for a good forced approach spot should not be something you begin to do when it all goes silent, it should be something you are always doing if you're not watching for traffic, checking your position relative to the chart, or checking that all systems are operating normally. Looking for a spot should be a part of your regular flying scan.

Cuase checks? Yeah, perhaps you have forgotten to change tanks - easy fix. Cause check things like that before the engine stops, rather than after! Do cause checks throughout your flying as a part of the aforementioned "checking that all systems are operating normally". If the engine has stopped due to something like an oil failure (pressure/pump/quantity, you're gliding. Similarly with total fuel exhaustion, or total ignition failure. Very few failures can be fixed right after they have occurred. Carb heat/alternate air would be one of the few things you could do after the fact. That said, one trick I once used during an engine failure at night was the use of the primer. I had had ice crystals in the fuel (before I learned to use alcohol), and the fuel flow was interrupted. As I glided down in darkness from 6000 fee, I ran (sort of) the engine by pumping the primer, and that ran it enough, that between carb heat, and the rapidly changing power settings, the obstruction cleared, and I was able to continue. The benefits of cruising at higher altitudes!

But, EFATO, decide to land ahead with no delay. Maybe you have time for a quick cause check, but probably not, and don't surrender any opportunity to keep flying the plane to cause check.

Practice forced landings to the surface, and to touchdown. Pilots get too little opportunity to practice being in the flare, and making the best of a less than ideal approach, a practice forced landing is a good opportunity - don't pass it up! Sure, the instructor once a year will pull the power back on you during a check ride, and you'll find a perfect field off near the horizon select some key points, and spend a lot of time head in, reviewing systems. At 150 AGL you'll get the word to go around. What a wasted opportunity! Land the plane!

Now, of course this means that practicing to a suitable runway would be a good idea - do that! Sometimes the airport is quiet, ask the tower if you can fly some practice forced approaches, with no circuit dimension restrictions - they might say yes. In July I did this twice while mentoring a fellow pilot. At both Osijek, Croatia, and Bergen Norway, the airport was quiet when we arrived. May we do some PFA's please? Yes. My we fly a non standard circuit please? Yes. I had my charge fly some PFA's from a very tight downwind, about over the tower, to a mid runway touchdown. After about ten of these, he was catching on well. It required a full side slip through 180 degrees of heading, with extending flaps on the way down to dump the altitude, but with a bit of practice, he was within a hundred feet or so of the aim point selected during the base element of the approach. Later, with that skill, we flew another dozen or so onto the ocean in a fjord (it was an amphibian).

I have only once in recent memory flown a PFA which was a planned overshoot, and that was in the Cub, as it was a farmer's field, which I did not know well, and the exercise was to position the aircraft to the flare in between some obstructions, so the landing was not the focus. Otherwise, If I state it's a PFA to my charge, it'll be to the surface.

The decision in a light single should be to put it down, unless you have thousands of feet of altitude to play with. There is too much risk of turning a "makeable" forced landing into a crash, because fiddling around distracted you away from simply flying well. But all the practicing you're going to do will show you how much of your attention can be diverted from flying during a glide to a landing - not as much as you thought!

[3wheels]

Sorry to her about your friends Step.

Still I read on here people advocating turn backs.

And watching a Cirrus instructor frequently teaching them just makes my hair stand on end, especially when the "student" gets it wrong as happens frequently.

[Jonzarno]

And watching a Cirrus instructor frequently teaching them just makes my hair stand on end

As a Cirrus pilot myself, it would make my hair stand on end as well. Is this instructor an official CSIP (Cirrus Standardised Instructor Program) instructor? Standard EFATO practice in a Cirrus is:

Below 500 feet AGL: land as near straight ahead as possible
Between 500 and 2000: deploy CAPS immediately
Above 2000: consider CAPS and deploy if a safe landing is not assured

[TimGriff6]

Thanks for that ST. Just to clarify, I have no problem if it goes quiet - the only way is down. The problem would be if it goes a bit (or a lot) lumpy. Taking the original post as an example, if I am climbing away but speed is decaying, climb rate is reducing or reversing slightly and the engine is still running, perhaps roughly, what would I do? I'd like to think that I would do what I was taught - pick the landing spot and trim etc to go down towards it before dealing with the problem. However, and from my experience, if I can keep the aircraft roughly level and above the stall, that becomes more of a difficult decision to make and I think that there is a natural temptation to keep going as long as you can. One to practice in your head perhaps and have some sort of QR flow chart in there to fall back on?

[Centaurus]

There are some excellent GA flight training devices around and many flying schools have one for instrument flying practice and generally these have quite realistic visuals. It is safer to practice engine failures on take off using one of these devices. Do it from various altitudes. No risks, no insurance problems and keeps you current against the inevitable dangers associated with practicing engine failures and practice forced landings in the real aircraft.

I think the buzz word is called "Risk Mitigation."

[Pace]

The only relevant bit of a forced landing is the landing
If it's an engine failure at 2000 feet or 200 feet makes little difference
Too much is made of selecting a landing field from a 2000 foot cut
The main things are to keep flying don't fixate on one course of action and be prepared to change if things are not looking good
The field left or right which is too short with a fence and crosswind is better than landing short into trees or buildings on the path to your so carefully selected field at 2000 feet which may look very different when your down at 200

[3wheels]

And watching a Cirrus instructor frequently teaching them just makes my hair stand on end
As a Cirrus pilot myself, it would make my hair stand on end as well. Is this instructor an official CSIP (Cirrus Standardised Instructor Program) instructor? Standard EFATO practice in a Cirrus is:

I cannot see it on his website....but may have missed it.

Where are they published?

[foxmoth]

And watching a Cirrus instructor frequently teaching them just makes my hair stand on end, especially when the "student" gets it wrong as happens frequently

Actually part of the point of training this is to show how hard it is and so a very much last resort manouvre

[rjtjrt]

Post 8

........The problem would be if it goes a bit (or a lot) lumpy. Taking the original post as an example, if I am climbing away but speed is decaying, climb rate is reducing or reversing slightly and the engine is still running, perhaps roughly, what would I do? I'd like to think that I would do what I was taught - pick the landing spot and trim etc to go down towards it before dealing with the problem. However, and from my experience, if I can keep the aircraft roughly level and above the stall, that becomes more of a difficult decision to make and I think that there is a natural temptation to keep going as long as you can. One to practice in your head perhaps and have some sort of QR flow chart in there to fall back on?

That is the one that really concerns me. It seems to be the scenario that is most lethal.
The only thing I can see as a solution is to recognise it is "sucker trap", especially on take off, and be very cautious about getting sucked in and trying to fly around the circuit to land.

[Pilot DAR]

One of the things I have been taught is that once you believe you should perform a power off forced landing, it is best to commit to that, and don't change a decent plan. It's difficult to think that you are about to risk an off airport landing in a "good" plane, but committing to that may save your life. It has happened that a Pilot has been gliding down to a reasonable prospect of a landing, to have the engine momentarily spark to life. They have changed their plan to attempt a continued flight. Then the engine quits for good, and their possible landing is no longer possible, and there is no new plan. Some instructors teach that once you have decided to glide down, pull the mixture, to be sure it stays quit, and you continue to the planned landing.

[mary meagher]

EFATO? best training for this event.....

Book a day's training at a gliding club with a WINCH launching system.
And ask for launch failure training.

This is the closest you can get to EFATO, and excellent practice.

In a winch launch, the glider pilot rotates carefully into the full climb, at no point being unhappy were the cable to break exactly then. A low cable break is rather approximate to an engine failure after takeoff...the only correct response is

1. LOWER THE NOSE

2. LAND STRAIGHT AHEAD

no brainer.

A high cable break,

1. LOWER THE NOSE.

2. DO NOT TURN UNTIL CORRECT AIRSPEED IS INDICATED ON THE ASI.

3. JOIN THE CIRCUIT, OR IF YOU CONTACT A THERMAL, SOAR AWAY!

but a medium height cable break...and this does depend on wind strength and direction....

1. LOWER THE NOSE! ! ! ! !

2. TURN AWAY FROM THE WIND DIRECTION (this must have been decided before takeoff) and you will find yourself nicely set up for a normal circuit and approach....possibly briefer than normal . This works fine for gliders, but power -- probably wouldn't work because your engine dead glide ratio is probably about 12 to one. So land ahead.

But in a glider, it's more like 30 to one, so time enough for a normal circuit.

All the same, the experience is valuable, and no glider pilot gets worried when on a check ride in a power plane the instructor cuts the power low down and asks what are you going to do now? easy!

1. LOWER THE NOSE

2. LAND AHEAD

if you are over 2,000 feet already, you may have enough energy at 12 to one to land back (consider a downwind landing if the wind is light) and any higher than that, you have time to monkey around with the sputtering donkey and do your radio distress calls....which wouldn't help in a real emergency anyway.

As to chosing a field, forget worrying about that. As I mentioned on the sticky, the field choses you; if you control the aircraft you will walk away...aircraft have landed on top of houses, hangars, trees, hedges. The plane now belongs to the insurance company, so let them worry about it.
You will not be injured if you have arrived under control!

Don't know about landing on roads...depends on the traffic....

[The Ancient Geek]

Another tip - if you have a VP prop pull the blue knob all the way out to extend the glide and then use it as a nice controllable airbrake as you approach your chosen landing spot.

[VP-F__]

I am lucky enough to fly from a very quiet airfield and usually have no other traffic to deal with which can provide a degree of freedom. Bearing in mind the well founded advice to not turn back in the event of an engine failure I experimented a little.

The important thing to remember here is that it was a simulated failure, with just myself onboard and I knew what I was planning to do......very different to an unplanned real emergency when the mind does not necessarily work in the way that you might wish.

The runway is 900m and I had a 20kt wind at 30° off the runway heading giving a 10kt crosswind from the left. I was in my own standard Cessna 172. I carried out a normal takeoff and climbed straight ahead to 700ft before closing the throttle. I immediately lowered the nose to maintained 65kts and turned left with a 30° bank onto the runway recipricol and allowed the wind to push me across the center line and when just short of being abeam the numbers I turned right and landed. I landed on the numbers.....had I turned earlier I could have landed deeper.

This obviously has to be flown accurately, using too much bank or getting too slow will easily see precious height vanish but it was an interesting exercise to try. I have since tried it in different winds and seen two other pilots (one a commercial high skilled light twin stol pilot, the other a 400 hour ppl with next to no stol experience) who both managed it.

As with any manouver practice makes perfect and this was an interesting exercise in seeing what was possible.

[n5296s]

Oh no, not the impossible turn topic. You'll be lucky to survive this (the topic, not the turn). I posted something about trying it a couple of years ago and was lucky to escape with my life (again, the post, not the flying).

Theory says a 45 degree bank is optimal. I did it successfully down to 500 AGL using a 45 degree bank but flying about 10 knots faster than optimum (which is JUST above the accelerated stall speed).

Subsequently I tried it at altitude flying at the optimal speed and concluded that it SHOULD be possible from 400 feet as long as you keep the speed and bank angle under tight control. But that doesn't mean I'm prepared to try it for real.

One interesting thing I found is that the altitude loss in the 270 degree turn at stall+10 is the SAME as at stall-5. At the latter speed the aircraft is REALLY telling you how unhappy it is, but nothing bad happens (in my TR182 - I can't speak for any other type or even aircraft). In other words if you do try to fly it optimally you won't just crash and burn because you get a couple of knots slow. Assuming you recognise the stall symptoms of course.

Not recommending anyone go fly this thing - common sense says that if you haven't practised it, land straight ahead. And even if you have unless the only thing you can find straight ahead (or close to it) is schools, kitten farms etc.

[foxmoth]

climbed straight ahead to 700ft

Why? At most airfields you would be turning at 500' anyway.

[9 lives]

Oh no, not the impossible turn topic. You'll be lucky to survive this (the topic, not the turn)

It's not about how you handle the emergency, it's about practicing for it, and if it happens, flying what you practiced. If your flight profile enables a turn back, and you're practiced at when you can enter, and make around and back safely, then that is what you've practiced - good for you! There are certainly times when the turn back is my emergency plan, I'll circle up after takeoff from a lake, plotting the point at which I could make it back if I had to, as there is just no where else good to go. It' all about the practice!