SEP EFATO at night
 

Greetings.

Could someone please give me the best procedural advice in the event of an EFATO in a SEP at night ? I am not a pilot, but am curious to know the general level of opinion.

Thank you.

If you know the airfield well, you should know where the smooth bits are to land straight-ahead +/- 30 degrees

Otherwise, aim for the dark bits.

Landing light may be helpful, or just serve to show you what you are going to hit (in which case it may be considered optional).

Of course there are the old, not bold, pilots who would not take off at all.

(removes tongue from cheek).

FBW

Make peace with your maker cause your going to be meeting them soon.

I am in the not at all camp in a SEP.

To add to F-b-W's comment: Common procedural advice that you'll hear is to switch on the landing light at 200 ft.

If you don't like what you see, switch it off again.

It literally is 'aim for the dark bits.' As FBW says you should know your local airfield well enough to know where the maybe good bits are, or the bits that are less worse than the other bits. Other than that it's hope and see the funny side. I only keep mine current for 'just in case' scenarios, I don't go lurching off at night for fun.

if you can see something to land on / aim at, trim for best glide speed and land on it.
if you can't, trim for slowest descent rate and pray?

aviate navigate procrastinate communicate

aviate
first immediate action is to get glide speed to avoid a stall.
second immediate action is to check the fuel is switched on.
try a restart.

navigate
if you have enough time aim for a landable area

procrastinate
quell the panic, gather the thoughts keep aviating and navigating

communicate
whack out a mayday

realise that some days you're fcuked.

try it in a glider. That realy concentrates the mind.

But don't waste your time trying a restart!:ok:

CG

gliding at night?

Sorry but you have to have nuts of steel for that.

Go for minimum sink speed (less than best glide).

Edited for accuracy.

Pilots are not dying during the takeoff phase from EFATO's they typically kill themselves by hitting something on the departure path or just flying back into the ground.

The "black hole" effect is very real and there can be a powerful illusion that the nose is rising right after takeoff. This causes the pilot to unconsciously pitch down and results in the plane stop climbing or even descending. This effect is particularly noticeable if there are no lighted area's on your departure path. It is vital that you cross check your AI to ensure you are maintaining the proper pitch attitude.

As. for the EFATO scenario, we'll 80 % of all engine failures are caused by the pilot so don't be one of them !

If the engine fails the key is to keep control of the aircraft. Stats show that 93 % of all crashes had no fatalities if the aircraft was approximately wings level and in a level or nose up pitch attitude when it impacted the ground from what ever cause. The killer crashed are hits in a steep nose down and/or banked attitude.

Turn on your landing light when you get to 1000ft, if you dont like what you see then switch it back off again ;)

mad-jock wrote: It always amused me how many of my RAF colleagues didn't like night flying in the Bulldog even on cloudless nights with a full moon.

Yet they all seemed happy to fly an instrument approach to 200' DH in thick cloud.

Engine fails at 3nm on an instrument approach - what are your options?

Don't like the risk? Perhaps you should consider a 2-dimensional career.

That's a good point Beagle, moonlight can be astonishingly bright, and often more than adequate to assess EFATO options.

So, apart from bright moonlit nights... ;)

FBW

Actually reading a thread these days is sooo passé. :E

IF landing lights were steong enough to illuminate the ground from 1,000ft an engine failure at night would not be any problem at all.

Yes but if the fan fails at 300' at least when you break cloud you can see where you are going to die. Psychological thing you see.

I would second the moonlit night scenario, not so bad then.

No thanks I am more than happy with two engines at night and down to mins both cloudbase and RVR.

I have absolutely zero requirement to fly single engine at night unless of course I have an engine failure and have to get on the ground with one.

Also the school I taught at the year before I started had an engine failure at night and the student died by drowning, the instructor managed to swim for it.