Pick a field
 

Just re validating my PPL and looking at PFLs. No problems with the approach but still not 100% clear on what constitutes a good field in terms of surface and what that looks like from 2000'. Idea is to avoid the ploughed ones but what does that look like from upstairs? Need to get this right as I'm looking at LAA home builts and those engines do fail from time to time...

Certified engines are also known to fail.

On my PPL I was taught:

- Slope. If you can see a slope at all from 2,000 it will be steep when you get to low level, so you need to be landing upwards;

- Surface. Ideally not ploughed, also ideally not with long crops which can flip the aircraft on landing. If you have to land on a ploughed field, land along the furrows rather than across them. Very green/yellow fields probably have long crops, whereas 'brown' fields are probably earth or stubble, so a better bet. Most fields will not have long crops in the autumn/winter;

- Size/shape. The bigger the better obviously and preferably wide so that you have a maximum of approach angles;

- Smoke. Look for smoke to determine wind direction at low level and try to land into wind;

- Safety. Look out for obstructions. Most dangerous are obviously wires, but also farm machinary, hay bales, parked tractors etc;

Also make sure you choose one as close as possible to your position as it's easier to lose height on approach than it is to extend the glide.

Finally, I was taught that you should be regularly looking for suitable fields near your track during the cruise as part of a FREDA check, imagining "where would I go if the engine were to quit now".

Crops
 

This might help. It was created for glider pilots but info on crops is relevant to everyone.
Field Crops - Home Page

One you can reach whilst landing into wind.

Snapper beat me to it- very useful website.

With slopes, look for water (namely rivers) near fields, this will indicate potentially sloping ground (towards the water).

Maybe it's my gliding background, but I'm always looking at landable fields, not just at FREDA checks. As I progress down track I will always have a field or area of fields selected.

Yep quite right you should do it as often as possible. Adding it into the FREDA just ensures you're definitely doing it every 5 mins or so, in case it has slipped your mind.

The key thing is that you can make it. A well flown approach into a poor field is far better than a poor approach into a good field. The other point is to land into wind, well worth trying some tailwind landings back at the airfield to see just how hard they are!

The main things which seem to hurt people are large standing crop, where the undercarriage hits it and you flip upside down. Similar story with landing against a plow furrow.

The other thing is wires going across the field, but these can be difficult to see from 2000'+ and the smaller ones can only come into view at a few hundred feet. If you are carrying out a well flown approach to a field well within range, you should have enough height and control to then manoeuvre away from any cables, either over them or under them, or overshoot to the next field. If you were pushing your luck with the field to begin with, chances are you will hit the cables.

Beyond that, you'd be surprised at just how little room you need if you stall it in and brake hard. I'd rather be hitting the fence/wall at the far end at 10-20Kts than hitting the fence/wall at the start of the field at 70kts.

thats a great site Snapper thanks

RTN11 makes some good points especially about it being better to pick a bad field with a good controlled approach than a good field with a bad approach.
The main point to consider is to keep the aircraft flying under control.
Very few are killed or seriously injured where the aircraft is flown to the ground under control.
They are killed by stall/spin accidents.
Even taking out a hedge is unlikely to kill you while a ploughed field may remove the nose you will probably walk away.
Have one chosen landing area but keep others 45 degrees left or right as options if your chosen area is not working out or has some unseen drawback be prepared to smartly take an option.
Above all do not stretch the glide and keep the aircraft flying!

Pace

Agree with the above. And for those looking at that glider site, remember that glider pilots generally have more experience, but above all far more time to select a suitable field (minutes vs. seconds) and a far better glide performance to reach a good field.

In a SEP your time and options are very, very limited. Don't waste time trying to find the best field. Instead, make a good, controlled approach into the nearest field that seems good enough.

Do you drive around the country side - better still do you walk?

If you do make a point of asking yourself - "would I land in that field". Ask the question of yourself throughout the year. Chances are lots of those fields will be around your flying cabbage patch. So next time you fly out of your local airport relate what you have seen to what you now see from the aircraft.

You will surprise yourself how quickly your field selection from the air relates to your findings on the ground.

Next, make a point of flying into some of the more challenging strips. Its good fun. More to the point it will improve your landings no end and you will be surprised how much more comfortable you are landing on a slope (and I mean a proper slope), between trees or other challenges that might present - the first few times you will find it really disconcerting, so perhaps take along a seasoned veteran of farm strip flying. I can think of some perfectly delightful farm strips that scare the hell out of even seasoned flyers the first few times - we are really quite cosseted with respect to the usual "airports" most of us operate from. The fact that they are "scary" make it all the more likely the pilot will loose control during the approach. As I think Pace has already said that's what causes severe accidents, but telling pilots not to loose control is all very well, far better to "know" you can land on an up slope between trees and crops because you have done it before.

Finally, as often as you can, when you land decide where you will touch down and make a point of accepting nothing less. Aim to be precise. Don't allow yourself to float that extra 100 feet. As you get better do the same with glide approaches. You will be amazed how many pilots cant land in a 50 foot box with full control of the throttle never mind without. Enter a few competitions - they are great fun and will improve the accuracy of your landings no end.

Should the worst ever happen you will be really surprised what a difference these three suggestions might make.

Your chances of a good forced land will be immeasurably improved by good field selection, accurate control of the approach and potentially just as important, a precise touch down. All of a sudden you can comfortably get into really tight fields feeling confident you will keep control all the way down.

(Of course you could pull the handle and forget all about this :bored:)

(Edited to add: and if you want some real fun book a week (or day) flying a float plane. You will find it is another way of improving your handling and landing selection significantly - but perhaps surprisingly. Why? Well try it in Scotland. You will be flying in very close proximity to the terrain - tight turns into lochs, keeping the aircraft under control, to setup a stable approach, gaining an appreciation of the tell tale signs as to what the wind is doing - there are no wind socks, no helpful controllers to tell you, and surprisingly the wind on one loch can be 180 degrees different from another loch one valley away. Its good fun as well.

In just the same way for something different you will learn so much from flying a glider or with a glider pilot. Doing it every day all day is the way to improve your skills and once learned, whilst its always good to say in practice, it is also a bit like riding a bike)

Fuji

When I get around to taking some hours on the Cirrus even I have been converted to using the handle in Certain engine out situations :ok:

Pace

beginning of a slippery slope !!:E

It is important to land into wind. If you land with a 10kt tailwind you will have almost twice the energy to dissipate when compared to landing with a 10kt headwind. This energy has to be used up, either in a much longer landing roll or in some other undesirable way. A small field into wind will probably be a better bet than a larger field downwind.

Dobbin

Agreed the ideal is a headwind and a good brisk headwind but if things are not working out for your landing into that headwind landing spot and you realize you will take out the line of trees in front do not be put off taking a crosswind into better profile fields left or right of you.
The biggest killer is fixation on one spot pulling back to make it and stalling in!

Pace

For gliding I was taught size, shape, slope, surface, stock, obStructions. Maybe there was a 7th S!

Fences across fields often show themselves in a subtle colour change, posts for phone cables or a single power cable by a little circle round the base. Don't fly between trees on the approach if at all possible as the trees can hide posts carrying cables.

If the field is big enough (think East Anglia) you can get away with a downwind landing, and top choice in the glider world for landing is a stubble field. The farmer doesn't take a very expensive combing through a field with a dodgy surface.

Permanant pasture isn't good as it's often rough, but if it's all you can find...

(edit) I am a map freak so I always have a good look at the map (OS, not just the 1/2 mil) and Google Earth before I (try to) go anywhere new, to get a feel for where it might be hard to find a field and where it might be easier. However in a glider I have a good idea I'm going to need a field for a long time in advance.

Hi, if you look at your chances of finding a suitable field from an agricultural standpoint, you will realise that it is the time of year which is a major factor in finding a good field....

Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, most fields will be waterlogged, unless frozen.
March, Apr, May; Firm ground and short crops in almost every field.
June, July, Aug; Lots of growth = tall crops. Only harvested grass fields or grazed pasture land available ('Hey you, watch my cows!')
Sept, Oct; Most fields now harvested, but some now ploughed up again.

If size really matters, some counties have some very small, stone walled fields (Yorkshire, Scotland etc.) Whereas Linolnshire and that flat Southern area has some very large 60+ acre flat fields.

Surroundings.

Last on the list, but when it comes down to a choice of field, where are you going to go after you land. Golf clubs are ideal, as there's usually a bar :ok:

Real forced landing
 

The clue is in the word 'forced'.
Time will be against you,so you have to keep whatever 'system' you choose SIMPLE,and easy to recall.
Fly the machine
Find a spot (that you can reach)
Fly the machine
Be decisive and once you make the decision give it your best shot,rather than be swayed by doubt.
Fly the machine.
Better to make a poor decision,and execute it well than delay and have no choice.
Fly the machine.
Plant it on the desired spot, not to fast, and under full control.

Get some 'sidslipping' practice, it can be a real lifesaver and offers an even better view of whats ahead.Does not have to be full bloodied sideways,but even a gentle 'slip' under full control makes for a very controlled engineless approach.

If you think you may not clear an obstuction and can not turn to avoid DO NOT try to ease the nose up early to get over. Keep your best speed UP and aim just below its top and ease over at the appropriate time.

During 'en-route' stage of any flight keep up to date on the local 'WIND DIRECTION',.Flying downwind or x-wind will give more distance from a given height,and knowing the direction will be one less 'box to tick'

A few glider flights is time well spent.

Jot down FLDIV on your flightplanning form just to remind you it can happen rather than it will.
Being 'AWARE' cuts down the delay in taking action and gives you an edge.

Dont bore the other club members in the bar with tales of how many fields you flew over and could have landed in.

I am currently training for my night rating, any advice on forced landings at night?

The only advice I was given - turn the landing light on, if you don't like what you see, turn it off :}

Most night flying is around the local cabbage patch. I am therefore addressing the reality that very few GA pilots go any distance in SEPs at night.

Keep you eyes open during the day. Build up an awareness of the local cabbage patch. It will give you an idea where to go at night - and perhaps more importantly where not to go.

Its about as good as it gets.

Fly a Cirrus :) One occasion when I would pull the chute in the event of an engine failure :ok:

Pace

When teaching the forced approach I spend hardly anytime on field selection criteria. Close, Open (no obstacles on the approach) and Flat in that order are the only criteria care about.

My 02 cents

1) 80% of all engine failures are directly caused by the actions or inactions of the pilot. Flying schools should stop concentrating on teaching complicated pneumonics for selecting the "right field" and obsessing about the relative differences in the suitability of crop types or farm animal species, and spend more time in educating pilots on how not to cause the engine to fail and if it does, get it going again

2) A uniform 9 Gee deceleration from 60 kts to 0 kts requires about 25 feet. Obviously it would be hard to get a perfectly even deacceleration of that magnitude but the take away is you don't need a lot of room to stop.

3) The instant the engine stops the insurance company just bought the airplane. The only criteria for success in a forced landing is no passenger injuries. What the airplane looks like when it comes to a stop is utterly irrelevant, see point 2 above.

4) Further to point 3 the accident statistics clearly show that the key to survival is having the aircraft hit the ground in as close to a wings level, level flight attitude as possible with a short ground run. The "killer" accidents are the ones where the aircraft hits the ground steeply banked/nose down not under control or hits a solid object at flying speed. Keeping the aircraft under control is the most important thing a pilot can do if the engine fails.

5) if you are cruising along sitting behind a certified Continental or Lycoming engine which had its fuel drained of contaminates, had a normal run up, is supplied with sufficient fuel from a properly selected tank, and you are regularly checking it's engine gauges and checking for carb ice......the chance it will suddenly and without warning, fail is basically zero.

6) The only truly safe way to deal with a night engine failure is to always be in gliding distance of a lighted airport.

In gliders, you usually have several minutes to pick out a field. A number of times I have spent a good part of an hour or more hanging by my fingernails near a chosen field until I either got away or had to use it.

Wave sites can be different and once on my way back in serious sink in an L-33 low performance glider (3rd flight in type), I was checking out various crops very shortly before finding that the best field was where I needed to land. That day the towplane managed two more miles than I did from release:\

In power, you are coming down at 800'/min; so don't look too far if flying a couple thousand feet up. Frankly if the weather is keeping me that low, I start playing hopscotch from one decent looking field to the next and will go off track to keep good fields within reach.

As BPF has wisely noted a successful forced landing is one where you and the passengers walk away.

Make a GOOD approach to the field that you are absolutely sure you can make halfway down. A touchdown well into the field will do a lot to avoid wires.

If you see a power line, i.e. poles, at the boundary, aim for well above a pole and plan to add flaps and/or sideslip once over.

Assume there is a pole line around the field boundaries and along any roads or driveways -- and then look for any pole lines running across the field as there was in my first outlanding.

My outlanding checklist is SSSLOW

Surface
Slope
Stock
Length
Obstacles
Wind

A deeper problem is that so many pilots are enamored of a 2-mile final on a glideslope similar to an ILS. Get used to power off approaches so you are familiar with where you will contact terra firma.

BPF

Excellent points but cannot agree with the above statement! I had an engine failure in an almost new Seneca Five! The engine went after takeoff at grosse weight in the climb out at 200 feet.
Very bad vibration and yaw but as the engine was still producing a small amount of power and I instinctively knew pulling it would mean a certain descent I kept the thing going one hand ready on the prop lever!
I struggled to 800 feet agl by which time the vibrations were so bad I had no further choice but to feather and shut down the unit,
A circuit at 800 feet and successful landing.
One of the PAX was a keen movie maker and filmed the whole takeoff engine power clearly visible!
Continental declared it must be over boost on takeoff as three rocker shafts had sheared clean off!
The film proved otherwise! The engine was removed for examination and an admittance from continental that all the rocker shafts had been mistakenly over torqued at manufacture! A complete new unit arrived on warranty within 2 weeks.
While I take your point on mismanagement engines do fail unilaterally especially pistons and that shows in stats comparing pistons to turbines which are far more reliable.

Pace

There's another S which works for glider pilots. If the farmer has been spreading "natural" fertiliser on the field, its probably at least got a firm surface and is fairly smooth!

Gliders can be washed but the retrieve crew will take the p***:ok:

Thats probably the most important thing said on the subject... and keeping that at the centre of everything you do will be the thing that saves your life one day.

On the night navigation part of my NR I asked my instructor what we would do if the engine quit and he replied "aim for a motorway and land in the direction of the traffic".

Not sure I agree with that advice. If it's lit (which by definition it must be) surely you're going to be hitting streetlamps, quite apart from the risk of hitting/being hit by a car or truck.

I should have thought the best bet would be maintaining a controlled descent and then using the landing light at low level to either land in a field or, if over woodland, bellyflop into the treetops at just above stall speed.

For the circuits knowing where the open ground is just after the runway end, and therefore where to aim if it all goes quiet is my strategy. I'm also being disciplined to keep a tight circuit so I can be sure of reaching the runway from a glide.

I will not be doing ANY night flying in an SEP if I can avoid it, once the NR is completed. Way too stressful despite the still air and great views!

Pass Your Message.

Forced landing at night I was taught turn into wind, slow down gradually putting down full flap and trim all the way back. Aim for a dark bit and keep wings level.

It works on most of the common Cessnas and Pipers by giving the best balance between rate of descent and low forward speed.

D.O.

At my initial medial the AME responded to my questions about night flying by stopping what he was doing and stating; 'If you intend flying a single engine aircraft at night I may have to consider you mentally unfit to hold a PPL'!

BB

airport to airport
 

while england may not have that many GA or other airports, the idea of night flying here has encouraged altering a straight line course a little bit to more closely keep lighted airports within gliding range from cruise altitude.

so zig zag a tiny bit and overfly airports and have a better chance of having somewhere pleaseant to land.

any area, except airports, at night that is illuminated is likely well populated, like HOUSES where innocents are...

landing on a ''motorway'' or freeway as we might say is a good idea if you are over mountainous terrain...for example flying from san francisco to reno...huge mountains...but alter your course and follow interstate freeway 80 and you have a chance...and much easier to be found after a crash than in wilderness areas.

no, nightflying emergency landings are tough...throw in mountains or oceans or lakes and its tougher...so alter your course and you increase your chances of an option.

Rather a gross generalisation. There are a lot of large flat fields in some parts of Scotland and Yorkshire, and plenty of places (Cotswolds, Chilterns for example) in England where finding a decent field is almost impossible. The only way to be sure there will be large fields is to plan the flight that way, with the help of OS maps and Google Earth.

Smooth it certainly is.

My first (and I still hope last) experience of landing in such a field was that "muck" has incredibly low friction and I kept going right across the field until my aircraft (thankfully a pusher) stopped in a 4ft high pile of the stuff at the far end.

I flew out of the field, but the rest of the day was spent washing the aircraft!

P

I was given the same advice as in post #31 above when flying night SEP. Now I am older (I got my PPL in 1978) I know better and avoid flying at night although the experience is unforgettable.

My thinking is that if flying at night now in a SEP I'd want to wear a parachute......too many dark empty fields have ditches and dry stone walls for my liking!

MB

Sevenstrokeroll

The rate that our beloved airfields are turned into housing estates (Bye Bye Bristol Filton ) And the fact that the majority of other airports are closed in the dark hours in the UK means you would be hard pushed to jump from airport to airport.
Even our Dads Army of Airforce bases are closed for large portions of time and not open at night!

Unless of course you fancy force landing at Heathrow :ok:

There maybe limited areas in the USA where that would be possible

Pace

we have lots of airports, many with pilot controlled lighting for night use...california has about 500 alone!

following roads (vfr) usually keeps you near cities/towns and many towns have little airports.

then the fields of the great plains are simply great for planes.

Print these pages off and take them with you every time you fly.

Regards.

Reckless LAA type pilot.

Or should that be Wreckless?

I suggest you re read my post. I indicated that IMO the chances of a sudden failure (not partial failure) but failure which in this context means no power, in cruise where there is no prior warning and/or the pilot actions/inactions caused the failure is basically zero.

In other words the scenario that all flight schools use as the start of the forced approach exercise which involves a sudden and complete loss of power with no warning is in fact the least likely engine failure scenario according to any review of accident reports.

In your example you did not have an engine failure you had a partial engine failure followed by a shut down by you at the moment of your choice. If you had being flying a single engine aircraft I would assume you would have used the remaining power to reduce your rate of descent and to assist you in manoevering the aircraft towards the most open area running the engine to destruction if necessary.

The bottom line is that the type of failure you had is very rare yet almost all of the training in flight school forced approach training situates that most unlikely event as the reason you will need to carry out the forced approach manoever.

Why are we spending so much time practicing something that almost never happens while devoting so little time to educating new pilots on avoiding the pilot caused engine failures that are responsible for 80 % of the engine stoppages ?

There was a very interesting article in the accident report section of Pilot magazine a few months ago. It involved a pilot flying a UK Pa 28 which suffered a total loss of power. He executed a good forced landing in difficult circumstances which result in no injuries, albeit with extensive damage to the aircraft. He was quoted as saying that he regularly practiced forced approach and credited that practice for the successful outcome of his emergency.

Good news story right ? Well not really as the reason the engine failed was because it was a December day with high humidity with an OAT of + 5 C and he failed to properly anticipate the need for carb heat and then failed to appreciate the signs of developing carb ice and let the ice build to such an extent the engine failed. It would seem to me that instead of spending all his time practicing force landings, if he spent a little of that time learning about the cause and prevention of carb ice there would be one less wrecked Pa 28 in England today........