On Tuesday, August 6, 2019 at 2:28:30 PM UTC-7, kinsell wrote:

Tried to start his electric low over a high-density urban area, got
nothing but grinding sounds. Too low even to fire the ballistic chute.

Better check your facts on that. As I understand it, it was absolutely not a case of FES not starting. Rather, he'd been running the FES motor for some time before it quit, likely because he ran out of juice.

Apparently the gauge said there was 20% capacity remaining. We all know how reliable aircraft fuel capacity gauges are...


But, yeah, beyond that the whole thing reflects very poorly on the pilot's planning and execution.

Startup interval is an important metric because it determines how soon you know which contingencies remain available. If it takes half a minute to deploy the engine and see if it's going to produce power, and you're coming down at 1000 fpm, your options are dwindling about as rapidly as your pulse rate is excalating. When you can flick one switch and twist a knob and know within a couple seconds that you can drive away from the hole you dug, it's a pretty strong motivator.


--Bob K.