Emergency and Discipline

If you are faced with a full blown emergency such as an engine
failure, what are you going to do?
Open ended question to generate some more conversation and
discussions. In my more than 50 years of aviation, I've had at least
18 actual emergencies and survived them all. Only one resulted in
physical injury and that was more than 40 years ago.
It is disconcerting to read the modern aircraft manuals (civilian) and
see most of it relates to shutting down the engine/s and heading for a
landing area rather than dealing with the emergency and keeping the
aircraft flying if possible.
Anyone want to hazard a guess at the major number of engine failure
causes?
Ol S&B

Ol Shy & Bashful wrote:
If you are faced with a full blown emergency such as an engine
failure, what are you going to do?
Open ended question to generate some more conversation and
discussions. In my more than 50 years of aviation, I've had at least
18 actual emergencies and survived them all. Only one resulted in
physical injury and that was more than 40 years ago.
It is disconcerting to read the modern aircraft manuals (civilian) and
see most of it relates to shutting down the engine/s and heading for a
landing area rather than dealing with the emergency and keeping the
aircraft flying if possible.
Anyone want to hazard a guess at the major number of engine failure
causes?

Here's what my instructor and I have been practicing..

If low, establish glide, secure engine, pick a spot
and land, flaps 40 and full stall if possible.

If high, establish glide, check fuel valve, try
restarts, throttle open, choke open, choke closed,
mag 1, mag 2, anything else you can think of...

If no luck, secure engine, look for field within gliding
distance. If developed airfield, call for priority and
land. If off-field, call 121.5, pick spot and stick
to it and land, flaps 40 and full stall. If terrain
is hostile, decrease airspeed, point plane at best
place and pull chute.

Your input is always appreciated.

On Mar 1, 6:33*am, "Ol Shy & Bashful" wrote:
If you are faced with a full blown emergency such as an engine
failure, what are you *going to do?

Aviate, navigate communicate? I'd guess the number one cause was the
pilot not doing something like make sure of adequate fuel.

Cheers

On Mar 1, 7:24*am, Jim Stewart wrote:
Ol Shy & Bashful wrote:

If you are faced with a full blown emergency such as an engine
failure, what are you *going to do?
Open ended question to generate some more conversation and
discussions. In my more than 50 years of aviation, I've had at least
18 actual emergencies and survived them all. Only one resulted in
physical injury and that was more than 40 years ago.
It is disconcerting to read the modern aircraft manuals (civilian) and
see most of it relates to shutting down the engine/s and heading for a
landing area rather than dealing with the emergency and keeping the
aircraft flying if possible.
Anyone want to hazard a guess at the major number of engine failure
causes?

Here's what my instructor and I have been practicing..

If low, establish glide, secure engine, pick a spot
and land, flaps 40 and full stall if possible.

If high, establish glide, check fuel valve, try
restarts, throttle open, choke open, choke closed,
mag 1, mag 2, anything else you can think of...

If no luck, secure engine, look for field within gliding
distance. *If developed airfield, call for priority and
land. *If off-field, call 121.5, pick spot and stick
to it and land, flaps 40 and full stall. *If terrain
is hostile, decrease airspeed, point plane at best
place and pull chute.


I'd say, after getting the glide started, FMOST checks, recheck trim
for best glide, establish landing area, plan approach, squark 7700,
MAYDAY on working frequency or 121.5, passenger brief, EPIRB, secure
engine, masters off after no further use for electrical power. Land
the plane (? chute) and seek out a telephone -but if in the
wilderness, prepare for survival and if the plane survived, check the
EPIRB is transmitting. If you see/hear a plane try the VHF. Look after
the passengers. Start a fire (sufficiently away from the plane). I've
probably forgotten something...

Cheers

If terrain were hostile, you might want to consider location a bit
before you pull that chute handle by the way.

Ol Shy & Bashful wrote:

Anyone want to hazard a guess at the major number of engine failure
causes?
Ol S&B

I would say fuel starvation or fuel mismanagement would be the #1.

But given that a lapse of following procedures and/or FAA regulations
was the precipitating factor, the next thing in line is bad decision
making and problem resolution skills. Too often an emergency that
is survivable becomes a fatal accident because the pilot was not
prepared in skill set or mindset to deal with it.

But this is why we train and continue to train so we have the skills
and methods firmly ingrained to deal with emergencies. Most accidents
are due to some sort of pilot error (poor decision making?) or failure
to maintain control of the aircraft (cockpit management?).

WingFlaps wrote:

If terrain were hostile, you might want to consider location a bit
before you pull that chute handle by the way.

If you are going to pull chute the handle for an engine out over any
other than very hostile terrain please remind me not to fly with you.

"Ol Shy & Bashful" wrote in message
...
If you are faced with a full blown emergency such as an engine
failure, what are you going to do?

Let's see. Carb heat and/or switching tanks worked a couple times. Landing
straight ahead on the runway worked too. I've never had to make an
off-airport landing. (Unlike my little sister who ran out of gas on her
student cross country solo - "I told them to fill the tanks, but I guess I
forgot to check..." No damage, but she made the local small town paper.)

Had an "important looking" part fall out from behind the panel once. We
thought it might be a bushing from the control system so we (my brother and
I) made our way to the nearest airport with the absolute minimum of control
action - notified the traffic via CTAF, and made a straight in approach. It
turned out to be part of a radio mount...

Anyone want to hazard a guess at the major number of engine failure
causes?

1 -Fuel starvation.

2 - Carb Ice.

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

On Mar 1, 8:58*am, Gig 601XL Builder
wrote:
WingFlaps wrote:
If terrain were hostile, you might want to consider location a bit
before you pull that chute handle by the way.

If you are going to pull chute the handle for an engine out over any
other than very hostile terrain please remind me not to fly with you.

I agree, that's why I said "land the plane (? chute)" Of course if the
engine out means it's really fallen out of the plane I'd like that
chute availability...

Cheers

"Gig 601XL Builder" wrote in message
...
WingFlaps wrote:

If terrain were hostile, you might want to consider location a bit
before you pull that chute handle by the way.

If you are going to pull chute the handle for an engine out over any other
than very hostile terrain please remind me not to fly with you.

Then there was the student pilot flying solo who ran out of gas on final,
turned away from the airport, and jumped out (with a 'chute)...

Really.

I ran into that in the NTSB accident reports while looking for something.

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

"Ol Shy & Bashful" wrote in message
...

If you are faced with a full blown emergency such as an engine
failure, what are you going to do? In my more than 50 years of aviation,
I've had at least
18 actual emergencies and survived them all. Only one resulted in physical
injury and that was more than 40 years ago.

Well, if you'll tel us what you did, I'll probably try do do that. :


-c