Declared first emergency last week

Thanks Jay!

"Jay Honeck" wrote in
news:QUOpm.43737$la3.10515@attbi_s22:

If a plane is flown twice a week for thirty years, there could be
30 X 52 X 2 X 5 cycles on the throttle - and that's a highball
estimate. 16000 cycles should not fatigue a wire, should it?

We replaced our prop adjustment cable in the Pathfinder this year. It
was probably the original cable from 1974. It was getting stiffer and
stiffer over time.

Upon removal it was obvious that a few strands of the sheathing had
broken, and were scraping on the cable every time we moved the blue
lever. How this happened is a mystery, but after 25 years we figured
it didn't owe us anything. (Although it is a real SOB to change...)

The OP did a great job getting the plane down safely.

Some things will not last forever, and cables are one of them. Once they
get enough age and use and age on them, switch them out, as part of a good
preventative maintenance program.

I always wonder how to implement something like this, and with which items.

Control cables, for example, are obviously critical -- yet I don't recall
ever hearing about them being changed on condition, let alone preemptively,
even on our 61 year old Ercoupe. Sure, they're inspected every year, and
occasionally adjusted, but apparently they never wear out? Yet surely they
must, someday.

Just another one of those things you think about when you're flying an
antique aircraft. Right up there with "golly, that wing is only held on
with two bolts", and "gee, I wonder how many bouts of turbulence a
six-decade-old wing spar can withstand?"

:-)
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

We thought about a PAN PAN, but we *did not have throttle control*.

I didn't hesitate very long to call it an emergency. I had read a lot of
stories about pilots who told ATC - "we have a little problem" or "we
need some help" and things later deteriorated or ATC did not realize the
gravity of the situation. I figured nobody was going to yell at us with
a failure of a serious engine control. We were going to either be
landing dead stick or seriously compromising the way the engine was
going to run to land the plane. As it turned out, the tower cleared us
immediately to land on the runway opposite to prevailing pattern
traffic, and that shortenened our flight by 2-3 minutes and allowed us
to avoid passing over houses and a hill on the downwind, shopping center
on base and final of the other pattern direction.

I sort of figured "let them yell at me on the ground that I used too
severe a call for the situation" if they wanted to...


Event Horizon

Dana M. Hague wrote in
:

Sounds like you handled the situation well, but it doesn't sound like
an "emergency". My understanding is that you declare an emergency
when you need assistance or clearance RIGHT NOW. In this case, you
weren't in any imminent danger; notifying the tower of the situation
so that they know you'd be unable to go around or taxi off the active
runway once you killed the engine should be sufficient. The AIM
differentiates between "emergency" and "urgency".

Actually, the same thing happened to me about 25 years ago. A cotter
pin fell out of the throttle linkage on my Taylorcraft. The throttle
stuck in a position where I couldn't _quite_ maintain altitude.
Fortunately, the descent angle I could maintain got me to the nearest
airport, and I controlled the glide by blipping the ignition (no
mixture control on those old A-65's).

Even had I been so inclined, can't declare an emergency in a no radio
airplane.

After pushing the airplane off the runway, I found the clevis pin
inside the cowling. A scrap of wire sufficed to replace the missing
cotter pin and get me back home.

-Dana
--
Black holes are where God is dividing by zero.

In article pQ_pm.36760$5n1.23712@attbi_s21,
"Jay Honeck" wrote:

Some things will not last forever, and cables are one of them. Once they
get enough age and use and age on them, switch them out, as part of a good
preventative maintenance program.

I always wonder how to implement something like this, and with which items.

Control cables, for example, are obviously critical -- yet I don't recall
ever hearing about them being changed on condition, let alone preemptively,
even on our 61 year old Ercoupe. Sure, they're inspected every year, and
occasionally adjusted, but apparently they never wear out? Yet surely they
must, someday.

Just another one of those things you think about when you're flying an
antique aircraft. Right up there with "golly, that wing is only held on
with two bolts", and "gee, I wonder how many bouts of turbulence a
six-decade-old wing spar can withstand?"

:-)

How about, "Those wings are only held on with two pins *which I just
installed myself an hour ago*."

Or, "Gee, those pins that hold the body to the wings are smaller than my
thumb, and there's only two on each side."

Flying an aircraft you assemble yourself each time you fly it is much
like flying an antique aircraft in that respect. (Flying an antique you
assemble each time you fly is even better yet.)

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

In article 0,
EventHorizon wrote:

I sort of figured "let them yell at me on the ground that I used too
severe a call for the situation" if they wanted to...

This is exactly the right philosphy. I'd much rather have to deal
with a 6ft stack of FAA paper work then be 6ft under.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/

Jay Honeck wrote:
/snip/
Control cables, for example, are obviously critical -- yet I don't
recall ever hearing about them being changed on condition, let alone
preemptively, even on our 61 year old Ercoupe. Sure, they're inspected
every year, and occasionally adjusted, but apparently they never wear
out? Yet surely they must, someday.
/snip/

Jay,

Control cables are absolutely changed out on condition. They will tend
to fray where they pass over pulleys, especially if the cable tension is
a bit loose (it will tend to "bounce" against the pulley), or the pulley
doesn't turn as freely as it should. During maintenance checks, a
mechanic will run their fingers over all cables at these locations, and
any broken strands will be felt, as they tend to stick out. Not super
common on light GA aircraft, but not at all unheard of. Corrosion can
also be a problem. Advisory Circular 43.13 has an entire section
devoted to cable inspection and condition.

Happy Flying!
Scott Skylane

Dana M. Hague wrote:
Sounds like you handled the situation well, but it doesn't sound like
an "emergency". ...
-Dana

It turns out that pilots are reluctant to declare an emergency.
They need every encouragement to declare early.
It's like stopping your car to ask for directions apparently....

Brian W

On 2009-09-10, Jay Honeck wrote:
Just another one of those things you think about when you're flying an
antique aircraft. Right up there with "golly, that wing is only held on
with two bolts", and "gee, I wonder how many bouts of turbulence a
six-decade-old wing spar can withstand?"

Or... "Good grief, the wing is only held together by 64 year old glue!"

The joys of worrying about wood wings :-)

On Sep 9, 8:44*pm, Dana M. Hague wrote:
Sounds like you handled the situation well, but it doesn't sound like
an "emergency". *My understanding is that you declare an emergency
when you need assistance or clearance RIGHT NOW. *In this case, you
weren't in any imminent danger;

Judgement call on the pilots part as you already know, but if you
can't control the engine, if that isn't an emergency, I don't know
what is. For all intent and purposes, he had a runaway plane until he
worked the problem!

He most certainly needed a clearance to land RIGHT NOW.

I can see you saying when I had a cylinder exhaust valve bite the dust
in flight 3500 feet AGL 6 years ago that it wasn't an emergency
because I wasn't in imminent danger and I still had 3 cylinders
providing power?

In article 0,
EventHorizon wrote:

We thought about a PAN PAN, but we *did not have throttle control*.

I didn't hesitate very long to call it an emergency. I had read a lot of
stories about pilots who told ATC - "we have a little problem" or "we
need some help" and things later deteriorated or ATC did not realize the
gravity of the situation. I figured nobody was going to yell at us with
a failure of a serious engine control. We were going to either be
landing dead stick or seriously compromising the way the engine was
going to run to land the plane. As it turned out, the tower cleared us
immediately to land on the runway opposite to prevailing pattern
traffic, and that shortenened our flight by 2-3 minutes and allowed us
to avoid passing over houses and a hill on the downwind, shopping center
on base and final of the other pattern direction.

I sort of figured "let them yell at me on the ground that I used too
severe a call for the situation" if they wanted to...


Event Horizon

In the vernacular: "You done GOOD!"

--
Remove _'s from email address to talk to me.