Sport Pilot Talk

Seaaira1 · Joined: 04 Oct 2011 Posts: 1

I waited many years to finally fly an airplane. Various issues including medical reasons kept me from becoming a private pilot. Sport Pilot license has been a way for me to attain a certificate. I have had the opportunity to fly regularly over the years and hung around pilots and was envious of them.

Now with about 50 hours and all of it in a Remos I have had the feeling of achievement and have taken my wife with me on cross country flying. Since I have lived this long it must be due to a few good habits. Not being careless is one way to prolong life. There are others, of course, but paying attention to what you are about is important. Here is an example of what I am referring to.

My wife and I rented an aircraft at Sarasota and set out to Sebring for our first hundred dollar hamburger. I admit to being excited and a bit anxious during the flight. I checked everything over and over while in the air and tried to think of anything I was overlooking.....the flight was uneventful and we landed at Sebring and enjoyed our lunch.

We decided to fly over to Venice so I could do a few landings before returning to Sarasota. Our take off was smooth and I began to feel a bit confident. About half an hour into the flight my wife asked if she could handle the airplane as she had taken ten hours as a pinch hitter and wanted to do some turns as a refresher. Together we took the plane around a one mile circle and brought it back on course to Venice.

It was then that a vibration started. Not severe but not something I could ignore. I reduced power and checked the instruments. There appeared to be nothing wrong, but I was concerned enough to start a mental check list.

Do I know where I am. Are the radios set up for Tampa approach. Where is the nearest field. By time I finished this list my wife, Karen, asked if there was some thing wrong with the airplane.

My first thought was: How could there be. It is almost new. And we are familiar with the FBO and this particular plane. But I knew there was something wrong......and I decided to prepare Karen for an event I was hoping would not take place.

With in a minute or two the power began to decrease as the RPMs fell off and the oil temperature went up. I had read about pilots who continued to fly and either could not believe things were going bad or were in denial. I had no illusions that we were fast getting into what looked like an emergency situation.

I called Tampa and declared an emergency. They found me on radar and said they had marked my position. They asked for number of souls on board and what was my intention. I think I said I was setting up for an off field landing. At this time my altitude was down to about a thousand and I was thinking about asking for the check list, but there was too much to do. I advised Karen to tighten her harness and put away any items such as the camera and unlock her door. Karen was looking for an open field on her side of the plane and suggested a golf course. I could see it and it looked good, but some how I remembered that they are full of sand traps and other hazards. The trees made me decide not to risk it. It was also obvious that there were folks playing golf as well. A field on the right was high in some crop and was furrowed. Not a good choice either.

Out my side there was an open pasture with high grass and only a few things to be avoided. A pole line which I was passing now and a line of shrub size bushes at the other end. It looked to be at least a quarter mile long and just as wide.

I decided not to look further and to set up like I was on downwind. The engine was rattling the airplane but I decided not to shut down and also left the fuel line open. I wanted to use what ever was left of the engine on final if needed.

Flaps in and turn on base with an eye on airspeed. I want to be a slow as possible but remembered it is easy to stall and I am not sure of power being available.

Full flaps and I am on final. I find a moment to tell Karen we are going to be OK this is easier than I thought it would be........the plane begins to sink and I see the shrubs and small trees at the (threshold) end of the field. Throttle all the way in and I get a few hundred thumping RPMs before total failure. Just enough to clear the obstacles, I noted that it was very quiet just before we touched down. I held the nose as high as it would go as we settled onto the tall grass.

We were both very composed and there was no feeling of panic. It was loud and bumpy but the airplane stayed on line and I got it slowed up about 50 feet from a ditch.

I made sure Karen was OK and we both got out of our harnesses. I turned off the gas feed and shut down the master and avionics. As soon as I was sure I could stand up I got out and called the FBO. The owner was happy that we were OK and said he would call the tower and get things started at his end. My hands were shaking but as I walked around the plane and checked for damage I began to think this ain't too bad considering.

I wanted to share this with other pilots, especially those with not a lot of hours. This kind of thing can happen and does, whether you have thousands of hours or are just on the second page of your log book.

The investigation of the engine found that a piston ring cracked and ended up seizing the engine. No way to find that before it happens.
Little warning and no way to solve the problem in the air.

I have flown since to get it behind me but find that I am having a problem being apprehensive and unsure if I will continue at all. I would be happy to hear any advice from others concerning this issue.

j king

deltafox · Joined: 06 Apr 2010 Posts: 89

1.) You did well. Low time, high time, it makes no difference here. You handled a difficult situation and safely walked away. You did WELL.
2.) You should go see your instructor and tell him what happened and how you feel. Take a flight or two with him. Your confidence has been shaken and you need to see that while this can happen, it rarely does.

zaitcev · Joined: 05 Jan 2010 Posts: 258 Location: Albuquerque, NM

This sounds like an exempliary handling of a real-life emergency. In a way, I'm envious, as I have not had a chance to prove myself like that.

Jack Tyler · Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 5:33 am Post subject:

Your incident and how you handled it is what competent airmanship is all about. Such events - an in-flight catastrophic failure - are very, very rare but, as you discovered, they do happen. By far, most GA accidents and incidents occur due to pilot error, while you demonstrated the opposite when presented with this rare event. Job well done, that's for sure, and doubly so for a very low time pilot. But it was also a job that may need to be done well again, at some future time, highly unlikely tho' that might be. And that is the point of your request for advice re: future flying.

I'd suggest you consider two somewhat opposite issues as you mull whether you continue to fly. The first is why you chose to learn to fly in the first place. You mention several reasons (your inherent interest, the social aspects, a source of felt accomplishment) but is that it? What lies absolutely at the core of your interest in aviation? And now that you've earned both a SP license and a reason to feel pretty good about your skills, how meaningful and important is aviation's future appeal and promise for you?

This question actually exists in the minds of most newly licensed pilots, altho' it isn't prompted by an incident. 'License in my pocket, why should I continue to pay handsomely for doing essentially the same type of flying, week after week?' Pilot attrition within a year or two following earning the entry-level license is quite high and the reason actually makes a lot of sense to my mind. The student pilot is often motivated by a challenging goal, whether it's solo flight alone (after which attrition is also high) or independent flight after the license. But what lies beyond that is more a function of how important flying is as a lifestyle of sorts, whether vocational or personal. So ask yourself: How would my life be better if I continued to fly? And if the answer is insufficient to resolve the matter, so be it. You've certainly earned the right to whatever conclusion you reach.

The second issue is more practical: What about flying itself is making you uncomfortable to fly? If it's loss of power incidents, would more time practicing for such a possibility serve a purpose? Is it the awareness this might happen while over a congested area? Most of that can be eliminated by route planning. I'm very familiar with the area you are flying in and, speaking factually, you can fly over and to almost all of the central and southern Florida interior and coast, if daytime and at sufficient altitude, to have landing options available to you. My suggestion is to get a concrete view of whatever source(s) of discomfort exist for you, and determine to what extent they have practical solutions. That may not fully resolve your dilemma but it might contribute to a solution.

I think I know how you feel. I actually have had two enroute loss of engine incidents. One was due to a mechanic's failure to reassemble the throttle control linkage properly after a Condition Inspection, which left my family and I on an unoccupied barrier island off the coast of South Carolina, so it isn't just machinery failure that can lead to an incident like yours. One (of many) things I learned from these events is that becoming very familiar with the entire aircraft, not just the parts the POH tells you to check, makes you a more successful pilot and offers additional peace of mind. The second incident (like yours, a catastrophic engine failure) also reinforced in me the reality that, if you plan thoughtfully for possible calamities, you greatly increase your odds of both the circumstances and your preparedness for them turning lemons into lemonade. In both our cases, no one in the family was harmed nor was the aircraft (other than a busted engine). So my final point is that, even if such a rare event occurs again during your flying, you have good reason to believe currency, good flight planning and airmanship will result in the same positive outcome.

SSDriver · Joined: 15 Apr 2011 Posts: 31 Location: NJ

Thanks very much for taking the time to share your story. I'm scheduled for the schools plane over the weekend for some solo work and you reminded me how important emergency procedure practice is.

Welcome to the forum!