Not much flying going on lately, what with TFRs, weather, and airport closures.. but this has opened an opportunity to run the maintenance playbook. To wit:
Cessna 630 is being reassembled to complete her monster annual. We anticipate her return next week.
Cessna 68U completed her 100hr.
Cessna 20U will go in for 100hr next week.
Cessna 04H will go in for 100hr the week after.
Cessna 1ES will go in for 100hr next week.
Cessna 17J completed her annual this week.
Cessna 25R will go in for annual next week.
Piper 85Y will go in for annual in 2 weeks.
Fun!
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We are also moving our maintenance hangars from hangars 4 & 5 to hangars 1, 2, 25, and 26. This is 3.5 total hangars, and a big improvement in shop space. We will occupy the space where Paint by George used to be. Things will be chaotic for the next 2 weeks in maintenanceland while we re-assemble things.
our new hangar mockup
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You may have seen the news that there was a search and rescue operation at the field yesterday. An aircraft was downed in full fog conditions, and the situation is not good. As a frequent IFR pilot, I find this a very unfortunate situation, and about the worst thing I can contemplate happening on an IFR flight -- very bad luck for the pilot. We don't know much about it, and I don't like making guesses out of turn -- so, please direct your thoughts and prayers for the families of those pilots involved.
Instead of dwelling on bad news, I'd like to try and find a positive, and discuss some of those "worst time for a problem" scenarios, and ways to improve your odds if the unthinkable does happen to you. For a VFR pilot, I think that's the "engine failure just after departure". Imagine if you will, you just departed runway 25, it's a nice clear day, and you get past the numbers "7" on upwind when the engine sputters and stops. You were climbing at Vy. You have a very real problem right now, and immediate TRAINED action is the only way to save your bacon. So let's get to it:
The human body is very resilient for forward-crash energy. I have read studies which claim something on the order of 26 Gs in forward kinetic energy is survivable. I have also read, however, that vertical (compression) Gs are only survivable up to about 2 or 3 Gs. This means you must fly a plane to the ground, and NOT stall it in. This is critically important, and it's why we practice a lot of stalls in training. You need to NOT stall the aircraft.
I have grabbed the 25R POH, since it was handy, and let's assume a hypothetical departure in her. I'm going to leave the gear down for this exercise, to simplify things.
Vy - Best rate of climb - 84kts
Vglide - Best glide speed (@ max weight) - 73kts
No other speeds matter. Now when climbing out at Vy, next time you take off, take note of the pitch angle. You'll find it's somewhere around 10 degrees of nose-up pitch.
And next time you practice engine-out emergencies, take note of the pitch angle. You'll find it's somewhere around 5 degrees of nose-down pitch.
If I take away your engine, and assuming you had the plane trimmed for 84kts airspeed, you will find that the nose gets heavy, and will pitch itself down for you.... eventually. You will want to pitch down immediately for 73kts, or about 5 degrees nose down, yourself, right now. This is a conscious trained maneuver -- you MUST get that nose down or risk a power-off stall. Don't over-do it, but change pitch 15 degrees NOW. Push in the yoke about 3 or 4 inches. The aircraft will likely have already slowed to Vglide in the time it took you to recognize the problem and react. Any more slowing puts you closer to stall speed and robs you of gliding distance (Vs0 is 54kts in 25R -- not much margin!)
Your choices from 500' AGL are VERY limited, and this is no time to get creative. A lot of pilots have been tricked by a maneuver called the "deadman's turn" -- an attempt to do a gliding 210-degree teardrop U-turn and land back onto the runway you just departed from. Everything I have read suggests that even when using PERFECT technique, a minimum of 700' is required to return to the airport. I know that in an emergency, I won't be using "perfect" technique, and so I will not contemplate this move.
(for those with curiosity about the deadman turn, maximum performance requires a 45-degree banked turn to return to the airport. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS -- the odds of you stalling/spinning the aircraft are just too high to contemplate, and the energy consumed in the maneuver may be more than you have to spend! -- remember the stall speed goes way up in a steep turn, so you will need to accelerate the airplane by nosing far down, turning, and hoping. Again, DO NOT EVEN TRY IT. It's called "deadman turn" for a reason!)
If you depart runway 25, you'll notice there is a very nice clearing to the left of the departure course, where some office buildings are. With your engine out, you have about 5 seconds to get your composure, get the nose down, and glide to a landing. You might choose that spot, you might choose another. Keeping the nose into the wind is the preferred option, which favors a straight-ahead landing.
You can check the fuel selector (although "both" is pretty reliable), throttle and mixture, carb heat, and that's about it. Maybe the engine will restart after you fix a bad configuration. Let's assume not. Time to land.
Remember that the maximum glide distance is at 73kts. Either faster or slower speed will result in a shorter net distance. Pulling or pushing on the yoke will not give you the extra 500 feet you might want. 25R has a glide ratio of ~1.9nm per 1000 feet. So you'll be landing in the next mile or so, and at 73kts and 500', you will have about 50 seconds to get your plane configured, cinch up the seatbelts, and fly the plane. Good aeronautical decision-making never was more important than now! If you have time, run the checklist. Its items are ordered in order of importance. For 25R this looks like:
Engine Failure after departure
Speed - 73kts
Mixture - Idle Cut-off
Fuel Selector - Off
Ignition - Off
Flaps - As required (recommend 30 degrees)
Master - Off
Forced Landing without power adds:
Doors: unlatch
Pitch: slightly tail-low (ie a soft flare, to conserve energy)
Brakes: Apply Heavily
It's a good checklist if you can get through it, which, if you've ever read it before, I believe it will come readily to mind and you'll zip through it in about 10 seconds.
The most survivable forced landings are those which are done with the slowest possible ground speed. This means you will, at some point if possible, want to deploy flaps, and softly flare the aircraft at the last possible moment. Flaps will shorten your glide distance, so judge the timing of the thing. You can leave them up. Don't do a soft-field flare when you land, you won't have the energy to spare to pull that nose into the air. A gentle slight (~3 degree) nose-high flare will suffice. You only get one shot at this, so make it count, begin the flare close to the ground just like any other landing.
With some luck, and if you accomplished the above checklist, you'll be assured of the following things:
You should be very intact, even if you hit something hard on the ground. You may be bruised or banged up if you hit something on landing. I promise you will be humming with adrenaline. You should lift some impossible things -- you're the incredible hulk right now. Throw the plane into the air, show off, smash things. You might also laugh at the grim reaper, because you just cheated him. Feel free to be creative now. Let out a barbaric yawp :)
If the airframe (ie wings/fuel tanks) were damaged, there should be no source of ignition for a post-crash fire. If there is any doubt (smoke, etc), move at least 100 feet away from the plane.
If the cockpit safety structure was deformed, you should still be able to exit the aircraft quickly (this is why you pop your door open) -- if you didn't get that far in the checklist, and the doors are deformed and stuck shut, you may need to squeeze out of the baggage door, or kick out a window. The cabin door windows should be easiest, particularly the ones which open.
Aircraft are amazingly capable of taking forward-collision forces, just like you are. If you are hurt, particularly if you have a headache or sharp pain when you move, get out of immediate harm's way, and wait. Your ELT is going off automatically, and bringing a very impressive array of help to your location. If you have a cell phone, you might call and offer them your location. I would recommend sitting and waiting for the cavalry if there is any suspicion that you might be injured.
"we're okay, bring us 2 Venti Mocha Chip Frappuccinos please!"
Having been involved in a scenario such as this personally, I found that the training kicks in automatically, and your brain is excellent at saving your bacon. And the adrenaline thing? yeah, it's real. But your brain needs to understand the mechanics behind gliding 2500 lbs of aluminum to safety. And now you know a little more.
I hope you never experience it (and we've never had this happen at the school, touch wood) -- but I hope that if you do, you'll remember the few key things that make the incident into a cool story over drinks, and not tragic reading in the newspaper.
If you haven't done slow flight/stall recovery in a while, or wish to explore some of these concepts in greater detail, grab a CFI. There is a very good reason why we do stalls and slow flight in every training regimen, and every Flight Review.
...sorry to talk about a difficult subject on a Saturday, but knowledge is what keeps us alive when we fly, even in the worst situations. Stay sharp!
$0.02
Blue (and Safe) Skies,
- Mike
