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Scott Grigsby
Guest
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 Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2003 11:20 am Post subject: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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Hi all!
I'm a fairly regular lurker and very infrequent poster on
r.a.s. I started lessons last November, and finally got my
PP-ASEL certificate oh, about 10 days ago. It was a pretty
exciting week. As the subject implies, I had an engine
failure ("unscheduled landing"  and my checkride within
about 48 hours. Fun! So here's my story.
So, this was Tuesday, June 24th. My checkride was scheduled
for Thursday morning, the 26th.
(Oh, wait. Just for reference, I fly out of KSQL, San Carlos,
California, on the San Francisco peninsula between San Mateo
and Palo Alto.)
Anyway, it was a beautiful, sunny Tuesday afternoon. I had about
85 hours under my belt in a Diamond Katana, and was getting ready for
my checkride. My CFI, Jenny, and I had been spending the last few
days doing maneuvers, diversions, making sure I was within PTS on
everything, and oral quizzes. I'd spent a couple days doing nothing
but steep turns, which I'd had a problem with, and thought I had
them nailed. I was still a little dodgy on my power-on (take off)
stalls, but kept practicing.
So, that Tuesday afternoon, I wanted to go up and do some spins. I'd
been bugging Jenny about doing them, because a) I think it's important
to have experienced them; b) they sounded kinda fun; and c) they're
not required by the FARs or PTS anymore, and I really, really, wanted
to try a few. Fortunately, the Katana is very difficult to spin and
very easy to recover, so Jenny agreed to go up a do a few of them.
(In her words: "I'm only good for about four or five, then I start
to get a bit queasy." :-)
After an uneventful 10-minute trip out to the practice area, we did
some steep turns, and I did a couple very good power-on stalls without
dropping a wing. (For those that know the area: we were about 20NM
SSE of Half Moon Bay (KHAF), a little north of Pigeon Point lighthouse
on the coast.)
Then it was time to do some spins. Jenny (my CFI) demonstrated the
first one. (Do CFIs do spins very much anymore? I'm under the
impression that they don't, so I felt very lucky to have the
opportunity to do some.)
Basically, it's just decreasing the throttle 'til you slow down
(no flaps!), adding a bit of throttle, pitching the nose *way* up
very quickly to induce an immediate stall and simultaneously stomping
on one of the rudders, which makes you flip over kinda upside down
and sideways. Keep the control stick all the way back, the rudder
all the way to the floor, and the plane flips around right-side-up,
spinning in a helix with zero airspeed. Very exciting and thrilling,
like a roller-coaster ride!
(Okay, for those veteran fliers (highflier, et alii) who think this
is a poor description of a spin, I agree. But it all happens so
quickly, it's hard to figure out quite what happens. And this was
the first time I'd tried it. So I encourage you to post a better
description of a spin; I'm sure we'd all benefit from it.)
Right, so, you're in a helical spin, nearly wings level, with zero
airspeed. Spinning in place. It's so cool. (Actually, I think the
correct answer is: It's horrible and deadly. But in the Katana,
you really have to make a serious effort to get it to spin, and if
you just let go of all the controls, the plane will recover on its
own. That's why it's a trainer.)
And as I'm sure we all have studied and know by heart, the recovery
procedure from a spin is: (repeat after me:) Control stick quickly
forward to neutral, throttle idle, ailerons neutral, determine
direction of spin, apply opposite rudder, wait for spin to stop,
(you should be in a dive at this point), and gently pull control
stick back to level off without exceeding Vne. Add throttle after
recovery.
(Once again: please feel free to correct me! Like I said, the Katana
*doesn't* want to spin, so basically letting go of the controls is
enough to get it to recover.)
After four of these spins, I was really getting the hang of it. So
fun! Better than the best amusement park ride. I'd decided I needed
to sign up for some aerobatic training. But we were both getting a
bit queasy after all the spinning, and decided that this would be
the last one.
So, back up to 4500' MSL. (About 4100' AGL.) One last spin. It
was great. After a couple complete revolutions, I recovered from the
spin, pulled back on the control stick to level off, airspeed dropped
from about 140 knots to 80 knots as I recovered and gained some
altitude. Increased throttle from idle and then... nothing. Heard
(or felt) a little *pop* or *bang* from the engine.
The engine starts running really rough; the plane is vibrating badly.
The throttle has no effect on the engine, and the plane starts vibrating
even more violently. Both my CFI (Jenny) and I are trying to figure out
what's wrong. And then the engine seizes up completely, and the prop
stops spinning. We're about 3000' AGL.
Since we're in the "practice area" for the nearby airports, there are
acres upon acres of farmer's fields below us to land in. But they're
sandwiched between the ocean and the hills, with only a few thousand
yards between. If we don't nail our landing, we'll careen off the end
of the farmer's field, either into Highway 1 or into the Pacific.
So, we're at 3000' AGL. We're both thinking about possibilities. We
pick out a landing spot that's a farmer's field with low growth (looks
like mostly dirt) and furrows that point toward the prevailing
wind (from the ocean).
I trim for best glide speed and aim towards our field. Jenny gets on
the radio and calls a Mayday on Half Moon Bay's CTAF. I squawk 7700.
Jenny contacts a fellow CFI at Half Moon Bay and requests that he call
San Carlos to report the problem. I aim for the field. We're still
over 2000' AGL at this point, and we've both decided we're not going
to be able to restart the engine.
I shut off the electric fuel pump, the ignition, and the fuel cut-off
valve.
Everything becomes very quiet. I mean, very quiet. We're basically in
a glider. No engine noise. It's actually very peaceful. The electric
flaps are still working, and the radios are still working, but there's
no sound other than the air sssshhhhhing over the wings.
I'm trying to maintain 70 knots and line us up for a landing in this
vegetable field.
And it's still very quiet.
And I think: I gotta take glider lessons!
And this whole time, Jenny is playing it very cool and letting me
fly the plane! Without an engine!
So I take us low over the east end of the field where we're going
to land, setting up for the approach, but I'm way too high! I'll
never make the field before I tumble off the far edge onto Highway 1
or into the Pacific! I'm far too low to do a 360, we just have to put
in full flaps and major slip...
Jenny takes over at 200' AGL. She throws in some major slips, S-turns,
nearly drags one of the wings on the ground trying to lose speed and
altitude, really wrenches the plane around trying to get us to landing
speed before the end of the field 1000 feet ahead.
And the end of the field is 500 feet ahead. We're doing about 60 knots
in ground effect. After the end of the field is a 20 foot drop to
Highway 1, and a 100 foot drop to the ocean.
Jenny wrestles the plane to landing speed for a soft field (we're
landing in a newly-planted leek field), keeps the nose up, and lands
in the farmer's field with 10 yards to spare, and without damaging
the plane.
I have to say one more thing about Jenny: When the engine failure
happened, she seemed a little surprised and said, "Oh, this is real!"
Like, huh! What an amusing surprise! And then told me to continue
with the emergency checklist and fly the plane. She was so cool under
pressure, she amazingly turned the whole emergency into a lesson.
Jenny is an ATP-rated pilot with more than 2000 hours logged. This
was her first engine failure. And she let me fly the plane (almost)
all the way down.
After we landed in this farmer's leek field, about five planes that
had been at Half Moon Bay came buzzing over the field to see if we
were okay. We were, meanwhile, trudging down through the fields to
a farmhouse about a quarter mile away to find a phone. (Our cell
phones didn't work out there.) We were trying to figure out how
to signal to the planes that we were okay. If we waved our arms
over our head, would that mean we were okay? Or injured? Turns
out, it didn't matter, because shortly the Coast Guard Hercules
came out to spot us (a huge four-engine turbo-prop plane), and we
still had no idea how to tell them that we were okay. And then my
cell phone rang, and it was the Coast Guard, but the signal sucked
so bad, all I could do was shout, "Thank you!! We're okay!! Okay!!
Thank you!!" By this time, the fire department, police, and sheriff
had found us, so we were surrounded by emergency vehicles in this
leek field. We asked the guy in the fire truck (who seemed to have
a really good radio) to tell the Coast Guard that we were okay.
Eventually, the Hercules went away. Probably after burning $10,000
worth of fuel. It's nice to know that squawking 7700 and declaring
"Mayday" brings out the cavalry. But holy crap!
Of course, this wouldn't have been complete without drawing the
news helicopters. We made the local evening news.
(Yeah, TiVo!)
And then the local reporters showed up, out in the middle of
nowhere, they wanted interviews. Actually, Jenny (my CFI) agreed
to talk on-camera, and was on the local news, too. Since she was
officially the PIC for the flight, I declined comment. :-)
After a while, UJ, the guy who runs the rental/school/FBO drove
about an hour to come pick us up. After everyone left, we took
the cowling off the plane. Turns out we blew a rod. There was
a huge hole about 8 inches by 5 inches in the top of the engine
case. The smoke we saw in the cabin during our emergency decent
was the oil spilling out over the engine and burning.
The engine failure had nothing to do with our spinning. It was
a total coincidence.
On Wednesday, Jenny and I went out to make sure my maneuvers were
within PTS. N571RJ was obviously unavailable. So I rescheduled
my checkride in N402KT.
Thursday morning. Checkride. I had planned on using N571RJ, but
it was still stuck in a leek field. So I took N402KT.
Everything went great.
Except I was still a bit high on the emergency landing.
I guess the DE cut me a break, because I'm now a
PP-ASEL :-)
Scott Grigsby
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Robert A. Barker
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2003 12:45 pm Post subject: Re: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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Scott: CONGRATULATIONS on the PPASEL!!!!!!
Great story on the emergency.Glad everything came out O.K.
Best of luck
Bob Barker N8749S
Scott Grigsby wrote in message <3mwQa.1644$dk4.81144 (AT) typhoon (DOT) sonic.net>...
| Quote: |
Hi all!
I'm a fairly regular lurker and very infrequent poster on
r.a.s. I started lessons last November, and finally got my
PP-ASEL certificate oh, about 10 days ago
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Peter R.
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2003 1:26 pm Post subject: Re: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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Scott Grigsby (grigsby (AT) sonic (DOT) net) wrote:
| Quote: | Everything went great.
Except I was still a bit high on the emergency landing.
I guess the DE cut me a break, because I'm now a
PP-ASEL
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Exciting story! Congratulations on getting your PPL.
Look at your incident this way: You got your once-in-many, many hours
(whatever the current engine-failure stat is) mechanical failure out of the
way while you were still a student. :)
--
Peter
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Scott Grigsby
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2003 7:02 pm Post subject: Re: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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Cecil E. Chapman wrote:
| Quote: |
P.S. One quick question about the Katana you were flying... Is 70 knots
best glide for one of those? I really don't know..
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Yep. Flaps to T/O, 70 knots gives you about a 14:1 glide ratio.
I've never been to RHV. I've landed just about everywhere
else around here, though. I should go check it out one of
these days...
Scott
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Jack Allison
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2003 7:23 pm Post subject: Re: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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Congratulations Scott! A very unique experience with your first emergency
*before* getting your PPL. Glad to hear that everything worked out ok.
--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL
"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci
(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)
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Jim Fisher
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2003 8:06 pm Post subject: Re: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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"Scott Grigsby" <grigsby (AT) sonic (DOT) net> wrote in message
| Quote: | I'm a fairly regular lurker and very infrequent poster on
r.a.s.
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You should post more often. Excellent retelling of your adventure, Scott.
Atta boy and congratulations.
--
Jim Fisher
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Slav Inger
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2003 9:16 pm Post subject: Re: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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Excellent post, I really enjoyed reading it. Glad you kept your sense
of humor after living through something like that. Congrats on passing
the checkride, you definitely deserved it! I was going to try out a
Katana later this week - is blowing a rod a common problem with this
airplane? BTW, while we're on the subject, anybody know where I can go
to see a list of frequent problem areas, by model/airplane?
- Slav Inger
- PP ASEL IA @ YIP
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Wizard of Draws
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2003 12:12 am Post subject: Re: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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Congratulations and welcome back to terra firma in one piece.
--
Jeff 'The Wizard of Draws' Bucchino
"Cartoons with a Touch of Magic"
http://www.wizardofdraws.com
http://www.cartoonclipart.com
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Ben Jackson
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2003 12:49 am Post subject: Re: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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In article <3F131DC1.A77518F0 (AT) yahoo (DOT) -nospam-.com>,
Slav Inger <slavinger (AT) yahoo (DOT) -nospam-.com> wrote:
| Quote: | airplane? BTW, while we're on the subject, anybody know where I can go
to see a list of frequent problem areas, by model/airplane?
|
Go to www.ntsb.gov, click on aviation, and then choose their query
form. Adjust the date range as appropriate and select other factors
(eg you could search just by state, or by aircraft type, or a combination)
and then you can read about all of the accidents.
--
Ben Jackson
<ben (AT) ben (DOT) com>
http://www.ben.com/
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Cecil E. Chapman
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2003 1:20 am Post subject: Re: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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You should,,, it's a great airport 'cause you can get to quite a few places
without even having to fly through Bravo airspace,,,, except of course when
I take friends for the bay tour.
--
--
Good Flights!
Cecil E. Chapman, Jr.
PP-ASEL
"We who fly do so for the love of flying.
We are alive in the air with this miracle
that lies in our hands and beneath our feet"
- Cecil Day Lewis-
My personal adventures as a student pilot
and after my PPL: www.bayareapilot.com
"Scott Grigsby" <grigsby (AT) sonic (DOT) net> wrote
| Quote: | Cecil E. Chapman wrote:
P.S. One quick question about the Katana you were flying... Is 70
knots
best glide for one of those? I really don't know..
Yep. Flaps to T/O, 70 knots gives you about a 14:1 glide ratio.
I've never been to RHV. I've landed just about everywhere
else around here, though. I should go check it out one of
these days...
Scott
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Wizard of Draws
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2003 1:27 am Post subject: Re: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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Cecil E. Chapman wrote:
| Quote: |
By the way, he's too modest to say anything, but the Wizard of Draws has a
great shirt for your first engine failure! I bought one of 'em when I
had mine.
--
--
Good Flights!
Cecil E. Chapman, Jr.
PP-ASEL
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Ha! I forgot all about it. Some businessman, eh?
http://www.wizardofdraws.com/store/shirts.html
--
Jeff 'The Wizard of Draws' Bucchino
"Cartoons with a Touch of Magic"
http://www.wizardofdraws.com
http://www.cartoonclipart.com
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BTIZ
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2003 1:57 am Post subject: Re: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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Scott.. great job... do go get some glider lessons... you'll learn better
how to make that engine out approach... and now that you have the coveted PP
certificate.. you can get the glider rating as an "add on", no written, just
the oral and the PTS.
Soar Hollister should be near you, as is Avenal, it may be farther south.
BT
"Scott Grigsby" <grigsby (AT) sonic (DOT) net> wrote
| Quote: |
Hi all!
I'm a fairly regular lurker and very infrequent poster on
r.a.s. I started lessons last November, and finally got my
PP-ASEL certificate oh, about 10 days ago. It was a pretty
exciting week. As the subject implies, I had an engine
failure ("unscheduled landing" and my checkride within
about 48 hours. Fun! So here's my story.
So, this was Tuesday, June 24th. My checkride was scheduled
for Thursday morning, the 26th.
(Oh, wait. Just for reference, I fly out of KSQL, San Carlos,
California, on the San Francisco peninsula between San Mateo
and Palo Alto.)
Anyway, it was a beautiful, sunny Tuesday afternoon. I had about
85 hours under my belt in a Diamond Katana, and was getting ready for
my checkride. My CFI, Jenny, and I had been spending the last few
days doing maneuvers, diversions, making sure I was within PTS on
everything, and oral quizzes. I'd spent a couple days doing nothing
but steep turns, which I'd had a problem with, and thought I had
them nailed. I was still a little dodgy on my power-on (take off)
stalls, but kept practicing.
So, that Tuesday afternoon, I wanted to go up and do some spins. I'd
been bugging Jenny about doing them, because a) I think it's important
to have experienced them; b) they sounded kinda fun; and c) they're
not required by the FARs or PTS anymore, and I really, really, wanted
to try a few. Fortunately, the Katana is very difficult to spin and
very easy to recover, so Jenny agreed to go up a do a few of them.
(In her words: "I'm only good for about four or five, then I start
to get a bit queasy." :-)
After an uneventful 10-minute trip out to the practice area, we did
some steep turns, and I did a couple very good power-on stalls without
dropping a wing. (For those that know the area: we were about 20NM
SSE of Half Moon Bay (KHAF), a little north of Pigeon Point lighthouse
on the coast.)
Then it was time to do some spins. Jenny (my CFI) demonstrated the
first one. (Do CFIs do spins very much anymore? I'm under the
impression that they don't, so I felt very lucky to have the
opportunity to do some.)
Basically, it's just decreasing the throttle 'til you slow down
(no flaps!), adding a bit of throttle, pitching the nose *way* up
very quickly to induce an immediate stall and simultaneously stomping
on one of the rudders, which makes you flip over kinda upside down
and sideways. Keep the control stick all the way back, the rudder
all the way to the floor, and the plane flips around right-side-up,
spinning in a helix with zero airspeed. Very exciting and thrilling,
like a roller-coaster ride!
(Okay, for those veteran fliers (highflier, et alii) who think this
is a poor description of a spin, I agree. But it all happens so
quickly, it's hard to figure out quite what happens. And this was
the first time I'd tried it. So I encourage you to post a better
description of a spin; I'm sure we'd all benefit from it.)
Right, so, you're in a helical spin, nearly wings level, with zero
airspeed. Spinning in place. It's so cool. (Actually, I think the
correct answer is: It's horrible and deadly. But in the Katana,
you really have to make a serious effort to get it to spin, and if
you just let go of all the controls, the plane will recover on its
own. That's why it's a trainer.)
And as I'm sure we all have studied and know by heart, the recovery
procedure from a spin is: (repeat after me:) Control stick quickly
forward to neutral, throttle idle, ailerons neutral, determine
direction of spin, apply opposite rudder, wait for spin to stop,
(you should be in a dive at this point), and gently pull control
stick back to level off without exceeding Vne. Add throttle after
recovery.
(Once again: please feel free to correct me! Like I said, the Katana
*doesn't* want to spin, so basically letting go of the controls is
enough to get it to recover.)
After four of these spins, I was really getting the hang of it. So
fun! Better than the best amusement park ride. I'd decided I needed
to sign up for some aerobatic training. But we were both getting a
bit queasy after all the spinning, and decided that this would be
the last one.
So, back up to 4500' MSL. (About 4100' AGL.) One last spin. It
was great. After a couple complete revolutions, I recovered from the
spin, pulled back on the control stick to level off, airspeed dropped
from about 140 knots to 80 knots as I recovered and gained some
altitude. Increased throttle from idle and then... nothing. Heard
(or felt) a little *pop* or *bang* from the engine.
The engine starts running really rough; the plane is vibrating badly.
The throttle has no effect on the engine, and the plane starts vibrating
even more violently. Both my CFI (Jenny) and I are trying to figure out
what's wrong. And then the engine seizes up completely, and the prop
stops spinning. We're about 3000' AGL.
Since we're in the "practice area" for the nearby airports, there are
acres upon acres of farmer's fields below us to land in. But they're
sandwiched between the ocean and the hills, with only a few thousand
yards between. If we don't nail our landing, we'll careen off the end
of the farmer's field, either into Highway 1 or into the Pacific.
So, we're at 3000' AGL. We're both thinking about possibilities. We
pick out a landing spot that's a farmer's field with low growth (looks
like mostly dirt) and furrows that point toward the prevailing
wind (from the ocean).
I trim for best glide speed and aim towards our field. Jenny gets on
the radio and calls a Mayday on Half Moon Bay's CTAF. I squawk 7700.
Jenny contacts a fellow CFI at Half Moon Bay and requests that he call
San Carlos to report the problem. I aim for the field. We're still
over 2000' AGL at this point, and we've both decided we're not going
to be able to restart the engine.
I shut off the electric fuel pump, the ignition, and the fuel cut-off
valve.
Everything becomes very quiet. I mean, very quiet. We're basically in
a glider. No engine noise. It's actually very peaceful. The electric
flaps are still working, and the radios are still working, but there's
no sound other than the air sssshhhhhing over the wings.
I'm trying to maintain 70 knots and line us up for a landing in this
vegetable field.
And it's still very quiet.
And I think: I gotta take glider lessons!
And this whole time, Jenny is playing it very cool and letting me
fly the plane! Without an engine!
So I take us low over the east end of the field where we're going
to land, setting up for the approach, but I'm way too high! I'll
never make the field before I tumble off the far edge onto Highway 1
or into the Pacific! I'm far too low to do a 360, we just have to put
in full flaps and major slip...
Jenny takes over at 200' AGL. She throws in some major slips, S-turns,
nearly drags one of the wings on the ground trying to lose speed and
altitude, really wrenches the plane around trying to get us to landing
speed before the end of the field 1000 feet ahead.
And the end of the field is 500 feet ahead. We're doing about 60 knots
in ground effect. After the end of the field is a 20 foot drop to
Highway 1, and a 100 foot drop to the ocean.
Jenny wrestles the plane to landing speed for a soft field (we're
landing in a newly-planted leek field), keeps the nose up, and lands
in the farmer's field with 10 yards to spare, and without damaging
the plane.
I have to say one more thing about Jenny: When the engine failure
happened, she seemed a little surprised and said, "Oh, this is real!"
Like, huh! What an amusing surprise! And then told me to continue
with the emergency checklist and fly the plane. She was so cool under
pressure, she amazingly turned the whole emergency into a lesson.
Jenny is an ATP-rated pilot with more than 2000 hours logged. This
was her first engine failure. And she let me fly the plane (almost)
all the way down.
After we landed in this farmer's leek field, about five planes that
had been at Half Moon Bay came buzzing over the field to see if we
were okay. We were, meanwhile, trudging down through the fields to
a farmhouse about a quarter mile away to find a phone. (Our cell
phones didn't work out there.) We were trying to figure out how
to signal to the planes that we were okay. If we waved our arms
over our head, would that mean we were okay? Or injured? Turns
out, it didn't matter, because shortly the Coast Guard Hercules
came out to spot us (a huge four-engine turbo-prop plane), and we
still had no idea how to tell them that we were okay. And then my
cell phone rang, and it was the Coast Guard, but the signal sucked
so bad, all I could do was shout, "Thank you!! We're okay!! Okay!!
Thank you!!" By this time, the fire department, police, and sheriff
had found us, so we were surrounded by emergency vehicles in this
leek field. We asked the guy in the fire truck (who seemed to have
a really good radio) to tell the Coast Guard that we were okay.
Eventually, the Hercules went away. Probably after burning $10,000
worth of fuel. It's nice to know that squawking 7700 and declaring
"Mayday" brings out the cavalry. But holy crap!
Of course, this wouldn't have been complete without drawing the
news helicopters. We made the local evening news.
(Yeah, TiVo!)
And then the local reporters showed up, out in the middle of
nowhere, they wanted interviews. Actually, Jenny (my CFI) agreed
to talk on-camera, and was on the local news, too. Since she was
officially the PIC for the flight, I declined comment. :-)
After a while, UJ, the guy who runs the rental/school/FBO drove
about an hour to come pick us up. After everyone left, we took
the cowling off the plane. Turns out we blew a rod. There was
a huge hole about 8 inches by 5 inches in the top of the engine
case. The smoke we saw in the cabin during our emergency decent
was the oil spilling out over the engine and burning.
The engine failure had nothing to do with our spinning. It was
a total coincidence.
On Wednesday, Jenny and I went out to make sure my maneuvers were
within PTS. N571RJ was obviously unavailable. So I rescheduled
my checkride in N402KT.
Thursday morning. Checkride. I had planned on using N571RJ, but
it was still stuck in a leek field. So I took N402KT.
Everything went great.
Except I was still a bit high on the emergency landing.
I guess the DE cut me a break, because I'm now a
PP-ASEL :-)
Scott Grigsby
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Dave Swartz
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| Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2003 3:18 am Post subject: Re: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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Scott Grigsby <grigsby (AT) sonic (DOT) net> wrote
| Quote: | Hi all!
I'm a fairly regular lurker and very infrequent poster on
r.a.s. ..................................
The engine failure had nothing to do with our spinning. It was
a total coincidence.
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I don't know if the following has anything to do with your engine
failure but it is something to think about. The oil pressure in many
aircraft will go to zero during some spins. In an aircraft that has
this trait, extended periods of spinning (especially at power settings
above idle) would mean that the engine is being run without the oil
circulation it was designed for.
Spins are a complex subject and unfortunately continue to claim lives
of experienced (but non-spin trained) pilots. Two Pitts S2B's (each
with two aboard) were lost in unrelated spin accidents this April.
One of the flights was an instructional flight with a CFI.
Dave Swartz
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
http://www.FlightFantastic.US
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BTIZ
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2003 3:46 am Post subject: Re: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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wouldn't the spinning effects be in the POH, with limitations on number of
turns in the spin, or time between spins to allow the oil pressure to
recover be noted?
I'm sure some climbs back to altitude were required between some of the
spins,
interesting to note that he stated the engine "popped" when throttle was
reapplied to assist spin entry..
BT
"Dave Swartz" <djswartz (AT) bellsouth (DOT) net> wrote
| Quote: | Scott Grigsby <grigsby (AT) sonic (DOT) net> wrote
Hi all!
I'm a fairly regular lurker and very infrequent poster on
r.a.s. ..................................
The engine failure had nothing to do with our spinning. It was
a total coincidence.
I don't know if the following has anything to do with your engine
failure but it is something to think about. The oil pressure in many
aircraft will go to zero during some spins. In an aircraft that has
this trait, extended periods of spinning (especially at power settings
above idle) would mean that the engine is being run without the oil
circulation it was designed for.
Spins are a complex subject and unfortunately continue to claim lives
of experienced (but non-spin trained) pilots. Two Pitts S2B's (each
with two aboard) were lost in unrelated spin accidents this April.
One of the flights was an instructional flight with a CFI.
Dave Swartz
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
http://www.FlightFantastic.US
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Jeff Franks
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2003 8:34 pm Post subject: Re: Engine failure to checkride in 48 hours! |
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GREAT post Scott. Glad you made it back to tell us about it....
but...
it begs one question.....
What the heck is a leet?
lol
"Scott Grigsby" <grigsby (AT) sonic (DOT) net> wrote
| Quote: |
Hi all!
I'm a fairly regular lurker and very infrequent poster on
r.a.s. I started lessons last November, and finally got my
PP-ASEL certificate oh, about 10 days ago. It was a pretty
exciting week. As the subject implies, I had an engine
failure ("unscheduled landing" and my checkride within
about 48 hours. Fun! So here's my story.
So, this was Tuesday, June 24th. My checkride was scheduled
for Thursday morning, the 26th.
(Oh, wait. Just for reference, I fly out of KSQL, San Carlos,
California, on the San Francisco peninsula between San Mateo
and Palo Alto.)
Anyway, it was a beautiful, sunny Tuesday afternoon. I had about
85 hours under my belt in a Diamond Katana, and was getting ready for
my checkride. My CFI, Jenny, and I had been spending the last few
days doing maneuvers, diversions, making sure I was within PTS on
everything, and oral quizzes. I'd spent a couple days doing nothing
but steep turns, which I'd had a problem with, and thought I had
them nailed. I was still a little dodgy on my power-on (take off)
stalls, but kept practicing.
So, that Tuesday afternoon, I wanted to go up and do some spins. I'd
been bugging Jenny about doing them, because a) I think it's important
to have experienced them; b) they sounded kinda fun; and c) they're
not required by the FARs or PTS anymore, and I really, really, wanted
to try a few. Fortunately, the Katana is very difficult to spin and
very easy to recover, so Jenny agreed to go up a do a few of them.
(In her words: "I'm only good for about four or five, then I start
to get a bit queasy." :-)
After an uneventful 10-minute trip out to the practice area, we did
some steep turns, and I did a couple very good power-on stalls without
dropping a wing. (For those that know the area: we were about 20NM
SSE of Half Moon Bay (KHAF), a little north of Pigeon Point lighthouse
on the coast.)
Then it was time to do some spins. Jenny (my CFI) demonstrated the
first one. (Do CFIs do spins very much anymore? I'm under the
impression that they don't, so I felt very lucky to have the
opportunity to do some.)
Basically, it's just decreasing the throttle 'til you slow down
(no flaps!), adding a bit of throttle, pitching the nose *way* up
very quickly to induce an immediate stall and simultaneously stomping
on one of the rudders, which makes you flip over kinda upside down
and sideways. Keep the control stick all the way back, the rudder
all the way to the floor, and the plane flips around right-side-up,
spinning in a helix with zero airspeed. Very exciting and thrilling,
like a roller-coaster ride!
(Okay, for those veteran fliers (highflier, et alii) who think this
is a poor description of a spin, I agree. But it all happens so
quickly, it's hard to figure out quite what happens. And this was
the first time I'd tried it. So I encourage you to post a better
description of a spin; I'm sure we'd all benefit from it.)
Right, so, you're in a helical spin, nearly wings level, with zero
airspeed. Spinning in place. It's so cool. (Actually, I think the
correct answer is: It's horrible and deadly. But in the Katana,
you really have to make a serious effort to get it to spin, and if
you just let go of all the controls, the plane will recover on its
own. That's why it's a trainer.)
And as I'm sure we all have studied and know by heart, the recovery
procedure from a spin is: (repeat after me:) Control stick quickly
forward to neutral, throttle idle, ailerons neutral, determine
direction of spin, apply opposite rudder, wait for spin to stop,
(you should be in a dive at this point), and gently pull control
stick back to level off without exceeding Vne. Add throttle after
recovery.
(Once again: please feel free to correct me! Like I said, the Katana
*doesn't* want to spin, so basically letting go of the controls is
enough to get it to recover.)
After four of these spins, I was really getting the hang of it. So
fun! Better than the best amusement park ride. I'd decided I needed
to sign up for some aerobatic training. But we were both getting a
bit queasy after all the spinning, and decided that this would be
the last one.
So, back up to 4500' MSL. (About 4100' AGL.) One last spin. It
was great. After a couple complete revolutions, I recovered from the
spin, pulled back on the control stick to level off, airspeed dropped
from about 140 knots to 80 knots as I recovered and gained some
altitude. Increased throttle from idle and then... nothing. Heard
(or felt) a little *pop* or *bang* from the engine.
The engine starts running really rough; the plane is vibrating badly.
The throttle has no effect on the engine, and the plane starts vibrating
even more violently. Both my CFI (Jenny) and I are trying to figure out
what's wrong. And then the engine seizes up completely, and the prop
stops spinning. We're about 3000' AGL.
Since we're in the "practice area" for the nearby airports, there are
acres upon acres of farmer's fields below us to land in. But they're
sandwiched between the ocean and the hills, with only a few thousand
yards between. If we don't nail our landing, we'll careen off the end
of the farmer's field, either into Highway 1 or into the Pacific.
So, we're at 3000' AGL. We're both thinking about possibilities. We
pick out a landing spot that's a farmer's field with low growth (looks
like mostly dirt) and furrows that point toward the prevailing
wind (from the ocean).
I trim for best glide speed and aim towards our field. Jenny gets on
the radio and calls a Mayday on Half Moon Bay's CTAF. I squawk 7700.
Jenny contacts a fellow CFI at Half Moon Bay and requests that he call
San Carlos to report the problem. I aim for the field. We're still
over 2000' AGL at this point, and we've both decided we're not going
to be able to restart the engine.
I shut off the electric fuel pump, the ignition, and the fuel cut-off
valve.
Everything becomes very quiet. I mean, very quiet. We're basically in
a glider. No engine noise. It's actually very peaceful. The electric
flaps are still working, and the radios are still working, but there's
no sound other than the air sssshhhhhing over the wings.
I'm trying to maintain 70 knots and line us up for a landing in this
vegetable field.
And it's still very quiet.
And I think: I gotta take glider lessons!
And this whole time, Jenny is playing it very cool and letting me
fly the plane! Without an engine!
So I take us low over the east end of the field where we're going
to land, setting up for the approach, but I'm way too high! I'll
never make the field before I tumble off the far edge onto Highway 1
or into the Pacific! I'm far too low to do a 360, we just have to put
in full flaps and major slip...
Jenny takes over at 200' AGL. She throws in some major slips, S-turns,
nearly drags one of the wings on the ground trying to lose speed and
altitude, really wrenches the plane around trying to get us to landing
speed before the end of the field 1000 feet ahead.
And the end of the field is 500 feet ahead. We're doing about 60 knots
in ground effect. After the end of the field is a 20 foot drop to
Highway 1, and a 100 foot drop to the ocean.
Jenny wrestles the plane to landing speed for a soft field (we're
landing in a newly-planted leek field), keeps the nose up, and lands
in the farmer's field with 10 yards to spare, and without damaging
the plane.
I have to say one more thing about Jenny: When the engine failure
happened, she seemed a little surprised and said, "Oh, this is real!"
Like, huh! What an amusing surprise! And then told me to continue
with the emergency checklist and fly the plane. She was so cool under
pressure, she amazingly turned the whole emergency into a lesson.
Jenny is an ATP-rated pilot with more than 2000 hours logged. This
was her first engine failure. And she let me fly the plane (almost)
all the way down.
After we landed in this farmer's leek field, about five planes that
had been at Half Moon Bay came buzzing over the field to see if we
were okay. We were, meanwhile, trudging down through the fields to
a farmhouse about a quarter mile away to find a phone. (Our cell
phones didn't work out there.) We were trying to figure out how
to signal to the planes that we were okay. If we waved our arms
over our head, would that mean we were okay? Or injured? Turns
out, it didn't matter, because shortly the Coast Guard Hercules
came out to spot us (a huge four-engine turbo-prop plane), and we
still had no idea how to tell them that we were okay. And then my
cell phone rang, and it was the Coast Guard, but the signal sucked
so bad, all I could do was shout, "Thank you!! We're okay!! Okay!!
Thank you!!" By this time, the fire department, police, and sheriff
had found us, so we were surrounded by emergency vehicles in this
leek field. We asked the guy in the fire truck (who seemed to have
a really good radio) to tell the Coast Guard that we were okay.
Eventually, the Hercules went away. Probably after burning $10,000
worth of fuel. It's nice to know that squawking 7700 and declaring
"Mayday" brings out the cavalry. But holy crap!
Of course, this wouldn't have been complete without drawing the
news helicopters. We made the local evening news.
(Yeah, TiVo!)
And then the local reporters showed up, out in the middle of
nowhere, they wanted interviews. Actually, Jenny (my CFI) agreed
to talk on-camera, and was on the local news, too. Since she was
officially the PIC for the flight, I declined comment. :-)
After a while, UJ, the guy who runs the rental/school/FBO drove
about an hour to come pick us up. After everyone left, we took
the cowling off the plane. Turns out we blew a rod. There was
a huge hole about 8 inches by 5 inches in the top of the engine
case. The smoke we saw in the cabin during our emergency decent
was the oil spilling out over the engine and burning.
The engine failure had nothing to do with our spinning. It was
a total coincidence.
On Wednesday, Jenny and I went out to make sure my maneuvers were
within PTS. N571RJ was obviously unavailable. So I rescheduled
my checkride in N402KT.
Thursday morning. Checkride. I had planned on using N571RJ, but
it was still stuck in a leek field. So I took N402KT.
Everything went great.
Except I was still a bit high on the emergency landing.
I guess the DE cut me a break, because I'm now a
PP-ASEL :-)
Scott Grigsby
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