Listening to Engine Failure in IMC

[201er]

Sunday, we were flying to Pittsburgh area. While dodging areas of heavy rain near Philipsburg, I had the displeasure of listening to a Skylane lose the engine in some pretty heavy IMC.

New York Center was vectoring me and several other airplanes between areas of heavy non-convective precipitation. It was pretty hairy. First he tried sending me south around it, then further south, then changed his mind and said I'd be better around the north. I experienced the lag on my ADSB cause every time he said he received a radar update, it was at least 5 minutes before I would get to see the same. There were only a few other airplanes on the frequency but the radio was bustling with reroutes, pireps, and questions.

ATC calls an airplane and the reply was to standby, "I'm having some engine difficulties." The skylane stated he would need to deviate and ATC gave him vectors to KRVL. The guy was IFR so he must have been at least 6000ft high. The radio went silent. Although we all needed ATC assistance dealing with our weather, everyone knew this guy needed it most. What started with hang on a sec, I have some issues, turned into a complete engine failure in minutes. The guy reported that he was descending at 400fpm at 80 knots.

I was nervous thinking about his conundrum but I had my own issues to deal with. I was passing through some heavy rain and the turbulence was pretty bad. I had to focus on flying my own airplane and deal with navigating the weather myself.

There was the odd time ATC would call a handoff or give a necessary vector but all other attention was on the cessna. I broke out of some heavy rain and had a perfect opening to turn back on course before more weather. ATC was in the middle of talking to the guy with trouble so I made the turn and kept my mouth shut. He had me on radar, he knows where I am, I can see out the window. Better be quiet and let ATC focus where it counts most. When there was a long quiet moment I just quickly called that I was in the clear and direct.

ATC reported radar contact lost but still maintained another minute of radio communication with the guy. He gave the guy the names of some fixes and ILS frequency. While the controller remained calm and offered some help, I believe he did a poor job. When I got out of the rain and was in the clear, I had the poor Cessna drivers' predicament going through my head. He was less than twenty miles away going through the same weather as me. I wondered what I would do under the same circumstance. It made me realize that if I were in a full on power-off glide with just a few minutes to work with, ILS frequencies and fixes would not be helpful. I would want specific vectors to the airport or better yet runway.

I am somewhat familiar with the airport the Cessna was headed toward. It is located in a valley that runs between two mountain ridges. Being set on a E-W heading, even if you miss the runway, there are plenty of flat valley fields. However, aiming N-S there are steep ridges on either end. Flying an engine out glide in IMC is no place to be thinking about terrain, runway direction, ILS, and navigation. Just staying calm and keeping the plane going is task enough. I wished ATC would have been more specific such as "turn right heading 180, continue south 2 more miles and turn left heading 090. That will set you up on a straight in final for the airport and keep you over the valley away from terrain."

On the other hand, I wondered if the pilot made a mistake in not declaring an emergency. Although everyone could tell it was an emergency, nobody officially called it one. I wonder if ATC would act any differently or follow a different protocol had it been declared. In the beginning the guy was merely implying that he was having an engine issue and just wanted to land some place close. This could just as well be the engine running hotter than usual, a bad plug, lost mag, or other non-emergency failure. ATC was accommodating and pilots on the frequency yielded airtime on the radio, but it was never a definite emergency.

About a minute after radar contact was lost, there was not another word from the Cessna. ATC tried giving him a couple of calls but no answer. He tried again on guard, same deal. I wondered if an air to air relay would be helpful but ATC didn't ask. Another Mooney pushing through the same weather offered to relay and tried. He came back to ATC with a somber "no contact, really sorry." ATC gave him a handoff and while accepting it, the Mooney driver said "Contact Cleveland Center on 12x.x. God bless that guy."

It felt like getting punched in the guts. Nobody talked. Everyone knew what happened but wouldn't say anything. It was devastating to think about. But there were still planes in the air so ATC had to work with them and the pilots had to continue onward. The only relief I could find Saturday night was finding no news and the same on Sunday. When he stopped answering, it could only mean two things. A good outcome or a bad one. No news was good news. But it in no way guaranteed the outcome was good.

Today, flying back over the same area I asked NY Center if they knew the outcome of the engine loss two days back. To my tremendous relief, they reported that he made it in ok!

 

Edited August 23, 2016 by 201er
Sunday, not Saturday

[Marauder]

Mike -- thanks for sharing the story. It is sobering. Some of us have gone through similar events and it opens up your eyes to what flying single pilot, single engine in IMC means. People want to know why I want 1000' below me when I am in IMC. For the exact reason that Skylane guy would want it. To have at least a chance of finding a suitable place to put down.

Glad he made it. 

[glafaille]

Marauder-

I agree 100%!  Although I have over 15,000 hours, my personal minimums in my single engine airplane is generally 1000 - 3.  I want a reasonble chance of picking a landing spot after breaking out in the event of an engine failure.

[DXB]

Very glad this guy found the right combination of skill and luck to not become an accident statistic. At the same time, it bothers me that the engine failures in piston singles that do not lead to accidents are not reportable and thus do not get investigated. This leaves us with limited info on this most dreaded of mechanical issues in flight.  

[Seth]

Mike-

I was holding my breath reading that.  Glad the guy made it.  This first hand account of assistance provided helps prepare everyone who reads the best way to understand how to request help should we ever unfortunately encounter a similar situation.

Thanks for posting.  Glad you go through the weather okay.

-Seth

[gsengle]

Marauder-

I agree 100%!  Although I have over 15,000 hours, my personal minimums in my single engine airplane is generally 1000 - 3.  I want a reasonble chance of picking a landing spot after breaking out in the event of an engine failure.

Ditto. I'm sure many of us remember this heartbreaking crash.

http://www.liveatc.net/forums/atcaviation-audio-clips/bonanza-5626d-crash-plainville-ma-2015-06-28/

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Seth]

Just now, DXB said:

Very glad this guy found the right combination of skill and luck to not become an accident statistic. At the same time, it bothers me that the engine failures in piston singles that do not lead to accidents are not reportable and thus do not get investigated. This leaves us with limited info on this most dreaded of mechanical issues in flight.  

My gut which could be very wrong with this one, is Carb Ice.  IMC weather, heavy rain, Carb 182.  It's a stereotype with O-470 powered 182's, but there's a reason for it.  It was potentially the cause of a 182 crash and hull loss - no fatalities -  (a 182 I used to rent!).

-Seth

[midlifeflyer]

4 hours ago, Seth said:

My gut which could be very wrong with this one, is Carb Ice.  IMC weather, heavy rain, Carb 182.  It's a stereotype with O-470 powered 182's, but there's a reason for it.  It was potentially the cause of a 182 crash and hull loss - no fatalities -  (a 182 I used to rent!).

-Seth

Having experienced loss of power in the clouds due to carb ice myself, I had exactly the same thought as you. 

I also had great assistance from ATC in heading to a nearby airport without hitting something along the way. ATC and I also communicated via other aircraft when I went too low for direct communications.

[aviatoreb]

10 hours ago, Marauder said:

Mike -- thanks for sharing the story. It is sobering. Some of us have gone through similar events and it opens up your eyes to what flying single pilot, single engine in IMC means. People want to know why I want 1000' below me when I am in IMC. For the exact reason that Skylane guy would want it. To have at least a chance of finding a suitable place to put down.

Marauder, the same exact is my stated IMC mins in SEP for the same reason.

Mike do you know what were the ceilings below you?

Edited August 23, 2016 by aviatoreb

[bradp]

There was some interesting weather over the weekend. I decided to bag a flight the next day (Pittsburgh to Princeton) with IMC and a cold front moving through with that embedded moderate stuff that you don't know if it will develop vertically or stay at FL200.  It ended up developing into lots of embedded convective activity- a definite no go for me   

In addition during summer weather consider going up high in IMC.  It gives you that many more options should the fan go quiet.  Bag the victor airways if possible and fly your route over airports - I do both these when flying VFR over rough terrain (WVa mountains for instance).  

[201er]

7 hours ago, aviatoreb said:

Marauder, the same exact is my stated IMC mins in SEP for the same reason.

Mike do you know what were the ceilings below you?

It was raining pretty hard so not sure there was a distinction. The terrain was rolling ridges and valleys so the ridge top may have been in the clouds and the valley with a ceiling.
 

No wx at RVL, here are the METARS from nearby University Park. Time of story was approximately 11:40AM EST.

KUNV 211506Z 19008KT 1SM RA BR OVC013 22/21 A2981

KUNV 211553Z 23008KT 3SM RA BR BKN013 OVC030 21/21

 

A clarification, the flight I wrote about occurred on Sunday.

Bradp, I too scrapped the Sunday flight home and went Monday. The weather you were worried about is what I went through earlier in the day going eastbound and the weather the guy went down in. I was too tired to go back through it for a second time!

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N4361H/history/20160821/1325Z/1N7/9G1

Edited August 23, 2016 by 201er

[jetdriven]

How was the ride in that torrential rain?

[bradp]

By the time the system hit eastern PA it was a line ahead of the cold front.  I had to look up the squall depiction on the prognostic to say yup they are forecasting a squall line.  

Good news is:

1) Cessna lived to fly another day

2) We have good weather in Pittsburgh this week behind the front!!

@201er is 9G1 the airport they used to call Rock?  It looked like it was in some sort of stage of construction / development the last time I looked it up.  What's the lowdown now?

[wishboneash]

Was flying back from Albany, NY to California on Sunday afternoon commercially. Southwest flight from Baltimore which was to be our aircraft out of Albany was sitting on the ground at BWI for an hour due to the weather. I guess it must have been really bad. I was looking at the radar it had a lot of yellow and red. Luckily my connection from (Midway) MDW to OAK was delayed (probably done deliberately, as all flights to the West coast were) to avoid a major hassle for everyone with connecting flights from the East. MDW weather was fine. Glad this one turned out OK for everyone.

[201er]

1 hour ago, bradp said:

@201er is 9G1 the airport they used to call Rock?  It looked like it was in some sort of stage of construction / development the last time I looked it up.  What's the lowdown now?

Yup, that's the one. Its is essentially abandoned. Not a soul at the airport. 3 junkers tied out. No instrument approaches, no night operations, no fuel, no fbo. It's a runway and a couple of parking spots on the ramp. That's it.

 

2 hours ago, jetdriven said:

How was the ride in that torrential rain?

It was mostly light to moderate precip. Didn't spend more than 5 minutes in the heavy. It was mostly light with occasional moderate turbulence. Not fun but was doable. But I wouldn't wanna be the guy dealing with an emergency in those conditions!