Safety of emergency landing on a road?

[eldeano]

I remember from my CFI days we taught people to pick out the poles when looking for power lines.  A lot of times in the desert where we had the large transmission lines all over the place you could pick out the pads the towers sat on. The terrain in the Southwest where we were, it was more a matter of which road you were going to pick!  The thing with the interstate is that if you flow with traffic you are going about the same speed as they are on the approach, someone will see you and slow down the traffic.  Sean Tucker put his plane down on a semi busy freeway in the Southern California area in this manner, when he wasnt sure about how much fuel he had.  That does however present a higher risk to people on the ground if you are in a remote area with other options, but not if you are in an urban area.

I think every situation is different, but is a good thing to discuss and think about before it happens in hopes of being better prepared if it does.  

[johnggreen]

In my fifty-one years of flying (I soloed at age 11, no not legally), I have not once heard an instructor, designated examiner, or legitimately experience pilot suggest that a road is preferable to a field when given the option.  I can assure you that if I sent a student to our local designated examiner, Brad Stanback, and he picked a road over in the engine out portion of the exam, he would be failed out of hand and I would be severely chastised.

FAA publication, Airplane Flying Handbook, FAA-H-8083, doesn't even speak of using a road as an emergency landing option.  It's free on line at www.faa.gov, read it.

As far as seeing power lines, "in a pig's eye".  A sevice line, such as runs across my ranch for 4000', is made up of two single ought wires (smaller than my little finger).  Against a background of grass, in many angles of the sun's rays, you often couldn't see them 200' away, much less 1,000' or 5,000'.

I have had three really close calls in my 6000 plus hours.  One was getting vectored into a thunderstorm at night by a half-asleep controller and the other two were power lines I didn't see until about two seconds from impact.

One respondent made a very intelligent comment.  When the engine quits, the airplane belongs to my insurance company.

JG

[DaV8or]

I think it's impossible to come up with a set rule for site selection. It really just depends on the terrain. In flat farm land where I now find myself, I would pick I good road from altitude. As has been metioned here already, out here, the roads are accompanied by flat fields. If I get down low and the road turns sour, I would side step to the field. If the roads look complicated, then just go for a field or opening. There were things posted about road landings gone bad, but just as everything else, there are plenty of succesful road landings out there too along with field landings gone wrong. The death of the ferry pilot moving the Mooney to Austrailia from Hollister comes to mind.

It all comes down to there is no hard fast, set rules for site selection. It all depends.

[Carl S]

I have a friend that used to think he could spot power lines also. He hit just such a line with his wheels during an emergency landing and is with us today because of favorable physics, luck, or the hand of God. His plane was totaled and his passenger injured.

I think I'll take the field if I can find one suitable for landing and let the Insurance company buy my next palne. (The thing that scares me there is landing in a field of corn. I imagine those ears would act like maces at 60 mph.)

[N601RX]

When I 1st started flying powered parachutes several years ago most of my flying was low and slow playing around over fields and pastures.  The power lines were always easy to spot when over a green pasture, but were almost invisible against a plowed field background.

[fantom]

TBM-700 choose the Florida Turnpike this afternoon trying to get back into my home drome, KHWO. It's about the ONLY open place to put it down just east of the field. Test flight after maintenance work. Pilot and mechanic passenger with minor injuries, no one else hurt. The Turnpike isn't real busy at 1 PM.

Another amazing and lucky off airport landing.

[orangemtl]

Emergency landings are like the real estate market:  Location, Location, Location.  The gentleman from MS notes the likelihood of failing an exam should a student choose a road in Mississippi. I understand completely and agree.

In AZ, in contrast: it depends, and that extends I believe to the entire continent. In AZ, we have deserts. A lot of them.  So long as you're not around Flagstaff (pine forests), or right over the Phoenix metro, you'll as likely as not be able to find reasonably flat ground, although good luck finding it w/o rocks gullies, etc.  Roads would rarely be a necessity, w/the possible exception of a gravel road across otherwise barren desert.                                                                                                                          I plan to figure out all my emergency options within 100 miles of home, because we all spend a lot more time around home base than elsewhere.

Engine out over pine forests in the Northwest?  Roadway, here I come, if I'm lucky enough to see one.

Colorado Rockies?  Well, then I'm probably going to die.

Best answer?  Live somewhere very flat and uninhabited. Not exactly a useful suggestion, however.

[carusoam]

Is no myth safe on this board....?

so much for the single engine turbine being my bullet proof, favorite choice of power....

Best regards,

-a-

[aviatoreb]

Quote: orangemtl

Best answer?  Live somewhere very flat and uninhabited. Not exactly a useful suggestion, however.

[Dale]

Very timely topic. I got to KHWO just after the TBM went down. At the airport I was told the engine failed while heading west to runway 27 left at KHWO; it had just left Opa Locka Airport which is just south of KHWO.. No way to get to the airport runway. The turnpike was the only logical choice, absolutely nothing else was even close to being reasonable or survivable. Around the KHWO airport there are practically zero fields. The only choices are roads and maybe a lake or two, until you either get out west near the everglades or east along the coastline. Other than that the largest open field is going to be a baseball field or a park with trees. This argument is totaly dependent on where you are when the engine quits. The best choice is the one you can walk away from. Therefore any argument that you would take one landing area over another is totally dependent on what is available when the engne quits, your altitude and how much time you have to make a tough choice under pressure with the aircraft quickly sinking. Many, many of these engine out cases are not a matter of great choices that you can sit and pick and choose a field over a road. Many are going to be simply the best choice you can make under pressure with limited time, especially if you are low and slow.

My instructor was an old Air Force instructor and his preference (as we were training in a 172) was, given the time and location of the engine out, was to put it down on a golf course. He felt that a golf course offered many advantages, no cars, generally fewer people and many of the holes would be over a 1000 feet long, i.e. 400 yard par 4's or even longer par 5's. Generally no trees in the middle of the fairway, a reasonably flat and compact surface and if you had no choice you made sure you aimed your aircraft to clip off the wings and avoid a direct collision with the cockpit. I always thought about that when flying in Florida in the 1970's when things weren't as congested as they are today. Problem is now, there is never a convenient golf course around when you need one.

[rob]

http://www.fox6now.com/news/witi-20111017-watertown-plane-down,0,1783436.story

And by the way, John, I'd be careful when speaking for Brad.

[rob]

double post