Do brief emergency return

[hais]

We all brief EFATO. Do you also brief emergency return? I have a tale where that would have saved the day. I ended up crashing the Ovation. Here's the chain of events.

1. Transponder INOP. Needed to ferry the airplane a short 15 minutes flight to get it repaired. Home airport is controlled, and the surrounding airspace is very busy with several control zones and training areas. Even when flying outside of control zones, we routinely get traffic advisories. Without a transponder, I assessed the threat to be loss of separation. My mitigation was to fly at 100kn with A/P to pay extra attention to traffic scanning. That concern became a factor to what happened later.

2. I called ATC on the phone to coordinate the flight. Tower was kind enough to call the other towers to coordinate. I calculated my approach speed for the destination and planned for 70kn. This also became a factor.

3. I briefed EFATO, got my clearance, and tower advised of winds gusting 10-18. I didn't pay much attention to that because I'd be at a safe speed on initial climb out. In my opinion, this was my biggest mistake.

4. Shortly after rotation, the door came open. Now I'm no stranger to doors opening in flight. But this time, the noise was so loud I couldn't hear anything. Remember (1) above? Now I'm concerned ATC can't see me and I can't communicate. I'm wondering, do they have primary radar? Can they warn other traffic? Should I continue and fly through a narrow busy corridor and an equally busy training area without communication? I felt a mid-air.risk was high and I should return. I tried to call tower, but I couldn't hear anything. I'm thinking, what now, I can't just change the plan and rejoin the pattern without anyone knowing....and I guessed there were probably 5-6 aircrafts in the pattern which is typical at this field. So I decided to level off at 600ft, stay below the pattern, and join downwind. I thought that was a good plan...600ft is clear of obstacles and probably no one else would be flying that low. 

5. I continue to try to call ATC and announce my intention. But since I can't hear, I wonder what next. Do I land without clearance? I can't climb to try a NORDO procedure...or maybe they do see me? I decided to land without clearance - at that point I felt I was a mid-air.hazard. 

6. As I'm configuring to land, I faintly heard tower saying I was number one. Big relief. So I turned cross wind and final. Remember (2) above? Now I'm focused on my speed. I see I'm 68kn, so I pitched to get back to 70kn. Then I see I'm way too low. I routinely do circle to land at about 600ft. But that's always planned, so I take care not to descend until final. Here I did mistake #2, descended as if I was at normal pattern altitude, so ended up too low. I decided to go around. No problem, right?

7. So I'm adding power slowly while pushing the yoke to prevent the nose from raising. Everything looks and feels normal. And then suddenly, airplane is sinking. Took me by surprise. At that moment, I remembered the wind gust...but too late. No altitude to recover. Then I remembered the stories of prop strikes at go round...I decided to cushion the crash with power ...and prevent getting airborne again. Airplane came to a stop a few feet short of the runway threshold.

I uttered a few expletives, walked out, called tower on the phone, uttered a few more expletives...and waited for emergency responders.

Pilot: not hurt.

Airplane: prop strike, sheared landing gear (all three),  bent flaps and elevators. Otherwise in good shape. No structural damage. She will fly again. 

So I made a few mistakes, but only if I had carried extra speed, the go around would have been normal. ATC probably did mention the winds, but I didn't hear. If I had planned for an emergency return, I would have remembered to carry the extra speed. 

[N201MKTurbo]

Aviate, navigate, communicate.

If I’m in an emergency situation, especially at a controlled field, the last thing I’m going to worry about is traffic and ATC. That’s what they are there for. To figure out what’s going on a keep everyone safe. It sounds like they were doing their job, when they said you were number one for the runway without you asking.

I would have done a normal pattern entry at pattern altitude like at an uncontrolled field and announced my turns and such hoping the tower and other airplanes can hear you. Just like at an uncontrolled field, your best chance of seeing and avoiding other traffic is when everybody is where they are expected to be. Also remember, it is your job to see and avoid other traffic, it is their job to see and avoid you. Especially in an emergency, you shouldn’t be worried about doing their jobs.

Im glad it worked out as well as it did and everybody is safe.

[ragedracer1977]

Your concern for a threat that didn’t really exist led to you giving up on your primary duty - AVIATE.

Really, that was your only duty. You didn’t have to communicate. You didn’t have to navigate. You never left the pattern.  
 

Your primary job is to fly the airplane.  You don’t need radios to do that. Look outside. I’m sorry your plane was destroyed, I’m glad you weren’t injured. You reached in with both hands and grabbed a pile out of your luck bucket.  Shove that into your “I learned about flying from this” bucket and use it.

[EricJ]

Glad you're okay and able to share the story.    That appears to me to be the usual Swiss cheese accident, where multiple unusual factors piled up to conspire against you.   Can happen to any of us, and I'm glad yours wasn't worse.

FWIW, and for anybody else in a similar situation, if you can't hear but you can transmit, it's always okay to transmit anyway, and end your transmission with "in the blind" or "transmitting in the blind".   That tells whoever can hear you what your intentions are and that you probably won't be able to hear them.    Since you didn't have a transponder you couldn't squawk 7600, so that's a way around that.  

+1 that distressed aircraft always have right of way, so when there's a situation with an increasing number of Swiss cheese holes, do what you need to do.   It's one of those times when it is better to apologize than to ask permission.

Thanks again for sharing.   It sounds to me like you did a lot of things right, and I'm sure you don't need anybody else to beat you up about the preventable parts.

[midlifeflyer]

On 11/10/2023 at 8:33 AM, ragedracer1977 said:

Your concern for a threat that didn’t really exist led to you giving up on your primary duty - AVIATE.

Really, that was your only duty. You didn’t have to communicate. You didn’t have to navigate. You never left the pattern.  
 

Your primary job is to fly the airplane.  You don’t need radios to do that. Look outside. I’m sorry your plane was destroyed, I’m glad you weren’t injured. You reached in with both hands and grabbed a pile out of your luck bucket.  Shove that into your “I learned about flying from this” bucket and use it.

@hais, I'm sorry for your loss of a great airplane and I'm  sure you have been kicking yourself mercilessly, but  this is an important lesson for everyone. Having had a real emergency ("partial" loss of power) on departure from a busy controlled airport*, and a separate NORDO landing at the same airport, I have to agree with this. 

It appears you  let a relative non-event become devolve into an accident with concerns over things that were far less important than basic aircraft control. I don't agree that communication was unimportant, but it really only needed to be one way - you stating clearly that you had a situation that required an immediate return to the airport and that you might not be able to hear. I might even use the E-card (I did). Not because of the door but exactly because of the need to change your plans in busy airspace when your communication capability was limited. The E word is essentially telling ATC you are taking priority. Even more importantly, it gives ATC the ability to move other traffic out of your way, avoiding the issue that seems to have distracted you the most. It is an essential and severely underutilized tool.

Side question: what kind of headset were you using that couldn't overcome the noise of an open door?

 

*busy controlled airport. I usually look it up when I say this and even I was surprised. 275,000 operations in 2023, making it the 17th busiest airport in the US. In past years it was about 25th. Not bad for a Class D.

[Danb]

I was going to explain what would or should have done, not being a 

bully and piling on I decided not to. I’m glad you wrote and explained your thoughts and procedures that led to a bad/good outcome. You’ve provided very useful information to us to provoke thought which should initiate what we should have done in similar circumstances. Many have opined what went wrong instead I hope anyway we will use your outline of circumstances to better our own ability to aviate under extreme distressful circumstances

Best of all your ok, insurance is for a reason. 

 

 

 

[hais]

On 11/13/2023 at 4:22 AM, midlifeflyer said:

Side question: what kind of headset were you using that couldn't overcome the noise of an open door?

Bose A20. As I mentioned, this happened to me a couple of times while wearing the ASA passive set. I didn't have trouble then. 

Another lesson is that the mic is good, that you can be heard. If you didn't know that, you wouldn't assume anyone can hear you if you can't hear yourself. 

[hais]

On 11/10/2023 at 6:42 AM, EricJ said:

+1 that distressed aircraft always have right of way, so when there's a situation with an increasing number of Swiss cheese holes, do what you need to do. 

I didn't feel I was in distress, I'm still not sure that was an emergency that warranted priority handling. There was no rush to land, only the need to stay out of the way. 

[midlifeflyer]

7 hours ago, hais said:

Bose A20. As I mentioned, this happened to me a couple of times while wearing the ASA passive set. I didn't have trouble then. 

Another lesson is that the mic is good, that you can be heard. If you didn't know that, you wouldn't assume anyone can hear you if you can't hear yourself. 

Hmmm. I can see that being a limitation of ANR headsets that have limited passive ability.

On talking, I might not be heard, but my assumption would be that they would hear me. Even without an open door, GA cockpits are a noisy place. Thats why we wear headsets to begin with and pay top dollar for active noise reduction models.  Being heard above that noise is what “noise cancelling” mics on aviation headsets are all about. You may have sounded like you were in a wind tunnel, but chances are you would be heard.