Precautionary and Emergency Landings

[jlunseth]

I have made two emergency landings, one being a declared emergency to ATC (Canada).  Both were loss of oil pressure for completely separate reasons.  One was a sliver of plastic that stopped the quick drain from completely sealing, so we blew out 5 qts., saw low oil pressure on the panel, declared the emergency and throttled the engine back to save it for possible use in landing, then descended from the flight levels to a spot perfect power off landing.  The other was an oil breather line that froze during ground ops, saw the issue on takeoff and immediately turned around and landed.  Rural airport, Class G, the difference between the two was that when we came out of IMC during the Canadian landing ATC had the runway all lit up for us with crash trucks, so it was easy to find.  The Class G I had to find myself.

I have made a few precautionary landings.  Loss of alternator, loss of vacuum pump, both in VMC and nonevents.

None of them created life safety issues.  I was well trained for the emergencies, and the training kicked in.

My PPL instructor now flies freight in twin engines.  He has recently made to single engine approaches in IMC due to complete failure of one engine.  My Examiner for my PPL was the Chief Pilot at the school when I was there.  A few months after the checkride she made an off-airport in a J because the throttle cable stuck.  She and a flight instructor were doing maneuvers and the cable stuck at a low power setting.  It was winter, they put it down in a farmers field, and other than the stuck cable there were no issues at all with the aircraft.

Good and recurrent training is the key.  You can't put your head in the sand and expect nothing is ever going to happen.  I have found myself much more likely to simply turn around and go back home, or divert, if something I do not like shows up on the panel.  Your chances are always much better if you have some power, even if it means you may sacrifice the engine.

[Bennett]

Reading all these posts reminded me of still other situations I have encountered that could be considered emergencies and resulted in unscheduled landings.  Two proved the worth of back-up electric vacuum pumps. Twice while IMC in my M20K 261 convesion, I lost the primary vacuum pump. In both instances as the AI rolled over, and the vacuum  gauge dropped to zero, I turned on the electric back-up pump, and then landed at the nearest large airport to have the primary pump replaced.  Redundancy is great to have, but I didn't want to continue with what I considered to be a back-up only vacuum pump.  My current Mooney also has an electric back-up vacuum pump, and the "Lifesaver" electric AI (with buillt-in battery backup).

I also had a real emergency situations in a Piper 235 (the older version of the Piper Dakota). This aircraft has 4 separate fuel tanks (not like the Mooney Monroy long range conversion with interconnected tanks) for a total of 84 gallons, and a "Rube Goldberg" selector switch that was always problematic at best. I was a partner in this aircraft for about 5 years, and during this time period we had the selector switch rebuilt at least three times. None of the partners would trust it fully, and each of us had one problem or another with switching tanks. Piper changed the fuel system design for the Dakota, and just used two tanks. Piper did not have any new fuel selector switches in their parts inventory, and so we kept having the old one rebuilt.  The selector was on the floor of the cockpit between pilot and co-pilot, but the actual switch was under the rear seats, connected by push rods. Once on takoff, at about 500' the engine stopped, but I had the fuel pump on, and immediately switched tanks, which brought the engine back to life after about 10 heart stopping seconds or more (all tanks were full, two aboard), and 500' in a Piper 235 was too low for the "impossible turn". But this was not the scary incident/emergency.  Several weeks later I was flying that Piper to Little River airport in CA, and it was routine until about 5 miles from the airport and about 3500' AGL, I had been flying using the tip tanks, switching every 15 minutes to maintain roll balance (the Piper 235 is really sensitive to unbalanced wings), and by now the tip tanks were low, so I put on the fuel pump, and switched to one of the mains. About 10 seconds later, the engine burbled and stopped. I thought "here we go again", so I switched tanks to the other main - no luck!  I tried all four tanks, but except for an occasional brief burst of reduced power, the engine wouldn't run. THe Piper 235 is not a Mooney in glide, but I was high enough to make the airport, and finally slip her onto the runway without any damage. Fortunately Little River was built in WWII for emergecy landings by patrol aircraft, so like all six of these (including Little River, Camerillo, Half Moon Bay, Oxnard) the runways are 5200" by 150' of good concrete. Of course as soon as we were on the ground, I was able to restart the engine, and all four tanks could be used. I warily flew her home, and that was my last flight in that particular aircraft. I soon sold my interest, and moved on to other airplanes.

What strikes me about this thread is that so many of us have had true problems, but have managed to bring the situations to satisfactory outcomes. To me, this says a great deal about training and experience.  I hope the new generation of instructors can impart the importance of flying with the "what if" mentality.  I was fortunate that my main iinstructor for Instrument and Commercial was/is a crusty old guy who has done it all in all sorts of aircraft, in many roles.  Mentally, for me he is always in the right seat reminding me to stop being sloppy, and to not be complacent. I like his attitude about IPCs (ICCs).  His test is that to successfully pass, he would have to trust me to fly low approaches to minimums with his daughter in the aircraft - and he really loves his daughter. Thank you Jim.

[DaV8or]

Quote: Mazerbase

Really?  Considering that these have all turned out so well implys a degree of safety that most non-pilots don't understand.  The view I get from most non-pilots is event = fatality.  From this list, clearly not so.  The vast majority of these don't even include anything being bent.

[jetdriven]

deleted

 

[Hank]

Quote: DaV8or

Really?  Considering that these have all turned out so well implys a degree of safety that most non-pilots don't understand.  The view I get from most non-pilots is event = fatality.  From this list, clearly not so.  The vast majority of these don't even include anything being bent.

[Bennett]

Just to keep my posts in perspective, these incidents took place over quite a few decades of flying, and they don't include the minor stuff like asymetric deployment of speed brakes in icing conditions - my fault). The 261 conversion Mooney was flown hard; much of the time in the FL230-FL270 hostile environment, and was used primarily for long distance flights (Monroy long range tanks-115 gallons), often overwater and to Alaska and Mexico.  I cannot fault the maintenance on this airplane in spite of fuel pump and vacuum pump failures. The airplane was maintained by LASAR, and the Mod Works, on a "no deferred maintenace" program, but pumps do fail. My routine was to change vacuum pumps at 500 hour intervals, but failures were not in any pattern I could determine. The fuel boost pump on this engine was designed by Continental (the primary designer of the boost pump was the one who rebuilt the pump after my Palm Springs landing), and they are more complex than most. I was not the only Mooney owner to have problems with this type of pump, and I know  one well known Mooney guru who had to fly in ground (water, in this case) effect for many, many miles to return to his home base. I owned this airplane for about 16 years or so, and during that time I had three different engines - the original that was replaced  (at about 900 hours) by a brand new engine at the time of the 261 conversion, and the custom engine that LASAR built for me, using the core of the 261 conversion engine; this after the factory new engine was ruined by the use of Mobile 1 fully synthetic oil. (Mobile paid for most of the rebuild).

The Piper 235 with the fuel selector problem was maintained by a master mechanic for United Airlines. His workmanship was of the highest caliber, and later he maintained other aircraft for me.  

Even with the best maintenace, "stuff" does break or fail. Being prepared for these types of failures comes from experinence and ongoing study and learning, and as much redundency in equipment as can be afforded. Flying has its risks, but to me at least, these are acceptable risks. Every flight can be a learning experience if you let it be so. I started flying in 1956, and yet there isn't a flight that I don't manage to do someting a bit on the dumb side, but realizing this, and making corrections equips one for the  $%%$@% situations that arise from time to time. I believe that life has everyday risks that we simply accept as being part of living. We are fortunate in flying that there is so much material available in the form of courses, books, web programs, computer simulations, iPad/iPhone Apps, and forums such as this one, to help minimize our flying risks. I think one of the great aspects of flying is the continous striving to gain and apply knowlege to the process. 

[SkyPilot]

My worst one was only a partial engine failure. But I was flying a wheel-ski equipped C180 and taking off north-bound at CZGR (Little Grand Rapids, Manitoba). Just after becoming airborn and at about 50' in the air, (about halfway down the runway because we added power slowly on gravel), my prop started surging. It was already too late to abort and there is a large open set of rapids at the north end of the runway with a set of power lines across the top of them.  Two things: I didn't immediately recognize it as an engine failure, I was thinking prop governor (actually I was probably just thinking "Oh S---!!!), and second, I would have ended up in the freezing rapids had I aborted because of lack of runway length.  I struggled to clear the power lines at 70 mph but made it by about 5 or 10 feet (seemed like 3'). The prop surged madly.  As the water narrowed and became thin ice, I put it down in the same general direction of takeoff, at which point the engine quit entirely.  It was then the shaking (mine) began.

It was scary getting out onto the ice. I had some gas line antifreeze on board and put a few in each tank.  I got a bunch of crud and ice out of the sumps and kept draining until I was clean.  As soon as I could I got off that thin ice and back over the thick stuff.  On the way back to base, my engine quit entirely and I dead-stick landed a couple of hundred yards from my front door.

We cleaned the fuel system and figured we had it licked. Then I had one more total failure at 400' before bringing it in for maintenance 165 miles southwest.

I had checked my sumps before take-off originally. They had contamination but had come clean. Contamination was fairly routine up north, when fueling from rusty old drums. We always filtered twice. Once at the tanks and once through a chamios filter at the wing.  The airplane had been sunk the summer before.  We found that the rubber bladder fuel tanks had wrinkles in them and was holding back and junk and ice until the wings rocked at which point it would scoot over the wrinkle and block the screen. The tanks were old and required replacement.

 I'm a little anti-bladder now...

[jetdriven]

Mooney bladders don't get wrinkles.  Search this board and you wont find evidence of that. The bags are too small and stiff, at least compared to a Cessna. Those even had an AD to shake the wings to free trapped water, becuase its such an issue.

I actually think wet tanks are the ideal solution, airliners have them and they rarely leak. Even out 1900s had them and I never squawked them. However, they do leak in a Mooney and are expensive to fix.

[rainman]

Several months ago I declared an emergency for smoke in the cockpit of my Mooney 231, I've previously posted this so I'll skip the whole story. Bottom line it was a lot of smoke that came from the burned out resistor to the low boost pump (defective switch, burned out pump).  I shut off the master and cracked the door. My Garmin 696 gave me situational awareness, and my hand held radio was my comm. San Antonio approach had just handed me over to Stinson tower  when it occured and the controller was very cool and professional and as a low time pilot that really helped keep me calm.  Ray

[Dale]

I had two incidents in my M20E.  First one was on a takeoff in Georgia.  My passenger, unbeknownst to me, had opened the baggage door to get something out and didn't properly secure the baggage door.  It opened just as I began to rotate the airplane for takeoff.  It was not a big deal as I had a lot of runway and just set it back down. It was a bit disconcerting because for the first few seconds you hear a bang and see a lot of wind in the cockpit but don't know what it is from.

The second incident was on a flight from Palm Beach to Gainesville.  I had just switched fuel tanks a few minutes before and then the engine quit.  Very scary when that engine is not running.  My instructor always said first fly the airplane, however, my first move was to switch fuel tanks and turn on the boost pump.  I had to have done this within seconds but it felt like it was forever and then the enginer came back on.  I was almost right over Okechobee Airport and landed there without incident.  I first thought I had some fuel contamination because this happened after I switched tanks.  When I went to open the tank I could hear the sound of air rushing into the tank as a vacuum had formed.  I immediately went and looked at the vent but couldn't see any problem.  I took a think wire and poked it up inside the vent and found that a dirt dobbler (wasp) had clogged the vent with a small dirt nest inside the vent.

[Bennett]

Dale, your baggage door incident reminded me about a kinda lucky and funny situation I had in my M20K -261 conversion. Some of the "older" folk on the forum can probably recall all the changes made to the baggage door latch system in the 1980s and 1990s.  I kept having the newest hardware installed, but one day I took off from the then new airport at Rio Vista, CA and at about 500' in the air the baggage door popped open. Lots of suction, and I watched some charts and my jacket that was on the back seat get sucked out. I wasn't worried about the airplane. I slowed her down - wasn't very fast at that time anyway, and set up to return to the airport. I could see that my jacket (light windbreaker) was caught on the horizontal stabilizer (about half over and half under, well outboard, and was banging the hell out of the horizontal stabilizer as it moved about in the airstream. My jacket pockets had the usual stuff in it - keys, wallet, credit card holder, a Leatherman, and checkbook which added to the banging and the flapping.  Although I was paying attention to flying the airplane, I stole a glance every so offen to see the jacket stuck there. As I watched, my wallet fell out of the jacket.  Oh well! ( cleaned up version). Well, I just landed normally, but i was really bumbed out about the wallet.  The jacket finally fell off as I was stopping on the ramp. While I was inspecting the dents on the horizontal stabilizer, a farmer drove up in his pick-up truck with my wallet. He saw it fall from the airplane, found it in his field, and brought it to the airport.  Really nice guy, and he wouldn't take the offerred reward.  LASAR fixed the dents at a reasonable cost, there was no damage to the baggage door, and there never was any danger beyond distraction.  I now lock the baggage door before every flight. Never had a baggage door problem again in that airplane, or in my current M20J. And I now keep my wallet in my back pocket.

[Joe Zuffoletto]

I've had a few minor incidents that all ended well. First was the passenger door on my Encore coming open shortly after takeoff from Telluride, CO. The sudden noise really panicked my passenger, so I had my hands full keeping that person calm while negotiating the pattern at a very challenging airport without being able to talk to the tower. Landed safely and explained myself to the tower after I cleared the runway. No harm, no foul.

Had a similar situation a few years later when the baggage door came open shortly after takeoff. Figures that the ONE TIME I forgot to lock it during my preflight it came open in flight! Returned to the airport and landed uneventfully. Thought for sure the door would be damaged but it wasn't.

The most unnerving was a complete loss of oil pressure at at 17,500' over the Palmdale, CA VOR. I was traveling to Scottsdale, AZ for a business meeting scheduled for the next morning. Fortunately, I had 4 airports well within gliding distance in crystal clear VFR conditions. I chose Palm Springs because I knew they would have a rental car and it was next to Interstate 10, which I knew I'd now be driving to Scottsdale. Pulled the power to idle, called Palm Springs tower and apprised them of my situation. Decided not to declare an emergency because the airport was easily makeable, but I did request priority in the pattern, which they gave me. I also requested a straight-in approach to runway 13R, even though winds favored 31L, so I wouldn't have to glide any further than necessary. I figured a little tailwind wouldn't hurt with 10,000' of runway. Landed safely and discovered that one of the alternators shook loose, sending pretty much all my oil overboard.

[Z W]

One aborted takeoff story I will share..

Departing from Gastons, Arkansas (3M0), a grass strip.  It's a nice grass strip, but more bumpy than concrete or asphalt.  Just before rotation speed, I hit a bump, and my seat slid backwards about two notches.  I had apparently scooted it up, but failed to make sure it locked in place.  Luckily, I could reach the rudder pedals with my toes (although not the brakes) and kept the plane headed straight down the runway.  It was plenty wide anyways.  I cut the power, scooted my seat back up, and taxi'd back for a safe departure.

Ever since then, after I scoot my seat forward, I place my feet firmly on the brakes and shove backwards to make sure the seat is firmly locked in place.  I'd encourage you all to do the same.  It's never happened again, but could have been bad. 

[GaryP1007]

Mag failure this past Sunday at 600 feet AGL.  Very different when it "really" happens vs. practicing for it.

[jetdriven]

Quote: GaryP1007

Mag failure this past Sunday at 600 feet AGL.  Very different when it "really" happens vs. practicing for it.

[GaryP1007]

First it's not a Mooney I fly....that is my dream.  I fly a Piper Dakota and it has a  Bendix ‘dual mag’, singe drive w/ two magnetos in one case.  Intermittent issues on run up for a week...had it checked no one could replicate..... 

[omega708]

Landed at a higher elevation airport on a fairly cool day and didn't get my carb heat turned off all the way before we departed that afternoon.  The plane was making power but it didn't feel right even given the density altitude.  There were no other planes in the pattern but one holding short to take off after me.  50 feet AGL I radioed that I was returning for an immediate landing.  About 200' AGL I caught a thermal that gave me some cushion but the plane still wasn't climbing to my satisfaction.  

 

Landed uneventfully, taxied back to the ramp and checked everything over.  Noticed the carb heat was on...   Performance was much more in line with what I was expecting the second time around.

I now check the carb heat before every take off...

[Marauder]

I had an exhaust stack stud fail (believed to be from overtightening) in flight. The other stud's nut vibrated loose and the entire stack came off. I had an early warning with the GEM reporting a problem with that cylinder's EGT (started dropping a few minutes before the stack came off). Where the emergency came in was that I was above IMC in north central PA (anyone familar with the area between Williamsport and Elmira, NY will know how wooded the area is). Once the stack came off, it sounded like I was on a Harley. The GEM cylinder temp inverted to red, so I knew I still was producing power, but had a concern that my exhaust was now unleashed in the cowling.

 

I declared and was given a heading to fly to the "Grand Canyon airport" -- now known as Wellsboro. I had one of the early Garmin portables on board, but needed to provide the identifier to find an airport. Fortunately, a Baron familar with that airport filled me in with the details I needed. Although the controller wanted me lower, I requested to stay at 8000' to keep my gliding options open. When I knew I could make the field, I let them lower me and fortunately broke out on the approach 1000' AGL.

 

Nothing like that experience to wake you up to the seriousness of what we do.