Off airport landings

[The-sky-captain]

A freind of mine has a sweet Bo so I have spent a little time browsing their chat page in the past. They have an interesting thread about how many of the members have had an off airport landing. Surprisingly a large number of the members have experienced this and wrote at length about the circumstances and outcomes. I have never been in that situation, and hope to never be, but I have trained for it and feel that I would handle the issue if it came up. My biggest scare came with about 10 seconds of engine viberation due to contamination. I thought it would be interesting  and informative to hear if anyone on this forum has been through this and how they handled the situation.  

[Flybeech21]

I landed on I-85 in Lagrange, GA in a C172.  Smoke in the cabin.  Landed with traffic, added power to stay up with the traffic, then pulled in the median and stopped.  Then I nearly vomited...

 

 

[skyking]

I have had 2!

1) Engine faiure at 900 feet on departure. Landed in hay field straight ahead. No damage to me or plane. ( Engine swallowed a valve)

2) Cabin fire when master fuse blew and burned the harness. Landed at the airport safely on that one.

 

Funny part is i had the same passenger on board for both flights. Incidents were 10 years apart!

 

russ

[Flybeech21]

Quote: skyking

I have had 2!

1) Engine faiure at 900 feet on departure. Landed in hay field straight ahead. No damage to me or plane. ( Engine swallowed a valve)

2) Cabin fire when master fuse blew and burned the harness. Landed at the airport safely on that one.

 

Funny part is i had the same passenger on board for both flights. Incidents were 10 years apart!

 

russ

[skyking]

That was his thought too,

The first one was his first flight in a plane.

I have not seen Kirk ( his name) for years now. But the second flight was the last time i had him on board.

 

[The-sky-captain]

That's the only thing that irks me about flying is the unknown issues an engine may have. I control everything that I can (preflight, sufficient fuel, not flying into bad wx...) but there are some things that even an annual, much less a preflight, will catch. Good mx and an engine monitor are definately a must but still not bullet proof.

[Gone]

Bodie:

The Chief Flight Instructor at our flying club (7000+ hours and a winner of the Abrahmson Canadian national air safety award) once told me about the best safety device to take flying:

"You can control lots of things and the better prepared you are, the better things will turn out.  You can't control everything, and if you realise that the best outcome is the one where you were prepared for almost any eventuality, then you will do weill when it happens.  Keep planning for it to happen, and hope it does not."

You are your own best safety device.

[The-sky-captain]

Quote: edgargravel

Bodie:

The Chief Flight Instructor at our flying club (7000+ hours and a winner of the Abrahmson Canadian national air safety award) once told me about the best safety device to take flying:

"You can control lots of things and the better prepared you are, the better things will turn out.  You can't control everything, and if you realise that the best outcome is the one where you were prepared for almost any eventuality, then you will do weill when it happens.  Keep planning for it to happen, and hope it does not."

You are your own best safety device.

[Mooney_Allegro]

1 month after getting my multi-engine rating, I was flying a Piper Seneca II and when I brought both throttles back for the descent into Boston, the right engine immediately went to full power. I couldn't control the right engine at all, so I asked ATC to climb to a higher altitude to troubleshoot, pulled out the POH, and found nothing that was any help.  I then declared an emergency, shutdown the right engine and asked to return for landing.  Landing was uneventful and taxiied to the FBO. I later found out that the right throttle cable broke, and it defaults to full throttle when that occurs. 

I'm glad I didn't have to land on I-85 though!!

[Sven]

As a student in Minnesota I took off over a lake in a 152. Lakes in MN are unavoidable. I was barely at 200 feet when the engine quit. I was seconds from ditching the plane in the lake when I discovered I forgot to turn on the backup fuel pump. I flipped the switch and the engine came back to life. I got back into the pattern, landed safely and didn't return for two weeks. Since then I've never forgotten that backup pump.

[FlyDave]

I was a glider pilot before a power pilot. I think this was great training for emergencies in the power plane. In fact, on my first short approach I put it down right on the numbers....my instructor just giggled and said "Sweeeet". All I had to do was fly the plane - not screw around with throttle/mixture.

I think all power pilots should get a glider rating. Being forced to land without and engine over and over will give you some confidence in your abilities and help alleviate many pilots desire to pull back on the yoke on short final. It also gives you some experience on planning without that safety blanket called an engine (you only get one chance to land a glider). The gliders have longer legs than a mooney w/o an engine but it's still excellent <<forced>> engine out experinece.

Just my thoughts.

[Carl S]

Quote: FlyDave

...

I think all power pilots should get a glider rating. ...

[skyking]

I have to agree. I have flown gliders , Hang gliders and ultralights, and a gliders makes you much better at knowing where you will land if you have to and to nail the approach on the first attempt every time.

 

russ

[skyking]

I have to agree. I have flown gliders , Hang gliders and ultralights, and a gliders make you much better at knowing where you will land if you have to and to nail the approach on the first attempt every time.

 

russ

[Guest Anonymous]

Add me to the list.  It was the first flight back in service just after a top overhaul in a 200 HP Arrow.  I took off west bound from flying cloud airport in Eden Prairie, MN (Minneapolis Area) in late winter, and just as I was about to make the power reduction to climb power there was a loud bang and the engine quit.  Not a lot of smoke or anything, it just quit.

Anyway, the Bearpath Golf course was right there in front of me and the turf was frozen, but without snow.  I was too high for the 17th fairway, but a slight turn to the north lined me up for a tee shot on the 15th.  I got it stopped well before the bunkers in front of the green.  (and yes, I did remember to yell "Fore!".  The mind thinks of strange things under stress.)

Postmortem showed that the mechanic had forgot to torque the case bolts on the two rear cylinders.  How it passed the test run-up I will never know.

RFB

[fantom]

SagemGuy.....gear up or gear down?

Personally, I will need a GOOD reason to drop my gear on an off-airport landing.

 

[hansel]

Jolie Lucas ("mooneygirl") describes her off-airport landing just after takeoff from Hood River, OR -- See the Mooney Ambassadors interview on AVweb

http://www.avweb.com/podcast/podcast/AudioPodcast_JolieLucas_MooneyAmbassadors_201998-1.html?kw=RelatedStory

Keep your head on straight-- and be thankful you fly a Mooney. The cards are in your favor.