So a CFI friend went with a customer yesterday to pick up the customers recently purchased J3. Shortly after takeoff they experienced an engine failure and made a forced landing in a pasture across the road from the airport.

Both were not injured and walked away. The cub suffered damage. Article link below.

Got me thinking, how many here have experienced a forced landing?
What were the circumstances?


http://www.mycentx.com/news/waco-news/p ... /647342486


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One forced landing, Cessna 170, 2001. Broken connecting rod, Continental C-145.
Turned around and dead-sticked it into an airport about 2 miles away.

Was this in cruise flight? Any more details you're willing to share. Just curious of how it went down (no pun intended... ) I'm guessing it was pretty much a pop and stop on the engine and not a sputtering decline in power.
How much time did you have to react?
What was the terrain you put it down in?

Shot down in Cobra in Vietnam. AC destroyed in trees.
C-175 coming out of Santa Fe. Broken piston rod. Lots of time. Road.
5 in Pawnee. Hot engine caused plugs to fire wrong and engine stop. Six seconds. Energy management turn. Road, road, airport, Rio Grande levee, and tall Prima cotton finally finished her.
One in CallAir. Fuel starvation, long story. Six seconds. Energy management turn. Caught a wing and cartwheeled it.
One in Cardinal on pipeline. Fuel starvation. Long story. Six seconds. Energy management turn to field.
One in 152 on pipeline. Ate valve. Lots of time. Airport.
One in homebuild. Prop stopped (uncommon ). Six seconds. Energy management turn to field.
One in C-172 on basic low ground effect takeoff. Three seconds. Airport.
Seems like there was thirteen, but I can't recall the other just now. Never hurt on any of these but rattled my head (inside helmet) a time or two.

Fuel starvation in Super Cub with Ag student coming out of field. Six seconds. Energy management turn to near field.

It's hard to beat 13 engine outs! This is one contest I'm glad to lose. Only one for me, C150 sucked a valve doing turns about a point with a student at a sod farm. Mayday, mayday, flare.

Too much air in the fuel tanks, at 600', in a experimental Lycoming powered Avid Magnum, quit sudden like, no sputtering. Set it down straight into the 15 mph wind at a 45 degree angle to the furrows in the field, no damage, flew it out the next day, no press coverage either

One in my current bird, before I figured out Rotaxs' can ice up too, on short final at an airstrip about 100' high, landed it as planned, it almost doesn't count. LOTS of ultralight dead stick landings, they don't count either, half the time we'd kill the engine anyway when landing, as it helped protect the pusher props.

So the only real live emergency landing in a "conventional" plane I've had, was in a Lycoming powered bird. My Subaru powered first S-7, in 1300 hrs, never had any issues, go figure. I was behind the fuel consumption curve in the 0-320, my bad

Including the overachiever ContactFlying, of 557 survey respondents (at this moment in time) to a survey that many on this forum have contributed to, the odds of walking away with 'no harm, no foul', and neither an NTSB accident or FAA incident to your credit are pretty good. If you've not participated in the survey here's the link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NF92626

If you've already completed the survey, pls pass on the link. Double counting screws up the numbers.

FWIW, the average total time in fixed wing, piston engine, FACTORY BUILT (i.e. NOT EAB) single engine aircraft of all pilots who have completed the survey is currently at 1569 hours; Total time in all all fixed wing powered aircraft (including SE, ME, jets, and maybe rockets) is 2731 hours. The total time individuals reported in FW PE SE FB aircraft ranges from 10 hours to 20,000 or so.

For those of us who have seen this stuff before, the numbers move around a bit as more people with different experiences contribute. But, that said, they're not moving all that much at this point.

Of the 557 respondents 130 or so reported one or more incidents where the powerplant of their SE FW PE FB aircraft experienced a total loss of power. Note, this could have resulted from a mechanical problem (the vast majority) or from a fuel issue (fuel starvation or fuel exhaustion - aka "no gas"). Of the complete power loss events about 20 % resulted in an NTSB accident, and about 11% or so resulted in an FAA incident. Of course, dead pilots don't respond to after-the-fact surveys so these results may be a bit low ... but not by much. There are no names attached to the survey, but only three or four pilots have had really impressive numbers of total power loss events (between 6 and 13). Most pilots who dealt with total powerloss only experienced it one time. On average power loss events (for those who had 'em) occurred at about the 1500-2000 hour point in their flying experience. So the good news here is proficiency is a good way to avoid bending the airplane. And a little luck helps too. That, and having lots of good options when a problem shows up.

contactflying wrote:Shot down in Cobra in Vietnam. AC destroyed in trees.
C-175 coming out of Santa Fe. Broken piston rod. Lots of time. Road.
5 in Pawnee. Hot engine caused plugs to fire wrong and engine stop. Six seconds. Energy management turn. Road, road, airport, Rio Grande levee, and tall Prima cotton finally finished her.
One in CallAir. Fuel starvation, long story. Six seconds. Energy management turn. Caught a wing and cartwheeled it.
One in Cardinal on pipeline. Fuel starvation. Long story. Six seconds. Energy management turn to field.
One in 152 on pipeline. Ate valve. Lots of time. Airport.
One in homebuild. Prop stopped (uncommon ). Six seconds. Energy management turn to field.
One in C-172 on basic low ground effect takeoff. Three seconds. Airport.
Seems like there was thirteen, but I can't recall the other just now. Never hurt on any of these but rattled my head (inside helmet) a time or two.

Hot engine caused the plugs to fire wrong? Can you explane?

contactflying wrote:Seems like there was thirteen, but I can't recall the other just now. Never hurt on any of these but rattled my head (inside helmet) a time or two.

Contact... you are a man of action, no doubt.

I'm curious about the hot engine one as well...

I leased a Pawnee from Missouri for work in NM and Colorado. He didn't do much on his airplanes unless they crashed. When it got hotter in the Mesilla Valley, it went over red line getting back to the airport and died on final.

I tried many things he suggested but it kept making the plugs fire incorrectly I think. The engine would completely lose power. It didn't make loud noise like detonation, just made mournful sounds and quit producing power.

Operators with money would have fixed it on their own dime or found another plane. I had no money and did not have to pay him (owner /mechanic ) 25 percent until end of season. No hull.He just rebuilt when, "all used up, " as he said.

The right brake went out and the fifth time it quit I went to tall cotton rather than a nice short irritation dike.

Ag wasn't always big money; at least for me. It was interesting though. Lots of OODA loops in fluid tactical situations.

I've had 3 engines "quit", two of which resulted in landing, but only one of those was a "forced" landing:

1. As a student in Anchorage, on short final to Merrill Field in December 1972, I had forgotten to pull on the carb heat of the 150. Not sure exactly where the engine quit firing, but when I tried to add a little power to make the field, the prop stopped altogether. Fortunately, I really didn't need that extra power that I thought I needed, and I landed safely. The worst part was having to get out and push the airplane off to the side when it wouldn't restart, while watching several others go around until I got it done. After a few minutes of sitting, it started and ran fine, so I assume that the carb ice had melted out by then.

2. Flying my friend's Mooney 231 with family aboard to visit my Sis in Durango, we were between Colorado Springs and Pueblo at 12,000' in the clouds, with an OAT of about -20F. There was no visible ice on any part of the airplane, other than frost on the windows which was mostly inside. Anticipating the turn at GOSIP south of Pueblo, I had turned on the autopilot so that I could look more closely at the chart. I realized that things didn't sound quite right, looked up from the chart and saw the MP winding down, along with the airspeed as the autopilot tried to maintain altitude. I shut off the autopilot, switched tanks and turned on the boost pump, but nothing happened, so I called Center and declared an emergency. I asked for a vector and the weather at Pueblo. The weather was at minimums, 200' and a half. I don't recall how far we were from Pueblo, but I do remember thinking it was going to be pretty squeaky to fly an ILS without an engine. I continued to troubleshoot and suddenly remembered that the Mooney had a manual alternate air door control, hidden under the panel above my right knee. I reached down and pulled it, and the engine caught and suddenly roared to life. By then we'd lost 1300', so we climbed back to 12,000' and I cancelled the emergency. We flew on to Durango, and each time we changed sectors, the new controller would ask how the engine was. We landed uneventfully, to find that although there was no ice on the wings or any other part of the airframe at any time, the whole front of the cowling was caked with half an inch to an inch of ice, which had plugged the air intake. I've guessed without knowing that it was caused by running the heated prop.

3. 15 flight hours after I bought my present airplane 13 years ago this month, which I affectionately call Little Red Bird, I was practicing some commercial maneuvers northeast of Fort Collins. I had a 2 o'clock appointment to donate platelets, so I leveled off and started heading back to the airport, when I saw the oil pressure falling. The oil temperature was still normal, so I first thought that the gauge was wrong, but I reduced power to baby the engine anyway, which resulted in a slight descent. About the time that I'd crossed a country road, the prop sped up indicating it had lost oil pressure, so I pulled the throttle, prop, and mixture out all the way and set up a tight downwind to that road. I had just pulled the flaps to 20 degrees and was down to maybe 800' AGL when I realized that the powerline which paralleled the road on its east side was pretty close to it--I was afraid I'd clip a wingtip on the poles. I looked to the right, and the field that direction looked pretty rough, but the field to the left looked smoother. But as I turned toward that field, now I'd have to clear the powerline, and I didn't think I would. So I retracted the flaps and nosed over to build speed, which pointed me right at the powerline, then pulled back and zoomed over it, and pulled on 40 degrees of flaps. Just then the engine shook horribly, there was a terrific clanging, and the cabin filled with oil smoke. I somehow had time to make a Mayday call, in which I said I was northeast of Fort Collins but didn't know exactly where, and that I was landing in a field. My call was answered by a pilot flying above me, who asked if I was "the red nosed Cessna" and told me where I was and that he'd orbit until I was safely on the ground. I then landed, making one of the very smoothest soft field landings I've ever made. After I got out, I called him on my handheld, and he said he'd fly back to the airport and get his pickup and come back to pick me up. While the engine was toast (it had thrown a rod threw the top of the case), the rest of the airplane was undamaged except for some cracking to the main gear wheel pants.

Cary

Contact, I'm guessing didn't lease from that guy after that season.

Man, Cary 2 & 3 were interesting situations. Nice job painting a picture with the story.


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No. I started working for better business owners and also doing as much Ag instruction as spraying.

I have had a hand full of engine out forced landings, all in 2 stroke powered aircraft. One I went down in some small trees and bent up a Quicksilver , faulty switch and another I jumped a curb on an unfinished taxiway and bent the tail post in an Avid Flyer , engine seizure. The other 3 were in an early weightshift ultralight, I was 18 years old and didn't have a clue about 2 stroke engines, each one resulted in a soft off field landing. Every one was human error that I learned lessons from.

Cliff,

As someone always said, when we were getting shot at in Vietnam, "Good training for the real thing." Finding misfits between observations and orientation in the "Boyd cycle " is good for creative action, but we need to move from the physical to the mental as we age. We get slower in rapidity and fluidity of our physical transitions.

Keep the sticky side down,

Contact