I went to an AOPA Air Safety Institute Seminar in Frederick, Maryland this evening. The two hour talk was titled: “ Emergency! Getting It Right When Things Go Wrong “. The speaker was Ms. Jeanne Willerth from Kansas City. She was 2015 Flight Instructor of the Year and she gave a fantastic presentation. The questions from the audience were also really great. These seminars are being presented throughout the US in 2016, are free and open to the public, and one does not have to be an AOPA member to attend. See the Link below for locations and times.

Link: http://www.aopa.org/forms/event-calendar/SAFETY_SEMINAR





The speaker described all sorts of forced landing procedures in twins and single engine. She also showed some really thought provoking slides on “ Landing in a Tree “. There was not too much advice given on what to do except to perhaps make sure the doors are unlocked and maybe even propped open in case crushing would prevent the doors from being opened.

I know there is a lot of experience lurking on this board. Anyone with comments on “Arboreal Aviation Landing Techniques “, particularly in single engine bush planes, please do share.

I was a passenger in a 182 when it "landed" in about 50 trees at night in the Yukon Territory just outside Wason Lake after running out of gas in IMC at night in the winter in icing conditions. Good times.

I once considered hitting the one tree on the road south of Santa Domingo Pueblo. The engine on my C-175 had started beating itself to death coming out of Santa Fe and I knew the insurance would not pay for it unless I crashed. I just landed on the road. $4,000 later I was going again.

That second one is 15 miles from my house (KFLY).... I remember that, I think I know the guy who took that picture.

I haven't, but my previous plane did. A 3-blade Black Mac turning 2700 makes perfect length stove wood going into a birch stand. Apparently the view from the cockpit resembles a salad shooter.

Seriously, I think the pilot walked away from that one partly due to the floats acting as a crumple zone, partly due to the birches acting like a huge catcher's mitt, and definitely due to the installation of a shoulder harness.

-DP

Squash wrote:I was a passenger in a 182 when it "landed" in about 50 trees at night in the Yukon Territory just outside Wason Lake after running out of gas in IMC at night in the winter in icing conditions. Good times.

Yikes! Glad you're still with us.

Does whacking telephone poles count or are you specifically looking for instances of settling into branches?

Not a lot of trees in the desert but I managed to start at the top and end at the bottom on this one…..

Landed in trees while skydiving and an engine out in a Quick Silver Sprint. Both cases walked away uninjured.

GravityKnight wrote:That second one is 15 miles from my house (KFLY).... I remember that, I think I know the guy who took that picture.

It's 5mins from my house and 30 seconds from my hangar!

I landed in trees a few times...with a parachute.

Tadpole wrote:

GravityKnight wrote:That second one is 15 miles from my house (KFLY).... I remember that, I think I know the guy who took that picture.

It's 5mins from my house and 30 seconds from my hangar!

I landed in trees a few times...with a parachute.

howdy neighbor

GravityKnight wrote:howdy neighbor

/wave Stop in some time, or in at our brewery there in Falcon too.

Here are 5 videos of actual crashes into trees when engines quit doing their proper thing. It's a weird feeling for sure when that prop stops and you are not on the ground...yet, motor-gliders excepted. The fatality in video #2 is kind of sobering.

I have always been leery of 2 cycle engines, even as outboard motors. Seeing several of these videos which have planes with what likely are 2 cycle power plants gives me pause to think. Yeah I know...everyone says the Rotax 582 is reliable.... but... it still makes me pause. 912 please, thank you.

I don't know what to say.

Maybe install a BRS system if you are Experimental ?
Maybe have a helmet available that you can put on if you know you are going to get dinged ?
Any other suggestions anyone ?

From last summer's skydiving op's at KOKH.
Jump plane ran outa gas on the way back down, cleared the bluff about a 1/4 mile from the runway threshold but didn't clear the tree. Tore the front of the airplane off right at the forward door posts.
Injured (but not as bad as you'd think) were the pilot and one passenger -- a jumper who decided not to jump but rode the jump plane back down instead. I bet he regrets making that decision!