Who out there has been stranded in the backcountry with a misbehaving engine? What did you have to do to get it out of there? How much did it cost?

While getting a teaching certificate from Northern Arizona University, I commuted back and forth between Navajo, NM and Flagstaff in an Ercoupe that used two quarts per hour out of a four quart sump. So I landed wherever on the Navajo Reservation every hour or so to put a couple quarts in. I broke one of the push pull tubes to the nose gear landing near a natural gas pump station. They had a nice shop and fixed it for me and I continued to Flagstaff.

The cheapest way for your situation would be if a mechanic could fly in and fix it. Removing wings and hauling is the same as a complete rebuild price wise.

Three engine failures, two were control issues, nothing wrong with engine, third crankshaft broke.

First one, engine rolled back, I put out a call on radio, and landed. A friend who was a commercial pilot and A&P heard my call, came over, landed, got out his toolbox and fixed the problem.

Second was similar, but throttle came unhooked from firewall. I landed and safety wired the throttle cable in place on firewall…..after engine cooled some, flew home.

Broken crank, no pretty place to park, wrecked plane, helicopter ride home. Next day, same helo went out and flew the wreck in.

I flew a new C-185 that fouled injectors. I landed with a shaking engine (and it really shook) at least six or seven times, pulled an injector, blew it out, cleaned the fuel filter, then went on about my business. Finally ran all the junk out of the tank that Cessna had installed.

I always carry a small basic tool kit.

MTV

I'm not in this situation...yet. And hope to never be. I'm trying to see if it is worth it to roll the dice in a '54 180 with a questionable O-470-A that's been sitting for 10 years outside in Maine, or to get a low time O-470-K for 30K. I think that I know the answer.

Those rocks and trees you fly over? They could really hurt!

RSPerk wrote:I'm not in this situation...yet. And hope to never be. I'm trying to see if it is worth it to roll the dice in a '54 180 with a questionable O-470-A that's been sitting for 10 years outside in Maine, or to get a low time O-470-K for 30K. I think that I know the answer.

Don't overlook getting stranded on the way home. Carb went south ferrying my Champ from FL to NY in South Carolina. Luckily we ended up at an airport (Very Rural, even by my standards) not the bean field we had been eyeing. Found a mechanic nearby that was willing to travel. $1,500 in airline tickets and $1,000+- in repairs and 30 days later we flew back down and got it home. It had been flown a bit after being re-covered, but also had sat for some time prior to that.

Pete

Wasn’t exactly backcountry, but a floatplane on any lake has no services (or other people usually). While fishing on a lake 50 miles from Anchorage, the ol’ Stinson wouldn’t start. No bars on the cellphone, but just enough coverage to get a text out. Sent the GPS coordinates to my partner and asked him to have our mechanic fly out. By the time he showed up, it started for him and he credited that to the IA card. Once back in town he thoroughly went through the ignition system, replaced the condenser and we never had another problem.

After that experience I added two items to my emergency gear. First was an InReach so I could text through the Iridium satellite network. Keep a handful of mechanics in your cell phone so you can reach somebody who can come get you. The other item was a tarp because the shoreline was all swamp and not a good place to camp.

Ross

Heard a story a few years ago of a pilot who left for a quick afternoon trip to visit some Utah bc strips. After visiting a few strips he took a look at a beautiful sand bar deep in a canyon on an unnamed river. After doing all the prerequisite unprepared strip flybys and drags, he decided to land. After rolling to a stop, he found that the "beautiful sand bar" was blow sand on top of bottomless silt as his tires penetrated to the axles.
Since it was just a quick afternoon jaunt, he carried no water, no camping gear, adequate clothing, etc, etc.
Found out he could not even walk out, once off the blow sand, the silt was bottomless.
Oh yeah, bottom of a canyon, no cell service. Pre Spot and 406 days as well.
Luckily, an overhead airplane saw him a day and a half later and called it in to the authorities. People had been looking for a day already, but he was not where he said he was going......
Story got real interesting after that. Heard it took quite the effort to get the airplane recovered. Catch me at a campfire in the backcountry and ill relate what I have heard.
Moral: Treat every flight like you might spend some time at your destination. For whatever reason. Might as well be relatively comfortable. At least survivable.......
No, not me. Just a story I heard.....
Tom

flynbeekeeper wrote:Heard a story a few years ago of a pilot who left for a quick afternoon trip to visit some Utah bc strips. After visiting a few strips he took a look at a beautiful sand bar deep in a canyon on an unnamed river. After doing all the prerequisite unprepared strip flybys and drags, he decided to land. After rolling to a stop, he found that the "beautiful sand bar" was blow sand on top of bottomless silt as his tires penetrated to the axles.
Since it was just a quick afternoon jaunt, he carried no water, no camping gear, adequate clothing, etc, etc.
Found out he could not even walk out, once off the blow sand, the silt was bottomless.
Oh yeah, bottom of a canyon, no cell service. Pre Spot and 406 days as well.
Luckily, an overhead airplane saw him a day and a half later and called it in to the authorities. People had been looking for a day already, but he was not where he said he was going......
Story got real interesting after that. Heard it took quite the effort to get the airplane recovered. Catch me at a campfire in the backcountry and ill relate what I have heard.
Moral: Treat every flight like you might spend some time at your destination. For whatever reason. Might as well be relatively comfortable. At least survivable.......
No, not me. Just a story I heard.....
Tom

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Back on topic:

Getting help in the Idaho backcountry would probably be somewhat easy. Lots of planes around that you could pickup on the radio. Getting anything fixed would be expensive.

I’m not sure I’d have any insecurities caused by the engine in a plane that had sat for a while. If it checks out good and you put some time on it I would expect it to be more likely to cause you problems than any other engine.

pipeliner wrote:Wasn’t exactly backcountry, but a floatplane on any lake has no services (or other people usually). While fishing on a lake 50 miles from Anchorage, the ol’ Stinson wouldn’t start. No bars on the cellphone, but just enough coverage to get a text out. Sent the GPS coordinates to my partner and asked him to have our mechanic fly out. By the time he showed up, it started for him and he credited that to the IA card. Once back in town he thoroughly went through the ignition system, replaced the condenser and we never had another problem.

After that experience I added two items to my emergency gear. First was an InReach so I could text through the Iridium satellite network. Keep a handful of mechanics in your cell phone so you can reach somebody who can come get you. The other item was a tarp because the shoreline was all swamp and not a good place to camp.

Ross

I haven't been stranded in the Backcountry but definitely prep for it. I feel a lot more comfortable having my Garmin Inreach near me with an air activation preset. I also have a 406 ELT, a big shovel, set of tools, sleeping bag, tent, rations, and water with me on just about every flight. Surviving a crash is a lot about preparation. Having a good IA look after my airplane and trusting my engine are part of that risk equation too.


Josh

RSPerk wrote:I'm not in this situation...yet. And hope to never be. I'm trying to see if it is worth it to roll the dice in a '54 180 with a questionable O-470-A that's been sitting for 10 years outside in Maine, or to get a low time O-470-K for 30K. I think that I know the answer.

Personally I think I'd give them dice a try.
Fly it just like a new engine-- in other words, stay over the airport for a few hours,
do an oil change after a few hours, etc.
The $30K you might save would buy a lot of fuel.