Dead Stick Landing

Van_Hoolio

Van_Hoolio

Well-Known Member
I can use the phrase since the DA20-C1 actually does have a stick. My first 925 hours have been pretty boring and uneventful, but I had the engine cut out on my student and I while landing at MIV (Millville, NJ) tonight.

To make a long story short, we planned to be in the air for 2.5 and figured we had 3.5 hours worth of fuel. The fuel guage indicated a lot lower than expected but was not quite at empty. The landing started out as a simulated engine out about 3,000 feet above the field. The student brought it in a little too tight and too high. We decided to slip the aircraft and that's when the engine quit. The prop does not windmill when the engine quits on those, I found out. We were on final for 14 and crazy high. I took over and elected to circle and land on what was left of runway 10 in order to bleed off the extra altitude. Landed, coasted off, re-started and taxiied in. It showed 2-3 gallons useable when we stuck the tank.

Our planning may have been a little off and such, and it retrospect it may not have been the greatest idea to circle so low, but what the hell. We made it. Thank God certain things were in our favor. Don't slip a DA20 when low on fuel.

Mike
 
Van_Hoolio said:
Our planning may have been a little off and such, and it retrospect it may not have been the greatest idea to circle so low, but what the hell. We made it.
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I am glad you're okay but be careful with the "what the hell" attitude. When you're the CFI you're trying to teach another pilot habits that will keep him/her alive. I wouldnt suggest, as a fellow CFI, demonstrating such carelessness especially in pre-flight planning. IMO, it shows a lack of consideration for the importance of pre-flight and other important safety measures that we often get complacent about.

Again, glad everything worked out.
 
meritflyer said:
I am glad you're okay but be careful with the "what the hell" attitude. When you're the CFI you're trying to teach another pilot habits that will keep him/her alive. I wouldnt suggest, as a fellow CFI, demonstrating such carelessness especially in pre-flight planning. IMO, it shows a lack of consideration for the importance of pre-flight and other important safety measures that we often get complacent about.

Again, glad everything worked out.
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I was uber-paranoid about fuel as an instructor, so I agree with you there, but the "what the hell" comment I think was about the circle to 10. It looks to me like that was a fine move to pull if they were high for 14 and had plenty of altitude to make it to 10. That shows quick and effective decision making under pressure, which is exactly what low-altitude engine failures require.
 
Actually a lot of care and planning was put into the preflight. My student and I ran the numbers (and re-ran them after the incident) and had every reason to believe we'd have an hour of fuel left post flight.

The "what the hell" statement is me unwinding at home a few hours later.

Edit: The circle to 10 was done at about 250 AGL midfield in the dark.
 
Whenever you post this kind of thing, be ready for about 50 Monday morning (Friday morning?) quarterbacks to give you their opinion of what they would have done.

I won't be one of them. I'm glad everything turned out fine in the end!
 
Wow... good job bringing it in safely. What do you think happened with the fuel? Had a higher burn rate than expected?
 
When you slip a low-wing aircraft when you're low on fuel -- the fuel can slosh away from the fuel pumps on one of the tanks (or depending on where the fuel pumps are located both tanks), which could result in that tank going dry.
 
The DA20-C1 only has one tank, but still I'm pretty sure I unported what was left of the fuel. Lesson learned.
 
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