So this past Wednesday I had an interesting morning......
As many of you know I fly for a small Pt 135 carrier in Southeast Alaska. On wednesday I loaded a PA32 with 800 lbs of mail and freight and headed off for one of our destinations to the north. Departed, made a right downwind, climbed above some scattered layers and turned to the north. I got out of the Class D surface area but stayed on tower as I was crossing the primary approach course for inbound traffic. After I got north of that I switched over to my enroute reporting frequency and pitched down for a slow cruise climb.
Then my morning got interesting.
About 7-8 minutes into the flight the engine lost some RPM and initially it felt like I ran a tank dry. However, since I had fueled for a long trip north and back before leaving the airport my brain was thinking that was unlikely. In any event, our immediate action items for any type of engine abnormality is to switch tanks, turn the electric fuel pump on, the adjust the mixture as required to smooth the engine out.
After I completed that the engine RPM had come up but with a noticeable vibration that was definitely not normal. I checked the mags and both were functioning. At that point, with a sick engine, a lot of water and terrain in front of me, and a nice large airport behind me I made a 180.
As I got closer in to the airport I double checked the ATIS to make sure it hadn't changed and called out base to inform them I'd be returning and taxiing directly to the hanger. At that point I switched to the tower frequency and as I came over one of our inbound reporting points I called in normally.
At that point the tower controller cleared me to land, which was a bit unusual. Usually we're given another intermediate reporting point to call so they can sequence traffic, but I'll gladly take the clearance, thank you very much. Had she done anything other than give me the next reporting point or clearing me to land I would have simply continued inbound and declared an emergency. Alaska Airlines, Empire, etc, can wait.
Then it gets interesting......
Continuing inbound I started a decent as I had some weather to my left to get under and to head towards the airport. Just before 'Battleship' (a reporting point) the engine starts to get rough and make some not so nice metalic noises accompanied by a power loss. I've already pulled back on the power at this point but now, three miles from the runway with not enough altitude to make it if the engine totally dies I'm not giving up any more. I leave the power where it was at, probably 20 inches, and pull back to get closer to best glide and to maintain as much altitude as possible as long as possible. I've got a nice long runway in front of me so if I'm long and fast I've got plenty of room to recover. Worst case scenario on my left is a golf course although the fairways aren't nearly as long as I'd like them to be.
As you can see from the above graphic I did make it to the runway with plenty of altitude. Just shy of the runway threshold with several hundred feet under me I finally pulled the power and made a nice long landing. On the rollout the engine finally gives up the ghost and I was able to clear at a taxiway rather than suffer the indignity of stopping on the runway. Not that it would have been a big deal in the grand scheme of things (would've made for a great picture) but I would have just as rather gotten off.
At the taxiway I notified ground that I was going to be waiting for a tow, finished some last remaining shutdown items, then exited the aircraft. No huge hurry, but I'd rather be out if any smoking started. The first thing I noticed was a large puddle of oil under the cowl, and a quick check of the oil filler door showed a bunch of oil on top of the motor and (thank God) a secure oil filler cap.
The boss made it out to the taxiway with a tow bar and we brought the aircraft back to the hanger. We pulled the cowl and this is what we found:
A closer examination of the engine revealed this little gem:
When you see it, you'll know......
My boss's theory is that the cylinder opposite the crack in the case trashed a valve which then evolved into a situation which caused enough force on the pushrod to force a cam lobe through the case. I may be stating that wrong; certainly there are mechanic types on here that know far more than me and I'll defer to their theories.
A couple of thoughts:
Looking back on it it's easy to second guess one's self. The biggest thing I keep coming back to is whether or not it would have been possible to find a road somewhere to make a precautionary landing and then perhaps only dealing with a blown jug or cylinder vs. a cracked crankcase. That said, that introduces a large amount of other variables, such as traffic, power lines, trees, etc. Then, if all that's successfully navigated you get one's picture big and in color on the front page of the paper. If all that is not done successfully you get a much worse picture on the front page of the paper. All that said my boss has expressed to me that he's just fine with the outcome we ended up with. I've not gotten any negative response from anyone in the company on any level. Nobody got hurt, nothing is bent, and life moves on.
The other thing I'll mention is that at the initial presentation of the problem I will admit to feeling pretty 'mission oriented' and wanting to continue. Had I done that the outcome of the situation would've been far worse. I would encourage anyone to not hesitate to get an aircraft on the ground ASAP if you feel the slightest need. Also, don't be afraid to make that decision fast. I would estimate there was about 10-15 seconds between the initial problem and my 180. That's probably just about as fast as I could've come to that conclusion, but in hindsight and with how the situation resolved itself I wouldn't have minded that being faster. Another 5-10 seconds traveling in the opposite direction of the runway and I may not have made it to the runway. Total time between initial problem and getting on the ground was 6-7 minutes.
After we had unloaded the airplane, reloaded it all on ppragman's plane and sent him north, I got my stuff out of the aircraft, stood around and shot the bull for a bit with the mechanics, and basically told my boss, "Ok, I'm bored. You still need me to fly?" I ended up doing two more flights that day with no issues. Yes, it was an exciting morning and I would've been perfectly within my rights to call it a day and come back tomorrow or a few days hence, but I'm a pretty level headed guy and just didn't feel all emotionally amped about the whole thing. Some of that is just my personality, a lot of it is training, and most of it was the favorable outcome to the whole thing. All that said, if you need the time, take the time.
I didn't have to deal with this personally but if you find yourself in any situation that seems like an emergency or might develop into one do not be afraid to use your PIC authority to do exactly what you need to do to resolve the situation. That means if you need to get it on the ground you do exactly what you need to do then tell ATC or whomever exactly what it is you're doing. Don't ask, Tell! Lowtimers, students, etc, this means You! Don't allow yourself to be intimidated by anyone on the ground, ever.
Lastly, altitude, altitude, altitude. Keep as much of it as you can for as long as possible, and know every trick you have for adjusting your glideslope to use all of that to it's fullest.
I guess that's all I have to say about that......
Matt 10:29-31
As many of you know I fly for a small Pt 135 carrier in Southeast Alaska. On wednesday I loaded a PA32 with 800 lbs of mail and freight and headed off for one of our destinations to the north. Departed, made a right downwind, climbed above some scattered layers and turned to the north. I got out of the Class D surface area but stayed on tower as I was crossing the primary approach course for inbound traffic. After I got north of that I switched over to my enroute reporting frequency and pitched down for a slow cruise climb.
Then my morning got interesting.
About 7-8 minutes into the flight the engine lost some RPM and initially it felt like I ran a tank dry. However, since I had fueled for a long trip north and back before leaving the airport my brain was thinking that was unlikely. In any event, our immediate action items for any type of engine abnormality is to switch tanks, turn the electric fuel pump on, the adjust the mixture as required to smooth the engine out.
After I completed that the engine RPM had come up but with a noticeable vibration that was definitely not normal. I checked the mags and both were functioning. At that point, with a sick engine, a lot of water and terrain in front of me, and a nice large airport behind me I made a 180.
As I got closer in to the airport I double checked the ATIS to make sure it hadn't changed and called out base to inform them I'd be returning and taxiing directly to the hanger. At that point I switched to the tower frequency and as I came over one of our inbound reporting points I called in normally.
At that point the tower controller cleared me to land, which was a bit unusual. Usually we're given another intermediate reporting point to call so they can sequence traffic, but I'll gladly take the clearance, thank you very much. Had she done anything other than give me the next reporting point or clearing me to land I would have simply continued inbound and declared an emergency. Alaska Airlines, Empire, etc, can wait.
Then it gets interesting......
Continuing inbound I started a decent as I had some weather to my left to get under and to head towards the airport. Just before 'Battleship' (a reporting point) the engine starts to get rough and make some not so nice metalic noises accompanied by a power loss. I've already pulled back on the power at this point but now, three miles from the runway with not enough altitude to make it if the engine totally dies I'm not giving up any more. I leave the power where it was at, probably 20 inches, and pull back to get closer to best glide and to maintain as much altitude as possible as long as possible. I've got a nice long runway in front of me so if I'm long and fast I've got plenty of room to recover. Worst case scenario on my left is a golf course although the fairways aren't nearly as long as I'd like them to be.
As you can see from the above graphic I did make it to the runway with plenty of altitude. Just shy of the runway threshold with several hundred feet under me I finally pulled the power and made a nice long landing. On the rollout the engine finally gives up the ghost and I was able to clear at a taxiway rather than suffer the indignity of stopping on the runway. Not that it would have been a big deal in the grand scheme of things (would've made for a great picture) but I would have just as rather gotten off.
At the taxiway I notified ground that I was going to be waiting for a tow, finished some last remaining shutdown items, then exited the aircraft. No huge hurry, but I'd rather be out if any smoking started. The first thing I noticed was a large puddle of oil under the cowl, and a quick check of the oil filler door showed a bunch of oil on top of the motor and (thank God) a secure oil filler cap.
The boss made it out to the taxiway with a tow bar and we brought the aircraft back to the hanger. We pulled the cowl and this is what we found:
A closer examination of the engine revealed this little gem:
When you see it, you'll know......
My boss's theory is that the cylinder opposite the crack in the case trashed a valve which then evolved into a situation which caused enough force on the pushrod to force a cam lobe through the case. I may be stating that wrong; certainly there are mechanic types on here that know far more than me and I'll defer to their theories.
A couple of thoughts:
Looking back on it it's easy to second guess one's self. The biggest thing I keep coming back to is whether or not it would have been possible to find a road somewhere to make a precautionary landing and then perhaps only dealing with a blown jug or cylinder vs. a cracked crankcase. That said, that introduces a large amount of other variables, such as traffic, power lines, trees, etc. Then, if all that's successfully navigated you get one's picture big and in color on the front page of the paper. If all that is not done successfully you get a much worse picture on the front page of the paper. All that said my boss has expressed to me that he's just fine with the outcome we ended up with. I've not gotten any negative response from anyone in the company on any level. Nobody got hurt, nothing is bent, and life moves on.
The other thing I'll mention is that at the initial presentation of the problem I will admit to feeling pretty 'mission oriented' and wanting to continue. Had I done that the outcome of the situation would've been far worse. I would encourage anyone to not hesitate to get an aircraft on the ground ASAP if you feel the slightest need. Also, don't be afraid to make that decision fast. I would estimate there was about 10-15 seconds between the initial problem and my 180. That's probably just about as fast as I could've come to that conclusion, but in hindsight and with how the situation resolved itself I wouldn't have minded that being faster. Another 5-10 seconds traveling in the opposite direction of the runway and I may not have made it to the runway. Total time between initial problem and getting on the ground was 6-7 minutes.
After we had unloaded the airplane, reloaded it all on ppragman's plane and sent him north, I got my stuff out of the aircraft, stood around and shot the bull for a bit with the mechanics, and basically told my boss, "Ok, I'm bored. You still need me to fly?" I ended up doing two more flights that day with no issues. Yes, it was an exciting morning and I would've been perfectly within my rights to call it a day and come back tomorrow or a few days hence, but I'm a pretty level headed guy and just didn't feel all emotionally amped about the whole thing. Some of that is just my personality, a lot of it is training, and most of it was the favorable outcome to the whole thing. All that said, if you need the time, take the time.
I didn't have to deal with this personally but if you find yourself in any situation that seems like an emergency or might develop into one do not be afraid to use your PIC authority to do exactly what you need to do to resolve the situation. That means if you need to get it on the ground you do exactly what you need to do then tell ATC or whomever exactly what it is you're doing. Don't ask, Tell! Lowtimers, students, etc, this means You! Don't allow yourself to be intimidated by anyone on the ground, ever.
Lastly, altitude, altitude, altitude. Keep as much of it as you can for as long as possible, and know every trick you have for adjusting your glideslope to use all of that to it's fullest.
I guess that's all I have to say about that......
Matt 10:29-31
