First Emergency as a Pilot!

eodfe

New Member
So I took a friend flying today, the first time he as ever flown with me, we were in a 182RG, we lost power shortly after liftoff with not enough runway to land. We were about 300 feet off the ground, I had enough power to maintain 50knots striaght and level. There was nothing but buildings and houses straight ahead, so I started a turn back to the field. I kept about 10 to 15 degrees angle bank and about 45 knots. I checked the mixture, I had full power, the stall warning was beeping on and off, I declared an emergency and kept looking for a place to land if I had too. There really was alot of obstacles around, there was one open field with construction going on, but there was alot of heavy equipment in the way. Needless to say, we made it back to the runway alright and taxied off.

After shutdown, and when I got out, I noticed oil all over the left landing gear strut. I checked the oil, it was at 4qts, down from 6qts on the preflight.

Besides all the other crap going through my head, all I could think about was that I was going to kill my buddy, and his wife was going to be pissed! During the whole thing, he kept his cool (non-pilot) and really was a calm reassurance, I kept saying we are going to be alright, just hold on if you have to put it down, he would say "doing good, were going to make it".

It really worked out ok, I took the crosswind runway vice the other ones which is a good thing, way to many high buildings at the end of the normal runways, we would have hit one.
 
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Good job, way to stay cool. What do you think caused you to lose all that oil?

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I'm not sure, I checked the oil cap and dipstick after landing, both were on properly and snug. Unfortunatly, I didn't get a good look at the oil pressure after we lost power, I was too busy, although I looked at the manifold pressure and rpm, both appeared normal.
 
Heya,


Great job on handling your first emergency so well. But now that you are back and safe on the ground, what would you have done differently? From what you wrote, it sounds like you have a lot of control over your aircraft a MCA, which I think is a great thing to do. My instructor's idea of MCA was 39 knots with the stall horn blaring and doing turns (albeit at 5,000'). Get good and doing that and you can do a lot with your airplane when it gets slow, and you know how it'll react (I've heard some instructors don't teach like this).

That being said though, and with being as low to the ground as you were: why turn back when straight ahead is traditionally the best place to head? Inless you couldn't climb at all (but it sounds like you could since you could turn without loosing altitude), why risk turning? The chances of you surviving an impact go down drastically if you hit the ground in a stall/spin sitution, and with being as low as you were that puts the plane in a good position to accidently go into a stall and/or spin that you can't recover from.

I know when I lost power on a missed approach once I didn't do a lot of things right, and some self reflection showed what I could have done better. Not to say that you could of, because every situation is different. But after all my rambling, what would you have done now that you're on the ground?

Cheers


John Herreshoff
 
Welcome to the club. Lessee....I've had the following things happen to me in flight:

1. Complete Engine Failure where I landed in a field (There's a thread on that somewhere here in the forums).

2. Alternator Failures (two or three...no big deal really)

3. Magneto Failure

4. Doing a Seneca checkout, on our second takeoff, the nose baggage compartment door popped open on us and I had my first priority landing.
 
I am not yet a pilot but this may be the reason he didn't go straight ahead... [ QUOTE ]
There was nothing but buildings and houses straight ahead

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laugh.gif
 
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why turn back when straight ahead is traditionally the best place to head?

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Because he could. He made it back with no injuries and even no damage. Sounds like a great job done!
 
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Heya,


Great job on handling your first emergency so well. But now that you are back and safe on the ground, what would you have done differently? From what you wrote, it sounds like you have a lot of control over your aircraft a MCA, which I think is a great thing to do. My instructor's idea of MCA was 39 knots with the stall horn blaring and doing turns (albeit at 5,000'). Get good and doing that and you can do a lot with your airplane when it gets slow, and you know how it'll react (I've heard some instructors don't teach like this).

That being said though, and with being as low to the ground as you were: why turn back when straight ahead is traditionally the best place to head? Inless you couldn't climb at all (but it sounds like you could since you could turn without loosing altitude), why risk turning? The chances of you surviving an impact go down drastically if you hit the ground in a stall/spin sitution, and with being as low as you were that puts the plane in a good position to accidently go into a stall and/or spin that you can't recover from.

I know when I lost power on a missed approach once I didn't do a lot of things right, and some self reflection showed what I could have done better. Not to say that you could of, because every situation is different. But after all my rambling, what would you have done now that you're on the ground?

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Looking back on it, I could have made the determination that something wasn't right a little sooner and then I would have had an open field right in front of me to land. As it was, the terrian was rising, it goes up about 300 feet a couple of mile from the airport, and there were a lot of housing complexes straight ahead. You are right about the stall/spin scenairio, I kept pushing the nose down to avoid a stall, that was one of the many things going through my brain. I kept looking for landing fields during the turn, but I was maintaining 45 knots so I felt I could make it safely back to the runway. I had enough power to turn but I felt I would not make it above the rising terrain. Also in hindsight, I might have made over the houses but at the time I felt if I would have continued on stright I would have hit the buildings.
 
I hear ya, it's a loose loose situation sometime eh? I just bring up the stall/spin thing beacuse that's gotten a lot of good pilots over the years who have thought that they could stretch something out (usually a power off landing) and lost control of their airplane. If they had decended under control into the same ground though, they would have survived.

Tough call to make sometimes, and you're the only one that can make it.

Good work.
 
Nicely handled!


Guess it wasn't a good day for 182RG's- had my own few problems (though not as severe) with one of them today.
 
Let us know what the mechanics find. I'm guessing you blew a cylinder on a six cylinder airplane. If it had been a four cylinder, I doubt it would fly.
 
Well done and way to keep your cool. Glad to hear everyone involved is safe!
 
Nice save, eodfe.

Too bad stuff like that never makes the papers: "Local Pilot Keeps His Cool and Lands With No Engine; 2 Lives Saved."
 
Great save. Pilots do it right a lot more often than not...we just never hear about it.
 
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