Thanks guys. We encountered trouble over some salt evaporation ponds west of Salt Lake City. I was descending with the power back, doing unusual attitude recoveries with my student, once I tried to apply the power back in nothing happened. I tried several times to actuate the throttle control but the RPM's were holding steady at 1400. After finding a place to land in a dry pond, I quickly went threw the flows for the plane. The engine held at 1400 no mater what I did. I initiated a mayday call because the landing area was pretty questionable, and squawked 7700 which sent SLC international threw the roof. As I lined up for landing I realized that the stuck power setting was going to cause us to overshoot our landing spot and go into the water or a dyke. At about 300 feet I pulled the mixture out to kill the engine, and put us into a slip to burn off speed and altitude. We touched down a little fast and rolled out for several hundred feet because the surface was very soft.
Unfortunately the spot we chose to land on was hard to find and even harder to access. An Air-med helicopter that was dispatched by SLCIA because of our 7700 code, found us about 45 minutes after landing. After checking that we were all right they took off for other duties. It was about another hour and a half before the police got there, so we sat and watched the news helicopters circle us while baking in the desert heat.
I can tell you that today I have a new respect for the responsibilities of my job. It really hits home the point that the students and passengers completely riley upon you to save them in an emergency. Fortunately this was a training flight and I was there, although I do have confidence that my students could do the same if faced with the same circumstances.
I have also learned a lot from this experience.
1. This particular aircraft had been wrecked about two months ago. Everything in front of the firewall is brand new including the engine, carburetor, and propeller. Even thought we did an extra detailed preflight to insure that everything was ok, you have to be prepared for the worst no matter what.
2. Once you realize that you have a malfunction that is not fixable give it up quickly and prepare for landing. I continually tried to move the throttle the whole way down thinking it was going to just start working. It did not cause us any problems in this case but if it doesn’t work leave it alone.
3. Choose the place and altitude for maneuvers carefully. My standard pre-maneuver checklist has students perform maneuvers over an emergency landing spot incase of engine failure. I should have used more careful inspection of the roads that I picked because they weren’t in that good of shape. Altitude is your friend; our flight school requires maneuvers above 2000 AGL. We were at about 3600 AGL which came in real handy.
4. Perform emergencies just as you have learned and teach your students. I pretty much followed the engine out procedure for this aircraft and it worked out really well. Don’t forget that when you have a selected landing spot you can speed up, use slips, flaps, and anything else you can think of to lose altitude and slow down.
5. I am not a religious guy but at about 100 feet you realize that you have done what you can (and will continue to do your best) but it is now in Gods hands. If you encounter major problems at that point you have very few options.
6. Emergency kits and first aid. Like many flight instructors at my school I carry a survival kit, food, and water for cross country flights. But local flights I rely upon the small first aid kit in the plane, I am going to start carrying my survival kit for every flight. I am also thinking of taking some sort of first aid training. It was 45 minutes before the rescue helicopter arrived, and if one of us was hurt that is too long.
7. Situational awareness. After landing we waited for a while for the police to get there. I had GPS coordinates and knew my position on a sectional map but could not give them more detailed information than that. The area was quite complex to access but it would have made it easer to know the area better.
Many more thoughts are string in my head but that is the bulk of it. It was kind of funny on the ground when my student told me that when I told him to take off his hood he thought I was doing a simulated engine out procedure. He didn’t realize what was going on until we landed. We took pictures of us with the plane, and all the helicopters which I will post tomorrow.
Here is a link to a local TV station viedo
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=319811
Airspeed, Best landing spot, Cockpit check !
