Night Emergency Landings

rickyrhodesii

rickyrhodesii

Well-Known Member
You're flying a single engine at night and the engine fails. You trouble shoot but no luck. Would you...

a) plan an approach and landing to an unlighted portion of an area

-or-

b) maneuver to and land on a lighted highway or road?

I'm asking this in reference to a question on the Commercial written. The reference is the Airplane Flying Handbook, Chapter 10, "Night Emergencies."

I just can't seem to understand the logic behind the "right" answer.
 
I'm only a private pilot, but it seems to me that attempting to execute an approach and landing to an "unlighted area" is certain death, unless you're over water, or just by chance a barren field.
 
The logic behind the "right" answer (which I'm assuming is aim for the darkest patch of ground and hope for the best) is that were there aren't lights there probably aren't buildings and what not for you to crash into. The problem with that theory is that just because there aren't buildings doesn't mean there aren't other hard things for you to crash into such as trees, rocks, hills and what not.

Personally, I'd be shooting for the lights and then once I got down low enough trying to find a road or large parking lot to put it down on.

You know what really scares me? Losing an engine on a low overcast day.
 
The FAA wants you to try and avoid and place that has people. So they think that unlighted portion is better. If there is no one on the freeway or road I going to land there. Just have to be careful of bridges, median dividers, and light poles.
 
You guessed it! The FAA's correct answer is...

"planning the emergency approach and landing to an unlighted portion of an area."

The question is misleading because of the reference they used. The AFH states, "If the conditions of the nearby terrain is known, turn towards an unlighted portion of the area. Plan an emergency approach to an unlighted portion."

The question doesn't address the familiarity of the terrain...

"After experiencing a powerplant failure at night, one of the primary considerations should include..."

For you CFI's and experienced aviators, what would you do?
 
rickyrhodesii said:
You're flying a single engine at night and the engine fails. You trouble shoot but no luck. Would you...

a) plan an approach and landing to an unlighted portion of an area

-or-

b) maneuver to and land on a lighted highway or road?

I'm asking this in reference to a question on the Commercial written. The reference is the Airplane Flying Handbook, Chapter 10, "Night Emergencies."

I just can't seem to understand the logic behind the "right" answer.
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My guess is that they (FAA) in their infinite wisdom ASSUME you have done a proper preflight (which means you know the terrian) You are following your flight plan (which also means you are keeping up with your sectional and KNOW EXACTLY where you are) and that when you lose the engine you know if it is flat, or a mountain, or ??? Your chances are better landing on a flat dark area. Most highways,roads, parkinging lots etc have power lines, light poles etc. Think about what do you look for when you are searching for an airport at night in a big city when you are still ten miles out? Its usually the big dark area.

There is no 100% this is the best answer. It might be the highway is the best answer! Im sure they (FAA) has taken the results of all night off field landings and came up with a higher % of successful landings aiming for the dark spot then a city.

Part two of aim for the dark spot is aim for a dark spot that appears to have easy access for emergency responders!

So, for the test remember DARK SPOT...for real life always be aware of what is going on around you, and when you lose (and I hope you are being trained for when, not if you lose an engine) an engine you will be ready to handle it the best way you can.
 
BobDDuck said:
You know what really scares me? Losing an engine on a low overcast day.
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That's why I had a personal minimum of 1000' AGL ceilings when flying single-engine IFR. Even with that I never liked it. I would fly single-engine night only over familiar terrain (mostly interstates if x-country) and never would I fly S/E night IFR no matter the ceiling. I know, I'm a big wuss.:whatever:
 
turn off your landing light if you don't like what you see. I got in trouble one time because when I was helping a guy earn hours all we did was fly at night. I didn't care I got hours and I got paid, but they told me no more. I didn't really care it's Oklahoma, there ain't no hills except for turkey mountain in Tulsa.
 
I absolutely hate when the engine misses at night.

If I was back in NC, there is no way I wouldn't point it towards a road.

In NE, if there is snow on the ground and/or a good moon, a field will be fine.
 
Thats what I love about night flying around here in the winter.

Hopefully if you don't have any overcast, any moon at all will reflect light off of the snow, and make runway and panel lights pretty much unnescasary.

Overcast in the summer, and its alllllll black...
 
meritflyer said:
I never understood why people wont fly night IFR v. day IFR. Either way, you cant see a whole lot.
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I have that policy flying singles. I also wont fly IFR in a single with ceilings much below 800'. I want options should I lose an engine in IMC, and if I pop out of the clouds with enough altitude I have a reasonable shot at finding a survivable landing spot. I also almost never fly night VFR in a single around where I live; engine failure either means 80' spruce trees or very cold water. At least flying night VFR I could plan my route to be as proximal as possible to some kind of emergency landing spot. If I was IFR and popped out at 800' the odds are I would be eating spruce trees.

When I was instructing I would do my best to get my students to do night XC flights in winter when the lakes were frozen and the moon was out. With those parameters I have all kinds of emergency options.
 
While time building for my commercial I had a engine mishap at night. I was en route from KFWS to KABI in a Cessna 152, when all of the sudden my engine dropped RPM significantly. I immediately went mixture rich, full power, and pulled the carb heat. I realized when I pulled the carb heat the engine choked and just about came to a screeching halt. I pushed the carb heat back in and at this point the RPM'S were surging from 1800-1400 to nearly idle. I was not able to maintain altitude with the engine not producing power. Luckily I had a Garmin 296 GPS. I pressed the "nearest" button, and it gave me Ranger Field. I knew ranger field was not going to work because it was a turf strip (no lighting). I then selected the next one down, which happened to be Eastland, TX. Luckily, by the grace of God I was able to make it to eastland while fighting to keep the engine alive. I had to keep manipulating the throttle and carb heat to keep the engine alive. Once I landed at Eastland I was definitely happy to be on the ground lol.

I say all of this, because I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to the Eastland airport. In fact, I was almost sure I was going to have to emergency land on I-20, which was right under neath me. If I had known for sure that I wasn't going to make it to Eastland, I would have committed to landing on I-20. There were cars on the highway, but it was lit up, and I could see it.

If you are wondering what happened, I think it may have been carb ice. It happened in a way that I never saw it coming. From that point on i watched the RPM's like a hawk whenever I was flying at night haha.
 
My PPL CFI had about 50 years of flying experience and one of the first things he talked to me about was putting the plane down off the airport. He said if you've got to put it down, find a road, chose the left most line with the flow of traffic (they'll be going faster) and go for it. He also said if you've got to put it into the trees, try to stall it out before impact and use the belly of the airplane to protect you from the trees. In a light Cessna or Piper you'll be moving slow enough at that point you should be ok assuming you don't fall too far down.

He'd had to do both during his career and lived to talk about it.
 
BobDDuck said:
My PPL CFI had about 50 years of flying experience and one of the first things he talked to me about was putting the plane down off the airport. He said if you've got to put it down, find a road, chose the left most line with the flow of traffic (they'll be going faster) and go for it. He also said if you've got to put it into the trees, try to stall it out before impact and use the belly of the airplane to protect you from the trees. In a light Cessna or Piper you'll be moving slow enough at that point you should be ok assuming you don't fall too far down.

He'd had to do both during his career and lived to talk about it.
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That's awesome! I guess in 50 years of flying, you see it all. I have read that when landing on a road or highway, the traffic will see you and brake or move out of the lanes to allow room for you to land.
 
[Insert Joke 2.5 years from now when I finish UPT and am flying single engine the rest of my life...]
 
Depends on where it at! I have close to 400 hours at night in a single engine airplane (around 50 of it IFR), and in the Rocky Mountains where I currently fly, the darkest places are severe mountains. I would head to a lighted area, most cases the roads in Wyoming is not gonna have power lines or even traffic, or maybe luck out and find a small field beside someones farm. Going for the black hole is instant death. Now if I was in Tulsa (where I instructed for a while) then I would agree to head towards the black, and not the city center. hehe

I only had one emergency, and it was similar to mattp's. It really scared me as there, (not many airports out west). And you can get carb ice at any power setting I discovered.

Im not really a fan of the Cirrus Parachutes, but it sure makes the engine seem to run smoother at night for some odd reason!
 
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