Night Emergency Landings

you know you can be God's gift to flight planning. You may be able to hold a course +/- .01 miles and you may 4000 hours flying in a specific area. All of that means nothing. Just like all instructors, I fly within about a 20 mile radius of my home airport daily. Here in southern Oklahoma we don't have many mountains to deal with (one or two) but that's not what scares me. It's the radnom splotches of desnely populated tree growth that concern me. Even with all the flying i do around here I don't know where all the woods are.

Last time I checked, sectionals didn't depict random groves and forests.

I'm landing on a road. Not a question in my mind. Also keep in mind, at night more than likely the highways are going to not as busy since it's probaly late.
 
As a CFI my exact words to students during our night cross-country are "I would rather make the news for landing safely on the highway than for being found in a tree the next morning"


However, if the moon is out and bright, here in the flat plains of Kansas it wouldnt be too hard to find a farmers field to put it down in.
 
BobDDuck 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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I totally agree about the IFR 800 thing. I'd go for a highway first and on the approach leave the option window open for the sure open field. The tree advice seems a bit hairy, IMO. Yeah, get the aircraft slow but also send the fuselage in a hole and let the wings take the impact.

In fix gear land in water and hold the breaks to hydroplane.

I would like to meet some of the people that make up some of the test questions.
 
Honestly having to land in the water scares my FAR more than night engine out landing. In something with retracts not so scary, but in a fixed gear airplane i wouldn't imagine it's going to be a fun ride.
 
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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The logic is...Lights and roads many times would = power lines = trouble. At least that is how is was explained to me. Never quite understood it, but anyhow.
 
Ethan,

I was taught the same thing about going into trees and roads. If you have your choice of trees go for the evergreens, they are very flexible and will absorb a lot of the impact. People have been known to actually hang a 172 in the tops of evergreens.

Road vs. dark area is a tough call that you will have to make at the moment it happens and weigh your options. In a small ASEL or AMEL aircraft the road may be the right choice. Once you get into the larger equipment it is and airport or dark area as you have to protect those on the ground in IMHO.

What scare's me the most too, is having to land off airport in hard IFR...
 
I'll land wherever I can, I only have one motor, and the 207 has the space shuttle's glide ratio (no joke) with a full load.
 
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