Rough terrain engine failure - lake or trees?

[Bob Ridpath]

I can't swim...so...trees it is. I think about this often as I fly over the SF bay and the Pacific Ocean. There are times in most flights where I realize if the engine quits I'm going to drown. Good times.

Never to late to learn. YM/YWCA and Red Cross offer excellent swim programs. Corny but true: the life you save may not just be your own. There are a lot of ways to end up in the water unintentionally - from car accidents to slipping off a rock while you're hiking next to a river.

 

[ChasenSFO]

what company do you work for? Companies in the US don`t require all their crews to be able to swim 50 meters fully clothed?

I don't fly commercially but I've never heard of such a thing here in the states.

 

[swisspilot]

Never to late to learn. YM/YWCA and Red Cross offer excellent swim programs. Corny but true: the life you save may not just be your own. There are a lot of ways to end up in the water unintentionally - from car accidents to slipping off a rock while you're hiking next to a river.

Back home in Switzerland we would have so many people drowning in the summer time, mainly on rivers...the govt made it mandatory to have swim class in school, I use to hate it but this days I can`t rethink my life without it being near water or doing sports in rivers, lakes, sea..

 

[Houston]

A friend who is a LTA DPE once told me that you would be surprised how soft the tops of the trees are when you hit them. Fortunately, I've never had the misfortune to experience that for myself or find how far the fall is either.

I do know a fellow who made the mistake of getting too low crossing a ridge and ended up riding a downdraft into the trees. He got all the way to the ground without a scratch and engine was still running when he got there. I know another fellow who went into the ocean in a fixed gear airplane that flipped upside down. His biggest problem was getting out of his harness while sinking upside down. In both cases they came out with nothing worse than a bad scare. So, all things are possible with luck.

The recent Cessna Cardinal crash through the roof of an apartment building is just one more example of good luck.

Just my opinion, I'd go for the water. The lesson I learned from going through water survival training for what I would do now that I would not have done before is I would keep my shoes on. They weigh next to nothing in the water and they make a big difference when you get to the edge of the water.

 

[Jason Brinkmeyer]

If it were me, I think I'd take my chances with the water. Sure, it'll probably flip the plane and you might get banged up pretty badly, but I'd rather fight drowning than risk tearing the wings off on a few pine trees and falling into the side of a mountain at 100 feet per second, turning yourself into a pancake in the end. Fighting water is better than fighting gravity.

 

[swisspilot]

A friend who is a LTA DPE once told me that you would be surprised how soft the tops of the trees are when you hit them. Fortunately, I've never had the misfortune to experience that for myself or find how far the fall is either.

I do know a fellow who made the mistake of getting too low crossing a ridge and ended up riding a downdraft into the trees. He got all the way to the ground without a scratch and engine was still running when he got there. I know another fellow who went into the ocean in a fixed gear airplane that flipped upside down. His biggest problem was getting out of his harness while sinking upside down. In both cases they came out with nothing worse than a bad scare. So, all things are possible with luck.

The recent Cessna Cardinal crash through the roof of an apartment building is just one more example of good luck.

Just my opinion, I'd go for the water. The lesson I learned from going through water survival training for what I would do now that I would not have done before is I would keep my shoes on. They weigh next to nothing in the water and they make a big difference when you get to the edge of the water.

I fly single engine over the Amazon Jungle, we are told in training, as there are many rivers, to go for the water ALWAYS and never the trees, most companies here talk out of real life of experience.

When I flew in the South Pacific, again single engine, even over terrain (tropical forest type of vegetation) we were told to go for the water.

At the end like you said what counts is luck.