Who has actually had an Engine Failure?

[BlueStreak]

I have never had a full engine failure but definately loss partial power. Last summer when I was over the practice fields doing maneuvers I lost a cylinder. I was just finishing a chandelle and rolling to my heading when the engine made got rough and began vibrating like crazy. Needless to say my stomach dropped to the ground. I went through the normal engine out procedures and evaluated the situation. Everything checked out (besides the power indication) and I was still able to maintain altitude, barely. I decided to go for the airport considering I was just a few miles south. I prayed the whole way back that the engine would keep giving what little power it had. Luckily it got me back to the airport and I even remembered to put the gear down! Can't over emphasize the importance of the checklist, especially in these types of situations when you have plenty of things happening. I didn't reduce power until I knew I had the runway made and was able to make a normal landing. Once on the ground the plane was shaking pretty violently and making a hell of a lot of noise. I felt pretty weird taxiing back to the ramp with everyone looking, but let me tell you I have never been so happy to be on the ground. I thought for sure when that cylinder went that I was going for a field. Thank God. It was a blown cylinder and was replaced fairly quickly. Went flying in the same plane a few days later

Good experience to have BEHIND me.

Happy Flying!

 

[Pirep]

[ QUOTE ]
John, I've had a couple of stuck valve problems as well. Definitely the best thing to do is to get it on the ground.

[/ QUOTE ]

Let's hear it for stuck valves! About 7 miles from the airport, 1400', clear of the bravo shelf, tell student to climb to 2500', mixture rich, throttle full...instant jack hammer. Emergency flows, only able to keep 1300-1500rpm, best glide airspeed gives me -200fpm, turning back to the airport is not an option (gator bait springs to mind), nice field, happy landing, cows in the next field looked up for two seconds and then went back to grazing (they weren't too impressed, I guess), oil dripping out the bottom of the cowling, push rod looks like a pretzel. FAA arrives, tells me in a serious face about recurrent training and a 709 ride. He then proceeds to laugh out loud thinking he was funny and says "just kidding, you did a real nice job!" I laugh about it now, but at the time, for some reason, my sense of humor escaped me for jokes from the local FAA about recurrent training. The farmer arrived that owned the property and comes up to me and shakes my hand and says "Congrats boy, you did a good job gittin' that bird down. The last one of you fly boys that tried to put his bird in my field stuck it in my trees. It took them forever to git it off my property." He was a real hoot. The cylinder was replaced, it was flown out that afternoon. It's still one of the best '72's I've flown, but the cows still aren't impressed. Go figure!

 

[Jason]

We had a massive compressor stall in the Challenger when we pulled the thrust levers back passing 400 feet departing Grand Cayman. Apparently people saw (and heard) the flames and pops all over the island. Shut it down, RTF, and enjoy another 2 weeks in Grand Cayman while it gets fixed

Jason

 

[chunk75]

I have had one precautionary shutdown (jet...TF-34) and one fail to restart after shutting it down during ME training (O-320).