What happens if you loose power on takeoff while at say 300ft on a light single engine prop plane?

Question

What happens if you loose power on takeoff while at say 300ft on a light single engine prop plane?

Answer 1

1.  Establish best glide speed

2.  Identify best landing location within 15 degrees either side of straight ahead.

3.  Any chance of re-starting?

4.  Turn off mags, mixture, and fuel before reaching the ground.

5.  Flare at the slowest possible speed.

6.  Don't worry about metal things.  Worry about people.

7.  Walk away in one piece.

Answer 2

First, you fly the plane.  When all else fails, you fly the plane.

Next, you establish best glide speed, look for a spot to land, no more than 20-30 degrees left or right, shut off fuel, turn off electrical master, follow remainder of emergency procedures, prepare for emergency off field landing, that includes unlatching the door prior to impact.  Make sure you've done your passenger briefing as well as a thorough pre-flight before taking off, too.

What you don't do - try to execute a 180 and make the field. You will die.  300 feet agl is not enough.  Know of too many cases where CFI tried, and died.  Not a good choice.

Regardless, fly the plane...

Answer 3

Been there..done that.. twice..

nail your airspeed...glide straight ahead(10-15`) right or left max.. flaps at the last second.. pray it's not a plowed field because you have no choice..

Answer 4

If this happens at night, immediately turn on your landing light. If you don't like what you see, turn it back off.

Just curious flea. Two engine failures in one flying career. That always fascinates me. I've flown for forty years, many of my friends longer than that and a whole ton of people who've flown alot of hours and never had one single engine failure. Not one. How many people here have had even one engine failure. And you've had two? Makes be wonder what we do different preparing for flight.

Answer 5

Hopefully that will never happen to me!  But if it did, I'd land straight ahead in an open field.  There would be NO way that I'd be able to turn back to the airport.

Answer 6

Get your nose down and try for a landing in the flat-est place ahead. Try to avoid any turns and hang on

Answer 7

I'm a private pilot.  From experience, it takes about 700 feet  of altitude to return to the runway.  Lets hope you have a clear place to land in front of you.  You can glide to a landing, but there better not be anything in the way.

Answer 8

Many pilots find out the hard way that trying a 180 degree turn back to the runway at that altitude isnt wise.

Using your 300ft as an example, after reaction time lets say the pilot turns toward the airport.He’s using a standard rate turn meaning turning 3 degreese per second, meaning 1 minute to make the 180. At a glide speed of 65 knots the turn will give you a radius in excess of 2,000feet. This means that the plane will be off to one side of the runway. The pilot will need to correct and maneuver to align himself with the runway. Real world scenario- you will run out of altitude and crash even before you finish the 180.

What your instructor will recommend to you is to try to find a suitable landing site in front of you. This could be an open field or a road. One point to remember is that a properly executed emergency landing is safer than a poorly executed landing on a runway.

Answer 9

Glide down and land.

Answer 10

Try to descend and land without stalling. Airspeed over the wings is critical for lift. Depends on the situation.