Who has had an engine out emergency? What was it like for you?

Question

I have flown quite a few small aircraft and have spent many hours training for the unlikely event of an engine out. The training paid off last year when my small 2 stroke, 2 cylinder engine blew a spark plug out of the cylinder head a few minutes after takeoff. I want to know what it was like for other people. I just looked for a grass field to land in and made an uneventful landing. There was no fear, panic, or anxiety until the media, police, fire, and ambulance got there a few minutes later.... in that order. The interview with the FAA was far worse than the actual incident.

This was just a small experimental tube and fabric 2-seater. What's it like to have the same problem in a larger aircraft?

Answer 1

Forty years and over sixteeen thousand hours, thirteen months flying in Vietnam. Never had one quit on me. Amazing to me how many say they have. OK, I suppose.

And loose change, your change is really loose. "The same problem in a larger aircraft, like a passenger jet, is that it drops like a rock and it is doom for those on board."???? You're kidding right?  Right? Please, tell me you're kidding. No? You're serious? Jeez man.

Answer 2

Wow!  The good news is the "uneventful" landing.  I have never experienced that but I know you can land a Cessna dead stick.  You already know about airspeed and flare, and I am happy to hear that you pulled it off.  The same problem in a larger aircraft, like a passenger jet, is that it drops like a rock and it is doom for those on board.  If you dived straight for the ground and pulled up without any power, you might be able to crash land in one piece.  You know what they say about a twin engine aircraft if one of the engines fails?  You have just enough power to get you to the crash site.

In my hang glider, if I'm going cross-country, every landing is like that.  I spot a field, look for power lines, and hope I've gauged the glide path accurately.

Okay, I'm kidding, I think.  If all four engines on a  jumbo jet quit, good luck pulling off an emergency landing.  It's just an opinion, I never said I flew jets for a living.

Answer 3

I dead sticked a Piper Lance into a grass field once.  About seven years ago at the beginning of my career in aviation, I was flying for a very low budget, bank check company in Kansas City.  It was day-time, VFR thank God, but I only had about 600 hours and less thank 200 in the airplane.

The engine started to overheat, so I richened the mixture and reduced power, and began to look for a nearby airport, but when I looked back up, the engine was already red lined and started to cough and miss.  I found a place to land, and as I turned in, it died completely so I feathered it.  

I remembered all my training somehow.  I carried just enough airspeed to make the field without stalling, but it was close.  I wacked a little wisp of a tree with my gear as I crossed the barbed wire fence, I remember.  I also remember that it was probably 90% luck, and 10% skill, but I'd rather be lucky than good anyday.

After the landing roll, someone came on 121.5 and asked if somebody declared an emergency.  I had to laugh.  I gave them my position and a SAR plane showed up in a few minutes.  A little old lady on a near by road was kind enough to give me a lift to her house to call my boss and the FAA, but only after I convinced her I really was a downed pilot by showing her my airplane.  Heh.

I found out later that a connecting rod bolt that holds the rod to the crank shaft was tightened incorrectly, and sheared off.  The piston broke off the piston rod, and the rod swung around on the crank and made a football sized hole in the casing.  That was the only damage to the plane.  Strange enough, my best friend flying the same airplane had the same thing happen about six month later, but it was caused by something different.  Again, no damage to the plane.

Regardless, I wouldn't want to do it again, but it made me a better, safer pilot and gave me some confidence about emergencies and my abilities to deal with them.  I fly 747's now, and that story still gets me a beer bought once in awhile from my airline buddies.  :)

Answer 4

Generally speaking, engine failures are nearly always the fault of an improperly conducted preflight inspection.  However there are exceptions.

Once when flying with a student, we were practicing power-on stalls in a fuel-injected 172.  After doing some training in the "glide" portion of the maneuver where I had the student practicing rudder work, I had him execute the stall and recovery.  As we added power, however, nothing happened.  The engine had completely quit on us over a residential neighborhood in Southern California.  I found it amazing how quickly all that training kicked in and the response was completely automatic.  No time lost, but no hurry either.  Ran the checklist, got the engine restarted, and returned for landing.

It turns out Cessna had published the wrong settings for the Lycoming IO-360 mixture and when at idle, there was too much fuel being injected into the engine.  The blue dye that is avgas is apparently not flammable, and can accumulate inside the engine cylinders when the temperature is not high enough to evaporate it.  My incident precipitated an airworthiness directive and the problem has been corrected.

This was within days of this particular engine/airframe model being released and as far as I know no other incidents like this one have ever occurred.

Answer 5

During training for a type rating in a level D Sim. ie FAA approved full motion training device. ( I know not the real thing) However this is small consolation when flying the dam thing. I had an inverted duel engine failure. Baring structural failure Aircraft are designed to fly powered or not. I let the nose fall through the horizon. Flew top rudder to get the blue side up. Aircraft did the Rest. I glided dead stick to a safe landing. Fly the plane first! Don't  give up!

Answer 6

Ah! You were probably behind a Rotax 582! I also had one on my homebuilt Kitfox 3 (also tube and fabric 2-seater).

I had an engine stop at initial climb-out a few years ago. Nose down, checked altitude; 800 ft AGL, went for a 180 and landed back on the runway downwind. Pushed the plane off the runway and checked the engine ... it was working again! I never knew why it stopped but I think it must have been fuel starvation. Anyway, today I have a 4 cylinders, 4-strokes Jabiru 2200 which I am very pleased with.

But for the engine stop, what still irritates me is that when it happened, I lost a few precious seconds thinking: "this is not happening to me, this is not happening to me!"

That's the most dangerous aspect of any emergency: Think clearly and not freeze.

Answer 7

After 16,000 plus hours in Helicopters and a 3000 + in Fixed wing....Yes

It got my attention every time