lockdoc600
06-18-2005, 12:22 AM
Hey all- what a great life we have as pilots of one of the safest forms of aviation! Yesterday I had the opportunity to test some farmland for a landing strip when my engine quit in flight.
It has been raining here daily for a loooong time so the edge of the field was pretty muddy and that's where I touched down. I usually fly in the 750- 1500 foot range but on this occasion I had dropped down to 250 AGL to wave at some onlookers coming out of their home to wave at me in the sky. As I got back on course to home the engine simply started getting bucky.....and eventually died. Turning on the electric fuel pump did not do any good and all I had time left for was to pick a spot and land the craft. In my attempt to get over the swamp I had used most of the flare by 3 feet off and bounced down the rest of the way from there.
My first thought after landing was to get it packed up and get it out of there to avoid any embarrasment and confrontation. As I was on the phone with a buddy who had agreed to go get my truck with trailer for me.....I heard sirens in the background!!!! I immediately got on the phone with our local PD and asked if the Sherriffs Office was on the way and I was told yes, them and the ambulance were on their way to pick up the body! A lady had not seen me come down but happened to look out her window or door just as my chute went limp on landing and she assumed that one of our local skydivers had their chute collapse and they plummeted to their death.....so she called 911 to report what she thought she saw. I was packing up the chute when the first deputy got to me and I told him to call off the posse and ambulance. He wanted the ambulance crew to check me out yet and I told him no....that unless they would set up at the airport and check me everytime I landed that there was NO REASON that they should come do so now as I LANDED the craft. Granted it wasn't where I wanted to land......! By the time the ambulance sirens quit and they turned around I had 5 squad cars sitting there and officers asking for my ID. I never fly with my wallet as I hate sitting on it so they had to trust my memory for the ID numbers and run the background warrent check that they always will do. After we got on a first name basis they were impressed that I was in good shape...my plane is in good shape.....and the crop is not damaged! I chose a small wheat field as my landing target and it is only about 6" long right now. Just looks like long grass.
A good preflight will not always show the issues that we will encounter in flight. The problem turned out to be some debris in the fuel cell that took over 70 hours of flight time before it worked its' way into the hoses and caused my engine out. Two pieces of plastic were in my gas line and would have greatly affected fuel flow. Emptying the tank and blowing it out was all that was needed. After carefully preflighting the machine again....I took to the skies to get back in the saddle right away again. I flew this evening for over 1 1/2 hours! I will probably not be flying at 250 feet too soon from now. More altitude is better to have time to pick the best spot to land. I had less than 10 seconds from engine out to landing!
I hope that by sharing this it will help someone to think about how they fly and in some small way keep them safer. Always fly with the attitude that your engine will fail and you will be ok. I always had that mindset but recently started changing my habits (a tendency to get too comfortable) and was flying lower than I would have previously. Also, if you do have an emergency landing...call the authorities and tell them you are ok.
Gotta sign off this long post....as we are flying at 6:00 AM and this boy need sleep.
Fly safe...............
It has been raining here daily for a loooong time so the edge of the field was pretty muddy and that's where I touched down. I usually fly in the 750- 1500 foot range but on this occasion I had dropped down to 250 AGL to wave at some onlookers coming out of their home to wave at me in the sky. As I got back on course to home the engine simply started getting bucky.....and eventually died. Turning on the electric fuel pump did not do any good and all I had time left for was to pick a spot and land the craft. In my attempt to get over the swamp I had used most of the flare by 3 feet off and bounced down the rest of the way from there.
My first thought after landing was to get it packed up and get it out of there to avoid any embarrasment and confrontation. As I was on the phone with a buddy who had agreed to go get my truck with trailer for me.....I heard sirens in the background!!!! I immediately got on the phone with our local PD and asked if the Sherriffs Office was on the way and I was told yes, them and the ambulance were on their way to pick up the body! A lady had not seen me come down but happened to look out her window or door just as my chute went limp on landing and she assumed that one of our local skydivers had their chute collapse and they plummeted to their death.....so she called 911 to report what she thought she saw. I was packing up the chute when the first deputy got to me and I told him to call off the posse and ambulance. He wanted the ambulance crew to check me out yet and I told him no....that unless they would set up at the airport and check me everytime I landed that there was NO REASON that they should come do so now as I LANDED the craft. Granted it wasn't where I wanted to land......! By the time the ambulance sirens quit and they turned around I had 5 squad cars sitting there and officers asking for my ID. I never fly with my wallet as I hate sitting on it so they had to trust my memory for the ID numbers and run the background warrent check that they always will do. After we got on a first name basis they were impressed that I was in good shape...my plane is in good shape.....and the crop is not damaged! I chose a small wheat field as my landing target and it is only about 6" long right now. Just looks like long grass.
A good preflight will not always show the issues that we will encounter in flight. The problem turned out to be some debris in the fuel cell that took over 70 hours of flight time before it worked its' way into the hoses and caused my engine out. Two pieces of plastic were in my gas line and would have greatly affected fuel flow. Emptying the tank and blowing it out was all that was needed. After carefully preflighting the machine again....I took to the skies to get back in the saddle right away again. I flew this evening for over 1 1/2 hours! I will probably not be flying at 250 feet too soon from now. More altitude is better to have time to pick the best spot to land. I had less than 10 seconds from engine out to landing!
I hope that by sharing this it will help someone to think about how they fly and in some small way keep them safer. Always fly with the attitude that your engine will fail and you will be ok. I always had that mindset but recently started changing my habits (a tendency to get too comfortable) and was flying lower than I would have previously. Also, if you do have an emergency landing...call the authorities and tell them you are ok.
Gotta sign off this long post....as we are flying at 6:00 AM and this boy need sleep.
Fly safe...............