That's my old airplane

It was an eerie, awful feeling to read about the recent crash with four dead in South Carolina. The plane, N62635, a Piper Aztec was one I had flown for over 700 hours years ago in Elmira,NY. It was a forgiving plane if not a bit slow and heavy. It had all the bells and whistles for IFR flight, including some de-ice capabilities. Basically a great plane to fly if you weren't in a big hurry.

The crash apparently occurred right after take-off. There was a post crash fire with no survivors. According to the NTSB immediate post crash report the plane was inverted and off to one side of the end of the runway. So what was the most likely cause?

It certainly sounds like an engine out shortly after take-off. The worst time for a twin. Wheels coming up, not a lot of excess speed over stall and slowly accelerating. So what is one supposed to do. The old wisdom was if the gear is on its way up you are committed to fly. A pilot must immediately: identify the dead engine, verify and feather. Sounds easy but are you mentally prepared? When did you last practice the procedure with an instructor? The stopwatch is ticking, not many seconds can pass without definitive action. Wait too long and a stall and quick spin in are imminent. All said, there are no guarantees to a safe outcome. Afer all, there is a risk to flying that cannot be reduced to zero.

Well, how about this scenario? One engine quits right after liftoff, gear starting to come up, you are VFR with a fairly clear path in front (no big buildings) why not just retard both throttles and do a controlled crash straight ahead. No different than if both engines quit on take-off. At least you would have a chance then.

In summary. If you are flying a twin, before you advance the throttles for take-off, think what if an engine quits on take-off? If the wheels are still down then land. If the wheels are on the way up be prepared to feather the dying engine or cut both throttles and land straight ahead as terrain permits.

If my engine quits will I be prepared?

Everytime you get set to shove the throttle or throttles forward for the start of your take-off roll you should be thinking what if my engine quits. If it happens on the ground, easy decision, pull the throttle(s) off and try to stop on the runway. Once one is airborne things change, different choices depending on variables such as: altitude, single or twin, terrain, weather, and pilot skill. But one thing is certain, if you are in a single with a dying engine you will be a glider. I won't get into twin techniques for dealing with this, but will stick to a single.

Let us presume you are just off the runway 500 feet climbing and the engine starts sputtering. Just this scenario, although exact events are stiil not clear, happened last week at UZA ( Rock Hill, SC), an airport I know well as I used to keep my plane there. The plane a high performance turbo-charged single piloted by a pilot with slightly less than 400 hours. Apparently the pilot tried to make it back to the field but instead augered in, totally destroying both pilot and plane. The recommended procedure is to drop the nose to best glide speed as you look for a place to put the plane down. Trying to get back to the airport if you are too low will often lead to just what happened. Attention to airspeed is paramount as that is what is keeping the plane airborne. Too fast and you lose distance available, and too slow you stall. Every plane has a recommended glide speed as a function of gross weight. These speeds should be enblazened in your mind. Depending on the winds aloft, headwind vs. tailwind, the best glide speed will need some modification. With a headwind add 1/2 the headwind velocity to the best glide speed. For a tailwind decrease the best glide speed by about 10-20%.

When near the ground, fly the plane (glider) to a landing. Do not let it stall. Gear and flap positions need to be decided upon as both will affect your glide and how far and how fast you descend.

Ok, well in another scenario, you are at 8500 ft VFR over friendly terrain and the engine quits. So what do you do? Again, keep the plane flying at best glide speed to maximize the time aloft. Look around and choose your landing option early. You might do a circle to make sure there is no ideal spot to put down if you hadn't looked before. Once you have made your choice, set up a normal traffic pattern rather than trying to land straight in. So fly a downwind, base and final leg if able. This is something you are used to and familiarity should help. Whether to lower the gear in a retractable or not depends on how rough things are down there. Flaps will lower your stall speed and plane attitudes and sink rate will change. One author wrote about the aim point you need to establish in the windshield to help you know if you can make it to your destination. Pick a spot down where you are headed. If it starts rising in the windshield you won't make it, and your landing spot will be closer.

Finally as part of your recurrent training practice a simulated engine out from the downwind by bringing the engine to idle. If you don't trust yourself take an instructor with you.

Hopefully your engine will keep on purring, but if it quits you'll be ready to deal with it if you are prepared.

All of a sudden all I could see was an airplane

The recent mid air disaster over the Hudson reminded me of an incident overn norhtern Massachusetts some years ago. I was flying VFR at 9500 in my 1965 Baron heading to Burlington, VT. It was nice and clear with only a few scattered cumulus clouds, really nothing to block visibility at my altitude. I was squawking a VFR transponder code but not in contact with any ATC facility. In that region it would most likely have been Boston Center. But hey it was a Sunday and there shouldn't have been much traffic.

When all of a sudden my view out the windshield changed from blue sky to a Bonanza type single engine plane passing directly and obliquely across my flight path. There wasn't any time to react. This plane had overflown my flight path at a 45o angle from behind. They should have had me in plain sight if they were looking. But they apparently weren't. This was before texting too.

I was so shook up I called Boston Center and asked if they were communicating with the traffic that just had overflown me? They were not working anyone in my area.

The lesson I guess is that you should use all available means to help prevent a mid-air . But, even if you do, you might need Lady Luck to watch out for you. They could have used her last week over the Hudson.

Supplemental 0xygen should be aboard

The recent depressurization of another airliner got me to thinking and remembering a "high altitude" incident I experienced many years ago.

When I was a young buck flying a C-172 between Syracuse and Boston vfr I ended up at 15500 feet to get over a large cloud deck. Now that's pretty high without supplemental O2. I did ok but did feel a bit light headed. Luckily it was daytime and the clouds were nice enough to dissipate over central Mass. Supplemental oxygen would have been helpful and should have been aboard. Part 91 of the FARs states that you can only fly between 12500 and 14000 feet for 30 minutes without supplemental oxygen. Above 14000 ft the flight crew must have O2 and above 15000 ft all passengers must have supplemental O2. This of course is in a non-pressurized aircraft. The high altitude rules for 35000 ft and above are interesting. Look them up. Just google FARs.

Well, keep safe and use your O2 when needed to keep from getting anoxic.

Is your "co-pilot" ready to take over the controls?

The recent death of a senior airline captain at the controls should pose as a potent reminder that we all may become incapacitated at the most inopportune times. Armed with that possibility what should be done?

Well for a start, I'll briefly discuss the options and possible outcomes in the case of single pilot operations. Assuming that the pilot is suddenly totally incapacitated, what is the passenger sitting in the right seat to do? Panic is the most obvious option with an unpleasant and predictable outcome. But what if there had been a brief discussion before take-off including the handing to that person an instruction sheet of things to do, a "what if protocol"? Things such as: if the auto-pilot is on, leave it on. If not, push the auto pilot button to turn it on. These suggestions and those that follow assume that the plane is in a fairly stable flight regimen i.e. not take off or landing. How to keep the plane level and upright is a bit much to try and tell someone in a casual 30 second briefing. So anyway, the next thing is to call for help. That is done by keying the mike and calling Mayday three times and listening for a reply. Remember that the distress frequency 121.5 is universally monitored, and a prompt reply is almost a guarantee.

So now you get the idea. PPPPPP (prior planning prevents p-s poor performance) as mentioned in an earlier blog.

I have read accounts of ground personnel talking an unskilled passenger safely down in a small plane. Lets hope this scenario is not ever to be. But if it were, will you be prepared?

I just read an interesting write-up or to do list more complete, but also geared for someone with some flying know how by K. Truemper at:
http://wwpub.utdallas.edu/~klaus/Flying/incapacitation.pdf
Have a look and happy, safe flying.

Before You Go-Know Where To Stop To Abort

Reading about some recent mishaps involving inadvertant collisions between airplanes and trees, reminds me of a flight to Hendersonville, NC (OA7) in our Be-36, several years ago. Landing at this particular strip was ok, but taking off another matter. Although the runway is 3075 ft long by 40 wide and aligned 15/33 there turned out to be worrysome factors for this pilot. There was a considerable slope downhill towards the southeast terminating in a line of tall trees. It was warm and the wind although light was out of the NW. The slope meant landing uphill and taking off downhill unless one had JATO tanks aboard, with a slight tailwind.

Well, it got to be departure time and as we taxied to the departure end I noticed lots of small stones on and around the runway. That meant better be slow in advancing the throttle or risk flying stones in the prop and denting the skin. So we got rolling slowly and as I approached my half way visual check point (decision point for go no go) we had barely 60 knots, the trees looking menacing ahead. So I aborted the take-off with the usual discomfort, especially for my wife, the sole passenger. At this point my wife wanted nothing further to do with the plane, I could't blame her. She got out and I decided to do a practice short field take-off following usual procedures. I taxied back to the end of 15 and set 10 degrees flaps. Gunned the engine as soon as I was clear of the stones and was airborne and climbing by midfield. I landed and after promising my wife the moon and a four star meal she climbed back in the plane and we headed back to CLT.

So the message is always have a visual check point picked out to decide if you can safely make your take-off.

If you haven't reached your target speed by this point abort and try something else as I had to do i.e. short field technique. Trees or other obstacles surrounding the runway/airport must be avoided by using proper landing and departure techniques. When landing over an obstacle it is important to fly at your minimum safe approach speed or you will risk overshooting the runway.

Learn to coummunicate like the pros

Before I really ever did much of my own flying, I listened to ATC communications on my aircraft radio while watching the inbounds to Logan from my rooftop. Sounds goofy but I learned a lot about what and how to say it. I still turn on my transceiver occasionaly, just to listen and keep the lingo and rhythm in my head.

You don't hear the pros saying ah, um or waiting seconds to answer. No, they know what is expected and are ready with an appropriate reply. For example: United 123 you are cleared to 14000, not to exceed 250 knots. Roger 14 at 250, United 123. That is preferable to repeating the whole thing and wasting everyone's time.

Copying clearances can be tricky. However it is vital that they are copied verbatim as an error can be costly. So be prepared to copy complicated changes in routings, new clearances etc.

To make it easier to write as you fly, get a strap on writing pad arrangement for your thigh. They are commercially available. I even made my own when I was starting out.