"will quarter-back a dire situation/action they have read/viewed...should temper perhaps, because they have not yet, been put through that ring of fire,  you have not been... in that person's set of shoes...."

 

Ah ... But I have been in that person's set of shoes ...

 

Forty years ago four of us were flying from Florida to Massachussetts in a V-tail Bonanaza.  We landed at Ashville, NC in the late afternoon to refuel and eat dinner.  By the time we took off it was dark, but it had been light when we landed and we had seen the airport's surroundings -- entirely pine forest in all directions.  The Bonanza belonged to a friend, who was PIC.  I was riding shotgun.  The two back seat passengers were also friends.  They knew nothing about aviation.

 

We climbed out of Ashville in pitch darkness.  As we reached about 1,000 feet there was an extremely loud bang (extremely loud) upon which essentially all of the windshield blew in on the left side.  (As we learned the next morning, judging by the feathers and blood we had hit an owl, breaking the windshield but with the owl skipping off the cockpit roof.  But at the time of the windshield implosion we had no idea what happened, at least not immediately.)

 

It took Jack (my friend) and I perhaps 1-2 seconds to recover from our mutual shock and suprise.  We had been climbing, gear up, at full power with the propeller in fine pitch at 600-700 fpm.  Now, with half the windshield gone, we were descending at full power at about 500fpm.  I knew it.  Jack knew it.  Each of us knew that the other knew.

 

Jack turned to me with one eyebrow raised.  I motioned behind me with my left thumb, indicating that I thought we should turn back, the obvious reason being that a crash landing in any direction would be into pine forest at 80 or 90 knots, very possibly meaning death for all aboard.  Jack nodded his head and started a turn to the left.  I yelled to him that I would call out the airspeed and altitude so he could concentrate on flying back to the runway.

 

We both realized that we were going to crash if we did not try to make the runway.  We might fail and crash anyway, but there was also a chance that we would make it -- a good chance since we had taken off into a stiff headwind.  And so it turned out.  Jack flew an impeccable approach, dropping the gear just as we crossed the runway threshhold at about twenty feet AGL.  We touched down without incident and taxied back to the FBO.

 

Was I scared?  Yes.  So was Jack.  (Our passengers didn't understand the perilous nature of the situation and, while also scared, did not realize that they had been staring death in the face.)  But the real fear came after we landed.  During the emergency we were much too busy to have time to be scared.

 

What did I learn from this incident?  Answer, do not fly SEL at night.  Period.

http://www.flyaoamedia.com/aviation/my-scariest-moment-as-a-pilot/

 

Chris Palmer (Angle of Attack) has a similar incident. Note the quote in the article:

 

"The video does not do a justice for what it was like to experience this myself. And really, I’m not trying to build this up into something bigger than it actually was. This was literally the most horrifying moment of my life. That’s what you call Terror."

 

"Just as I rotate, you can see I turn the aircraft just a few degrees to aim for the only opening in the trees. This was not something intentional I did at all, and something I only saw once reviewing the video. These are instincts a pilot can build and something I did unconsciously."

 

I feel that if you don't experience any fear, or even panic when flying, you may actually be more dangerous to passengers. Because you will end up doing things you think you can get through. And you do things you wouldn't even think about due to instinct.

 

Seems to be a mix of both in the instructor video.

I repeat......was the last second right turn initiated because of some obstacle that can't be seen in the video footage?

 

this is confirmed; the report does include a last second chance of course

as they run out of space making a safe touchdown over the first field selected

they turned into the second field as a second emergency

The accident report suggests that had the pilot focussed on carrying the forced landing  it's likely that there would have been no damage to the aircraft.

 

Note: It is likely that if the guide focused on carrying out the forced landing was landing
Ends almost no damage to the plane.

 

As I said it, was a chapter accidents waiting to happen.

What did I learn from this incident? Answer, do not fly SEL at night. Period.

 

That would be a personal decision.

 

Although there are a couple exceptions in the U.S. - Night training is a part of the Single Engine flight experience requirements for Private Pilot.

 

I do believe, however, it is prudent to obtain an Instrument Rating before flying on your own at night.

Who, who has posted in this thread has carried out a real emergency landing in a real aircraft?

I'll answer first! I have, twice:-) First time at a critical moment in the way I handled it I had two option.

I chose the wrong one and the aircraft got damaged and the pilots hand slightly bloodied. The landing gear collapsed.

The bottom line is that the incident was a result of the failure of a mechanism in the aircraft but the outcome would have 

been a lot better but for the one decision out of many that where made from the beginning of the event to

end that was wrong. Had I got it right and carried out a gear up landing which is well within my skill I would have

been a hero at my club. But it did not happen that way:-(

 

Second time was as a result of inadvertently skipping an item on a check list due to being distracted by

an unusual turn of events. Again once the event occurred it was followed by a series of decisions that ended in the almost

flawless handling of the situation ending in a perfect landing. No damage to the aircraft and a very giddy pilot:-0

 

Both of these situation could have resulted in a dead pilot. The pilot was not perfect and made mistakes in both events but walked

on both occasions and today is a better pilot for having been in those 2 situations not only by my own estimation but also my fellow Aviators.

 

Let me give you all the benefit of my experience: When things go wrong in the air, everything happens at a pace you wouldn't believe. You will never be under so much pressure as long as you live and if you do not respond appropriately you might not live!

 

Now lets hear the aviation emergency stories of the arm chair pilots who think this guy should be hung out to dry.

 

My take is yes he made mistakes starting with getting out of bed that morning but when the chips were down he landing the plane and no one was injured or even worse killed. Everyone ahs good days and bad days. He flew on a bad day. 99 time out of 100 that would not lead to anything bad happening. This was the one day that it did.

I don't think anyone said he should be hung out to dry for the landing, or even skipping procedures.

 

But the fuel...that's another matter. Assuming it was due to negligence and not that cap coming off due to vibration or something else.

it was cought on the airports surviulance cam that he forgot to put it back on

in the investigators report; there are three counts directly towards the instructor

• Forgot to close the fuel cap
• Didn’t estimate correctly fuel required
• Didn’t conduct emergency procedure as needed

 

If a fuel cap wasn't on properly the fuel would've been sucked out from that tank in a hurry so point 2 may not apply. In a Cessna you normally keep your fuel selector to drain from both wings, and if you forget to check the fuel gauges occasionally you may not notice any problem until you're completely dry.

 

Point 3 definitely applies though. The standard emergency procedure at my local flying club is as follows:

 

Switch tank (or, in the case of Cessnas, set to Both)

Mixture rich

Aux fuel pump on

Carb heat on

Primer locked

 

Of course the exact procedure differs between different aircraft, countries and even FTOs in the same country, but in general it's roughly the same everywhere. However, I didn't see the instructor do any of that. He just kept pumping the throttle all the way down. While I've never heard any pilot at any level say that doing so can help, or indeed seen it being included on any checklist, I can sort of see the reason for trying it, although he should've checked the other stuff first. The fact that he never stopped actively scanning the area for landing spots and flying the plane makes me wonder if he wasn't actually taught to do it this way, because he didn't seem to loose his cool at any point. As an instructor he must've simulated emergency landings hundreds of times so it seems unlikely that he would forget almost everything on this day, even taking the greatly increased stress level into account.

Switch tank (or, in the case of Cessnas, set to Both)

 

Minor point Rolf...

 

That would be for, say, a C172 (the both)

 

C152 fuel selector afaik has just an ON / OFF

 

(and if you say "whatever" and don't really care I'll be so  :t0105:  )

 

(also no Aux pump   )

They did good! Awesome! 

 

If my engine was quitting on me at 4000 feet or less and I found a place to land.. That's money in the bank. I am pretty much committing to land on that spot and looking out for telephone poles, trees and wires and ditches to avoid.. Then I would have to see if I need to slip  to manage the landing distance left vs my airspeed. I would make sure my passengers are ok and they are doing what they need to do . I would have to focus on those issues.. My mind share is on making the landing happen with no damage.

 

Trying to restart my engine would be further down the priority list.  

Rolf, the point against the pilots are not my opinion
they are the investigators conclusion translated
(conclusion section - P.16)

• Forgot to close the fuel cap (Section 3.2)
• Didn’t estimate correctly fuel required (Section 3.3)
• Didn’t conduct emergency procedure as needed (Section 3.4)

Yes, we may be armchair piloting (some of us, not all) but the investigators aren't always pilots either are they?

They did good! Awesome! 

 

Not so! They got lucky. The instructor didn't follow procedures which in front of a student is bad practice. The correct procedures clearly state that if the engine is not working properly in any manner it is to be shut down and fuel isolated for obvious reasons.

 

He landed way way too fast and had to be stopped by the trees. A feww knots faster and they would be dead or severely injured. Procedures are there for a purpose. Even instructors should practise them "especially" in front of students. Had he done that the landing would have perfect and very short. Both aircraft and occupant undamaged.

Yes, we may be armchair piloting (some of us, not all) but the investigators aren't always pilots either are they?

if they’re not; they must possess extensive knowledge to be an aviation investigators

it’s like saying a does a police investigator has experience as an officer