This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
Went to land at ZZZ and while in the middle of the downwind the engine cut out. I was at roughly 900 feet.
I instantly switched fuel tanks and made sure that the fuel pump was on.
I then assessed the altitude and came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t be able to make the runway. This was because I was centered in the middle of the downwind so I was unable, due to altitude, to turn and make the landing.
After I decided that I couldn’t make the runway I turned right and had to put the aircraft down into a field. I had to make sure to avoid hanging electric lines.
There was no damage to property or to myself. And I walked away from the plane.
Primary Problem: Aircraft
ACN: 1820618
A good pilot is surprised when nothing bad happens on take off; a bad pilot is surprised that something bad did happen.
Learning to fly out of an uncontrolled field with a CFI who taught that the engine can quit at any time, we performed patterns that involved takeoff and climb to 500agl before the crosswind turn. (engine quits in that segment you land straight ahead or at least within 90 degrees of your courseline). We kept the pattern close…never more than 1/2 mile offset downwind leg….power off parallel to end of the runway, proper glide speed etc…45 degrees from the end turn to base etc… Doing that any airplane with a decent glide (in this case a 150) would make the runway with a power failure in normal wind conditions. I taught my students the same because when at all possible I really believe it improves your situational awareness to have a place to land when its possible….when its not…maybe a person wants to consider how long they want to be exposed….or how often. I fly a Pitts S2A now out of a narrow short concrete strip. I’ve learned even more about flying patterns than I ever thought possible:) Kudo’s to the pilot for maintaining control speed and walking away to fly another day. Flying never stops teaching, but the cheapest lessons come from others….if we listen….I haven’t always been that smart:(
A little time spent in glider training would help anyone in power planes.
About pulling the prop control back on a constant speed prop for increased glide ratio: This doesn’t always work. It depends on the prop and the airplane. Once oil pressure is lost, which will happen with a real engine failure, as opposed to pulling the engine to idle, some props go coarse, some go fine. Where the prop control is at that moment has no effect. It’s important that a pilot know what’s going to happen when his prop governor loses the ability to govern because it is getting no oil. And all aircraft that can be landed power off should be landed power off often enough that the pilot/student has a working visual knowledge of where his airplane is going to go with no power. This should be part of the CFI’s tool kit for all students.
One reason for new pilots/wider patterns is to have plenty of time to square off their base leg, …which of course leads us into the debate of squared bases vs a continual shallow turn from downwind to final.
All I can say is that when crap happens an it inevitably does to any pilot if you live long enough train train practice practice and train some more an fly the plane to the crash an if you do that my friend 99.9 of the time you will walk away that pilot in question was a low time guy who needed a well versed cfi a stall to spin kinda person ,that you can’t find any more ,its sad I had to fly 500 miles to get one that would do spin training an she was super she loved to impart the knowledge stored in her wonderful brain thx to bea she really
saved my life that day many years ago when my engine quit, fly the plane fly your training ,search out a bea or a Ted or a John jump in an go train refresh get rid of an old habit, learn a new one that enhances your newly found skill that you learned, fly often go grease those landings that your passengers will say WOW that was smoooth can we go again!!!!!!!!
Perhaps there was a very strong crosswind ‘from the wrong direction’ and only one runway available.
I’m glad the author made it down safely, but I don’t understand why he couldn’t have landed on the runway, unless he was flying a really wide “B-52 pattern”. Let me explain.
For years, the pattern altitude at Laramie had been 800’ AGL when I took my first air taxi checkride to become a Part 135 pilot, back in the late 70s. The airplane was a Cessna 182, full tanks, but just the FAA examiner and me.
After some air work, we returned to the airport. The examiner told me to do a wide pattern, so I put the wingtip on the runway (I more often bisected the strut with the runway). Without warning, he pulled the throttle to idle about mid downwind. He said nothing, and I immediately turned toward the runway. Even from only 800’ AGL and from an abnormally wide pattern, I landed on the runway. Admittedly the turn from base to final was pretty close to the ground, but still safe. I landed without flaps, and he told me to stop on the runway, which was a couple thousand feet or so down the 7700’ runway.
Then he told me to take off again and turn downwind the same distance from the runway. At approximately the same point on downwind, he pulled the throttle to idle again, but after I turned toward the runway, he told me to pull the prop control out all the way. The difference was amazing, as the airplane almost lurched forward. This time when I turned base to final, we were approximately 250-300’ above the runway, so it was a safer altitude. This time I dropped full flaps and landed, actually shorter than when I’d landed without flaps from a lower altitude.
Two lessons: first, it’s pretty easy to make the runway with any Cessna 100 series from even a low and wide pattern altitude, and second, pulling the prop control on a constant speed prop significantly improves the airplane’s glide ratio. Other airplanes might not glide as well, of course, but most small GA airplanes can make the runway from downwind at today’s more common 1000’ TPA, especially if the downwind is flown relatively close to the runway. Since that check ride 45 years ago, I’ve done practice engine outs from downwind in PA28s, PA32s, several Cessna 100 series, Cessna 210s, and Mooneys (M20K, M20C).
And my point is, know thy airplane, before it’s necessary.
Yes, but maybe it was a short runway and an immediate turn wouldn’t have left enough landing distance (there isn’t enough information). Or this could be a good reminder that in some cases, the first action is to estimate available landing locations and immediately start maneuvering BEFORE beginning the engine restart checklist and wasting altitude. He at least got the first two items on the restart checklist correct (practically none of these reports do), and he did make a successful landing.
I don’t know why there is any reason to not make the runway under these conditions..
But , I wasn’t there.
The fact that he avoided power lines and made a successful landing without damage or injury is proof of pretty good skill. I would suspect that his training in emergency glides always started with the engine cut at the end of the runway. He may have quickly realized that his altitude base to final would be a fraction of what he had always experienced and wasn’t doable, when in fact it would be no problem. There’s no mention of the length of the runway – if long enough an immediate turn to base could have been done using the abeam point at the time of the engine failure as the aiming point and altitude to that point would have looked normal. That’s part of what training is all about – safe demonstrations of maneuvers that to the untrained look impossible.
Checked the NTSB database on this one, and the type aircraft was not listed. If this were a C15x to C182, at 900′ AGL, they should have been able to make the runway.
So back to Jim and what he said. I think CFIs should, when giving anyone a BFR, pull the power in the pattern. CPL and above should know immediately what to do. This is a CPL Check Ride maneuver — The 180 engine out precision landing.
Any CFI doing wide patterns like this needs to have their chief pilot test them on the above maneuver with no warning. All CFIs have to also be a CPL. That little thing is fair game. And it would put a halt to the B-52 patterns we see people doing.
Those wide patterns cause Piper pilots (and similar thrown brick glide ratio aircraft) heart burn. For safety reasons, we need to fly a high approach to the runway should the engine fail during short final. Configured for landing with Gear down, flaps and prop full forward, you better be high so you can trade altitude for speed to make that threshold. And don’t forget to pull the prop to get rid of that large speed brake (assuming it is still windmilling).
That pilot needs a lot more practice if he cant land on the runway from 900 ft downwind. Low level turns properly executed would have put him on the numbers. It is aImost mandatory for a BFR, have done this exercise dozens of times in singles, complex singles and light twins. See Bob Hoover Aero commander video he was a great teacher.
Unless he’s flying a rock, 900’ AGL anywhere in the pattern will get even a bad pilot back safely to the runway.
On the other hand, the really really bad pilot might not make it and should get extensively retrained… or naturally culled by Darwin’s Law
A 360 overhead should be feasible from 900′, on downwind should only mean a radio call if there’s other traffic. Are dead-stick landings no longer taught from pattern altitude?
Perhaps a shift from salty stick and rudder instructors to simulator-glass-autopilot instructors.
I read owner comments on Mooney performance-characteristics and can tell their instructor didn’t get them anywhere close to the envelope. When they inadvertently find it a surprise is in store.
A good airplane trip is when you can walk away from the airplane. A great airplane trip is when you can re-use the airplane!—graffiti at an Air Force flight academy.
Guess that puts Cirrus in the permanently good category!…lol
Yet another case where a pilot in the pattern can’t make it to the runway.
At 900 ft mid-field, most aircraft will glide at least 9,000 ft [ 1.7 miles at a 10:1 glide ratio ].
Why are these new pilots taught to fly such wide patterns. ?
1/4 to 1/2 mile abeam is adequate to fly the pattern and be about to glide to the runway if the engine fails [ for any reason ].