ASRS Reports

I attempted to change fuel tanks from left to right. While passing the off position the valve stuck in the off position. It would not budge. The engine on my Mooney M-20 E Super 21 quit and I made an uneventful landing in a pasture.

Pilot and controllers need to be able to talk to each other, especially during an approach or departure stage when the dangers of flying increase. There is a lot of flight activity at KVPZ and the surrounding airports. There are a lot of agricultural planes that fly around, as well as skydiving operations. The area that we fly in is also on the STAR for arriving Chicago Midway International Airport (KMDW) traffic, which is handled by the same Approach Controller that I could not communicate with.

In the middle of landing the engine cuts out. After assessing the situation, the pilot elects to put the airplane down in a field.

At about 7 nm out and 3,000 feet the propeller RPM began climbing sharply well beyond 2,600 RPM. I tried to change the prop and throttle settings to get the prop RPMs back under control and I had no success getting the RPMs out of the red. This continued for a short time (well under a minute) and I distinctly remember a bang, and then smoke began to fill the cabin. I opened the small window to my left in an attempt to clear the smoke and I continued to fly the plane.

“It is striking to me that there were three separate events deviating from my normal habits of operation: Inspect fuel immediately after fueling, do not re-start a pre-flight in the middle, never take off without dipping all four fillers. Had I conformed to my normal habits on any of the three, this would not have happened.”

The Controller began shouting to all of the pilots “I don’t have radar! I see two targets converging to the south!” The Controller sounded very anxious.

“After rolling out on final, I ended up wingtip to wingtip within a 1/2 mile of Aircraft Y. I must not have been able to see the aircraft due to ground clutter.”