How many of you practice emergencies?

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fast99

Pre-takeoff checklist
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fast99
With the recent horrible accident in California it got me thinking. Now many practice short/soft field take off and landings, engine out, and the various required maneuvers after receiving a PPL?
 
I do it now and then, and typically I keep situational awareness to potential airports or landing sites along my route. Sometimes I go out to the practice area or mid route on a 50nm route, I’ll practice all of the maneuvers, and also different types of landings. Situational awareness is one of the most important skills that we should practice in my opinion, also, weather and trip planning at home is fun and helps you to understand more in depth, obtain weather briefings and go through them, how would you do this route VFR vs IFR, safe altitudes, fuel stops en route, etc.
 
I try to fly all landings as engine out. I had a real one this summer and while I made some mistakes, I walked away without injury or damage. It happens fast and you won't have time to remember something you were taught years ago. You will want the muscle memory fresh because you are going to act from reflex.
 
Since I have to do recurrent every year anyhow - yes it’s practiced over and over again during the recurrent training. And if it’s a good idea for that - it’s probably a good idea for most.
 
I'm in the "try to fly all landings as engine out" camp, grumbling when I have to fly the "log XC time in the pattern" types. I also frequently go up high and explore the edges of the flight envelope, not just aerobatics but deliberately sloppy playing... let the plane stall out of an uncoordinated climbing turn or a hard slip, for example, and see what happens when you don't recover right away. When a stall is treated not as an abnormal situation that you have to "recover" from but just a familiar part of the flight envelope that you can fly into and fly back out again (or stay on the edge), you won't be caught by surprise... you'll have seen it coming and won't be freaked out.
 
I give myself a mini-checkride every three months or so. Slow flight, power off stalls, power on stalls, steep turns, soft/short field takeoffs and landings, go-arounds, ground reference maneuvers, simulated engine outs, including practicing an impossible turn at a safe altitude. If pattern conditions allow it, every now and then I will pull the mixture to fully shut down the engine, just to compare sink rates at best glide in both scenarios.
These skills are very perishable, they should't be practiced only at flight review time (if that).
 
Like a lot here, now that I own I regularly practice all those skills. And every takeoff for me is a soft field takeoff, just because I’m running a trike off of moderately rough grass strip. I’m trying to save the wear on the nose gear.

I’ve always preferred being a bit high on final (okay, a lot high on final), so I’m kinda the slip king at our field.

I think PAPI’s are great for drag-it-in twins but a deadly lure for single engine pilots, keeping us too low on final if the engine quits—particularly on long finals in shared mixed traffic patterns. (Although I see their use as a teaching/visualization aid for students).

Of course, I’m flying an engine powered leaf, now. I can land almost anywhere & enjoy the challenge of the spot & stop—yes, I’ve screwed it up into a hard drop & plop more than once. But even in my L19 & 172 days, I full flapped in, if conditions allowed. I loved those barn doors.
 
My flight reviews are 100% focused on emergencies.

Couple times a year I sit in the plane in the hangar with my checklist and go over the emergency procedures, putting my hands on stuff. I’ll do it as a “flow”. I’ll try it with my eyes closed.

Once in a while I’ll pull up the aerial of my home field. Pretend ~200-500 AGL failure for land ahead options.

If I have no passengers, half of my landings are short field practice without the crazy braking…but that’s CHEATING. I have a little POWER in for those, going slow, and plop it on. Not realistic for emergencies without power.

Power off 180s are where it’s at. I don’t do enough of them, hardly any at all unfortunately. It takes tower to allow a “short approach” and that’s hard when it’s busy. How about a power-off 90? Or power off straight-in?
 
Only fix mandatory airworthiness items and do nothing preemptive and you wont need the practice.
 
My last actual "practice" engine out was during a flight review back in late June, 2024. However, I got into the practice (a long time ago) of continually scanning for possible put-down places. Fortunately for me, I fly mostly around the Delmarva peninsula where there is a plethora of farmland. (I understand that soybean fields are the most forgiving.)
 
MauleSkinner said:
Oddly enough, I take a little issue with this…I’ve been impressed over the years with how quickly bad habits creep into normal operations, and correcting those should be part of a flight review IMO.
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Thats understandable and I agree. It’s important. I’ve been working on endorsements and ratings since I got my PPL, and fly with friends who are CFIs and don’t hesitate to give “pointers”.
 
Mentally, almost daily running through checklists and options.
 
When I looked at the ground track of the accident plane didn't make sense why he did a full pattern. This was before reading comments here. Not second guessing the pilot to many unknowns. Just got me thinking about reacting fast enough. Seemed like occasionally practicing an engine out and other emergency maneuvers would be a good idea and some here confirmed it.
 
gearFX said:
Just curious, what does that look like in practice (are you actually shutting it off or just idling, etc.)? What if you need to go missed/go-around?
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I pull power to idle abeam the numbers, do a 180 to line up, then slip to the threshold. If you keep it tight, not much difference between idle and power off in my airplane. I let the nose drop and carry extra speed in the turn, so there is no risk of a stall. That's what kills people.
Checklists are great, but it all happens very fast in a real event. I found that flying the plane took 100% of my time and focus.
I recommend practicing the turn from lower than typical pattern altitude. I was at 700' abeam the numbers when I had my real event.
 
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not as much as I should. But one made it a habit when I’m wheels off I am mentally ready to push the nose forward. I try not to be “all is good” until a 1000 ft agl. That plus a departure briefing going through take off emergencies can make the difference in losing engine right after takeoff
 
Ed Haywood said:
I pull power to idle abeam the numbers, do a 180 to line up, then slip to the threshold. If you keep it tight, not much difference between idle and power off in my airplane. I let the nose drop and carry extra speed in the turn, so there is no risk of a stall. That's what kills people.
Checklists are great, but it all happens very fast in a real event. I found that flying the plane took 100% of my time and focus.
I recommend practicing the turn from lower than typical pattern altitude. I was at 700' abeam the numbers when I had my real event.
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Curious about your event (if you are willing to share). What lessons outside of practice did it teach you
 
I practice/simulate short and soft field (or just go to real ones) several times per year.

I'll do a go around a couple times per year either as practice or because it's actually needed.

I'll walk through the steps and annunciate gear failure about 2x per year. Started doing this after gear pump failed in 2022 and I had to do it IRL.

The area I'm probably weakest in is power off 180s. I haven't done that in my arrow since I bought it. Nearly all of my power off 180 training was in a Remos GX LSA with an insane glide ratio, which is something the Arrow does not possess. I should brush up on that.
 
Ed Haywood said:
I pull power to idle abeam the numbers, do a 180 to line up, then slip to the threshold. If you keep it tight, not much difference between idle and power off in my airplane. I let the nose drop and carry extra speed in the turn, so there is no risk of a stall. That's what kills people.
Checklists are great, but it all happens very fast in a real event. I found that flying the plane took 100% of my time and focus.
I recommend practicing the turn from lower than typical pattern altitude. I was at 700' abeam the numbers when I had my real event.
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Thanks for sharing!
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
Nearly all of my power off 180 training was in a Remos GX LSA with an insane glide ratio, which is something the Arrow does not possess. I should brush up on that.
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I was taught that the Arrow (and other PA28 flavors) has a safe glide ratio. As in you throw a safe out the door and follow it to the ground.
 
About 20 years ago, after I finished my Private certificate, I had a series of "interesting" flights that honestly scared me pretty well. I made up my mind after that that if I was solo, I would regularly practice short-field or simulated engine out landings, and if I was with passengers, I would practice soft field landings. That has served me really, really well over the last 20 years. I try to maintain other maneuvers as well.
 
I find it interesting that a thread about practicing emergencies is frequently including the need to practice short and soft field landings.
 
Power off 180 is super easy in a PA-28. As my CFI told me 30 years ago, give it full flaps and drive it like a truck.
 
There are all sorts of things you can train for, such as don't assume you have lost all power. You can train for every emergency, but for me a plane is a way to make travel fun. I would much rather stay current, regularly do short fields, and make sure all your landings are engine-offs, and not go overboard practicing every type of emergency that you can think of.
 
MauleSkinner said:
I find it interesting that a thread about practicing emergencies is frequently including the need to practice short and soft field landings.
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When my client's engine quit a few years back, those landings came in pretty handy. It's hard to really prepare for a real engine out, but if you have a good idea what you can do with the aircraft when it becomes a glider, it comes down to executing a routine landing perfectly.

Training for an onboard fire is a little harder... current experience is that you want to put the plane down FAST and without hesitation - we were 2 miles from DFW, and everything worked out, but if I was in the middle of no-where, as we often are enroute to photo targets, a field or road will have to do.
 
RyanShort1 said:
When my client's engine quit a few years back, those landings came in pretty handy. It's hard to really prepare for a real engine out, but if you have a good idea what you can do with the aircraft when it becomes a glider, it comes down to executing a routine landing perfectly.
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I’m still not sure how short/soft field landings prepare one for an engine out any more than a normal landing does.
 
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