Couple incidents while training in South America

[Shurdak]

Hello!

Just wanted to share a couple experiences I had back when I was training to become a pilot and ask you guys, as flight instructors or students, what would you do?

So, first one:

It was just my 3rd flight as a student, we were practicing some "simulated emergencies" in the PA-28, when we suddenly lost power about 300' AGL, instructor immediately took control and after about 30 seconds the engine returned to normal, I tought it was odd not telling anything to ATC and simply returned to training instead, commented the problem to maintenance and that was the end of it.

Another time, different instructor:

We were taking off and at about 200' AGL power went down to about 2300rpm, (again, PA-28), instructor simply told ATC we were coming back because of "radio problems", we joined the pattern, never gaining more altitude and landed, again, maintenance was informed and that was the end of it. (This time I filed a report but word at the time was the owner of the school simply threw them in the garbage)


Almost done here, another story, another instructor:

Same as the story before but this time at a different airport, not our base, but we got power back after a minute or so, I suggested coming back to land, he said no and just climbed to around 4000' AGL to be "high enough" to get back to our base.

Lastly, same instructor as the first story:

This time we were close to the airport and the engine cowling (correct me if I'm using that word wrong) opened in flight, the CFI simply told the ATC we were coming back early and landed.

My question to all of this is, what would you do in any of this cases? Do you think we should've called an emergency?

I was too young and naive to question anything the CFI's said those times.

 

[BillTIZ]

They don't want to broadcast the truth over the radio. Then the federalies may get involved.

 

[DaleB]

In the first instance -- 300' AGL, if you're not near the airport (which you wouldn't be, unless you were on final) there's nothing ATC or tower can do for you. No need to tell them other than letting them know where to send the SAR team. But it sounds like engine problems were pretty common with those trainers, so the instructors probably knew there was no point to causing any drama. No need to lie to the tower though. Coming back to land. Why? Because I'm PIC, and that's what I want to do...

As for the last one... I've had the oil door pop open on my plane, and figured out I'd failed to fully latch the canopy. Both warranted a return to the runway but not declaring an emergency.

 

[Shurdak]

They don't want to broadcast the truth over the radio. Then the federalies may get involved.

They definitely hid more than they should from the authorities lol.

In the first instance -- 300' AGL, if you're not near the airport (which you wouldn't be, unless you were on final) there's nothing ATC or tower can do for you. No need to tell them other than letting them know where to send the SAR team. But it sounds like engine problems were pretty common with those trainers, so the instructors probably knew there was no point to causing any drama. No need to lie to the tower though. Coming back to land. Why? Because I'm PIC, and that's what I want to do...

As for the last one... I've had the oil door pop open on my plane, and figured out I'd failed to fully latch the canopy. Both warranted a return to the runway but not declaring an emergency.

This makes a lot of sense, and I agree, there wasn't need to lie to the tower.
But yes, engine problems were very common with those trainers.

 

[mandm]

Your workload goes from sipping a coffee aka a 10 to 1000 in 2 seconds. Fly the airplane first, if you have time then communicate later. Your CFI likely had a lot going through his mind at that time and over communicating can get you behind the airplane quick.

 

[Shurdak]

Your workload goes from sipping a coffee aka a 10 to 1000 in 2 seconds. Fly the airplane first, if you have time then communicate later. Your CFI likely had a lot going through his mind at that time and over communicating can get you behind the airplane quick.

Forgot about this in my first post: I once asked about this cases to one of my instructors and what I find curious is he never mentioned any of this, but he told me that all the paperwork and investigations after declaring an emergency are a mess and could ground us for a month or more. Is it like that in the US? I'm not sure if it even is like that down here, since I've never been involved in one.

As I told in one of my posts before, I haven't flown since 2017, maybe things changed, maybe I've forgotten some of it.

 

[Zeldman]

he told me that all the paperwork and investigations after declaring an emergency are a mess and could ground us for a month or more. Is it like that in the US?

For the minor problems you wrote about, no.

Seems things in South America may be a little different than in the US.

 

[RyanShort1]

Where any of the incidents fuel or carb-ice related? Might it be that the instructors knew better what was going on and weren’t worried about the engine itself?

 

[Daleandee]

Reportedly a friend of a friend had a pretty nasty landing accident and allegedly had to drag the plane into the hangar for repairs. No one knew or saw anything ... kinda like Ray & George:

 

[Shurdak]

For the minor problems you wrote about, no.

Seems things in South America may be a little different than in the US.

They are a little different indeed.

Where any of the incidents fuel or carb-ice related? Might it be that the instructors knew better what was going on and weren’t worried about the engine itself?

None of them where fuel nor carb-ice related, but surely instructors had some idea of the maintenance problems with each of the planes.

 

[RyanShort1]

They are a little different indeed.

None of them where fuel nor carb-ice related, but surely instructors had some idea of the maintenance problems with each of the planes.

If they weren't what do you think that the engine problems were? Engines don't usually magically get better if the problem is internal to the engine itself.