Crashed my Flight Design CTLS

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Vfronly

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VFRonly
About a month ago I picked up my airplane from annual inspection. 40 minutes into the return flight I suddenly lost oil pressure. I declared an emergency and tried to reach GMU 10 miles to the south. Engine seized shortly thereafter. I was at 500 feet a mile and a half from the runway. Knew I couldn’t make it, so turned towards a clearing and pulled the chute. It saved my life. There was no place to land. Dense residential area, lots of power lines and the roads were clogged with traffic.
2 oil return lines had become “disconnected”.
Check it out on you tube for the atc audio.
N121YT
 
I remember reading about this one, and I believe we even had a discussion here about it - and there you are!

Welcome aboard and I’m very glad you had a good outcome. Job well done!
 
I was lucky. Fuel was pouring across the panel from punctured left wing. Shattered left window allowed me to get out of the plane and on to the tree.
 
I remember reading about this and listening to the ATC recording. Good job. The tower’s mixup of your location sure didn’t help. Was the actual chute deployment dramatic or benign?
 
Listening to the audio, it definitely sounds confusing with the controller thinking you are somewhere completely different from where you were. It sounds like you were quick to dismiss his suggestion of landing at an airport that was nowhere near where you were.

Good luck with the insurance company; hopefully the process for obtaining a replacement isn’t too arduous.
 
X3 Skier said:
:eek:
The first flight after any maintenance is probably the most dangerous you will experience.

Good ADM:D
Click to expand...
The USN has a separate certification (FCF: Functional Check Flight) required to do the first flight after maintenance for that very reason. I was lucky enough to do one of these at sea after the wings had to be replaced. Oof.
 
Rich Holt said:
The USN has a separate certification (FCF: Functional Check Flight) required to do the first flight after maintenance for that very reason. I was lucky enough to do one of these at sea after the wings had to be replaced. Oof.
Click to expand...
Why is that ‘lucky?
 
Rich Holt said:
The USN has a separate certification (FCF: Functional Check Flight) required to do the first flight after maintenance for that very reason. I was lucky enough to do one of these at sea after the wings had to be replaced. Oof.
Click to expand...

Here's two operating principles I've found useful:
1) Always do a testflight similar to above after mx.
2) Include in the brief (I"m an instructor) hours since last major mx - if you're 5-10 hours since the last major "touch", you've got a lot less to worry about.

YMMV
 
Vfronly said:
About a month ago I picked up my airplane from annual inspection. 40 minutes into the return flight I suddenly lost oil pressure. I declared an emergency and tried to reach GMU 10 miles to the south. Engine seized shortly thereafter. I was at 500 feet a mile and a half from the runway. Knew I couldn’t make it, so turned towards a clearing and pulled the chute. It saved my life. There was no place to land. Dense residential area, lots of power lines and the roads were clogged with traffic.
2 oil return lines had become “disconnected”.
Check it out on you tube for the atc audio.
N121YT
Click to expand...
Gonna think that whomever did the inspection will be on the hook. Is the CTLS "totaled" if you pull the chute??
 
I just want to say, there was a lot going on there that was out of your control. You deserve a lot of respect for keeping your head and making solid decisions in this scenario.
 
TonyG said:
Here's two operating principles I've found useful:
1) Always do a testflight similar to above after mx.
2) Include in the brief (I"m an instructor) hours since last major mx - if you're 5-10 hours since the last major "touch", you've got a lot less to worry about.

YMMV
Click to expand...

Just this month I flew a 172 just back from annual. After the flight there was oil dripping from the cowling. Turns out they put to long of screw in the cowling and it punched hole through the rocker cover. Fortunately not losing a lot of oil, and not sure I would have noticed after a 15 minute test flight or not. But a good reminder about checking everything after maintenance.

Brian
CFIIIG/ASEL
 
brcase said:
Just this month I flew a 172 just back from annual. After the flight there was oil dripping from the cowling. Turns out they put to long of screw in the cowling and it punched hole through the rocker cover. Fortunately not losing a lot of oil, and not sure I would have noticed after a 15 minute test flight or not. But a good reminder about checking everything after maintenance.

Brian
CFIIIG/ASEL
Click to expand...

You didn’t catch a new screw through your cowl going into the valve cover?

A loose connection I can somewhat understand as airplanes don’t torque stripe like we do, but a random new screw through the exterior skin of the cowl going into the engine, stranger things have happened I guess
 
BladeSlap said:
You didn’t catch a new screw through your cowl going into the valve cover?

A loose connection I can somewhat understand as airplanes don’t torque stripe like we do, but a random new screw through the exterior skin of the cowl going into the engine, stranger things have happened I guess
Click to expand...
It would be hard to see without taking off the cowling I think. Many cowls parting line is right across the cylinder heads. Can you tell how long a screw is by looking at the head when it’s installed?
 
Fantastic to read that you walked away - that could have been so much worse.

what are the consequences for the A&P?
 
Tarheelpilot said:
It would be hard to see without taking off the cowling I think. Many cowls parting line is right across the cylinder heads. Can you tell how long a screw is by looking at the head when it’s installed?
Click to expand...

I don’t know the type

Just going off what I fly, a screw through the ships skin to the valve cover would be obvious
 
BladeSlap said:
I don’t know the type

Just going off what I fly, a screw through the ships skin to the valve cover would be obvious
Click to expand...
Lots of airplanes could have the wrong screw (too long) installed and nobody would notice it until something betrayed it. A line of screws all look the same regardless of their length. I have found long screws holding the plastic rear doorpost covers in Cessnas; once we found one jammed into the aileron cable pulley at the lower end of the doorpost, locking it solid. The cable had been rubbing over it, cutting it and ruining the cable and making the ailerons stiff. Another time a long screw was found poking into the aluminum fuel line that runs down that same doorpost. Wasn't leaking, yet.

A long screw from the cowling into a rocker cover should have broken or torn itself out quickly. That engine rocks in its mounts.
 
21541803 said:
What is the best

Looking at the altimeter winding down and the high IAS, what is the best glide speed for this aircraft?
CT LS says 78 kts no flap and for CT SW 63 kts with 15 degree flap.
Click to expand...

I’m the wrong guy to ask about flaps, I mean we have flapping but that’s different
 
BladeSlap said:
I don’t know the type

Just going off what I fly, a screw through the ships skin to the valve cover would be obvious
Click to expand...
Yeah. I know how it goes blade slap. You get all indignant and judge people because you think you’re smart and really you have no idea what you are talking about.

you’ll fit in great around here.

:arf::cheers:
 
First, great job on the chute pull. And keeping a clear head.

Second, anyone who thinks you can tell an improperly long screw from looking at the screw head is obviously mistaken. I repeat, obviously.

Third, it’s not a factor on my plane, but on motorcycle fairings where 3 different screw lengths may be involved, I use masking tape to tape each screw by the hole it came out of. Easy Peasy and mixups like this avoided.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
Yeah. I know how it goes blade slap. You get all indignant and judge people because you think you’re smart and really you have no idea what you are talking about.

you’ll fit in great around here.

:arf::cheers:
Click to expand...

Nah, I’m a barnyard animal
 
Rich Holt said:
The USN has a separate certification (FCF: Functional Check Flight) required to do the first flight after maintenance for that very reason. I was lucky enough to do one of these at sea after the wings had to be replaced. Oof.
Click to expand...

USAF does FCF’s as well. I got some “interesting” reports after a few of them during my career as Chief Ehgineer of various USAF planes.

Cheers
 
BladeSlap said:
You didn’t catch a new screw through your cowl going into the valve cover?

A loose connection I can somewhat understand as airplanes don’t torque stripe like we do, but a random new screw through the exterior skin of the cowl going into the engine, stranger things have happened I guess
Click to expand...

Not a new screw, just a different length screw than was in it before. Probably swapped from a different location in the cowling. Same kind of head, so nothing to see different from the outside.

Brian
 
21541803 said:
Looking at the altimeter winding down and the high IAS, what is the best glide speed for this aircraft?
CT LS says 78 kts no flap and for CT SW 63 kts with 15 degree flap.
Click to expand...

I believe that is MS2020 footage, I wouldn’t take it as gospel.
 
BladeSlap said:
I don’t know the type

Just going off what I fly, a screw through the ships skin to the valve cover would be obvious
Click to expand...

we should probably go off the CTLS. It took all of a minute to find pictures of the cowl, cowl cover, and a preflight checklist. A longer than normal screw would not be visible without taking the cowling off.
 
First, very happy the OP is safe. He did a great job remaining calm and taking decisive action at the very end of the flight.

But ... I'm going to push back on the "good ADM" feedback. IMO the pilot made several bad decisions that turned a manageable situation into a life threatening one.

First, he should have made a precautionary landing while he still had partial power and/or sufficient altitude to set up a 100% certain arrival at a suitable landing site, instead of attempting a LONG glide.

Screenshot_20211123-130410.png

Second, he elected to glide from a rural area towards a densely populated area.

markup_1453.png

Third, he appears to have glided right over the top of 25SC about half way to GMU.

Screenshot_20211123-133123.png

I'm not trying to be a jerk here, but there are several valuable lessons to be learned. This situation should have ended with the aircraft sitting in a farmers field up near Lake Robinson, not hanging in a tree.

Screenshot_20211123-132242.png
 
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