Engine out at night

[Chip Sylverne]

Well there's old tired joke about turning on the landing light at 100' ...

Wires. Wires'll kill ya quick. I knew a guy once who put his 210 down on a country road at night, right between to sets of wires. Somebody commented "nice job missing the wires." His answer "never saw them." Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

Know the terrain you're flying over. A black hole in Kansas or Nebraska and chances are you'll be picking g corn out of your teeth. The front range, not so much.

 

[Daleandee]

My last flight was at night. Enjoyed it thoroughly. Much smoother than it would have been during the day.

Been a long time since I've been night flying but the air is smoother and there aren't nearly as many people on the radio saying, "any traffic in the area please advise!"

 

[snglecoil]

The DPE that gave me my CFI check ride told me

18000 hours of dual, but how many engine outs at night?

It’s Larry at JQF. Swing by and ask him. He has a few stories he’d be glad to share

 

[eman1200]

The DPE that gave me my CFI check ride told me


It’s Larry at JQF. Swing by and ask him. He has a few stories he’d be glad to share

oh that boy does like to talk!

 

[bflynn]

Been a long time since I've been night flying but the air is smoother and there aren't nearly as many people on the radio saying, "any traffic in the area please advise!"

Meow

 

[bflynn]

Really? What are the actual statistics on fatalities in night engine failures? I'm not convinced they are > 50% fatality rate.

I think I was mixing night and IMC up. Shouldn't trust my memory on things I haven't read recently.

From the Nall Report:

As with the previous years, day visual meteorological conditions (VMC) had the largest portion of accidents and fatal accidents by a wide margin, roughly 84 percent.

Furthermore, day VMC had 71 percent of the total fatal accidents. This trend continues from the previous year with day VMC accounting for the majority of accidents. Furthermore, this trend has remained constant for several years. However, IMC, day and night, had the highest lethality at 72 percent and 73 percent respectively.

19% of Day and 22% of VMC night accidents are fatal. IMC Conditions are in the 70+% range.

 

[Juliet Hotel]

Why would I choose an unlit area versus a road? I would imagine taking my chances with power lines would be better odds than tree trunks that I can't see.

Tree trunks are at the bottom, branches are at the top. If you're going to find trees, you're most likely to find branches before you find any trunks. Those branches will help bleed energy as you drop toward the ground. When you find a wire, next stop is the ground with nothing to slow you in between.

 

[Jim K]

When you find a wire, next stop is the ground with nothing to slow you in between.

And that's assuming they don't cut you in half

 

[MauleSkinner]

Remember…the FAA assumes everything looks like Oklahoma.

 

[EdFred]

I think I was mixing night and IMC up. Shouldn't trust my memory on things I haven't read recently.

From the Nall Report:


19% of Day and 22% of VMC night accidents are fatal. IMC Conditions are in the 70+% range.

View attachment 99621

The 19% and 22% are closer than I imagined them to be. I would have thought night might have been 50% more than day (in the 30% range).

 

[Kevin Eggert]

So far it appears that most of you only think a dark spot will be land. In the areas I often fly, a dark unlit area has just as much of a chance of being a lake or some other water. Many of you also assume that the question entails waking up in an area that you are in no way familiar with and need to make a blind decision. While it doesn't help the OP answer his question, the real answer is to know where you are and what your options are prior to needing to make this sort of decision so you don't have to guess what the dark area actually is.

 

[Pugs]

Dark isn't always dark and you can often get a few clues. They may help, they may not. My Grandfather was flying a TriPacer home one cold moonlit night with snow on the ground. The engined packed it in and in the moonlight he could see a snow covered field. That went well right up to the point he hit the one tree in the middle of the field. Luckily it wasn't too tall and flipped the flying milkstool over on it's back. Only injury was when he released the belt and fell on his head.

 

[oskrypuch]

So, just added a column to the table, showing the proportion of fatal accidents for each category. A very clear correlation, even with the low numbers, but more with VMC/IMC, rather than day/night.



* Orest

 

[danhagan]

I have about 100 hours night flying out of 950 currently. My area, the dark spots are sand dunes and 10 foot brush or mountains. Only electric and phone lines are in the city around here (buried everywhere else). So if you fly IFR at night (I follow roads), it would be easy to land between traffic here in west Texas if following a highway. Auto-kinesis out here is pretty easy.

 

[Clip4]

Depending on location and ambient light, you may be able to identify a field to land in. That does mean there is not very high voltage power lines across the field. One option I look for is an office/industrial park.

 

[luvflyin]

Tree trunks are at the bottom, branches are at the top. If you're going to find trees, you're most likely to find branches before you find any trunks. Those branches will help bleed energy as you drop toward the ground. When you find a wire, next stop is the ground with nothing to slow you in between.

Not always..

 

[Salty]

I’m not sure how any of the stats posted has anything to do with determining the odds of fatality in an engine out at night.

 

[RyanShort1]

I’m not sure how any of the stats posted has anything to do with determining the odds of fatality in an engine out at night.

And the stats don’t include hours flown at night vs day.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

And the stats don’t include hours flown at night vs day.

To some extent corrected by looking at the fraction of accidents which are fatal.

Admittedly there could be a greater likelihood of an accident at night. But presumably that doesn’t affect things like an engine out very much.

 

[ja_user]

Studying for commercial while waiting for the ink to dry on my IR cert and there's a question about what to do if the engine quits at night.

The recommendation is land in an unlit area.
I would think one would want to opt for a road versus a black hole.

Why would I choose an unlit area versus a road? I would imagine taking my chances with power lines would be better odds than tree trunks that I can't see.

What say the POAnut Gallery?

What **** software are you using to study with?