Finally, a good off airport landing story!

lancie00

lancie00

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lancie00
http://www.messengernews.net/news/local-news/2018/06/faa-begins-crash-investigation/

Happened at my home drome airport. Nobody knows why the engine quit yet. Pilot is an AP and it sounds like he had just finished an annual but this was the second flight. He landed in a field and got stuck in the mud. The worst part of the story is that a storm came through in the night and flipped the plane over.

At least he walked away. Sounds like a perfect landing.
 
Had one near me last week as well.

http://www.courant.com/hc-plane-lands-pratt-and-whitney-20180616-story.html

Plane lost the engine on takeoff out of Brainard and put it down in the field next to where I work. Pilot walked away and it looks like no damage to the airplane. There was a aircraft recovery crew out there the other day pulling the wings and loading it up on a trailer. Always good to hear of the positive outcomes of an engine failure.

Keith
 
I was ferrying a De Haviland Beaver from Alaska to the lower 48 when engine trouble forced me down in British Columbia. Engine was running, but not well,...the field I ultimately chose (I kept picking bad places - power lines, too short, etc,) was straight and long enough, but what I couldn’t tell from the air, it was hilly, and no sooner than I landed than I went careening over the top of hill at 45kts. and slammed into the next hill and came to a stop a few hundred feet later in a cloud of dust.
I just sat there, knees shaking, for a few minutes. Was about to pull the cowling when a young Latino looking fellow drove up and asked if I was okay. I asked if he had any vodka...Also asked where the hell I was, since I didn’t see anything around me on my WAC chart. He told me I was on the Risky Creek Indian Reservation, and if I hopped in he would introduce me to the Chief. After meeting the 24 year old Chief and making a few phone calls, I asked the pickup truck driver how far it was to the nearest airport. 8 or 9 miles, he replied and we piled into the truck, surveyed the route, and decided it was possible (with a pickup truck escort) to taxi the airplane to the airport.
The field in which I landed was too rough to even taxi, so we tied the tail of the aircraft to the pickup and slowly pulled it backwards up onto the (dirt) highway. Then, with the truck leading the way, I started the sick-running R-985, and taxied 8 miles, zigzagging for trees, over cow-catchers and all manner of dirt, gravel, grass and pavement. By the time we cleaned all the 1956 spark plugs, we were outa daylight. I drank some, spent the night, flew out the next morning. Only off airport landing in near 30,000hrs.
 
Was wondering...when I am driving out to our cabin in the Norwegian countryside I often see the state of the farming fields. This time of year, and with a heat wave, there are a lot of ideal looking landing slots, except for one thing. Most of them are on a slope...a good degree of slope too but most are very smooth and even.

So I got to thinking about if one had to land on one of these....would it be better to land downslope or upslope?
My inexperienced gut was thinking down...as I imagine the ingrained technique to land on a mostly flat surface might get one into trouble, pictured doing well and then the hill just keeps growing up on you til you plow in.

But downslope...not great either.

What would you do?
 
As
LongRoadBob said:
Was wondering...when I am driving out to our cabin in the Norwegian countryside I often see the state of the farming fields. This time of year, and with a heat wave, there are a lot of ideal looking landing slots, except for one thing. Most of them are on a slope...a good degree of slope too but most are very smooth and even.

So I got to thinking about if one had to land on one of these....would it be better to land downslope or upslope?
My inexperienced gut was thinking down...as I imagine the ingrained technique to land on a mostly flat surface might get one into trouble, pictured doing well and then the hill just keeps growing up on you til you plow in.

But downslope...not great either.

What would you do?
Click to expand...
We glider pilots are always taught to land upslope. But, you have to be careful in regard to your sight picture, since the slope will change your perspective quite a bit. That said, one of our club members landed upslope last season and said that he came to a very quick stop between the soft field and gravity.
 
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