Off-airport (or off runway) emergency landing experiences - please share

jbrinker

jbrinker

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Jbrinker
I'm at that point in my training where the training wheels are coming off. Doing small xc's solo, and soon the long XC, night etc.

Like many I'm sure at this point, I spend most of my non-pattern time thinking about "where I'm going to go when the engine quits". I have practiced quite a few times, and will be doing more for sure. And I also know that, other than immediately after TO or in some other circumstances, an engine out should be survivable in most cases if the pilot follows training and finds a good spot to put it down.

I'd like to ask any of you who have actually had this experience in real life to share, both what happened and how you dealt with it, and what you might have been able to do better or differently. And the results of course...

I think hearing these types of stories in other threads has helped me (and probably many others) "chair fly" the same scenario, making us more likely to do the right things when the big fan up front stops.

Thanks in advance!
 
Get a chute, get a chute..... Some's solution to all issues.
 
jbrinker said:
....I spend most of my non-pattern time thinking about "where I'm going to go when the engine quits".....
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I can't speak from experience but I'll say I still spend a good portion of every flight thinking the same thing. I may not tell my pax that, but I'm thinking it.
 
Fortunately nothing for me, but I've tried to get into the habit of briefing myself before every takeoff of where the fields are and what my plan of action is, if something were to go wrong. Have it first thing in your mind, just in case.
 
jbrinker said:
Like many I'm sure at this point, I spend most of my non-pattern time thinking about "where I'm going to go when the engine quits". fly" the same scenario, making us more likely to do the right things when the big fan up front stops
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Find a couple of grass strips and practice, maybe even one that's a little rough. It's actually difficult of course to fully simulate or practice for the real deal.
 
mscard88 said:
Find a couple of grass strips and practice, maybe even one that's a little rough.
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That's a good idea. We have a few around here. I will have to ask my instructor if he'd do a grass landing lesson with the Cherokee or not.
 
Mentally prepare for engine out scenarios and rehearse your response.
Always have a landing spot selected for when the engine quits. As soon as one passes behind have the next one picked out.
Always know what the surface winds are doing. Smoke stacks, treetops, flags, lakes... lots of clues.

My only emergency was from my own stupidity so it wasn't really an emergency. I meant to pull carb heat but pulled mixture by mistake. At low level over tall trees. That's a lesson I'll never forget. One of my planes blew an engine with another guy flying it. That was on floats and there was no shortage of water around. Floats are the gear of choice for emergencies. Practice landings aren't as important as practicing your response to a scary and stressful glide down. Seriously, read your emergency procedures in your POH and make them instinctive.
 
I've been the unlucky pilot who has had 3 engine-outs. One resulted in a crash, in one I glided back to the runway, and one I landed on a county road. 3 different planes, 2 of them were rentals.

In the one that most fits your question, I safely landed on the county road, I could clearly see power lines on one side of the road so I decided to land on the other edge of the road. It had been raining a lot and I had the road and wet plowed corn fields to choose from. There was a car on the road that slowed down to watch me, which put her right in my way. About the time I was going to choose the corn field to avoid her, she turned off the road and out of my way. The airplane and I were both intact!

One of the best stories I read recently says it all. Assume your engine is always going to quit and train for it. You'll react accordingly. Assume it won't quit and you'll be completely surprised and you may not handle it well.
 
The flying part needs to be instinctive...get the nose down, maintain airspeed, aiming point early to evaluate your glide. The rest of it will use up any actual brain power you have, so make are you can do these things well.

The first thing that goes through your mind is "Oh, s***!" The second thing is "This can't be happening to me!" The key is to have your body flying the airplane (see my first paragraph) and to get through these very quickly so you can deal with the problem at hand.

M first cold-stop engine failure was at 75 feet and Vx on a go-around in a lightweight, relatively overpowered airplane. In other words, very nose high. The guys that saw it said the engine quit, the nose came down, and I flared. I have absolutely no recollection of doing anything with the stick.

All I remember is the first two thoughts stated above, the engine catching once because I was furiously pumping the throttle, the decision to quit doing that so I'd land in the field under me rather than the trees in front of me, and checking that my shoulder harness was latched. Training kicked in, and the flying part took care of itself.

Oh...and several trips to the outhouse that day. ;)
 
Closest I ever came to a forced landing was when I had an engine quit at about 2000 feet agl while over one of the largest sod farms in Michigan. It was during my younger/dumber/braver days, and I don't remember be scared at all, just thinking, "Wow, how lucky I'm over this huge sod farm so I won't wreck my plane". Within 5 seconds of it dying and while starting to circle down to the sod, the C-65 roared (if a C65 can roar) back to life...so I started circling and climbing...after getting to about 5000 feet, it died again, and I started circling down again, only to have it come back to life again. This continued about 3 more times, until I managed to climb to about 7500 feet, and I figured I was within gliding distance of my home field, so I turned and flew back home, and I even made it without it dying again. Turned out some past owner/mechanic had put some non-standard parts in my carb, that was attacked by fuel over the years, and had finally gave way.
 
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eman1200 said:
I can't speak from experience but I'll say I still spend a good portion of every flight thinking the same thing. I may not tell my pax that, but I'm thinking it.
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I took up a new and somewhat nervous passenger over the weekend and at one point he actually asked, "Do you ever think to yourself - 'I could land there' while you're flying?" Without blinking, I immediately pointed out three different spots on the ground I already had picked out in my head. He relaxed after that.
 
Do you plan for an engine out on your takeoff? You should know your home drome well enough to have an emergency landing plan at the end of each runway. When to try the impossible turn, and where to put the airplane down if you can't return. Also what field you can glide to at 1,000 feet and 2,000 feet.
 
I don't see how people can "fly from one emergency landing spot to the next one" continuously. That would take all the joy out of flying, to always be worried about a 0.0000001% chance of the motor quitting (just made that number up).

On a 4 hour cross country, a big part of the joy is trimming the plane, sitting back and enjoying the ride.

And, I enjoy flying low level, lots of 100 agl, and lower. Looking for landing spots would prohibit that. I know my first reaction on a motor hiccup would be to yank the yoke back, and trade airspeed for altitude, then start looking for options.
 
JoseCuervo said:
I don't see how people can "fly from one emergency landing spot to the next one" continuously. That would take all the joy out of flying, to always be worried about a 0.0000001% chance of the motor quitting (just made that number up).
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On top of picking out potential landing spots, I'm also scanning for traffic, looking around at all the beautiful scenery, flying the plane, enjoying the peace, monitoring frequency, reveling in the freedom of flight... sometimes I even just start laughing or beaming with a smile because I still can't believe how amazing it is that I'm actually up there doing what I'm doing. Not even a smidgen of my joy is lost by playing the little "where would I land game," and the best part is that if sht ever does get real, I'm prepared. :)
 
JoseCuervo said:
I don't see how people can "fly from one emergency landing spot to the next one" continuously. That would take all the joy out of flying, to always be worried about a 0.0000001% chance of the motor quitting (just made that number up).
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In my area think of it more as,"How far am I willing to walk for help if the engine stops?" or "Are there any roads near my potential crash location?". Most of my flights are long XC and I don't fly "magenta direct" ... I do fly near highways, gas line roads, etc. that makes most of my flightaware tracks LOOK nearly direct, but I have an easy out at all times. I've had mag failures in rentals, an alternator disintegrate at night and secondary battery explosion ... I made runways on all occasions, but *IF* I couldn't I was near landable asphalt. We get the advantage in the west of highways with little or no electrical or phone lines to worry about.

JoseCuervo said:
And, I enjoy flying low level, lots of 100 agl, and lower. Looking for landing spots would prohibit that. I know my first reaction on a motor hiccup would be to yank the yoke back, and trade airspeed for altitude, then start looking for options.
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We had a Cessna go down here a couple of months ago low flying the Rio Grande river ... which is the ONLY place you can hit wires around here, and he managed to do so.
 
Skip Miller said:
Do you plan for an engine out on your takeoff? You should know your home drome well enough to have an emergency landing plan at the end of each runway. When to try the impossible turn, and where to put the airplane down if you can't return. Also what field you can glide to at 1,000 feet and 2,000 feet.
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After my crash I tend to think about it more. For example, I crashed taking off from a 2500' runway with trees surrounding it. I learned from an experienced bush pilot instructor to get off of the runway centerline as soon as I know I can't put the plane back down safely on takeoff. The "impossible turn" is a lot more possible if you're not on the runway centerline.
 
Which one? The one where I borrowed a buddy's airplane, or the time I had to have my Argentinian friend translate with the farmhands.There are others as well...

:D
 
Cajun_Flyer said:
On top of picking out potential landing spots, I'm also scanning for traffic, looking around at all the beautiful scenery, flying the plane, enjoying the peace, monitoring frequency, reveling in the freedom of flight... sometimes I even just start laughing or beaming with a smile because I still can't believe how amazing it is that I'm actually up there doing what I'm doing. Not even a smidgen of my joy is lost by playing the little "where would I land game," and the best part is that if sht ever does get real, I'm prepared. :)
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Do you play the little "where would I land game," when IFR? At night?

I can't imagine your instrument scan, or your situational awareness for traffic is good if you spend your time looking at landing sites, and calculating glide rations and distances..
 
JoseCuervo said:
I can't imagine your instrument scan, or your situational awareness for traffic is good if you spend your time looking at landing sites, and calculating glide rations and distances..
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I can't imagine your situational awareness is all that great if you are just "trimming the plane, sitting back and enjoying the ride" either. Hopefully you also meant that you are scanning for traffic, aware of obstructions, staying ahead of the plane, etc. Especially at 100 agl.
 
Cajun_Flyer said:
I don't fly IFR or at night.
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Just depends on how much utility you want to lose from air travel by having restrictions on when and where you are willing to fly.

Everyone has different risk tolerances, and that is ok.
 
Cajun_Flyer said:
I can't imagine your situational awareness is all that great if you are just "trimming the plane, sitting back and enjoying the ride" either. Hopefully you also meant that you are scanning for traffic, aware of obstructions, staying ahead of the plane, etc. Especially at 100 agl.
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Yep, willing to trade off a bit of "situational awareness" for the solitude and joy of flight.

All day, every day.
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
Just remember.....farmer always plows his field "long" ways. :D
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Not always.

More important to know which way is downhill, as the farmer "always" works his land the same direction the water flows.....

(see, "always" doesn't work when discussing ag practices in different parts of the country.)
 
Also in general tilled fields (dirt) are better than pasture. Pasture is generally ****ty acreage that not good enough to be cultivated (read lumpy and full of rocks). thus the adage "Land in the dirt, and you won't get hurt."

Freshly cut wheat is lovely to land on.
 
If I'm actually going somewhere, I'm gonna be at 9,500' or 10,500' for best speed/economy and I'll have lots of time to sort out the landing situation. That said, I'm always looking at airports that are popping up on the moving map GPS.

I had one precautionary landing due to some pretty serious engine roughness once, but I was more than 4000' AGL and within four miles of an airport. I didn't want to fly the pattern for fear of the engine quitting, so I landed downwind. Had to do some very aggressive S-turns to dump all that altitude. But it beats the alternative...
 
vontresc said:
Also in general tilled fields (dirt) are better than pasture. Pasture is generally ****ty acreage that not good enough to be cultivated (read lumpy and full of rocks). thus the adage "Land in the dirt, and you won't get hurt."

Freshly cut wheat is lovely to land on.
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I've heard similar from my glider CFI - if the land was good for crops, it would have crops.
 
JoseCuervo said:
Just depends on how much utility you want to lose from air travel by having restrictions on when and where you are willing to fly.

Everyone has different risk tolerances, and that is ok.
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I plan to start IR in the next couple months and my evenings/nights are for time with my kids. That's really all there is to that. I'm joyful flying the way I fly, you are joyful flying the way you fly. Not sure what battle you are trying to pick here or why, but happy leaving it at that.
 
vontresc said:
Which one? The one where I borrowed a buddy's airplane, or the time I had to have my Argentinian friend translate with the farmhands.There are others as well...

:D
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Looking for all the useful experiences I can get - so BOTH :) (And I would say anyone still alive to post about it makes it useful...)
 
Every departure will be an abort. Every landing is going to be a go around. The engine will always quit.

After a while these thought processes are always running quietly in the back ground. They keep you prepared for when stuff really doesn't work out. It means you already have a plan waiting to be acted on when there is an emergency or abnormal. Not being taken completely by surprise and having a good idea of what you're going to do makes things much more survivable and gives margin to your flying.

I have had two low altitude engine failures both resulting in me walking away without injury. One the plane was fixed in the field and flown out. The second landing required a little more repair to get the plane flying again but it is still flying. Hopefully I never get to test those skills again but if I do I'll do my best to be prepared. I love flying and look forward to every opportunity I have to go. None of the preparation for emergencies takes away from the fun. It actually allows me to enjoy it more since I know I'm doing everything I can to be ready for those bumps in the road.

My advice is to approach your flying with a professional attitude, maintain currency and have a damn good time.
 
None yet in powered aircraft, but a bunch in the glider.

Some highlights
  1. Not quite off field, but landed away from the home airport on a private strip (Towed home)
  2. First actual one about 20 miles from home in a field with a pretty good terrace running through it (Disassembled in a thunder/hail storm)
  3. Landed the Ka-6 in a field about a mile from the home field. Had one of the local cub pilots tell my friends at the airport that They think I must have landed out as I was below them.
  4. Borrowed Tony's Cherokee to go cross country. Landed out in a grass strip (retrieved by Tony's wife)
  5. Borrowed the Same Cherokee for a contest and landed out every day. (Only had three flying days IIRC)
  6. Got a new plastic glider (Libelle) landed out 25 miles from home and arranged the retrieve through Facebook. Got one of my smart ass friends who gave me **** to come and get me.
  7. Landed our nice two seater (L23) in an oat field about a mile and a half from the home field. Thankfully didn't have to take the thing apart, and was able to tow out.
  8. Landed out 65 miles south of home during a diamond distance attempt. Got rescued by our tow pilot who picked me up in his cub and gave me a ride home to the trailer.
ABOVE ALL FTFA

To paraphrase Bob Hoover. Fly the airplane as far into the crash as possible, and try to hit the softest object at the minimum safe speed.

Always have a plan, a backup and a backup to the backup. Take a look at fields on the ground and what they look like from the air. Learn what is good, and what is not. Roads are generally not advisable (especially when you have 15m or more of span). Roads have wires, road signs, mailboxes, traffic, and a whole host of other obstacles to worry about.

When choosing a field keep in mind a few things
  • Size (Duh)
  • Slope (Land uphill if at all possible)
  • Wires/Fences (that **** will kill you)
  • Crop (freshly cur wheat > 6' corn)
When in the glider I generally don't worry about a field above 3000' AGL. At around 2000' AGL i will have a general plan if I don't find decent lift soon. At around 1000'-1200' agl I will have picked a field. Depending on conditions I will generally be in the pattern by 5-600'.

Hope this is helpful
 
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