Places to land in an engine failure?

We're a little spoiled in the upper Midwest, there's no shortage of spots I'm pretty confident would work. Hayfield or road are what I usually keep an eye on.20220319_173641.jpg
 
Some people can't keep on the fairway on a good day. :thumbsup:
 
Dan Thomas said:
Swamps can contain snakes, too. And alligators, if you're far enough south, I suppose. Never see alligators in southern Saskatchewan. We do have rattlesnakes. An engine failure just about anywhere in southern SK, except for Regina, should be no problem. The whole area is one big runway.
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I agree. I supported the US Army Ranger School at both the Mountain phase and the jungle phase on the Eglin AFB reservation. They had the Ranger Candidates patrolling along the Yellow River area and reported cotton mouths as big as your thigh. My crew were bunked at the Ranger camp on Biancur Field. The rangers put us up in a separate barracks. What they didn't say was they also housed "Mary" in the latrine. She was a one eyed seven foot gator (training aid) that had the run of the latrine. Known to have joined our guys in the shower on occasion. Present day, my home is 40 miles as the crow fly's from the Ranger camp. I have other acreage 20 minutes north with a lake. I do not take my dog there or wade in the lake because of the gators that live in the lake.
 
Dan Thomas said:
Swamps can contain snakes, too. And alligators, if you're far enough south, I suppose. Never see alligators in southern Saskatchewan. We do have rattlesnakes. An engine failure just about anywhere in southern SK, except for Regina, should be no problem. The whole area is one big runway.
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reminds me of when I bought my Cessna 140 in Nebraska. I didn’t have my tailwheel yet so my instructor friend went with me to go get it. I had had a 4 yr break so was rusty and was trying to show how on top of it I was. I routed us over all sorts of airports being it was a new to us aircraft…

Ol Jack looked at it and said “I don’t think so, if I can’t find a place in Nebraska, Iowa to land an old taildragger safely you can yank my ticket”

hours on end of grass strips were below us the whole way.
 
It's not WHERE to land with an engine failure.

More importantly it's about HOW you land in the event of an engine failure.

You can debate the merits of one landing spot over another all day long, but if you fail to maintain control of the aircraft on the way down, it really doesn't matter where you were aiming for.

I just watched a video the other day of a pilot much more skilled than myself who lost control of an airplane I fly regualrly and died because he was more concerned about the surface ahead of him.
 
Fearless Tower said:
It's not WHERE to land with an engine failure.

More importantly it's about HOW you land in the event of an engine failure.

You can debate the merits of one landing spot over another all day long, but if you fail to maintain control of the aircraft on the way down, it really doesn't matter where you were aiming for.

I just watched a video the other day of a pilot much more skilled than myself who lost control of an airplane I fly regualrly and died because he was more concerned about the surface ahead of him.
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Personally I want to be able to choose WHEN I land in event of engine failure. Gravity is not the boss of me!
 
You gotta be good to trap the middle wire. And if you are gonna stick it in the wires at least do it right side up. 2 reasons, right side up makes it more comfortable while waiting for rescue. Also easier to get out of a right side up plane.

Anyway I am sure it will still be a shocking experience...

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Maxnr said:
I agree. I supported the US Army Ranger School at both the Mountain phase and the jungle phase on the Eglin AFB reservation. They had the Ranger Candidates patrolling along the Yellow River area and reported cotton mouths as big as your thigh. My crew were bunked at the Ranger camp on Biancur Field. The rangers put us up in a separate barracks. What they didn't say was they also housed "Mary" in the latrine. She was a one eyed seven foot gator (training aid) that had the run of the latrine. Known to have joined our guys in the shower on occasion. Present day, my home is 40 miles as the crow fly's from the Ranger camp. I have other acreage 20 minutes north with a lake. I do not take my dog there or wade in the lake because of the gators that live in the lake.
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And you southern guys talk about how you couldn't live with the snow we get for a few months each winter...
 
Fearless Tower said:
It's not WHERE to land with an engine failure.

More importantly it's about HOW you land in the event of an engine failure.

You can debate the merits of one landing spot over another all day long, but if you fail to maintain control of the aircraft on the way down, it really doesn't matter where you were aiming for.

I just watched a video the other day of a pilot much more skilled than myself who lost control of an airplane I fly regualrly and died because he was more concerned about the surface ahead of him.
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This is my opinion. For my engine failure, my choice of landing spots was all about what would be the best place to fly it all the way down. Once I made my decision it was all about keeping her flying as long as possible, and once in ground effect, as slow as possible.

I did have a brief internal argument about whether or not to pull the gear back up, but we were so low that didn’t last long. Leaving it down worked well for us. I’m still not sure what’s “best” in general though. I think if it had been up when the engine failed, I probably would have left it up.
 
Zeldman said:
You gotta be good to trap the middle wire. And if you are gonna stick it in the wires at least do it right side up. 2 reasons, right side up makes it more comfortable while waiting for rescue. Also easier to get out of a right side up plane.

Anyway I am sure it will still be a shocking experience...

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I wonder if he was current?
 
I annoy some people when I say that no pilot has ever died from an engine failure but I stand by my assertion.

Airplanes unlike space ships do not require an engine. Pilots should look at their environment before takeoff. They should have a plan for the remote possibility that the engine will fail.

Aviate -- Navigate -- Communicate

Pilots die when they fail to control the airplane (aviate), or they maintain "controlled flight into terrain" at an unsurvivable attitude, usually inadvertently and often in IMC (navigate), and relatively rarely when they fail to communicate (IE: they ditch / or execute an emergency landing successfully, but nobody knows where they are.)

What I would do if the engine failed on takeoff from an airport located in flat countryside with lots of farmland, may well be different than what I would do if the airport is in forest or was in the middle of a city or next to a lake or swamp. But I would have a plan.

Takeoffs and landings are most critical-- but one should have a plan for en route too. The higher up you are, the slower your approach and landing speed, the better your glide ratio is, and the flatter and more rural the terrain, the more choices you have.
 
flyingron said:
My choices were forest or a cow pasture. Guess which one I chose. If there hadn't been an invisible from the air wire fence through the middle, there wouldn't have been any post-landing damage.
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On a checkride during a simulated engine failure I chose a cow pasture - a large one. I set up my approach to land in the middle of the pasture. There were cows on the edges - along the fence line about 200-300 feet from where I was aiming to set down. I failed the checkride. The examiner said the field was unsuitable because I could have hit a cow. Technically - yes, but why would cows have suddenly run TOWARD the airplane? Needless to say the voice in my head says "don't land there" whenever I see a cow pasture.
 
Jon Howard said:
On a checkride during a simulated engine failure I chose a cow pasture - a large one. I set up my approach to land in the middle of the pasture. There were cows on the edges - along the fence line about 200-300 feet from where I was aiming to set down. I failed the checkride. The examiner said the field was unsuitable because I could have hit a cow. Technically - yes, but why would cows have suddenly run TOWARD the airplane? Needless to say the voice in my head says "don't land there" whenever I see a cow pasture.
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Reportedly the cow was Ok.
 
Jon Howard said:
On a checkride during a simulated engine failure I chose a cow pasture - a large one. I set up my approach to land in the middle of the pasture. There were cows on the edges - along the fence line about 200-300 feet from where I was aiming to set down. I failed the checkride. The examiner said the field was unsuitable because I could have hit a cow. Technically - yes, but why would cows have suddenly run TOWARD the airplane? Needless to say the voice in my head says "don't land there" whenever I see a cow pasture.
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JMO, your examiner is an idiot.

So, if you ditched in the Baltic off Sweden, what? You might have hit a Russian submarine's pariscope?
 
Jon Howard said:
On a checkride during a simulated engine failure I chose a cow pasture - a large one. I set up my approach to land in the middle of the pasture. There were cows on the edges - along the fence line about 200-300 feet from where I was aiming to set down. I failed the checkride. The examiner said the field was unsuitable because I could have hit a cow. Technically - yes, but why would cows have suddenly run TOWARD the airplane? Needless to say the voice in my head says "don't land there" whenever I see a cow pasture.
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That on the part of the DPE was ridiculous. Sorry that happened. A kamikaze target fixated cow out running a landing plane to intercept it from across the field?

Not like cows get together and plan things out....

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Brooks said:
I am curious as to the top places people would land in the event of an engine failure and why you would pick that place. (for argument sake, pretend no airport is around)
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Wherever the BRS chute takes me.

Unless it would be a cold body of water - in that situation I’d prefer to fly the plane to a landing on terra firma.
 
You need the legendary flux capacitator.
 
Really need a three phased approach to get down from there.
 
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