Reduce Your Risk During Takeoff Emergencies (video)

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The first 90 seconds after the power goes in is one of the riskier parts of your day VFR flight. Consider breaking the departure into these four phases:

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With this idea in mind, watch the video that describes it in detail.
You can download the briefing card here: https://groundschool.com/images/articles/emergency-briefing.pdf

 

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This is great. Have had (and have currently) great CFIs that drilled the importance of a departure briefing. Even when flying alone, I verbalize what I will do if I lose the engine on takeoff roll, under 800, and at pattern altitude. Thanks for sharing the video. Really drives the importance home.
 
Great stuff, Russ.
 
This is a really good topic, and thanks for the presentation.
One thing I will try to do when I am going into a metropolitan airport is try to have a look at a sat view of the departure area and identify possible landing sites.
For example, Addison in Dallas. (KADS) It seems like every square inch of real estate is chock-full of structures. It is possible to ID some possible landing sites and to have them mentally mapped before you leave.
link to googlemaps, (also screenshot below)
https://goo.gl/maps/tavWERmuESexyvoB7
KADS.png
 
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Also, we are taught to climb at best rate partly for this scenario.
Unfortunately many of us (ahem) forget this lesson and relax a little bit on climb-out, "giving up" precious altitude. Perhaps we are thinking we want to maintain cooling to preserve our engine (ahem,ahem), in any case it is probably a good idea to reconsider this. You want as many options as possible in this phase of flight so don't push over to cruise-climb too early. Get that 1000' below you asap.
 
I always have and always will have a departure briefing for every flight. Sadly, that briefing often ends with "if the mill quits it's going to hurt bad". But I swear I will continue to fly the crate all the way into the crash. Best way to survive any airborne catastrophe.
 
Good stuff. My instructor taught us to, "get as high as you can as quick as you can" within reason of course.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Also, we are taught to climb at best rate partly for this scenario.
Unfortunately many of us (ahem) forget this lesson and relax a little bit on climb-out, "giving up" precious altitude. Perhaps we are thinking we want to maintain cooling to preserve our engine (ahem,ahem), in any case it is probably a good idea to reconsider this. You want as many options as possible in this phase of flight so don't push over to cruise-climb too early. Get that 1000' below you asap.
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That’s a habit of mine I should reevaluate. I like to get the nose down for increased forward visibility looking for traffic.
 
Daleandee said:
Good stuff. My instructor taught us to, "get as high as you can as quick as you can" within reason of course.
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I’ve always wondered the Vy vs Vx thing. Yes, Vy of course is your best FPm climb, but with Vx you’ll be at a higher altitude when you cross the end of the runway. Provided you have adequate engine cooling, what drawbacks other than covering the ground a little slower would there be to flying Vx all the way to pattern altitude?
 
On the climb speed thing, Vx will get you out of the highest risk portion closer to the airport, but Vy will get you out of the highest risk portion faster. I'm also one of those people who suggests that pilots "get high fast". But unless you're contemplating turning back to the runway, is there any real value in staying close to the airport? I would argue, probably not.

(I am >strongly< opposed to untrained pilots trying the turnback in an emergency. And even ones who have been trained, were probably trained inadequately. Trained or not, if you forgot to brief it, don't do it. That is one of the showstoppers.)
 
Nice video. What do you guys think about side-stepping your climb to allow for an easier turn back to the runway?
 
Challenged said:
Nice video. What do you guys think about side-stepping your climb to allow for an easier turn back to the runway?
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In my opinion, it depends. If traffic and ATC allow it, it's always better to improve your odds. But I remain vehemently opposed to pilots without proper training executing the turnback.

Another, similar idea, involves pattern work. The earlier you can turn to a crosswind leg, the closer (in both distance and angle) you'll be to the runway(s). This is a different case than the classic turnback scenario. (And it raises the argument regarding AIM "suggested" height for turns to crosswind.)
 
write-stuff said:
Another, similar idea, involves pattern work. The earlier you can turn to a crosswind leg, the closer (in both distance and angle) you'll be to the runway(s). This is a different case than the classic turnback scenario. (And it raises the argument regarding AIM "suggested" height for turns to crosswind.)
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When departing non-towered airports and turning crosswind at 300' below TPA (~700' at these near sea level airports) I'm usually at 1000' by my crosswind to downwind turn which puts me parallel to the runway. At that point I feel the safety factor increase a little. Years ago I landed in the mud at the end of a paved runway after the engine quit about 3/4 of the way down the 3100" foot runway. Hard slip was my friend that day as I needed to get down before the tree line.
 
Bill said:
Provided you have adequate engine cooling, what drawbacks other than covering the ground a little slower would there be to flying Vx all the way to pattern altitude?
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The biggest one I can think of would be if the mill failed during the climb attitude of Vx, it’s going to necessitate a much greater pitch angle change to get to Best Glide than a climb out at Vy would. Of course both will require immediate action to reduce the angle of attack before a stall occurs.
 
Good stuff, thank you for sharing.

On Vx vs Vy...I like to think of engine revolutions - each additional revolution gets me one rev closer to engine component failure. So I want max elevation/rev. So Vy makes more sense to me in most cases.

Vx maybe at an airport that is on the outskirts of town with a runway takeoff direction towards/near town?

No cookie-cutter answer, so go with the better odds of success.
 
RyanB said:
The biggest one I can think of would be if the mill failed during the climb attitude of Vx, it’s going to necessitate a much greater pitch angle change to get to Best Glide than a climb out at Vy would. Of course both will require immediate action to reduce the angle of attack before a stall occurs.
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And as you know, at our airport, no matter what one does you're likely eating bark if the engine conks :frown:
 
Daleandee said:
Good stuff. My instructor taught us to, "get as high as you can as quick as you can" within reason of course.
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The problem with that is some of us fly older aircraft with known cooling issues at high power settings. If I climb with prolonged Vx speeds at full power I'm likely to melt my engine. Easier when you have a couple hamsters on a treadmill.
 
steingar said:
The problem with that is some of us fly older aircraft with known cooling issues at high power settings. If I climb with prolonged Vx speeds at full power I'm likely to melt my engine. Easier when you have a couple hamsters on a treadmill.
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Agreed ... hence the admonition: "within reason of course." o_O
 
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