dmccormack
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- May 11, 2007
- Messages
- 10,945
- Location
- Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
- Display Name
Display name:
Dan Mc
I flew to work this morning -- gorgeous clear, cool morning.
Weather was supposed to be good all day. Winds were shifty, but that's fine -- I land on the grass at the home airport.
Preflight good, started up fine, back taxied to 23 at 4G7 (Fairmont). Good runup, everything fine.
Took off and made right turn to head North back home. Kept the climb at 60 MPH to 2500' since it was a bit bumpy down low and the landing options are limited over downtown Fairmont.
I'd just found a nice emergency field off the left side, reached for the throttle to power back and level off -- hadn't touched it yet when suddenly power went down from 2500 RPM to 200, and the engine sounded sick -- very sick.
I glanced at oil pressure, looked for the field, then decided to do a 180 to see how far it was back to the airport. The engine was still putting out some power -- but barely.
I had the handheld set to 122.800. Announced I was returning to the field, please clear the runway (there was a C172 at the fuel pump that just started after I taxied out -- I never heard him make any calls so didn't know where he was).
I looked ahead -- plenty of altitude with this amount of power. If it died between here and there I'd make the river.
I didn't touch the throttle until I was 2 miles out. I was over 1200' AGL.
I reduced the throttle slightly and it went nearly to idle. I slipped aggressively (very aggressively) and was still pretty high. I kept the slip in until I was about 5' above the pavement, 1/3rd the way down the runway, then wheeled it on the upwind side (direct crosswind varying from 6-10 knots).
I rolled on one wheel for about 400' (I was doing about 70 when i touched down), and kept the weight on the wheel. When the lift decayed I kept the tail up. Eventually both mains were down and I held some brake. I wheelied a long way, but actually only used about 1000' of runway. the combination brake and wheel landing allowed me to use fairly heavy brake.
I needed to stop since there was no possibility of go around and the end of runway 23 at Fairmont has a nice tall road berm about 50' above the runway.
I taxied in, parked in front of the hangar, and ran it up -- lots of unburned fuel smell. I'll bet it threw a plug.
FBO owner and mechanic came out -- they'd heard me on the radio and had called 911. They called back -- everything's fine.
We pulled the cowling off. Sure enough, plug #1 on the left front cylinder was hanging out in space.
They'll repair it there and I'll bring it back home later this week.
Bottom line: Training took over. As soon as I heard the change I had my field in sight, did a turn to lose altitude. When i knew I had residual power, made for the airport, kept it high, had an out if the airport wasn't made, and slipped aggressively and wheelied when it was the only option.
Whew.
Weather was supposed to be good all day. Winds were shifty, but that's fine -- I land on the grass at the home airport.
Preflight good, started up fine, back taxied to 23 at 4G7 (Fairmont). Good runup, everything fine.
Took off and made right turn to head North back home. Kept the climb at 60 MPH to 2500' since it was a bit bumpy down low and the landing options are limited over downtown Fairmont.
I'd just found a nice emergency field off the left side, reached for the throttle to power back and level off -- hadn't touched it yet when suddenly power went down from 2500 RPM to 200, and the engine sounded sick -- very sick.
I glanced at oil pressure, looked for the field, then decided to do a 180 to see how far it was back to the airport. The engine was still putting out some power -- but barely.
I had the handheld set to 122.800. Announced I was returning to the field, please clear the runway (there was a C172 at the fuel pump that just started after I taxied out -- I never heard him make any calls so didn't know where he was).
I looked ahead -- plenty of altitude with this amount of power. If it died between here and there I'd make the river.
I didn't touch the throttle until I was 2 miles out. I was over 1200' AGL.
I reduced the throttle slightly and it went nearly to idle. I slipped aggressively (very aggressively) and was still pretty high. I kept the slip in until I was about 5' above the pavement, 1/3rd the way down the runway, then wheeled it on the upwind side (direct crosswind varying from 6-10 knots).
I rolled on one wheel for about 400' (I was doing about 70 when i touched down), and kept the weight on the wheel. When the lift decayed I kept the tail up. Eventually both mains were down and I held some brake. I wheelied a long way, but actually only used about 1000' of runway. the combination brake and wheel landing allowed me to use fairly heavy brake.
I needed to stop since there was no possibility of go around and the end of runway 23 at Fairmont has a nice tall road berm about 50' above the runway.
I taxied in, parked in front of the hangar, and ran it up -- lots of unburned fuel smell. I'll bet it threw a plug.
FBO owner and mechanic came out -- they'd heard me on the radio and had called 911. They called back -- everything's fine.
We pulled the cowling off. Sure enough, plug #1 on the left front cylinder was hanging out in space.
They'll repair it there and I'll bring it back home later this week.
Bottom line: Training took over. As soon as I heard the change I had my field in sight, did a turn to lose altitude. When i knew I had residual power, made for the airport, kept it high, had an out if the airport wasn't made, and slipped aggressively and wheelied when it was the only option.
Whew.
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