Unusual Emergencies

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warthog1984

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I was wondering what unusual emergencies people have had.

Last week, I experienced my first and hopefully last emergency takeoff when my foot (and the depressed rudder pedal) got trapped under the console after landing but while the plane was still rolling.
 
I had the canopy come open in flight in an RV-3. I had to hold it down with one hand, kill the engine, and land dead stick.

I taped the oil cooler to get the oil warm. Then one day I took off into a temperature inversion. It was 32 on the ground, and 75 in the air. Oil temps shot up to 240f. Scared the hell out of me. :lol:

Lost an electronic ignition inflight. Not only did it go bad it advanced the timing way out of wack causing the engine to run very rough. :eek: I was lucky to make the airport.

Lost an engine in my 2 cycle ultralight and had to land in a field. Came back the next day and wild turkeys had roosted on the wings and poked holes in the fabrics with their claws. :mad:
 
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warthog1984 said:
I was wondering what unusual emergencies people have had.

Last week, I experienced my first and hopefully last emergency takeoff when my foot (and the depressed rudder pedal) got trapped under the console after landing but while the plane was still rolling.
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This happened to me also except I was landing and during the roll, I put my feet up a little too high and my left leg got stuck. Luckily we didn't veer off of the runway. It was kinda funny though because tower asked us if we blew a tire and my CFI awkwardly said, "Uh, no, my students foot is stuck"
 
I've gotten my shoe pinned, on our Arrow, between the rudder pedal and the bar right above.

First time it happened I was on my commercial check ride doing a short field takeoff. :mad2: I ended up having to take off my shoe to get my foot free. The DE thought it was funny.

I've pressed the right riddle pedal through the floorboard before. The tap weld on the rudder pedal frame broke free when I was disengaging the parking brake. The mechanic was cussing my name for a week....
 
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I've heard of horror stories with the Arrow and the rudder pedals. Never had any issues myself.

I have had the elevator trim get stuck in the N position in a T-tail Arrow.. Found out after takeoff. Had to use both hands to keep it level, even after slowing it down in the pattern.

Most recently, the right brake on the pilots side went flat on a Duchess (pedal went to the floor) and almost ran off the side after landing. Copilot side worked fine.
 
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I have had many.

In cruise I heard what sounded like thunder as I saw a flash of light out of the corner of my right eye. Thought it was thunder and lightning. Looked right and saw blue sky. That is about when the vibration started. Pulled power, landed at closest to find a large chunk of spinner missing.

Did an instrument approach, put in power to go missed but discovered the throttle stuck. Vernier throttle can have a nut vibrate loose behind the button precluding button from being able to be depressed which precludes throttle from being able to be adjusted. As I flared I pulled back on throttle and unscrewed throttle - in flare the throttle button, handle, nut, spring, washer all fell off in my hand.

Tire flats.

Stuck valve will cause a drop in max rpm of about 600 on my o-320. It will also cause a vibration significant enough to beat a hole in the side of a tight composite cowling.

Exhaust pipe separation at flange can sound like a shotgun blast in flight.

Gear will not go up, down...

This is some of what goes along with being an experimental pilot.
 
Was only a transient "emergency." I was flying along and there was an odd band of rain ahead. Didn't look like it was going to be an issue as you could mostly see through it. Suddenly there was a flash, the entire cockpit lit up. I'm trying to figure out if we've just had a near miss with some lightning from the storm when I realize my son who was in the back seat was attempting to take a picture of the neat rainbow he saw and unfortunately his point and shoot camera decided to auto-fire the flash.

Real emergencies weren't all that interesting:

1. Double mag failure.
2. Cylinder swallowed a valve.
3. Smell of smoke after alternator work.

The perhaps neatest ATC handling was one evening when I was at the airport and my instructor says he's going up to do an IPC with one of his other students. I didn't have my instrument rating at this point so it's "Come along, you'll learn something." Well this student is a busy attorney and he doesn't fly except in the evenings. Of course, the first thing we do is fly up to a nearby airport for dinner. By the time we're out doing approaches it's after midnight.

We're in the middle of a (non-ATC) execution of an NDB into GAI when the student lowers the gear (his airplane) and the panel goes black. This guy essentially locks up and the instructor is flying the plane. Buzz says "use the handheld and call Dulles and tell them we have the airport in sight and we want to come in and land." The lawyer calls Dulles and they give him a squawk which he is now dialing into the dead transponder. The instructor is losing it, "Give the radio to Ron," he tells the guy. So this old King handheld comes back to me.

The problem is that the battery is next to dead in the thing and ATC can't hear us. I can hear ATC trying to bounce calls to us off airliners but they can't hear either. Finally, I hear:

IAD: 39H I have a primary only return 14 miles NE of the field, if you believe that is you, fly heading 270 for identification.

I pound on the shoulder of the instructor and yell in his ear (he's still got his headphones on)..FLY 270.

Buzz turns the plane. Soon I hear...

IAD: OK, if you want to come land at Dulles fly 220.

This is a direct heading to the airport. I relay it to the instructor.
Close in they call:

IAD: 39H Cleared to Land any runway. Unless we hear from you we're rolling the equipment.

I key the mike:

39H: We won't need the equipment.

they heard that. Must be finally close enough (or the battery has recovered enough juice from us not trying to transmit on it).

We land. I try to call ground but the radio is now completely dead. We taxi back to Hawthorne. The instructor and the student go into debrief. I go to the phones and call the tower and let them know we are fine and thank them for their assistance.

Of course, this was all pre-9/11 stuff. But I have (with prearranged coordination) managed to flight of two out a NORDO Queen Air a few years ago after the Smithsonian fly in.
 
Not really an emergency, on one of early flights I landed at an airport, pulled into to the FBO for fuel, line guy showed me where to park, I pulled throttle to idle, pulled mixture to cut engine, mixture cable kept coming out. All I could do was turn mags off, and sat there for about 2 minutes with the engine sputtering and popping. I sat there laughing because it seemed like it was taking forever to actually stop and all I could think is that I would be stuck in that plane.
 
Had the leading edge of my prop blade separate in flight ,while IMC.
 
Cockpit door irreparably locked on the ground, 100F outside. Guess I could have called V1 and 'handled it in the air' (where it was cooler!)
 
TommyG said:
Not really an emergency, on one of early flights I landed at an airport, pulled into to the FBO for fuel, line guy showed me where to park, I pulled throttle to idle, pulled mixture to cut engine, mixture cable kept coming out. All I could do was turn mags off, and sat there for about 2 minutes with the engine sputtering and popping. I sat there laughing because it seemed like it was taking forever to actually stop and all I could think is that I would be stuck in that plane.
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If turning the mags off didn't work, the airplane had a bad ground on the P-lead and no one was ever doing a proper mag check, including you then, right? (Unless both the mixture and the p-lead broke on the same flight which wouldn't be impossible but would raise my eyebrows...)
 
denverpilot said:
If turning the mags off didn't work, the airplane had a bad ground on the P-lead and no one was ever doing a proper mag check, including you then, right? (Unless both the mixture and the p-lead broke on the same flight which wouldn't be impossible but would raise my eyebrows...)
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I don't know. The way he described it popping and sputtering makes me think it could have been dieseling. A hot engine can do that if the fuel continues to flow. Unless airplane engines are exempt from that. I certainly had cars from the '70s which would do that.

John

Edited for slepping erors.
 
jsstevens said:
I don't know. The way he described it popping and sputtering makes me think it could have been dieseling. A hot engine can do that if the fuel continues to flow. Unless airplane engines are exempt from that. I certainly had cars from the '70s which would do that.



John



Edited for slepping erors.
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You really going with that? Think again...

It wouldn't have been shutting down properly prior to the mixture breaking, if that was the case. And needed to be repaired prior to the flight.

P-lead was broken, engine had spark the whole time and a mixture that almost would have stayed running until the tank ran dry ... Or...

What is method number 3 of shutting it down...?

Fuel valve to off.

That one usually will take a little while at idle power.

You have four ways to stop the prop in most light aircraft. Two are fuel controls, one kills the spark. He had two failures and one more he could reasonably use.

Number four is "go hit something" and not typically advisable. ;)
 
denverpilot said:
You really going with that? Think again...

It wouldn't have been shutting down properly prior to the mixture breaking, if that was the case. And needed to be repaired prior to the flight.

P-lead was broken, engine had spark the whole time and a mixture that almost would have stayed running until the tank ran dry ... Or...

What is method number 3 of shutting it down...?

Fuel valve to off.

That one usually will take a little while at idle power.

You have four ways to stop the prop in most light aircraft. Two are fuel controls, one kills the spark. He had two failures and one more he could reasonably use.

Number four is "go hit something" and not typically advisable. ;)
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Dieseling does not require spark. It does require something in the combustion chamber to be hot enough to cause ignition. So, yeah, I 'd go with that one. Turning the fuel off would kill it after emptying the gascolator and lines.

If the p-lead was bad (i.e. not grounding), why would it sputter and pop? Wouldn't it just run? None of the planes I fly will sputter and pop on one mag (unless something else is wrong).

#4 is typically prohibitively expensive.:D

John
 
jsstevens said:
Dieseling does not require spark. It does require something in the combustion chamber to be hot enough to cause ignition. So, yeah, I 'd go with that one. Turning the fuel off would kill it after emptying the gascolator and lines.



If the p-lead was bad (i.e. not grounding), why would it sputter and pop? Wouldn't it just run? None of the planes I fly will sputter and pop on one mag (unless something else is wrong).



#4 is typically prohibitively expensive.:D



John
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Very very lean mixture right on the edge of running. Haven't you ever done it when leaning aggressively for taxi? Hit just the right spot it'll fire for a couple hits, miss for a couple, fire again, miss, forever. Especially big carb'd engines like my O-470 with awful induction systems. Fuel delivery just isn't that accurate.
 
Flew a Cherokee 235 to the Bahamas from Fort Benning, GA with a stop in Florida on the way outbound. Did the pre-flight and all seemed well, but as soon as I got in the air, the left wing seemed a bit light. All the way down, I needed to trim that wing down more. Left outboard fuel gauge showed full. I ran the other tanks normally, but felt I shouldn't use the left outboard. Got to Florida and on final to Palm Beach, I ran the pre-landing checklist which said: fuel to fullest tank. I was on the mains and just left it there. Not a conscious decision, just didn't feel right to go to a tank I hadn't used before when something didn't feel right. After landing and shutdown, I walked over to the left outboard tank and it was bone dry. I could see where the fuel float was stuck up. The fuel guy looked at it with me and just whistled. No incident, no emergency, but it sure could have become one.
I had walked around before leaving and had looked to see all fuel caps were on after the plane was topped, but I didn't reach over and twist each to make sure they were tight. Seems all the fuel in that left tank had been siphoned out in the airstream as I flew. Taught me a lesson about the fuel caps on that bird.

Best,

Dave
 
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Clogged static port in C-152 (spider) on one of my first truly solo flights (CFI not at airport), wasn't evident until I pulled it off the ground, looked back down at ASI and it still said 40 KIAS, ALT and VSI were flat, no real change, really scared me (maybe 12-ish hours at that point), landed fast but OK, A&P went straight to static port with tiny drill bit, stuck it in and a tiny spider came out mad as hell.

Seat belt not tucked in the cabin on passenger side in a C-152. Once I levelled off and set cruise power the prop slipstream was no longer strong enough to pin the belt against the plane and it sounded like someone was on the outside banging on the door with little hammer.

Fusible link failure on electrical system in PA-28-161, didn't notice ammeter discharge until going into Omaha Class C or B (don't recall which) near the airbase - scratchy radio, tower asked if I wanted to declare an emergency as I was flaring (no kidding), bounced it in, got battery charged and flew back home (no fix on the link) the next day.

Seized brake flattened a tire on landing in a PA-28-161.

Flying my cousin and her two boys from Denver Front Range to Wichita Beech Field in an A36 Bonanza, had briefed them on all the safety points (I thought), gave them gum to chew on to help their ears, and took off. Climbing through 2000 feet AGL I hear the loudest bang I had ever heard in a vehicle, literally felt it, and suspected bird strike, performed controllability and engine check and all was fine, did a quick visual check of the structure I could see and then noticed a lot of noise and looked back to see the emergency exit window open against the arm stop, and the boys faces as white as sheets. Calmly explained to everyone we are OK, set the A/P and had my cousin help me close the window - no obvious damage proceeded home and indeed no damage. They had opened the window to throw their gum out, like they did in the car (I still chuckle about this one).

Wierd 'stuck throttle' event in a Yak-52 recently that may have actually been carb ice (didn't behave exactly per textbook, but plane was Russian, '...in Russia Carb Ice occur any time...).

That's about it in the 28 years since I started flying, so far.

'Gimp
 
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AcroGimp said:
Climbing through 2000 feet AGL I hear the loudest bang I had ever heard in a vehicle, literally felt it, and suspected bird strike, performed controllability and engine check and all was fine, did a quick visual check of the structure I could see and then noticed a lot of noise and looked back to see the emergency exit window open against the arm stop, and the boys faces as white as sheets.
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OK, that's funny.

I've given my passengers instructions to open (or at least puncture) potato chip bags on the ground when planning for high altitude, for similar reasons.
 
Not really an emergency, but we had a window latch fall off the plane sometime while taxing (Went to close windows for takeoff, but found no latch) ... So we flew with a window open! (Which we can do, in accordance to the POH)
 
denverpilot said:
If turning the mags off didn't work, the airplane had a bad ground on the P-lead and no one was ever doing a proper mag check, including you then, right? (Unless both the mixture and the p-lead broke on the same flight which wouldn't be impossible but would raise my eyebrows...)
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this was back in 1995 I was a low 75 hr pilot, but thanks for scolding me Dad, ncluding you then! right? Sorry didn't learn from you and your expertise. So to say I did or didn't do a proper mag check is irrelevant, it is a possibility the ground was broke, it's possible on a sunny July day in Florida after 3.5 hrs of flying maybe it was just a little too hot. I didn't have my a&p, so once I get my time machine running I will go back in time and check it out.
 
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TommyG said:
this was back in 1995 I was a low 75 hr pilot, but thanks for scolding me Dad, ncluding you then! right? Sorry didn't learn from you and your expertise. So to say I did or didn't do a proper mag check is irrelevant, it is a possibility the ground was broke, it's possible on a sunny July day in Florida after 3.5 hrs of flying maybe it was just a little too hot. I didn't have my a&p, so once I get my time machine running I will go back in time and check it out.
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I didn't scold you. You mistake my pointing out the missing information in your story for me caring if you bother to understand your aircraft's systems or analyze the failure for better ways to handle it.

(I might note that you've had 19 years to figure it out. Usually by 19 years later you'd have told the story with, "I must have had a broken P-Lead and I didn't think at the time to just shut the fuel off at the fuel selector valve." Because you'd thought about why it happened. But no need... Don't care.)

But "scold"? Nope. I don't care how you operate your aircraft, or if you know your systems, as long as I'm not aboard. If I'm aboard, I'd just say, "Why don't you just reach down there and turn the fuel off? I'd like to get out and pee sometime this week. I think you're making that line guy nervous. He's sweating a lot. Hot out here, isn't it?"

And then I'd probably crawl under the dash and see if the stupid P-lead fell off, because broken crap bothers me. Hot props are a safety issue.

Usually they're hanging right there behind the switch with a broken wire busted off right at the "FAA approved" crimp terminal.

(I'd NEVER advocate just fixing the silly thing though... Not without an A&P to save me from a broken wire! LOL! Riiiiight. Anyway... Have Leatherman, will travel.)

Fuel systems and spark systems on most light aircraft aren't any more complex than the typical lawnmower. After 3.5 hours in the hot sun, I usually don't forget how the lawnmower works, but hey... It's your story. Tell it however you like.

Remember, I don't care. I just saw an unfinished story in the thread and thought it was odd to call it an "emergency". It's a public discussion forum. We discuss stuff.

I didn't call ya ugly or say your momma wears combat boots. Easy there killer.

Your post even reminded me to do a P-lead check tonight.

Wonder of wonders, when I turned the key off, the engine started to die. Amazing how well that little wire works when it's connected to ground properly. No spark, no ignition.

Just like my lawn mowers, my snowblowers, and my airplane tug. All exactly the same. Magneto to ground, switch off. Magic!

Have a splendid day. The weather here is finally nice and it was a lovely evening for night currency.
 
MAKG1 said:
OK, that's funny.

I've given my passengers instructions to open (or at least puncture) potato chip bags on the ground when planning for high altitude, for similar reasons.
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I've only ever had two bags explode. The bag of fried pork rinds was muffled, and the scent was immediately obvious. Then I had two bags of chips loaded on top of everything in the back seat, right behind my head. One blew loudly just as I leveled off at 8500, but I smelled nothing and couldn't see it. Later I climbed to 10,500 and bag number two survived the trip intact. You never know . . .

Many bags have no problem at "typical" altitudes, it's all the luck of the draw. And what you consider "high altitude." I start running out of power around there.
 
Geico266 said:
I had the canopy come open in flight in an RV-3. I had to hold it down with one hand, kill the engine, and land dead stick.
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Why was shutting down the engine the appropriate response here?
 
On my IFR check ride, just as the plane left the ground a bumblebee emerged from behind the glareshield and started buzzing around the cockpit. My DPE went completely berserk and was yelling and swatting and generally going crazy. He screamed at me to declare an emergency and get back on the ground asap.

He finally connected with a good swing on the bee, and it fell down into the co-pilot footwell. I thought the DPE was going to mash a hole in my floor with the vigor in which he stomped the hell outta that bug.

Turns out DPE was allergic to bees and was afraid of going into anaphylactic shock. No one was stung, no emergency was declared, and I got my ticket.
 
Hank S said:
Many bags have no problem at "typical" altitudes, it's all the luck of the draw. And what you consider "high altitude." I start running out of power around there.
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By high altitude, I mean near the service ceiling. I've crossed the Sierra as high as 13000 in a 177RG.
 
denverpilot said:
Very very lean mixture right on the edge of running. Haven't you ever done it when leaning aggressively for taxi? Hit just the right spot it'll fire for a couple hits, miss for a couple, fire again, miss, forever. Especially big carb'd engines like my O-470 with awful induction systems. Fuel delivery just isn't that accurate.
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Yeah, but that (very lean mixture) assumes the mixture control pulled and then broke at just the right spot.

I still say if the p-lead was bad and the mixture control broke (as described) it would just run.

Of course neither of us was there so we are just speculating in possible causes. I'm sure speculation shocks the collective culture of this board, but there it is. :D

John
 
jsstevens said:
Yeah, but that (very lean mixture) assumes the mixture control pulled and then broke at just the right spot.



I still say if the p-lead was bad and the mixture control broke (as described) it would just run.



Of course neither of us was there so we are just speculating in possible causes. I'm sure speculation shocks the collective culture of this board, but there it is. :D



John
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Heh. And the fuel selector to OFF was the next step no matter what caused it. And then fixing one, or both, problems in the system before flying it again.

I've seen a busted Cessna fuel selector that wouldn't cut off the fuel completely, too.

Stuff breaks. Gotta fix it. Gotta know how it works to know it's broken. 'Nuff said. ;)
 
Jim_R said:
Turns out DPE was allergic to bees and was afraid of going into anaphylactic shock. No one was stung, no emergency was declared, and I got my ticket.
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My CFI had the same issue. As soon as he saw it flying in the cockpit he was a mess. Landed and he exited as soon as I got to the taxiway - took about a minute to get it eliminated. Back then they cleaned the windshields with Pledge Lemon furniture polish which I think attracted them. We had issues all summer.
 
Jim_R said:
On my IFR check ride, just as the plane left the ground a bumblebee emerged from behind the glareshield and started buzzing around the cockpit. My DPE went completely berserk and was yelling and swatting and generally going crazy. He screamed at me to declare an emergency and get back on the ground asap.

He finally connected with a good swing on the bee, and it fell down into the co-pilot footwell. I thought the DPE was going to mash a hole in my floor with the vigor in which he stomped the hell outta that bug.

Turns out DPE was allergic to bees and was afraid of going into anaphylactic shock. No one was stung, no emergency was declared, and I got my ticket.
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Very lucky that no one was stung. Swinging wildly at a bee if you're allergic to bee stings is about the dumbest way to handle the situation that I can think of.

My CFI at 76G did something similar when I was training for my private. He had just had me practice an emergency descent and I was getting ready to land when a yellow jacket started buzzing us. He started swinging wildly at it with the A/FD and wouldn't stop even though I tried telling him he was just making it likelier that one or both of us would get stung. He finally managed to knock it out of the air and then squished it with the sectional when I was on short final. Whew.
 
denverpilot said:
Heh. And the fuel selector to OFF was the next step no matter what caused it. And then fixing one, or both, problems in the system before flying it again.

I've seen a busted Cessna fuel selector that wouldn't cut off the fuel completely, too.

Stuff breaks. Gotta fix it. Gotta know how it works to know it's broken. 'Nuff said. ;)
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Absolutely. Understanding the systems is critical. And these are not complicated.

I wonder how long one would idle with the fuel shut off? It would have to empty the gascolater and lines. Hmm. Maybe a quart of fuel? 1/2 Gallon?

John
 
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