...when you've forgotten something vital, but
can't quite remember what it is?
A practice forced landing is an exercise carried out regularly by pilots, to prepare themselves for the eventuality of an unexpected engine failure.
The pilot simulates an engine failure by throttling back the aircraft so it is virtually gliding, picks a field considered suitable to land in and then attempts to line it up for a glide landing approach.
At about 500ft, the pilot will decide whether he could achieve a safe landing and will put the power back on and fly away again.
Seems pretty straightforward. What could go wr...
The report says on returning from a local flight the pilot decided to carry out one from about 2,500ft above the airfield. He chose the airfield as the selected landing area for the test exercise.
However, because he was on the approach to the runway, he believed he could make a safe landing. So instead of continuing the emergency practice and flying away, he decided to make a proper landing.
The report said: “He elected to continue the approach to land and in doing so omitted to select the undercarriage down.
“The aircraft sustained damage but the pilot was uninjured.
“The pilot attributed the accident to his last-minute decision to land, rather than go around.”
Oh. Yeah.
That could go wrong...
It's actually fairly common to do a PFL to the airfield itself, as it is quite safe if there is no-one else around and it makes the exercise rather more real - precisely because you can continue right down and actually land it.
ReplyDeleteThe pilot is completely wrong to attribute the crash to the last-minute decision, as his checks prior to the finals approach should have included the landing gear. Indeed, a landing gear check was included in the checklists for all the aircraft I flew, even though all of them had fixed undercarriage. I did once ask about this, and was told that the reason is that if/when I transferred to an aircraft with retractable undercarriage, they wanted it to be utterly routine for me to go through the undercarriage check prior to landing.
The other point is that the handling of the aircraft will be slightly different with gear up instead of down, so the pilot's PFLs should have followed the usual checklist and been done with the gear down. Otherwise, he is learning how to land the aircraft in an emergency with its gear up, which is not terribly helpful.
Anyway, I'm guessing he's learnt that one now.
I'll end with an aircrew quip*. Most pilots will usually deliver a pretty rough landing. However, by giving them a flight engineer to help, you can instead have a pretty rough forced landing instead. Go one step further and put a navigator on board, and you can have a pretty rough forced landing at the wrong airfield. :-)
*kind of like a joke, but not as funny
One of the most common forms of aviation accident, usually a Beechcraft involved, but I see this is a Piper Cherokee, so not the Curse of the Beechcraft in play. Leads to VERY short landings.
ReplyDeleteGood job it wasn't an Airbus!
ReplyDeleteWell as the old saying goes "any landing you walk away from is a good one".
ReplyDeleteNow the apprentice Biggles needs to remember if he is asked "have you flown solo?" to reply "How low is so low?"
Unfortunately on the runway with no wheels is TOO LOW!
TTFN :)
Reminds me of the, no doubt apocryphal, tale of the trainee RAF pilot who landed with his gear up and when asked why he failed to heed the warnings being shouted at him by radio from the control tower, said that he couldn't hear them because of the noise in the cockpit from the warning device!
ReplyDelete"The pilot simulates an engine failure by throttling back the aircraft so it is virtually gliding"
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately "virtually gliding" isn't the same as a REAL engine failure. The resulting greater rate of descent frequently catches pilots out.
"The aircraft sustained damage"
You bet it did! The obvious damage to the underside is the least of the worry. The Propeller will have hit the ground whilst turning, so the engine is going to need a complete overhaul.
Chances are the plane will be a write off....
Microdave - also, in a real engine failure, there is no option to go for a judicious "engine warm" if the approach is looking hairy.
ReplyDeleteAnd just look through the reports to see how often a practice becomes real, when the engine doesn't respond!
ReplyDeleteNearly happened to me once. Go around… full throttle… cough, cough, cough, vroom ::[start breathing again]::
ReplyDeleteTook more care next time :-)
"...a landing gear check was included in the checklists for all the aircraft I flew, even though all of them had fixed undercarriage. I did once ask about this, and was told that the reason is that if/when I transferred to an aircraft with retractable undercarriage, they wanted it to be utterly routine for me to go through the undercarriage check prior to landing. "
ReplyDeleteInteresting! When I was learning to drive, I was surprised to be told off for indicating automatically, whether anyone was around or not - my instructor told me I'd be marked down for it, as I was ONLY supposed to indicate if there was a reason to do so.
I always felt that getting into the habit would be much better.
Interesting to see the aviation industry agrees!
"Most pilots will usually deliver a pretty rough landing. However, by giving them a flight engineer to help, you can instead have a pretty rough forced landing instead. Go one step further and put a navigator on board, and you can have a pretty rough forced landing at the wrong airfield. :-)"
:D
"Well as the old saying goes "any landing you walk away from is a good one"."
Very true! Sound as though he was luckier than his aircraft, though...
"...he couldn't hear them because of the noise in the cockpit from the warning device!"
Yikes! :)
"Chances are the plane will be a write off...."
Expensive lapse of memory...