The Man Who Fell to the Earth

Doug F

Pre-takeoff checklist
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May 7, 2017
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DougG
Bowie did it better...

Lesson 1: Carb ice can be insidious. Based on my training, I expected the engine would run rough, I'd pull carb heat, life would be grand. None of that happened. I really don't understand carb ice.
Lesson 2: Being lucky is a good thing.
Lesson 3: Landing in a pasture is not something you really get to train on.
Lesson 4: Even though roads are generally a bad place to land, you should at least look at them.
Lesson 5: First responders are awesome.
Lesson 6: The NTSB and FAA have been great to work with.
Lesson 7: You can make yourself nuts playing 'coulda shoulda woulda'...but there's no do-over for a crash.
Lesson 8: You news people...it was not an 'Attempted' emergency landing...it was an actual landing...you know...the whole 'do or do not, there is no try' thing?

I was flying from KGVL to 1A5 (Macon County NC) doing follow the road navigation. It was a beautiful day, just above freezing when I left at 9 am with temps rising during the flight. Total time for the flight was just about an hour.
I was about 10 miles south of the airport at 4500 and pulled the throttle from 2350 to about 2200 to begin a slow descent to pattern altitude. This is the same thing I do on nearly every flight and had done several times during this flight during short descents. I don't pull carb heat unless the engine gets rough or at the point I am abeam the numbers and drop the to 1500 rpm for my descent to the runway.
The engine never got rough. I'm not even sure how I realized it wasn't running (perhaps I added throttle to change my descent rate?). First reaction: This is NOT happening. Second reaction: pull carb heat, full rich, make sure fuel is on. Expectation: Engine will crank right up. Reality: it had been either running at no load or off long enough for the exhaust manifold to cool down so carb heat was non-existent. I tried mucking with the throttle, the mixture, and turned the starter...no go.
Ohhhh kay. Find a place to land. I'm just off US 441 but, based on the idea that roads are rarely a good idea, I didn't even look at it. It had been very busy all the way up from Toccoa so I figured it was not a good choice. Most fields nearby had cows or power lines. One field to the west of 441 looked clear so I made for that. I was low enough I just did a cross-wind/downwind/turn to final approach. There were sparse trees on the south end and a wall of trees on the north; I was landing south to north.
As I was about to turn final, I remembered to call a mayday. The airport is behind a hill and I later learned that they really didn't hear my call. Luckily, a Duke Energy chopper was in the area, heard the call, relayed it to the airport, then let me know he was on his way toward me.
The turn to final was like every other engine out I'd practiced; too high and too fast. I pulled full flaps over the trees but, by this time, was starting to get tunnel vision and forgot to try a forward slip to kill altitude.
By the time I was parallel to the building on the east side of the field, I was looking at a wall of trees, was still too fast and too high. When I looked at CloudAhoy later, I was doing about 60 knots ground speed and if I'd stayed with the original plan, I'd not be writing this. There was clear land to the east of my path so I banked right to miss the tree line.
One of my wheels (probably right main) dug an 11' gash in a berm on the west side of 441 them bounced me up into the air where I arced over 441, then down and hit a berm on the east side of the highway. The prop got caught in barb wire and the plane flipped. This flight path killed off nearly all the kinetic energy in the plane. I hit the berm at somewhere between 15 and 30 knots and never even kicked off the ELT (starts at a 4G hit).
Open door, undo harness, fall on head, climb out.
I didn't hit any cars. I don't think anyone had to make a panic stop, and I didn't get t-boned by a semi. When I flipped, the tail missed the power line over the fence.
Before I exited the plane, people from 441 were heading to make sure I was OK and I could hear the emergency vehicles coming. The Duke chopper was overhead and stayed around until he knew he wasn't needed. The cows in the field stopped by to say hi before the ranch hand moved them to another pasture.
I went back to the site a week later and discovered that just past the building on the lot I was trying to land on there was a 2-ish foot bank with at least one large metal pipe sticking up. If I'd managed to get on the ground, I'd most likely have hit the bank and the pipe.
The field was about 1500' tree line to tree line with the bank maybe 100' from the trees. I'd have had to totally stick the landing to save the plane. I am no Chuck Yeager...
441 might have been an option. The road, for much of its length through GA, SC, and NC is crossed by power and telephone lines every 100 yards or so. The section I was near was clear. If traffic had been light, it would have been a good place to land.
If I'd been a bit further north, I'd have been totally screwed as I'd have been into the town of Franklin without enough altitude to get to the airport.
If I'd been a bit further south, it would have been more difficult a the fields were rougher and tended to either have livestock or power lines.
I count myself as a very lucky person to be here today. I had a few bruises and scrapes but nothing that required more than a bit of gauze. I didn't hit any property (other than 2 6' strands of barb wire), any cars, any people, any cows, or any power lines. My glasses got scratched and a bit bent. My iPad was fine. My phone (which had been on the right seat) landed inside the instrument panel and was fine.....

And with that, I am leaving aviation at least for a while. I'm not having panic attacks when I think about flying but my desire to fly has just evaporated. One day, I may wake up and decide I really want to be back in the air but for now, I am done.

Here are links to the after crash photos and the CloudAhoy 'video'. The best way to look at the flight is to move to about 48 minutes into the flight, switch the view options to 3D cockpit with satellite and glass cockpit layer. You can slide the left panel out of the way and kill any graphs in the main window.
The turn to final jitters in the 'video' but that's just some artifact. The building and trees are not realistically rendered (no height). You also don't see the 'flip' at the end. Other than that, it's pretty damned realistic.
If you go back to the top down view you can see the flight path and the options I had available for landing.

CloudAhoy
Accident Photos
 
Any landing you can walk away from...


I can understand giving up flying, however I recommend you get back on that horse real soon.
 
lesson 9: you're OK so nothing else matters!

holy shtballs this sounds scary! so the official cause was carb ice?
 
Glad you made it out! I would feel the same way.

Does your C-162 have a carb temp indicator? The one I flew did, I don't remember using carb heat much in that airplane. It seems to always be on the warm side.
 
Any landing you can walk away from...


I can understand giving up flying, however I recommend you get back on that horse real soon.
I get that. This was something I took up late in life as a challenge. I've proved that I can get certified, take off, land, crash, and walk away...bucket list is complete!
 
lesson 9: you're OK so nothing else matters!

holy shtballs this sounds scary! so the official cause was carb ice?
The engine was able to start when they got it back to the flight center so mechanical issues are ruled out. I had 20 gallons of fuel and the Skycatcher doen't have a fuel selector so fuel starvation is ruled out. I didn't stop the engine so that rules out 'total stupidity'. The temp/dew point was prime for carb ice (part of the 'stuff I didn't understand about carb ice). The Skycatcher's carb sits in a place that's almost insulated from engine heat and it tends to cool off quickly (not something I knew until this). There is no camera on the carb and no instrument data so there's no way to say 100% it was carb ice but yeah...carb ice.

Lesson 9 hits about a week after the accident. The more I looked at the CloudAhoy stuff and revisiting the site really brought home how lucky I was to take that last second right turn. My wife and I celebrated our 42nd soon after the accident so, yeah...it was just bent metal. I wish I'd been wearing my Garmin sport/heart rate monitor watch. By the time I stopped and got out, my heart was pretty much normal but it would be interesting to see how high it got. I know when I called the mayday my voice was trembling so no doubt the heart was pumping!
 
Glad you made it out! I would feel the same way.

Does your C-162 have a carb temp indicator? The one I flew did, I don't remember using carb heat much in that airplane. It seems to always be on the warm side.
Yes, it does. I am not obsessive about monitoring the gauges (maybe that's another lesson). I had checked it several times during the flight and it was fine. I think the training at my flight center is probably going to err on the side of pulling carb heat any time you drop the throttle, even a bit, along with more closely watching the heat. During all my training we had one day last winter where it was stupid cold and had to use carb heat a couple of times during the flight. I've flown many days just like this one and never used carb heat except during the final phase of landing.
 
Wow! So glad you were not hurt seriously and didn't hurt anyone else...that is epic and awesome :)

Amazing how composed you are so shortly after this happened.

Talk about a subtle rpm letdown...you didn't even lower 200rpm and it happened? Makes you wonder how much ice was in it right before you edged the throttle back. Sounds like you didn't see any hint of ice at cruise - is there any ground speed loss on cloud ahoy?

I can sure understand your break from flying. Hopefully you can get back up there soon and when its right.
 
Just some thoughts after watching the Cloud Ahoy replay (talk about fascinating you had this on)

Around 40:20 to 48:00 you were in very gradual descent for most of it. Maybe you picked up some ice there? Then it looks like you backed off some power for a very nice -500fpm descent at 48:00. And then it would seem you pitched for best glide around 49:21.

I did a see a few -200ft (from 4500) corrections before that gradual descent at 40:20. Not questioning your altitude keeping skills (mine are way worse). But I was wondering if you had already lost some power and had to correct a couple of times. Then that ever so slow nearly 7min descent iced it up even more. I know you probably had the same throttle/rpm but just wondering if it played a role?
 
I have had carb ice in a Cherokee 140 once - and it was on a CAVU day. The symptoms were all there, losing power, rough running engine, pulled the carb heat, engine ran a bit rougher but then cleared up and all was good. And of course I had to be in the mountains and close to but not within gliding distance of an airport.

I'm a p*****y when it comes to ice. If I even suspect it could be an issue I'll stay home.

Glad you made it alive though. Could have been worse. From the pictures, your emergency landing looks better than some of my normal landings.
 
Glad it came out OK. It often doesnt. The lack of understanding carb ice and the physics that cause it is too common. And small Continentals are prone to it.

It is one of the reasons why temperature AND dewpoint are part of a METAR. Check them before flight, and if they are close, watch out. A carburetor is a miniature deep freeze, and if there is enough moisture in the air, it will happen. Closing the throttle, even partway, raises the likelihood of it.

And it is not just a wintertime thing.
 
so glad you’re ok i have 200 hrs in the Skycatcher and can recall only one flight with suspected carb ice. nothing like what you experienced and my flight continued as planned once i pulled carb heat on but i sure can relate to your experience. congratulations on your walk-away crash.
 
I paid good money to learn "off-airport" operations. The training included landing site evaluation and confined area-short field techniques. One of the biggest take-aways from this is that potential landing surfaces that look great from the air are often pretty scary looking once you get close to the ground. The other big take-away is that those giant bush-wheels often make the difference between a survivable landing and one where the airplane can readily be flown again.

In a typical non-bushwheel equipped aircraft, smooth surfaces like roads will always get a good look. Once landed a Cessna 150 on a field road out in a great expanse of farm-land. Road was narrow as hell. But, the deep irrigation ditches on either side made for great incentive to keep it in the middle.
 
I have decided to take up something less dangerous...chainsaw juggling.

Unless you are doing the juggling with running chain saw and dodging bullet at the same time, don’t think you will get the same rush
 
Even if you quit flying don't quit this board. Once a pilot, always a pilot. You did a great job getting down without getting hurt (much). :) Maybe luck but also skill.
 
Bowie did it better...

Lesson 1: Carb ice can be insidious. Based on my training, I expected the engine would run rough, I'd pull carb heat, life would be grand. None of that happened. I really don't understand carb ice.
Lesson 2: Being lucky is a good thing.
Lesson 3: Landing in a pasture is not something you really get to train on.
Lesson 4: Even though roads are generally a bad place to land, you should at least look at them.
Lesson 5: First responders are awesome.
Lesson 6: The NTSB and FAA have been great to work with.
Lesson 7: You can make yourself nuts playing 'coulda shoulda woulda'...but there's no do-over for a crash.
Lesson 8: You news people...it was not an 'Attempted' emergency landing...it was an actual landing...you know...the whole 'do or do not, there is no try' thing?

I was flying from KGVL to 1A5 (Macon County NC) doing follow the road navigation. It was a beautiful day, just above freezing when I left at 9 am with temps rising during the flight. Total time for the flight was just about an hour.
I was about 10 miles south of the airport at 4500 and pulled the throttle from 2350 to about 2200 to begin a slow descent to pattern altitude. This is the same thing I do on nearly every flight and had done several times during this flight during short descents. I don't pull carb heat unless the engine gets rough or at the point I am abeam the numbers and drop the to 1500 rpm for my descent to the runway.
The engine never got rough. I'm not even sure how I realized it wasn't running (perhaps I added throttle to change my descent rate?). First reaction: This is NOT happening. Second reaction: pull carb heat, full rich, make sure fuel is on. Expectation: Engine will crank right up. Reality: it had been either running at no load or off long enough for the exhaust manifold to cool down so carb heat was non-existent. I tried mucking with the throttle, the mixture, and turned the starter...no go.
Ohhhh kay. Find a place to land. I'm just off US 441 but, based on the idea that roads are rarely a good idea, I didn't even look at it. It had been very busy all the way up from Toccoa so I figured it was not a good choice. Most fields nearby had cows or power lines. One field to the west of 441 looked clear so I made for that. I was low enough I just did a cross-wind/downwind/turn to final approach. There were sparse trees on the south end and a wall of trees on the north; I was landing south to north.
As I was about to turn final, I remembered to call a mayday. The airport is behind a hill and I later learned that they really didn't hear my call. Luckily, a Duke Energy chopper was in the area, heard the call, relayed it to the airport, then let me know he was on his way toward me.
The turn to final was like every other engine out I'd practiced; too high and too fast. I pulled full flaps over the trees but, by this time, was starting to get tunnel vision and forgot to try a forward slip to kill altitude.
By the time I was parallel to the building on the east side of the field, I was looking at a wall of trees, was still too fast and too high. When I looked at CloudAhoy later, I was doing about 60 knots ground speed and if I'd stayed with the original plan, I'd not be writing this. There was clear land to the east of my path so I banked right to miss the tree line.
One of my wheels (probably right main) dug an 11' gash in a berm on the west side of 441 them bounced me up into the air where I arced over 441, then down and hit a berm on the east side of the highway. The prop got caught in barb wire and the plane flipped. This flight path killed off nearly all the kinetic energy in the plane. I hit the berm at somewhere between 15 and 30 knots and never even kicked off the ELT (starts at a 4G hit).
Open door, undo harness, fall on head, climb out.
I didn't hit any cars. I don't think anyone had to make a panic stop, and I didn't get t-boned by a semi. When I flipped, the tail missed the power line over the fence.
Before I exited the plane, people from 441 were heading to make sure I was OK and I could hear the emergency vehicles coming. The Duke chopper was overhead and stayed around until he knew he wasn't needed. The cows in the field stopped by to say hi before the ranch hand moved them to another pasture.
I went back to the site a week later and discovered that just past the building on the lot I was trying to land on there was a 2-ish foot bank with at least one large metal pipe sticking up. If I'd managed to get on the ground, I'd most likely have hit the bank and the pipe.
The field was about 1500' tree line to tree line with the bank maybe 100' from the trees. I'd have had to totally stick the landing to save the plane. I am no Chuck Yeager...
441 might have been an option. The road, for much of its length through GA, SC, and NC is crossed by power and telephone lines every 100 yards or so. The section I was near was clear. If traffic had been light, it would have been a good place to land.
If I'd been a bit further north, I'd have been totally screwed as I'd have been into the town of Franklin without enough altitude to get to the airport.
If I'd been a bit further south, it would have been more difficult a the fields were rougher and tended to either have livestock or power lines.
I count myself as a very lucky person to be here today. I had a few bruises and scrapes but nothing that required more than a bit of gauze. I didn't hit any property (other than 2 6' strands of barb wire), any cars, any people, any cows, or any power lines. My glasses got scratched and a bit bent. My iPad was fine. My phone (which had been on the right seat) landed inside the instrument panel and was fine.....

And with that, I am leaving aviation at least for a while. I'm not having panic attacks when I think about flying but my desire to fly has just evaporated. One day, I may wake up and decide I really want to be back in the air but for now, I am done.

Here are links to the after crash photos and the CloudAhoy 'video'. The best way to look at the flight is to move to about 48 minutes into the flight, switch the view options to 3D cockpit with satellite and glass cockpit layer. You can slide the left panel out of the way and kill any graphs in the main window.
The turn to final jitters in the 'video' but that's just some artifact. The building and trees are not realistically rendered (no height). You also don't see the 'flip' at the end. Other than that, it's pretty damned realistic.
If you go back to the top down view you can see the flight path and the options I had available for landing.

CloudAhoy
Accident Photos

Sounds like ya kept flying the plane until the crash was over. Good job
 
Doug, I know that area very well, and it is NOT AT ALL conducive to successful off airport landings. That fact that you got down unhurt is OUTSTANDING! Screw the airplane, you win! OUTSTANDING job!

The thought of having to go down in mountainous wooded terrain spooks me.
 
Good job! Glad you're ok @Doug F .

I find the photos interesting in that the cabin area looks completely undamaged, while everything else looks crumpled. Kudos to the Skycatcher design if it has "crumple zones" like cars.
 
Wow, glad it all came together for a dramatic landing. Thankfully you were injury free! Admirable job on a landing you could walk away from, as any such landing is a good one.
 
First I'll say great job getting down safely.

I've survived a crash that the NTSB determined to be caused by carb ice. Without weighing the plane, me, my passenger, or even asking how much fuel I had onboard, they decided I was flying overweight. It sounds like you're having a good experience with them so far, but I'll say that I was too. I really thought they were there to help. They eventually turned on me when they wanted to close the investigation with an action. I only bring this up because I don't feel you did anything wrong, but until that final report comes out, they're looking for a reason. They don't want it to be carb ice when you were doing everything by the book.

You say you pulled the throttle from 2350 to 2200 and you don't pull carb heat unless the engine gets rough. The manual for the SkyCruncher says "CARB HEAT Control Knob - ON (pull full out) (apply full heat before reducing power). You can argue that you reduced the power only slightly and you were still in the range of a normal cruise, except the manual says for cruise, "Power - 2400 - 2750 RPM (75% recommended)", so you were already operating our of the recommended power settings and reduced it even further without following the manual. My point is not that you made a mistake, my point is, in my opinion, you should never have a discussion with them without an attorney involved. As pilots, we find a sweet spot where our engines run, but I would never tell an investigator I was running outside of recommendations. I expect that you will get some recommendation for more training.

Also, after discussing my accident with the NTSB, I will tell you the guy I dealt with told me they're really looking closely at carb ice. He recommend I leave carb heat on after run-up all the way until I take off. I don't do this since I don't want a bunch of junk in the engine. He told me there are so many accidents where they can't find anything wrong, and the evidence in the form of ice melts, they think there's a bigger issue than is reported.
 
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First I'll say great job getting down safely.

I've survived a crash that the NTSB determined to be caused by carb ice. Without weighing the plane, me, my passenger, or even asking how much fuel I had onboard, they decided I was flying overweight. It sounds like you're having a good experience with them so far, but I'll say that I was too. I really thought they were there to help. They eventually turned on me when they wanted to close the investigation with an action. I only bring this up because I don't feel you did anything wrong, but until that final report comes out, they're looking for a reason. They don't want it to be carb ice when you were doing everything by the book.

You say you pulled the throttle from 2350 to 2200 and you don't pull carb heat unless the engine gets rough. The manual for the SkyCruncher says "CARB HEAT Control Knob - ON (pull full out) (apply full heat before reducing power). You can argue that you reduced the power only slightly and you were still in the range of a normal cruise, except the manual says for cruise, "Power - 2400 - 2750 RPM (75% recommended)", so you were already operating our of the recommended power settings and reduced it even further without following the manual. My point is not that you made a mistake, my point is, in my opinion, you should never have a discussion with them without an attorney involved. As pilots, we find a sweet spot where our engines run, but I would never tell an investigator I was running outside of recommendations. I expect that you will get some recommendation for more training.

Also, after discussing my accident with the NTSB, I will tell you the guy I dealt with told me they're really looking closely at carb ice. He recommend I leave carb heat on after run-up all the way until I take off. I don't do this since I don't want a bunch of junk in the engine. He told me there are so many accidents where they can't find anything wrong, and the evidence in the form of ice melts, they think there's a bigger issue than is reported.
At least he's not in the SAT FSDO area...
Before I knew who you were online I had friends that knew you and told me about that accident. Kitty Hill, right? I think I even saw the plane from the air.
 
I'm not a fan of carbs on airplanes, but I had my Skyhawk for 16 years. It did have the factory carb temp gauge, which would sometimes give you a bit of a surprise.
 
Great job Doug! Definitely not a friendly area to make a forced landing. Kudo's to you sir!
 
At least he's not in the SAT FSDO area...
Before I knew who you were online I had friends that knew you and told me about that accident. Kitty Hill, right? I think I even saw the plane from the air.
Yep, that was me! I was threatened by the FAA and I will never work with them again without an attorney. I'm not saying they're all bad, but one bad experience was enough for me.
 
1. Great write up. Thanks for sharing. It sounds like you handled it as well as you could.
2. Carb ice is like killing someone with an icicle--the perfect murder weapon. No fingerprints and the weapon melts into a puddle of water by the time the investigators show up.
3. I get the sense that you did Cessna (and the aviation community) a favor taking one more Skycatcher out of the registry.
4. Speaking of which, why in God's undulating green earth is an aircraft manufacturer still building an aircraft in 2011 that is prone to carb ice? I can't think of a bigger product liability issue than that? Every aircraft engine has it's quirks, but carb ice is so completely preventable from a human factors design standpoint that we shouldn't have to rely on the pilot to detect and remediate carb ice. I guess there's a reason the Rotax 914 is popular in the LSA market.
5. It would be a shame to loose a pilot who's gained so much valuable experience. The door is always open should you ever change your mind.
 
I've flown that valley a few times and I think you did everything right. Flying the highway and keeping an eye out for potential landing spots (there aren't many) is the best you could have done. Once the engine stops, all you can do is manage the descent; you can't control gravity.

Well done, Sir.
 
1. Great write up. Thanks for sharing. It sounds like you handled it as well as you could.
2. Carb ice is like killing someone with an icicle--the perfect murder weapon. No fingerprints and the weapon melts into a puddle of water by the time the investigators show up.
3. I get the sense that you did Cessna (and the aviation community) a favor taking one more Skycatcher out of the registry.
4. Speaking of which, why in God's undulating green earth is an aircraft manufacturer still building an aircraft in 2011 that is prone to carb ice? I can't think of a bigger product liability issue than that? Every aircraft engine has it's quirks, but carb ice is so completely preventable from a human factors design standpoint that we shouldn't have to rely on the pilot to detect and remediate carb ice. I guess there's a reason the Rotax 914 is popular in the LSA market.
5. It would be a shame to loose a pilot who's gained so much valuable experience. The door is always open should you ever change your mind.

+1.

Not to mention, the G300 has a carb temp sensor, and a readout, why can't it have an annunciator for low temp?
 
Not all 162s have carb temp sensors.
 
Scary flight but that's why we plan, practice and discuss things so much in aviation. Thanks for your write up. Hopefully it will help someone else one day. I'm glad you could walk away and understand the hesitation to go back up but I hope you can get past that. I think the itch will return and you'll be back in the sky before you know it.
 
+1.

Not to mention, the G300 has a carb temp sensor, and a readout, why can't it have an annunciator for low temp?
The problem is it's not just low temp. In the winter it's always low temp. It's a combination of freeing temperature in the venturi and moist air that results in the formation of ice. If the air is dry, no carb ice, regardless of the temperature.

But either way, fuel injection does not suffer from carb ice.
 
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