emergency landings

woodstock

woodstock

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MY BEST LANDING EVER - (was emergency landings)

gulp. going to practice these tonight. first time. any tips? I assume we'll just pull to idle on downwind and bring her in.
 
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Relax. The instructor will pull the power at any time, and you will have to glide to a suitable field/road/pond/runway and then recover at more than 500 feet agl (unless you're actually going to land).

Look below, behind and to the side when looking for "emergency" landing sites as well as in front of you. And don't forget that old instructor's trick of pulling the power at a point where the best available field is behind the instructor's right shoulder (and out of your view).
 
thanks Ken. I think he intends us to land though, we are heading to OKV tonight and are going to practice this - less traffic than at JYO.

so best glide speed (check) and if it's behind, not so hot b/c we'll lose a lot of altitude turning it around...
 
Try to go somewhere where you glide in to LDG...

We recently found a place where I can pull the power on takeoff from a public use airport and land at one of two grass strips within one mile ! Is this a great country or what ? !
 
I found them to be fun when I was learning. It gets quiet in the cockpit and you just glide on in.
 
Just wait until you do your commercial rating and the Power-off 180 approach & landing. One has to put it down at or within 200' of the chosen landing spot. It's fun and unnerving at the same time.

Link:
FAA Commercial PTS page 1-21.
 
just remeber to clear the engine every once in a while. Make sure its going to run again when you need it.
Have fun!!
 
jdwatson said:
Just wait until you do your commercial rating and the Power-off 180 approach & landing. One has to put it down at or within 200' of the chosen landing spot. It's fun and unnerving at the same time.
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And for one of the local DEs, the chosen landing spot is always the threshold, which I think is a little foolish.
 
Have fun with them, but understand that the training is important. I essentially killed myself and my instructor the first few times I tried to get us to an emegency landing spot.

After a few times, I got it down. It's just like landing at an airport, just without the hangers and taxiways, and possibly a really, really wide runway :)
 
Part of the training is to keep your eyes out for emergency landing areas at any time. See what the best glide distance is for your plane at altitude and figure how long you have to get to a suitable landing spot.

Remember that you can *slip* if you're too high on final.... that was key to getting the precision-power-off-180 for the commercial exam. Besides, the DE liked to see slips....

Go have fun...
 
The plane flies just fine with the throttle pulled back. Trim it up for best glide, then don't mess with it, just steer the plane to where ever you want to land. For me, full up trim works well in both the Skyhawk and 152. You'll have to experiment a bit.
 
woodstock said:
gulp. going to practice these tonight. first time. any tips? I assume we'll just pull to idle on downwind and bring her in.
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No you won't. You'll go over proceedures related to emergency landings, and if your instructor is sharp, the decision making involved, and you'll get a feel for gliding at idle, but you won't practice an emergency landing, so no worries.
 
You might not 'land' one tonight, but you will do a few dead sticks by the time you get your license! :)
 
hey guys! we did a little of what you all said.

went way out, no one was up there tonight... did emergency procedures... best glide, found the landing spot, and circled it to about 500-600 over and then did a go-around.

when we got back to JYO, we actually did glide it in! pulled power completely abeam the numbers and brought her in.

MY BEST LANDING EVER - BAR NONE. even my CFI said so. it just worked perfectly.

yeehaw!!
 
Sweet ! Nothing better than a greaser to end the lesson.
 
thanks!!

I joked with my CFI that since it was dusk, I couldn't see the runway as well therefore I was able to wait til the right time to level off.

this is the kind of stuff that motivates you to just go right back up again!
 
Re: MY BEST LANDING EVER - (was emergency landings)

woodstock said:
gulp. going to practice these tonight. first time. any tips? I assume we'll just pull to idle on downwind and bring her in.
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Little tidbits I've picked up over the years.

1. When low (i.e. ~1000 AGL or less, depends on the airplane and the wind), divide the world into upwind and downwind from your current position. Discard downwind of your current position immediately when looking for that perfect landing spot.

2. ALARMS. Airspeed=best glide; Landing area=find one; Air Start=attempt if you have time and altitude; Radio=manual trip the ELT, squawk 7700; Mayday=get off a position call if you have time on either the current ATC frequency or 121.5; Secure=prior to touchdown fuel off, mixture off, mags off, electrical off

3. Sometimes you want to stay up here as long as possible so you can try to trouble shoot the problem--usually when the perfect landing site is directly under the aircraft, you have plenty of altitude, and the wing isn't on fire. Best glide speed is not the best duration speed. Know both and pick the right one for the situation. See the thread about 8000' AGL jump pilot as an example of someone who could have used this tidbit.
 
Re: MY BEST LANDING EVER - (was emergency landings)

1. Which is usually faster -- best glide or best duration?
2. Did you ever hear the rule of thumb that you pick a landing spot that is apx a 45 degree angle from you to the ground?
 
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Re: MY BEST LANDING EVER - (was emergency landings)

Gary Sortor said:
1. Which is usually faster -- best glide or best duration?
2. Did you ever hear the rule of thumb that you pick a landing spot that is apx a 45 degree angle from you to the ground?
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1> Best glide is always equal to or faster than best duration. With no wind, best glide speed equals V max L/D and is close to Vy. With a headwind best glide increases by about half the headwind component and with a tailwind best glide decreases and approaches best duration (AKA min sink) speed but cannot be less. Min sink speed is unaffected by wind. Both speeds (indicated) are unaffected by altitude and are proportional to the square root of the airplane's weight.

2> No.
 
Re: MY BEST LANDING EVER - (was emergency landings)

lancefisher said:
1> Best glide is always equal to or faster than best duration. With no wind, best glide speed equals V max L/D and is close to Vy. With a headwind best glide increases by about half the headwind component and with a tailwind best glide decreases and approaches best duration (AKA min sink) speed but cannot be less. Min sink speed is unaffected by wind. Both speeds (indicated) are unaffected by altitude and are proportional to the square root of the airplane's weight.
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You should increase best glide speed by half of the headwind component or decrease by half of tailwind component up to min sink? Is min sink normally in POH?
 
Re: MY BEST LANDING EVER - (was emergency landings)

Gary Sortor said:
You should increase best glide speed by half of the headwind component or decrease by half of tailwind component up to min sink? Is min sink normally in POH?
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Not often IME. It's easy to determine though, just pull the power and reduce speed to about 1.2 * Vs1, then note the VSI as you decrease the IAS gradually. The VSI will reach a minimum and then start to show a greater rate of descent, and that minimum VSI indicates that you are at V min sink. You can rock the airspeed back and forth to where the VSI shows an extra 100 FPM on both sides of the minimum and average those two speeds for a more accurate answer if the min is flat. And do this in the early AM in smooth air to eliminate the effects of vertical air movement as much as possible. Finally correct the result for your actual weight vs max gross.
 
Re: MY BEST LANDING EVER - (was emergency landings)

lancefisher said:
Not often IME. It's easy to determine though, just pull the power and reduce speed to about 1.2 * Vs1, then note the VSI as you decrease the IAS gradually.
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In many singles, min sink is the airspeed the airplane seeks with the power at idle and the trim full nose up.
 
Re: MY BEST LANDING EVER - (was emergency landings)

Ken Ibold said:
In many singles, min sink is the airspeed the airplane seeks with the power at idle and the trim full nose up.
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While approximately true in some, this is not a certification requirement and AFaIK not even a design goal, just a useful coincidence. It also should only be true for a fairly narrow range of CG, as CG affects trim quite significantly in most airplanes. IOW don't count on it.
 
Re: MY BEST LANDING EVER - (was emergency landings)

lancefisher said:
While approximately true in some, this is not a certification requirement and AFaIK not even a design goal, just a useful coincidence. It also should only be true for a fairly narrow range of CG, as CG affects trim quite significantly in most airplanes. IOW don't count on it.
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Right, I should have made it clear this is simply a starting point for doing experimentation. My bad.
 
AirBaker said:
You might not 'land' one tonight, but you will do a few dead sticks by the time you get your license! :)
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Lest anyone be confused, a "dead stick" landing in this context means pulling the throttle back to idle when within gliding range of a real airport runway, and allowing (requiring) the student to take it all the way to a landing without adding power again except to clear the engine. No instructor truly kills the engine in a single with mags, mixture, or fuel selector unless he's dumber than a box'o'rocks. If one does that, make it your last lesson with that instructor, and tell either/both the instructor's chief or the FSDO so they can act to prevent an accident on the next training flight.
 
we pulled power completely abeam the numbers and brought her in. it was great!

occurred to me that real emergency landings are gonna be short field.
 
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