How I almost killed myself

[Unregistered]

Yesterday, while practicing engine failure's at a nearby uncontrolled field, I landed late, and decided to go around right after the wheels touched down. As I climbed out I barely cleared a truck passing on a road in front of the runway and had to pull the airplane up into a zoom climb to avoid some greenhouses.
-The runway was short, and even shorter than I thought it was. I knew that it had a displaced threshold, but I didn't realize that it was only 2100 feet from that displaced threshold to the end of the runway. This was stupid. Despite having landed at that airport before I should have briefed what I was doing before hand, and known that I was dealing with a place where landing long should inspire a go around 200 feet AGL, not 0.
-I retracted the flaps to 0 degrees upon touching and right after applying full power. I should have retracted to 20 as the C172 book calls for, and then put them up to 10 as soon as reaching 55 kts.
-I pointed the plane right at the truck and at the greenhouses until I got some speed to manage a zoom climb above the obstacles. This was dangerous, but better than mushing into the truck by attempting to climb too early. This was probably the only good thing about this whole incident.
-Flying close to the ground is very scary, I'm happy I didn't stall the plane, or attempt to fly away with too little speed. But unhappy that I a)landed long b) didn't follow correct procedure for go around c) was unaware of the shortness of the runway with the displaced threshold.
-I was tired yesterday, the chain of problems began with my decision to even go out to the airport, and continued onto a poorly planned approach.

Live and learn another day. I was lucky yesterday.

 

[going2baja]

Glad to see you lived and learned!! Better luck next time!

Baja.

 

[poadeleted20]

Good lessons learned -- now go forth and sin no more.

 

[Dan Smith]

Live and learn another day. I was lucky yesterday.

So was that truck driver! (I wonder if he knows it...)

Dan

 

[Steve]

Fremont, OH has a setup like that...you have to time your landings between the semi's on US 6.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

So was that truck driver! (I wonder if he knows it...)

Uhhh, there wasn't a big orange "WH" on the side of the truck, was there?

Actually, if an airplane flew that close to me, I'd have known it. My ears are geared towards airplane noises. I'm constantly running outside to see what's flying over, and I spot an awful lot of flesh-and-bone birds too while I'm on the ground.

It was a useful skill as a lineman. "Hey Freddy, can you run get the Jet truck? There's a King Air about 10 miles out..."

 

[poadeleted1]

Remember that "almost" only counts in horse shoes, hand grenades and hydrogen bombs.

But be more careful in the future. We don't want to read about you in the newspaper unless it's for something good that you did.

 

[Unregistered]

Definitely planning on being more careful in the future. I don't want to be in the papers either. The truck was a white 18-wheel job. I didn't notice anything more than that, I was, uh, distracted. From now on I'm never flying into an airport unless I know everything about it beforehand, and thoroughly brief obstructions and length beforehand.

 

[MauleSkinner]

I pointed the plane right at the truck and at the greenhouses until I got some speed to manage a zoom climb above the obstacles. This was dangerous, but better than mushing into the truck by attempting to climb too early. This was probably the only good thing about this whole incident.

Obviously, since it worked out, this was the right thing to do, but I would tend to disagree with the technique...I think pitching for the proper climb attitude with whatever flap setting you selected and letting the airplane accelerate and climb from there would be a safer option. If you're in the proper attitude, the airplane will climb out of ground effect if it's possible at all.

On the other hand, if you're close enough to the stall to be worrying about mushing, the zoom climb could possibly add enough load factor to increase the stall speed and do more damage yet.

Again, I'm not criticizing...you reacted with minimal time to think about it, got out of a bad situation, and are giving yourself some good post-flight analysis. I just want to make sure you're looking at all sides of the issue.

Fly safe!

David

 

[Unregistered]

David, thanks for your reply. I actually welcome critiques, it's why I posted here.
At the point of the application of Full Power the airplane was at around 45 to 50 kts, and the Cessna book recommends go around be done at 55 kts. (I obviously re read the section of Go-arounds in the POH after the fact.) What I did was apply full power instantly after the wheels touched. Sucked up the flaps while in Ground effect which caused a slight sink but no contact with the ground I then kept the plane in ground effect for probably only a secound or two while I waited for the speed to build up to what I had always been taught was Vx or 65 kts (According to the POH it's really closer to 60 kts. especially light like I was). This is where I pointed at the truck. Before the truck and around 65kts I pulled up to zoom over the truck and greenhouses. I think it would have been more comfortable if I had actually pitched to 55-60 and followed book guidelines rather than holding it in ground effect. Still all I could think about while I was doing this was "don't stall, don't stall get the speed up." Maybe I over did that part?

 

[jesse]

Hmm. Is it a good idea to remove the flaps in a situation like that? How many degrees of flaps did you have?

Cessna 172 Vso is something like 40 knots. Vs is something like 40-50 knots. I would have just climbed out with the flaps...If I had something like 40 degrees of flaps in I might remove some. But not all of them.

Not judging you..Just curious for my own mental go around 172 procedure that I may need to do someday.

Another thing..what is the height of a semi (kent?) 13 , 14 feet?.. I don't know if you really should wait for that 65 knots. The airplane will fly WAYY before that..and 13 or 14 feet really is not that high...I'd think you'd want to just pull it to that above-semi height as soon as the airplane was capable..which I suspect could be done at 50 knots.

 

[Unregistered]

Agree with you 100% Jesse.
Putting in the flaps caused the plane to sink, but (in retrospect) it probably wasn't a great idea to stay in ground effect until right before the semi.

172 handbook says:

Power full
flaps to 20 degrees
speed at 55-60 KIAS
flaps to 10 after positive rate
flaps to 0 after obstacles cleared.

 

[poadeleted20]

Hmm. Is it a good idea to remove the flaps in a situation like that?

While retracting the flaps is great for getting rid of drag, it takes an extremely deft touch to rotate the aircraft so it doesn't settle due to the AOA reduction caused by the incidence angle change. In addition, if you're slow enough, you might be in a position where your existing CL with flaps down is higher than CLmax with flaps up, in which case you'd stall while trying to stop the sink. That's why we strongly discourage folks from trying to nail the glide path with full flaps in an emergency landing by relying flap retraction on short final as a means of dealing with coming up short -- better to stay a little high, as you can much more easily add more flap or slip to get down.

 

[flyifrvfr]

Yesterday, while practicing engine failure's at a nearby uncontrolled field, I landed late, and decided to go around right after the wheels touched down. As I climbed out I barely cleared a truck passing on a road in front of the runway and had to pull the airplane up into a zoom climb to avoid some greenhouses.
-The runway was short, and even shorter than I thought it was. I knew that it had a displaced threshold, but I didn't realize that it was only 2100 feet from that displaced threshold to the end of the runway. This was stupid. Despite having landed at that airport before I should have briefed what I was doing before hand, and known that I was dealing with a place where landing long should inspire a go around 200 feet AGL, not 0.
-I retracted the flaps to 0 degrees upon touching and right after applying full power. I should have retracted to 20 as the C172 book calls for, and then put them up to 10 as soon as reaching 55 kts.
-I pointed the plane right at the truck and at the greenhouses until I got some speed to manage a zoom climb above the obstacles. This was dangerous, but better than mushing into the truck by attempting to climb too early. This was probably the only good thing about this whole incident.
-Flying close to the ground is very scary, I'm happy I didn't stall the plane, or attempt to fly away with too little speed. But unhappy that I a)landed long b) didn't follow correct procedure for go around c) was unaware of the shortness of the runway with the displaced threshold.
-I was tired yesterday, the chain of problems began with my decision to even go out to the airport, and continued onto a poorly planned approach.

Live and learn another day. I was lucky yesterday.

Most trucks are going to be 13' 6" high when empty or lightly loaded. A heavy truck loses a couple of inches due to the weight. I think you now realize the dangers of not using good judgement. Imagine if you were doing this when the temperatures, and density altitudes are high. Plan better in the future and don't let a simulated emergency turn into a real emergency. Practice engine outs at an airport that offers better options should you need them.