The emergency/situation thread

fiveoboy01

fiveoboy01

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Share a situation you were in where there was an emergency or even less than an emergency, such as some equipment(engine, avionics or GPS) failure, or even a pax situation. Then describe how you handled that situation.
 
fiveoboy01 said:
Share a situation you were in where there was an emergency or even less than an emergency, such as some equipment(engine, avionics or GPS) failure, or even a pax situation.
Click to expand...

Haven't had an emergency yet, or anything that was an urgent situation. Had a few unexpected things pop up, though.

fiveoboy01 said:
Then describe how you handled that situation.
Click to expand...

First, I decided not to panic. After that, basic common sense.
 
My engine quit during training when I forgot to set it full rich to practice power off stalls. I sat patiently while my instructor restarted the engine. The End.
 
I had an ASI go out on me. I felt it was reading slightly low on climb out, but I was low-time solo at that point and continued out to the practice area

I was doing steep turns and then it became obvious something was wrong. Then it was reading high… 2000rpm in a 172 straight and level indicating 140kts or so (can't remember exactly).

I just flew back to the home airport and made an uneventful landing… slightly fast I guess but no problem at all. There was no wind so I did use the GPS ground speed to get a ballpark guess as to my airspeed.
 
Lost top cowling and right windshield on a PA28R
Flew the plane to a landing at the nearest runway

Lost oil pressure indication in a DA20 on departure
180 and landed the opposite direction (bad gauge)

Pulled the mixture to ICO instead of the carb heat doing a falling leaf
Advanced the mixture
 
I have had numerous...chunk of spinner departing aircraft in flight, exhaust pipe separating from flange abruptly, stuck valve resulting in zero compression on a cylinder, throttle stuck while in IMC on approach, gear will not go up / down, prop will not adjust pitch, icing encounters in light non-deiced aircraft, EFIS rolled inverted just after getting airborne on a zero / zero departure, etc. The list goes on.
The key is to maintain aircraft control, analyze the situation and take appropriate action.
 
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Lots of little stuff.

8 year old passenger announces he has to pee while over the Bay.

Carb ice ingestion on takeoff.

Attempted go-around in a 172 with full flap in summer (DA ~3000) as a student. It actually worked when I retracted the flaps to 20 like the POH says to do.

Most serious -- short field landing in a Warrior in reported steady 15 knot head winds. Lull takes the wind out of its sails at 30 feet (60 knots - 15 knots = right at stall for conditions). Immediate full power, go-around after nose-gear first ground contact, fortunately light enough to avoid damage.
 
Learjet 60 total hydraulic failure out of St Maarten. Diverted to San Juan (~9700ft runway).

Lost flaps, spoilers, thrust reverse, brakes.

Followed checklist. Used emergency braking bottle, took 7600ft to stop and had to get towed off the runway.

Had a beer.
 
Engine failure in cruise on the longest cross country I've ever done, shortly after getting my ticket. I pushed nearest on the GPS and glided to a random, uncontrolled airport within gliding distance after declaring an emergency with the controller. Called the controller to tell him all was well once I safely landed.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
 
I had an engine failure causing electric failure in a rural area in 3 degree weather.

I picked the best field I could find that was closest to a farmhouse, circled to lose altitude, cleared the trees on the approach end of the field, slipped hard to dump altitude, and landed successfully without damage to the aircraft about 50 yards short of the trees on the opposite end of the field.
 
My little Tiger seemed a little rough when taxiing out from Hartford, CT a day after Christmas, IIRC. Headed back to S FL.

I attributed it to a S FL plane not used to cold weather.

In any case, at about 6,000' over Long Island Sound, the engine all at once got VERY rough. LOTS of backfiring (OK, after-firing). Nothing helped - i.e. mags, mixture, carb heat, etc.

Declared an emergency and the nearest airport was Gabreski/Suffolk county.

Arrived over it with partial power, they rolled the trucks, I spiraled down and landed uneventfully.

When we deplaned, the nose wheel fairing was covered in oil. My immediate thought was that I screwed up somehow (dipstick?) but opening the cowling revealed this:

11075563673_a11fe08727_o.jpg


Frozen exhaust valve giving the pushrod nowhere to go, pushrod tube hammering back and forth and oil escaping.

Still have the bent pushrod and tube in my hangar for old time's sake!
 
I had a complete lockup of my ailerons due to an autopilot issue, and had to land with rudder only steering.

Lost a vacuum pump. It was VFR day conditions, so that in itself wasn't a big deal, but given how the vacuum pump in a TSIO 360 is geared to a coupling in the engine, for all I knew oil might have been spilling out of an open shaft hole. Wasn't the case, but I still went back.

Had a hydraulic failure resulting in a partial gear down situation. Resolved it easy enough with the dump valve after some troubleshooting.
 
AvionicsTech said:
I don't think I'll ever get over macho grande.
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I've been over macho grande - a couple years ago - didn't tell anybody about it at the time.

As for emergencies? well... maybe: mag failure, oil on windscreen, things of that nature.

Idiocy induced adventures? well... maybe: don't depart into a snowstorm in the mountains - that has been the big one so far.

In all situations keep the brain working...it doesn't do any good to say "Oh sh*t, we're gonna die!" although it is stress relieving and may make you feel better however briefly.

Edit: I was handling emergencies long before becoming a pilot. After you've been up an unsanitary tributary without a means of propulsion a few times then it gets pretty tough to get to excited about any one thing in particular.
 
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fiveoboy01 said:
Share a situation you were in where there was an emergency or even less than an emergency, such as some equipment(engine, avionics or GPS) failure, or even a pax situation. Then describe how you handled that situation.
Click to expand...

Left engine on a 421C lost boost at 14000 over the Lewiston, ID VOR; feathered the prop, landed at Lewiston. Passenger was a member of the Caterpillar Club, having bailed out over Germany in WWII, and was quite cool about the whole thing. It was a plumbing problem between the turbocharger and the intake manifold. Most difficult task for me was taxiing on one engine.

Takeoff from Oakland in a P-Navajo. Left engine started to spool down as I was passing through 400 feet and, incidentally, the bases. Normal engine-out procedure is to pull the throttle on the failed engine back to idle, and I had gotten no further than about halfway back to idle when the engine came back to life. By that time I was on top. I had told OAK tower that I had an emergency, so I called them back to cancel the emergency and continued to Seattle. Problem was the fuel controller, which flooded the engine for no apparent reason (six months later, the plane was still parked in the weeds); when I pulled the throttle back I re-established a burnable mixture an away we went. Boxes that time, no passengers.

Bob Gardner
 
Lost a mag at 6,500 ft, on a cross country in a C152, declared emergency, and limped it back with a very rough 1500 RPMs to the nearest airport. After it was over, had a feeling of great accomplishment that I handled it well.
 
Lost an engine on climb out on a twin,unported the tank. Switched tanks and continued on.
 
My father and I (both of us pilots) were doing a training/sight-seeing flight one autumn here in Maine in a nicely maintained but older Cessna 172. This was before I got my private and before my father got his multi-engine commercial. First sign of trouble was the GPS gave a low bus voltage warning right after start. The low voltage light for the plane was not on. As the GPS seemed to be functioning properly we wrote it off. Everything worked fine, run-up was successful and no further low voltage warnings were found. I do not recall what the ammeter was doing at the time but I assume we missed it or it was close enough to normal for us to not notice a problem. Flew out for a daytime, VFR 60 minute cross-country with clear and calm weather.

After about 35 to 45 minutes the radio panel was getting really dim and the controller giving us flight following couldn't seem to hear us. My father keyed the mic to try again and the whole radio stack went black. Uh-oh.

We immediately ran through the breakers and found the alternator had popped (unbeknownst to us, it wasn't popped at the start of the flight). We reset it and power returned. Keyed the mic and it popped again. Had a little bit of power left but barely enough to run the radio panel backlights. Thankfully we were in class E and VFR. It was a little tense but otherwise uneventful. No flaps landing into an untowered field. FBO was closed and there was no maintenance at the airport. Called the tower to let them know where we went to. Had someone fly down to pick us up and the plane was eventually serviced at the field and flown back with a new alternator and fresh battery.
 
Took off from an airport into MVFR. Weather closed in so I climbed 12,000' and broke through the clouds. Contacted ATC and did the 3 Cs... Confess, conserve, comply. They vectored me to an area where the ceiling was 3,000' AGL. I was now at 14,500' and began the decent. Took 15 mins in the clouds, hard IFR, icing for 3,000', before I broke through and saw the ground. ATC wanted me to land, but once through the clouds I scud run for 200 miles to avoid contacting them. :eek:

This was before I had a PPL. :D. I was flying an "ultra light". ;). :lol:

No I'm not kidding. :no:
 
Sac Arrow said:
I had a complete lockup of my ailerons due to an autopilot issue, and had to land with rudder only steering.
Click to expand...

What was the autopilot issue? You're supposed to be able to overcome the servos if they're activated.

bobmrg said:
Left engine on a 421C lost boost at 14000 over the Lewiston, ID VOR; feathered the prop, landed at Lewiston. Passenger was a member of the Caterpillar Club, having bailed out over Germany in WWII, and was quite cool about the whole thing. It was a plumbing problem between the turbocharger and the intake manifold. Most difficult task for me was taxiing on one engine.
Click to expand...

Curious - was there a reason why you decided to shut down the engine vs. run it naturally aspirated?
 
Engine quit at 9,000' over eastern VA in VMC. With ATCs big help flew my Mooney glider to a private strip. Turned out to be a mag issue.
Very loud compressor stall in a Lear 25 at FL450 flamed out the engine. Got it relit at around 25000' and made precautionary landing at Memphis. They rolled the trucks. The bang from the comp stall scared the heck out if the pax.

Aviating's fun.
 
As an 18 hour student pilot I went to the coast with my instructor and 2 passengers C172.
We went down to 500ft over water but there started to be some fog. He told me to go down a bit and that it would clear soon, then a bit lower, then more...I suggested several times to turn back but he insisted, it would clear. Now 300ft and then IMC. He told me to climb straight ahead but I remembered a high mountain nearby. I was in panic but in control, I banked with only 10º to the North (open ocean) and climbed very smoothly (afraid of a stall). after a few minutes we were clear of cloud in open water with the mountain just there on our previous track. My hair was completely wet from sweat.
So far not so bad but....the CFI said "wonderful experience, my first time in cloud too..."
(!!!!!!!!!???????)
 
#1 Lost alternator at night, told controller, punched nearest, headed that way, and shed load/pulled unneeded breakers. Got below Vlo, got the gear down. Near the divert airport, got PCL up. Everything went dead just over the numbers, nice no flap landing. Got hotel, charged 496 over night. No A&P at the field, next day was CAVU all the way home, so gave it a shot. Battery recovered enough overnight to start the engine, flew home peg leg like a NORDO Cub, avoiding all airspace requiring xponder and comm. Had handheld as backup, but never needed it.

#2 Climbing out of home area had very high EGT on cylinder #1. Leveled out, power back, full rich, cowl flaps open, and limped back home. A&P found #1 fuel injector clogged.

That be it so far.
 
ARQUERO said:
As an 18 hour student pilot I went to the coast with my instructor and 2 passengers C172.
We went down to 500ft over water but there started to be some fog. He told me to go down a bit and that it would clear soon, then a bit lower, then more...I suggested several times to turn back but he insisted, it would clear. Now 300ft and then IMC. He told me to climb straight ahead but I remembered a high mountain nearby. I was in panic but in control, I banked with only 10º to the North (open ocean) and climbed very smoothly (afraid of a stall). after a few minutes we were clear of cloud in open water with the mountain just there on our previous track. My hair was completely wet from sweat.
So far not so bad but....the CFI said "wonderful experience, my first time in cloud too..."
(!!!!!!!!!???????)
Click to expand...

Id find a new CFI. :skeptical:
 
Full electrical failure in IMC... I and just taken off and knew what the bases were, so I descended and followed the river to the nearest airport.

Bused seal in a C172RG covering the windshield in oil. Had to slip it all the way in.

But I think my worst one by far was when the lunch from Taco Bell and White Castle kicked in. I kept the RPMs red-lined until about 1/4 mile final, and I got out when it was still rolling on the ramp after cutting mixture...
 
fiveoboy01 said:
Share a situation you were in where there was an emergency or even less than an emergency, such as some equipment(engine, avionics or GPS) failure, or even a pax situation. Then describe how you handled that situation.
Click to expand...

None of my emergencies have lasted longer than 3 minutes.
 
after going through 98% of my PPL training, I fessed up to my instructor that my AFD was out of date.


I hope that's the worst it ever gets!
 
I started a thread about it a while ago, but a couple of weeks ago I had my first "situation," if you could even call it that. I was on base and something didn't feel right, and it turns out that the flaps didn't extend. I popped the switch back to "up" and did a no flap landing with no issues. I taxied off the runway and tried the flaps again, and voila! They worked, and nobody's had the problem since.
 
eman1200 said:
after going through 98% of my PPL training, I fessed up to my instructor that my AFD was out of date.


I hope that's the worst it ever gets!
Click to expand...


oh, and also that I was out of coffee.
 
only one thing really worth mentioning. during the takeoff roll the airspeed wasnt moving so i aborted the takeoff and brought the plane back to a mechanic and he vaccuumed out what looked like a birds nest inside the pitot tube. it didnt end there. i went with my mom brother and dad to providence and doing my night xc requirement for my PPL. coming back to republic we saw a fog bank roll in and we were in IMC. my dad took controls and started talking to approach and asking for vectors for the ILS into islip because the ILS in farmingdale was OTS (great!). after things settled down, he gave the countrols back to me and told me to shoot the ILS. it was such an awesome experience because i wasnt even a PP and i was able to shoot and approach in actual conditions
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Curious - was there a reason why you decided to shut down the engine vs. run it naturally aspirated?
Click to expand...

I had a turbocharger explode on the engine on a Cessna 404 Titan after takeoff (same engine as 421). The engine was running rough and would not go above idle. It was rough enough I shut it down. After I landed and looked it over all that was left was the turbocharger housing, everything in it shrapneled and went out the exhaust.
 
ARQUERO said:
As an 18 hour student pilot I went to the coast with my instructor and 2 passengers C172.
We went down to 500ft over water but there started to be some fog. He told me to go down a bit and that it would clear soon, then a bit lower, then more...I suggested several times to turn back but he insisted, it would clear. Now 300ft and then IMC. He told me to climb straight ahead but I remembered a high mountain nearby. I was in panic but in control, I banked with only 10º to the North (open ocean) and climbed very smoothly (afraid of a stall). after a few minutes we were clear of cloud in open water with the mountain just there on our previous track. My hair was completely wet from sweat.
So far not so bad but....the CFI said "wonderful experience, my first time in cloud too..."
(!!!!!!!!!???????)
Click to expand...
i flew with a CFI-I on an ifr flight in actual conditions and before the flight he told me he only has 6 hours in actual! he's a 1000ish hour pilot. i have 25 hrs atual with about 200 TT
 
5 engine failures ( 2 SEL, 2 MEL, 1 turbojet) precautionary engine shutdown BE99, precautionary engine shutdown B727
Hydraulic failures B727, busted windshield B-727, hydraulic failures A320,
Bird strikes (numerous) lightening strikes (numerous) bird strike main rotor Hughes 500

1 minimum fuel landing B727, 2 cargo fire warnings B727
 
RotorAndWing said:
5 engine failures ( 2 SEL, 2 MEL, 1 turbojet) precautionary engine shutdown BE99, precautionary engine shutdown B727
Hydraulic failures B727, busted windshield B-727, hydraulic failures A320,
Bird strikes (numerous) lightening strikes (numerous) bird strike main rotor Hughes 500

1 minimum fuel landing B727, 2 cargo fire warnings B727
Click to expand...

Yeah, but what happened last month?
 
This year my plane was down for an extended annual because I had to have my prop overhauled. Between that, my work/travel schedule, and weather, I had about 6 weeks of no flying -- longest time off I'd had in my mere 150 hours, so my plan was to fly 3 in the pattern and if I felt good, depart to a nearby field to fuel up (it's much cheaper 20 minutes away).

I did my first 2 in the pattern and felt fine, and when given clearance for my 3rd touch-and-go I requested and was given an amendment to depart the pattern. I really didn't like the way my left tire felt on landing, so rather than take off, I radioed a request to taxi off.

Parked in front of the FBO, shut down, checked out the tire... nothing out of place. I was just being over cautious I guess but I'd prefer to error on that side. Got back in and ran through my hot-start check list, and the starter wouldn't turn over! (Unrelated, but my A&P later tried to repair the starter and that repair didn't last long... I ended up buying a new one).

My hangar is about 1/4 mile from the FBO, and their towing equipment was not functioning. I had push-power from one lineman, but that's when I learned that pushing an 1800 pound plane 1/4 mile (with only two 90 degree turns) _really_ sucks!

Not much of an emergency I suppose, but I'm glad I aborted the take-off... otherwise I would have ended up with a dead starter and not at my home airport.
 
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