The Impossible Turn...Executed

wanttaja

wanttaja

Final Approach
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
5,667
Location
"War-Torn" Portland
Display Name
Ron Wanttaja
Home Airfield
Twin Oaks Airpark
Nothing brings a pilot out of a hangar faster than a rough-running engine.

My hangar faces north, and is at the north end of the uncontrolled 3300-foot strip. Traffic pattern was to the north, today. I was preflighting my plane when I heard an unusual engine...thought it was a radial or some unusual type.

Stepped to the hangar door until the plane appeared. A Cessna 152, ~150-200 feet up on takeoff, and the engine was sounding sicker and sicker.

As I watched, it started turning to the right (across my vision). I thought, initially, it was just trying to line up with one of the streets north of the airport. But no, it kept coming around. In fact, it looked like it was coming around IN MY DIRECTION. I got ready to run. It was bobbing, and looked like it'd stall at any moment.

It kept coming around, hooking around my position. It seemed to be no more than 100-150 feet up at this point. The engine was rough, but still seemed to be delivering some power. I stepped to the end of the hangar row and continued to watch it turn back towards the runway. It finally disappeared out of sight behind other hangars.

I pelted to my car, and joined about a half-dozen other cars racing down the taxiway towards the presumed impact point.

The 152 was sitting in the soft ground off the south end of the runway. No damage, no injuries. Those who had been mid-field described the plane coming in way fast, landing hard and bouncing several times, before sliding off the end of the runway.

Pretty amazing.

Oh, and the pilot had 35 hours of fixed-wing time. However, he flies helicopters for another nation's coast guard, and came to the US to get his fixed-wing license.....

Ron Wanttaja
 
Helicopter pilots have a way of making the impossible, possible. ;)
 
Wow, well done for him. I imagine that there's a huge difference in the impossibility of the impossible turn if your engine is still making some power though, as opposed to having quit entirely.
 
wanttaja said:
The 152 was sitting in the soft ground off the south end of the runway. No damage, no injuries. Those who had been mid-field described the plane coming in way fast, landing hard and bouncing several times, before sliding off the end of the runway.
Click to expand...

Cool. What were the winds like at the time? What kind of tailwind did he have?
 
asicer said:
Cool. What were the winds like at the time? What kind of tailwind did he have?
Click to expand...
Runway 34, winds from ~300 degrees at 5-7 knots. He turned right for the 180, away from the wind.

Ron Wanttaja
 
Ron, I got a Volume 3 of Flying Mag's "I Learned About Flying From That" compilation from a used bookstore and found a story you wrote in there.

Good outcome here. Thanks for sharing.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
What kind of bank angle?
Click to expand...
Not that bad, no more than 45 degrees when I was watching. However, I was out of sight for the last part of the event, when he was turning to match the runway heading.

Talked to a friend who'd been in sight for that last bit. He said he started to dial 9-1-1, but the guy had straightened out by the time he was ready to press the second "1". I, too, considered calling 911, except I hadn't actually seen a crash. Figured someone at that end of the airport would have that covered.....

Ron Wanttaja
 
Well done to the pilot! That not a situation I ever want to be in!
 
200 feet in a 152, engine out, no way he'd make it back. 5-600 feet, maybe. His engine had to have been producing a significant amount of power for that 152 to get turned around and make it back if all he had was 200 feet. Gliders can do it but a 152 ain't no glider.
 
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