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Pilotinside.com Magazine Volume II : Issue 2

Accidents are a reality in aviation as well as virtually every aspect of life. When you step into a car anything can happen and the same goes for an airplane. Don’t let this frighten or alarm you, but instead let it open your eyes and turn on that survival/defense safety-mechanism within you that makes you a great pilot. The events which potentially lead up to an accident usually involves what we as pilots call an emergency situation. Less than twenty percent of all accidents in aviation involve a mechanical problem or failure outside of the pilot’s control. This leaves more than eighty percent of the accidents at the fault of the pilot. If you spend your entire life trying to avoid Murphy and his infamous law that says, “What can go wrong, will go wrong,” Murphy will eventually find you. Murphy will perhaps even find you faster if you live with such a brash outlook on life. Maybe you’ll be one of the lucky ones that will never have to deal with an emergency. Maybe you are one of those individuals who always manage to have things “work out for the better.” Take all of your luck and let it be icing on the cake with your excellent piloting skills, but don’t ever count on it. At some point in our lifetime as a pilot we may all have to deal with an emergency situation. When that situation comes about, your physical outcome will be determined by how well you deal with it mentally.

Let’s pretend your heading to the airport on a gorgeous, sunny Saturday morning for a family breakfast hop to an airport just about an hour away. You believe that no good preflight ends with clean hands and by the time your done checking over the newer Cessna 182 rental your hands are pretty filthy. Your kids hop in the back happy as ever to participate and your spouse hops into the co-pilot seat next to you. It’s a smooth take-off and everything is running great as you make the turn towards your mouth-watering breakfast destination. You turn back to check on your precious cargo when all of the sudden a loud thump shakes the cabin as your engine coughs and starves to an idle lead weight. At this point, fate lay in your hands.

Are you one of those pilot’s that plug in the airport identifier into the trusty Garmin 530 and then forgets about the rest? Having an optimistic and confident approach every time you fly may just keep you in a good mood and the stress level low, but when that engine turns into a pint-sized windmill you will be in a panic that you never thought could be possible. As if losing an engine and dealing with a heart on its third marathon wasn’t enough that mind of yours will freeze up worse than the engine because it won’t even be wind milling. First you will think, “This isn’t happening to me,” followed by, “I can’t believe this is actually happening,” and finally, “My God, my family is here with me.” At this point, the optimist you are you will try starting that engine a hundred times or whatever you can fit in until your fifty feet above the ground with about 10 seconds to spare. With 10 seconds before the plane touches the ground you will have never contemplated actually having to land in that field without an engine. Sure you had practiced the emergency a thousand times as a student but you never actually thought that it could ever really happen. Now within 10 seconds you have to come to the reality that the engine isn’t going to come back, your family is in the airplane with you, and you are going to have to land that plane in the dirt.

Don’t let optimism blind you from seeing an situation for what it really is. Optimism has its place and it’s not in the cockpit. The best way to drive a car is defensively and a good pilot fly’s defensively. This means that every time you set foot into an airplane, you should be a little cautious, a little pessimistic, and let that tiny voice run through every possible ‘what-if’ it can think of. Always plan ahead, and always plan for the worst. If you plan for the worst and get the worst, it won’t be as much of a shock to you if you had been planning otherwise. Thinking that something may happen isn’t enough. You must know and believe that an emergency may occur if you want to be in the right mental shape to deal with one.

When an emergency occurs stop your mind from rambling tangents right on the spot. Focus and realize that what happened is a sunk cost and now you are going to have to deal with it. Don’t let your mind think about the family, the flight school, the club, the finances, or anything else that doesn’t fit into this moment’s equation. You have a more important job to do, and that is flying the plane.

If you’ve lost an engine, believe with full conviction that the engine will not restart no matter what you do. Come to terms right from the start that you will have to land the plane somewhere and start getting ready for it. First and foremost, establish best glide, look for a place to land, and head towards it. Hold that speed and buy yourself all the time you can get your hands on. Once you get over your landing area, circle over it until at a safe altitude that you can glide to make a safe power-off landing. In the midst of heading towards your landing area, attempt an engine restart if you have the altitude. Get all the fuel possible going to that engine (selectors, mixture, pumps), the throttle full open, if you have a carburetor get it full on to burn off any potential ice, make sure that master is on, and start cranking. If you have cowl flaps, get them closed so that engine can heat up. If you have a primer, try priming the engine. If the airplane hiccups as if it were going to start, you may have a clog in the pump side of the fuel lines. At this point you may be able to pull the throttle back to about half, get the engine started and keep it going by becoming a human fuel pump with that primer. If this doesn’t work, and the engine didn’t hiccup, or it started with the prime, make sure that primer is in and locked now. If you are a good pilot and have practiced, you should be able to accomplish the whole procedure from best glide through the restart in under 20 seconds. Don’t however let this procedure lead you into blind comfort. The whole time you are attempting a restart you should believe that the engine will not restart and keep your mind at least partially focused on landing the airplane. While you still have some altitude and a good line of sight, communicate a mayday on 121.5 and squawk 7700. Communicating anymore is the least of your worries now so fly the plane! If you still have enough altitude, attempt another restart. You should try to attempt at least one restart for each 1,000 ft AGL. By the time you are at a thousand feet above the ground, start setting up for the landing. Turn off all sources of fuel to the engine, turn the master switch off, unlatch the door, and advise your passengers to put something soft in front of their faces. Now you’ve been planning to land the whole time so it isn’t a shock to you anymore. You have done a thousand power-off landings, a thousand soft-field landings, so merging the two will be no problem.

If you have an engine fire, prepare the same way mentally. Stop your brain, focus, and get the fuel away from that engine. Cut off all sources of fuel, close all cabin air vents which could let in the smoke or fire, turn off the electricity, and point that nose down to get the fire out. Fly towards a good landing site. Do not try to restart that engine, after the fire is out for sure, establish best glide and land the plane. Don’t let it be any more complicated than this, and don’t let it scare you. Keep control of your emotions and the airplane.

If you have an electrical fire, stop your brain from spinning, focus, and turn off the master and all electrical components. Now you still have an engine so try to fly the plane. Close all of the air vents to prevent the avionic stack turned kindling from being fanned into a larger fire. If you have a fire extinguisher, use it. Once the fire is out for sure, you can open some air vents not in the vicinity of the panel to get some of the smoke out. With all the electrical components turned off individually, check the breakers for a pop. If you see a component with a popped breaker don’t attempt to use it. Turn on the master and isolate what caused the electrical fire. Turn on each component one by one, pausing to smell and observe. When you have isolated the problem, leave that component or those components off. Land the plane as soon as practical.

Be a defensive pilot at all times. Whenever you are flying you should be eyeballing good places to set the plane down should you have to. Always think about the ‘what-ifs’ and remember that Murphy will always be sitting right next to you. He only looks for attention if you don’t give him any. When that emergency happens it should be no shock because you will have been planning for it all along. Enjoy flying with a newly refreshed set of defensive eyes and always remember that a great pilot lives in the realm of “What If.”