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jason(at)trek-tech.com
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 Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:46 am Post subject: Decisions |
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Ralph Hoover wrote:
Jason, In response, and I may be corrected, but here goes. We will return to the ways that are embedid within us and how we are trained. Your on the ground, you are safe, the plane is safe, you are a better pilot for your hands on experience. Now in retrospect, looking back as only the individual doing the doing could do; Would you change anything of what you did? If so, what? How? At what point would that decision have to be decided upon. I can speak for many, if not most and especially me in saying that we will ALL experience a test of our knowledge. As Possum best put it (but not a quote) "thats what makes this an interesting sport..the danger." Sorry Possum if I mis-percieved or mis-represented your actual intent. I'm sure with 12 years of building under your belt, you were every bit as concerned about a safe uneventful landing as you were about your 12 year investment. I am glad you did what you did when you did it, Your proof as I am from my mistake. Ready to fly again.
Made in Ohio, more humble each day, Ralph
Hello all,
In response to Ralphs above question: What I would have done differently is pay attention to the signs of what was happening during my ground runs. (decision 1, made before the test flight, bad) I could not run the engine at full power on ground for more than 30 or so seconds without the CHT getting too hot. Towards the end of SOME of those full power runs, I could detect a small miss or two but never got to explore what caused the miss or if it was really a sign of something. In hind sight, I should have devised some way to cool the engine on the ground (leaf blowers, carpet dryers....) so I could have run at high power settings for long periods of time. For some of you who will now say that "see the BMW will not cool on the ground", I have no problems running at power settings that will taxi me in tall grass and such. It was just power settings that I would call high cruise power and above with the tail tied for long periods.
(decision 2, made before the test flight, good) My test flight plan ended up working for me. Since I had 5000' of runway, I chose 300' as go no go. If I wanted to abort below 300', land straight ahead, If above 300', fly the airplane and look around for a spot (I was at 500'). (decision 3 made during flight, good) After the engine quit, I would say it took me about 2 seconds to actually start flying the plane. If you were observing the flight, about 2 seconds after engine quit, you would have seen an abrupt nose down pitch. (decision 4 made before flight, good) I learned to fly in a J3 and my instructor pulled the throttle quite often on the departure cross wind leg and we would actually go back and land on the runway. About 90 degrees through the 180 it became apparent that this was going to work and I think my brain then switched to don't bend the airplane mode (before that it was airspeed and coordinated turn, don't stall, spin and die). At no point in the whole thing was making the runway in question, I just needed to get lined up and land without using up all my altitude. (decision 5 made during flight, luck) I then started chanting to myself you cant have too much airspeed and don't flair too high. At this point I had made the 180 and was lining up with the runway and was trying very hard to keep the nose down and airspeed up. I flared and landed (not on the center line and not going straight down the runway) made a quick radio call to the traffic in the pattern, jumped out and pushed the airplane to a taxi way and made the radio call I was off the active and then stood there and listened to my heart beat. My guess is the whole thing took about 20 to 30 seconds.
I am really glad the engine did not quit at 300', then there would have been decisions to make. I am really glad I had got my sport pilots license in a J3 and was trained to look outside the window and use the feel of the aircraft to fly. The J3 also taught me that you can pull a 180 at reasonably low airspeed (65) with minimal loss of altitude and position relative to the runway (which helps you make the runway and line up). I am really glad I chose the 5000' X 100' runway for test flying which, I believe, truly gives me the option of always landing on the runway in any situation (with lots of margin for my inexperience). I am sorry I got myself in the position in the first place by not listening to what the little voice in the back of my brain was saying about more prolonged high power test runs on the ground.
I don't know if this answers the question or not, but there you have it.
Jason, MKIIIC, BMW R100, .75 hours, Portland, Oregon
do not archive
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eagle1(at)commspeed.net
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| Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 12:31 pm Post subject: Decisions |
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I can't argue with your results (and your excellent flying skills) but why not land straight ahead with 5000 feet staring at you? it was drummed into us student pilots years ago to go straight ahead except in the most unusual circumstances.
As Bald Eagle
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