andrew(at)nzactive.com
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 Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2009 2:03 pm Post subject: And a teeny bit more on road and off-airport landings from a |
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....if John's was a nickel, here's my 2c worth...
I've had 2 engine failures in my RV4 (problem now traced & fixed - old style carb & inlet meant ineffective carb heat) and have landed on a road once, as a precautionary measure due bad weather, but no engine or airframe problems, in the Rocket.
I was trained to choose fields over roads, and I think, in general, that's a wise policy. Reasons include
- wires, which are invisible from afar
- roads can be very narrow & curved, plus sloped, which can mean a loss of directional control leads to going off the road and...
- hitting poles etc
- traffic
I think it's worth making a distinction bw landing on a US-style freeway, and landing on a backcountry road. Certainly an empty-ish freeway would be very tempting. With heavy traffic, not so much. Backcountry road? They can be VERY narrow, not necessarily straight, and are often strewn with obstacles, ditches beside them, and all manner of dangerous things. In an engine failure situation, I'm more concerned about finding somewhere flat & obstacle free (& WIRE free!!) than saving the aircraft, and in general, I would take a field over a backcountry road, nearly every time, UNLESS it's a autobahn/freeway, I could be reasonably sure about wires, and the traffic is not too bad. I think it's really important to remember that if the engine has quit, the aircraft is expendable, getting in trouble with authorities is irelevant, and saving oneself & one's passengers MUST be the highest/only priority. The aircraft has already let you down at that stage, so it's expendable. I reckon it's worth thinking about that on the ground, in advance, so there's no hesitation if the decision ever had to be made for real.
It's true that RV4s and other taildraggers can overturn easily on rough surfaces - Rockets even more so - but my exerience of exactly that happening, on a field, was that a lot of speed was bled off before that happening. Touch down at, say, 50 knots...and the kinetic energy absorbed by the first few feet of rollout, and the overturn itself, means it can happen at pretty low speed, say 30 knots or less, making the overturn a very survivable event.
I reckon there's also worthwhile distinction between having to do all this because of engine failure, and a precautionary landing with a properly functioning aircraft. In the former case, you're committed, can't overshoot, etc, and in nearly all cases of engine failure I'd take a field, unless I was REALLY sure that the road had no wires, was wide enough, etc. (ie, prior local knowledge). In the latter case, with plenty of time & ability to reconnoitre, even to signal to someone on the ground to block the road, by doing dummy approaches and hoping someone cottons on to your intent...... a road, with its reliable surface and lower chance of tipping upside down, is more appealing, and you have the TIME to check for wires and stuff.
Also worth bearing in mind the kind of landing to make - the RV4, and to a lesser degree the Rocket, touches down pretty slow in a 3-point attitude. It's easy to accidentally carry a bit of extra airspeed in these situations, which leads to a wheeler landing, and that extra speed will make an overturn more likely. So it's a 3-pointer, in most cases, with full flap of course.
And, finally, when the Big Silence happens for real, it's hard to be entirely calm and rational. Roads "feel" safer, in part because of their familiarity, but I think it would be easy to miss wires, poles etc when the chips are down and the adrenalin starts flowing. Fields leave more margin, if dead sticking an aircraft very precisely into a very small space is not something one practices every day, and if fear, lack of currency, or whatever, means one doesn't do it perfectly. (Which is to be expected!!)
Bottom line is, nearly all engine failure situations are survivable, even walk-away-able from, IF one can get the aircraft into the beginning of a field or other flat area, at minimum airspeed and virtually zero ROD at touch down. It's the solid ojects that'll hurt ya - and there are a lot of those around roads.
a
PS One thing I've noticed - quite a few RV4s and Rockets seem to fly around with no rollbar. ("Rollover bar", in American-speak?). No criticism or controvery-sparking intended in any of this, but personally, I won't fly without one - a good, solid bar which matches the interior shape of the canopy (ie, a broad inverted "U" shape) is, I reckon, the best neck-saving, anti-engine-failure insurance going.
I hope that's maybe useful to someone, someday.
a
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