Flying Hours Today 0:00, Total 18:45
As both myself and the instructor arrived at Leeds Bradford from different directions we both became aware of the gloom over the airfield. Low lying broken cloud blowing along at quite a pace which changed the weather from bright clear sunshine to dark gloom in seconds.
The TAF from Humberside Airport had also indicated the probability of fog in the Vale of York this morning and this was confirmed by Sandtoft.
The fog at Sandtoft wasn't too thick though so we decided to go out and do the A-Check on G-BODD and we planned to call Sandtoft back to confirm that the fog had burned off. I completed the checks and we called Sandtoft again, it was now touch and go with visibility of about 1.5km but a pilot that had landed was still not too happy with the visibility on approach.
We decided to sit it out for another 20 minutes. Time well spent as the instructor showed me more details of how the radios operate in the aircraft and what the various on/off toggle switches on the right side of the dash actually did.
Forced Landings Without Power
"All pilots must be able to cope with and emergency landing without the use of engine power, possibly on an unprepared surface. This can be done quite successfully. The low landing speed of a modern training aircraft and its robust construction allow it to be landed safely in quite small fields, provided the pilot positions the aeroplane accurately."
From Trevor Thom's The Air Pilot's Manual 1 Our final call to Sandtoft wasn't good. We had the option to take off and hope that things would clear en-route but in the end decided against it. If the fog hadn't cleared then it would be a wasted trip and wasted money. There was still a couple of hours of my booking remaining so the instructor suggested we cover the theory behind Exercise 16: Practiced Forced Landings back at the school.
At the school I grabbed a pad of paper and a pen as we sat down for a long chat about just what to do in the event of a emergency that would require a forced landing. The process is described in the steps below:
1 - The engine fails for whatever reason but most probably fuel starvation which is generally due to human error. Always be aware of the fuel situation!
2 - Adopt the best glide attitude. This will give you maximum range and time in the air to identify and reach a suitable landing spot.
3 - Orientate yourself with the wind. Either by looking at smoke or vapour from powerstations, or the direction of cloud movement. Recall the direction of the take off runway - which was most probably into wind, or take a look at the wind vector that you noted down during your ATIS check. On short flights within the UK the wind will not have changed dramatically over time, we are looking here to get a general feel for wind direction not a precise heading.
4 - Look for a suitable field. A suitable field will have the following characteristics:
"All pilots must be able to cope with and emergency landing without the use of engine power, possibly on an unprepared surface. This can be done quite successfully. The low landing speed of a modern training aircraft and its robust construction allow it to be landed safely in quite small fields, provided the pilot positions the aeroplane accurately."
From Trevor Thom's The Air Pilot's Manual 1 Our final call to Sandtoft wasn't good. We had the option to take off and hope that things would clear en-route but in the end decided against it. If the fog hadn't cleared then it would be a wasted trip and wasted money. There was still a couple of hours of my booking remaining so the instructor suggested we cover the theory behind Exercise 16: Practiced Forced Landings back at the school.
At the school I grabbed a pad of paper and a pen as we sat down for a long chat about just what to do in the event of a emergency that would require a forced landing. The process is described in the steps below:
1 - The engine fails for whatever reason but most probably fuel starvation which is generally due to human error. Always be aware of the fuel situation!
2 - Adopt the best glide attitude. This will give you maximum range and time in the air to identify and reach a suitable landing spot.
3 - Orientate yourself with the wind. Either by looking at smoke or vapour from powerstations, or the direction of cloud movement. Recall the direction of the take off runway - which was most probably into wind, or take a look at the wind vector that you noted down during your ATIS check. On short flights within the UK the wind will not have changed dramatically over time, we are looking here to get a general feel for wind direction not a precise heading.
4 - Look for a suitable field. A suitable field will have the following characteristics:
- Size: Big enough to land in, and ideally big enough to take off from although this is definitely a secondary consideration at this time. Remember that the longest clear run in a field is diagonally from corner to opposite corner.
- Shape: Think about the wind direction and look for a suitably shaped field that would allow a landing into wind. A long thin field that will have the wind as a full crosswind isn't perhaps as useful as a short wide field that is directly into wind.
- Surface: Look for green, empty, fields. Fields with animals or other obstructions are obviously not good. Also public places such as park land may also look tempting but they may have people and animals wandering about. Dark brown fields may have recently been ploughed and so full of furrows which would not be good. Lighter brown fields may have been rolled ready for crop planting so may be a better option if all the surrounding fields are dark brown. Mature crops are to be avoided if possible but be aware that if you do land there then you will slow down dramatically on contact with the crop and will need to brace yourself firmly. Of course, if there is an airstrip nearby, make use of it! Roads may look tempting but there will be the possibility of traffic and perhaps street lights and telegraph poles to avoid. We didn't discuss the option of ditching on water - I should report back to the flying school for a refresher if I'm planning to cross any sizable expanse of water. Note that a field may look fine from altitude but unsuitable when getting nearer - always have a second option.
- Slope: Landing up slope is preferable. Avoid a down slope landing as much as possible. It may even be preferable to land up slope with a tail wind.
- Surrounds: Look for high hedges, trees, pylons, telegraph cables, fences etc. Note that the cables between pylons may not be visible so scan the surrounding area for the pylons. Remember that if the pylon cables cross the field further down than your landing position it will be possible to fly under the cables.
There may be difficulties in some of the higher ground areas such as in Scotland, the Pennines, the Lake District or Wales and in these cases you will have to make the call to find the best possible spot in the surrounding area. Note that if flying downwind will decrease your options, e.g. by flying you out to sea or into a built up area or into a mountain range then obviously this is not the best thing to do and you will have to make the call to land in a less than ideal location.
5 - Now we have the field in sight, orientate your landing run with a view to ideally land upslope and into wind. You are now going to fly a circuit formation with key points identified to bringing you in for a safe landing.
Build the circuit plan in your head and identify a point on the ground (a building, a copse, a tower etc.) that will serve as your 1000ft point, this will be the point when you turn onto your 'base' leg.
Remember that as you will have no power you will want this point to be nearer to the landing point than in a normal circuit - you won't have the opportunity to stretch the approach but you can lose height if necessary to shorten an approach.
You also need to be able to land using circuit heights (i.e. heights above ground level) and probably won't have time or the option to make a QFE call. Instead you adjust the altimeter to map the QNH you are using to an agl approximation.
You should already be aware of the ground level beneath you from your charts. Adjust the altimeter accordingly e.g. if the ground is between 0 and 500 ft then reduce the altimeter by 250 ft to give you an approximate agl height.
5 - Now we have the field in sight, orientate your landing run with a view to ideally land upslope and into wind. You are now going to fly a circuit formation with key points identified to bringing you in for a safe landing.
Build the circuit plan in your head and identify a point on the ground (a building, a copse, a tower etc.) that will serve as your 1000ft point, this will be the point when you turn onto your 'base' leg.
Remember that as you will have no power you will want this point to be nearer to the landing point than in a normal circuit - you won't have the opportunity to stretch the approach but you can lose height if necessary to shorten an approach.
You also need to be able to land using circuit heights (i.e. heights above ground level) and probably won't have time or the option to make a QFE call. Instead you adjust the altimeter to map the QNH you are using to an agl approximation.
You should already be aware of the ground level beneath you from your charts. Adjust the altimeter accordingly e.g. if the ground is between 0 and 500 ft then reduce the altimeter by 250 ft to give you an approximate agl height.
Basically take a look at the terrain on the map and reduce the altimeter by the mid point between the altitude range: 2000ft to 3000ft feet terrain, mid point 2500ft, reduce altimeter by 2500ft.
6 - From the 1000ft point work backwards to visualise a circuit identifying a 'downwind' turn at 2000ft and a 'crosswind' turn at 2500ft. Of course, if your altitude doesn't allow the full circuit to be executed then by all means cut across the circuit with the view of getting to the 1000ft point at the right altitude and direction.
7 - Ideally the following procedure should be followed as we lose approximately 500ft per sector:
- At 2500ft, turn to the crosswind leg, and do the restart checks: mixture rich, fuel pump on, throttle OK, fuel tank selected, carb heat on. As the propeller will probably still be windmilling - i.e. turning due to the fact that the aircraft is moving through the air - then if fuel does enter the engine it may restart of its own accord. If this does happen then abort the force landing and plan an immediate diversion to the nearest airport.
- At 2000ft, turn to the downwind leg and make the mayday call. This call needs to be done at as high an altitude as possible to ensure that the radio waves have the maximum range. Report as per a standard mayday call on your existing open frequency or on the emergency frequency 121.5MHz.
- At 1500ft, while on the downwind leg and now abeam of your landing strip, do the shutdown checks. Turn the throttle and mixture off, in some cases it has been known for aircraft on forced landings to pitch nose down during final approach in order to land safely, this in turn can make the 'unusable' fuel in the system flow into the engine.
If the throttle is still fully open and the engine kicks into life then the aircraft will increase speed rapidly and crash into the ground with great force.
Turn the throttle off! Turn the magnetos off, close the fuel cock and switch off the fuel pump. If finished with the radio switch it off. If you don't need power for the flaps then at this point turn off the master switch.
Remove your headphones and put them where they won't obstruct your exits. Unlock the door and open it slightly, if you have a passenger get them to wedge something - e.g. headphones - between the open door and the frame. This will mean the door will still open if, on landing, the airframe is bent and the door is jammed. - At 1000ft, or more precisely, at your 1000ft position, turn for the base leg. If you are over 1000ft still make the turn and lose some height by S-turns as you approach the target field. Do not fly beyond the 1000ft position as you won't have power to make up any shortfall on the approach.
- At 500ft you will be on final approach. Aim for a point about 1/3rd the way down your target field. This is so that if you approach too low then you will have a field to land in rather than a hedge or wall.
Only now do you being to think about applying flaps and only do so in stages. Only apply the flaps when you are supremely confident that you can make the landing point.
- If the approach is not working as expected then the following techniques could help: use S-turns to lose height, increase speed to lose height. If you don't think you will make the field due to a headwind then gradually gain some speed. If there is an obstacle then use the flaps to gain some additional lift by ballooning you over the obstacle. This is, of course, a last resort and would only apply if the wind has been badly misjudged.
8 - If all has gone well you will be able to touch down and come to a safe stop. Get out of the aircraft and move away as soon as possible.
So following all that excitement in the coming weeks it will be time to put things into practice and also to make my circuit bashing more interesting I'll be doing approaches with different configurations: the steeper glide approach without power, the regular approach and the shallower flap-less approach.
A practiced forced landing is just that - a practice. For the majority of pilots a real forced landing is something they will not encounter through their flying career. For some pilots the PFL training can be a life saver. Probably the most famous example of a forced landing occurred on 15th January 2009 when US Airways Flight 1549 lost power in both engines and became a glider. Captain Sullenberger made an exceptional forced landing on the Hudson river. His quick thinking and cool headedness enabled him to make a perfect landing on the river.
No comments:
Post a Comment