ETLB Squawk Forums — Archive

First, ignore the video title...it's not a Cessna and there was no loss of control.

http://youtu.be/iO4CSnFFgm4

It appears to be a two place Challenger or similar type.  You can hear the engine sieze during the climb after takeoff.  The pilot had a perfect opportunity to get the nose down and land straight ahead on the remaining runway but chose to try to attempt climbing again after the engine started somewhat running.  Once the engine quit again he was out of airspeed, altitude, and ideas.

Bad decision by the pilot.

Monte

Yup, I'd have chickened out and put it down before trying to climb again.... I hope.

A true case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

YUp, bad choice but it is hard to say what we would do in an instant. Being a student the pucker factor probably drained all the blood from his brain and muddled his thinking. Hope he was OK, the plane can be replaced.

oh my.  he has seen the inside of the gift horse's mouth and looked the other way....

I'm not sure what happened but if you listen to the engine it was reduced to idle power and he started a decent. It appears as though he was pulling up before the rpm came back up and then dropped again. The engine sounds like it was running at idle at impact.

What you hear is first the engine losing rpm due to seizing.  Once the engine lost rpm it cooled just enough that the engine was able to pick up rpm again.  Again, as the rpm's increased the seizure reoccurred.

When I use to teach UL flying I drilled into my students that if the engine failed for any reason the only safe course was to forget about the engine and fly the plane to a safe landing as a glider.  Nothing bad that happens to an engine in the air will fix itself in a few seconds.  Never waste time and attention trying to restart the engine when you should be focusing on flying and landing.

To me it looks like he never pulled the power back and was flaring for landing when the power came back and pushed him up again.

My procedure for engine outs (I've had 3) is to chop the throttle as soon as I start losing power. This technique has twice allowed me to find an rpm range where the engine would continue to produce power, onece was a seizing Kawasaki and the other a failing fuel pump on a 503. If a forced landing is imminent I cut the throttle and ignition well before touchdown.

Chris

Quoted from Garyk YUp, bad choice but it is hard to say what we would do in an instant.

Well,  I know what I will do. I have that T-shirt.

And I can tell you two things.
#1.  It gets extremely quiet when the engine stops.
#2.  You will do what you have been trained and have practiced doing.

Quoted from BlueMax To me it looks like he never pulled the power back and was flaring for landing when the power came back and pushed him up again.

My procedure for engine outs (I've had 3) is to chop the throttle as soon as I start losing power. This technique has twice allowed me to find an rpm range where the engine would continue to produce power, onece was a seizing Kawasaki and the other a failing fuel pump on a 503. If a forced landing is imminent I cut the throttle and ignition well before touchdown.

Chris

yeah i cant tell if he never chopped the throttle...then as said above once the engine cooled it sputtered to life....at a time when he didnt need or want the power.  Or it came to life and he decided to abort the landing and go on his merry way.  it looks like he could have put it down with the room he had left but once the engine kicked in he tried to force it down at too steep of an angle.