From the Logbook: Engine Out
Emergency! . . . What Are You Going to Do? And I Mean "Right
Now"!
Jim Trusty, 2007
Before we get very deep into this
subject, let me answer that first question for you. What you
do in the next few seconds actually depends on some training
you took a long time ago, because one thing is probably for
sure. You haven't been practicing this maneuver, now have
you?
The training I just mentioned is
going to determine when, what, where, how, why, and possibly
if. Where did this emergency take place? On takeoff? And how
were you taught to handle it? Land straight ahead? This
particular training exercise brings forth a lot of criticism
from some and total rejection from others. If you were
taught to land straight ahead, a lot of decisions have
already been made for you. Now all you have to decide is
what you are going to land on or in. If you were taught to
make a turn back to the runway then you best be getting on
with it because you are steadily losing altitude. It really
doesn't make a lot of difference which you do as long as it
was what you were taught and the last time you practiced it
you were "kinda sorta" good at it.
Emergency training should take up
a great deal of our time as flight instructors, doing as
many as necessary to determine exactly what each particular
student will do in an emergency situation, and at any rate
at least 12 before the pilot flies the airplane in a solo
situation. What we teach as a recovery movement again
depends on what we learned from our own instructors and what
we as instructors have learned since that time. Checklists,
Pilots Operating Handbooks, manuals, and countless other
publications tell us what to do, but when it actually
happens is when we find out what really stuck.
I always think that the mark of a
student pilot is when they can go out and do maneuvers by
themselves and not be afraid, whether steep turns, stalls,
slow flight, and certainly engine out emergencies. So let's
get right to our teaching methods and how hard we stress
what the word "emergency" really means, especially when we
are at a training altitude that barely gives us 1,500 above
ground level.
My method of teaching this
maneuver is a little easier on the heart, less dangerous to
those on the ground, and it would probably make the FAA a
little happier if they know how close to the ground you have
to come to impress a student just how dangerous it really is
to do an emergency procedure in an airplane. So we go up to
3,500 above ground level, adjust the altimeter to read
ground level at 2,000 AGL, and now the training begins. We
now learn what the airplane is going to do, what the student
is qualified to do, what they actually end up doing, and the
safety of the entire procedure.
Can it be done? Is there a better
way? How much time do we actually have? How little time and
altitude do we actually have between where we are and our
supposed ground level? What does the airplane actually do
when the instructor pulls that power stick back and locks
his hand over it? It is absolutely necessary for the
instructor to start counting "1001, 1002, 1003," and
laughing at the same time as we try to get the checklist
out, fly the airplane, turn, twist, look, "1004, 1005,
1006," nose level, 61 knots, landing where, when, "1007,
1008, 1009, 1010." When this has been taken care of, we are
at our supposed ground altitude, and this is the fifth time
we have done this--crashed every time. Decision making,
poor; aircraft control, poor, cockpit resource management,
poor; both pilots, dead!
Well, let's go back up to altitude
again and try one more time. We call this learning method,
"Fetch, Rover, fetch," and eventually it works. Over time an
instinct develops by the pilot that the engine is indeed
gone and the instructor is not going to give it back until
we reach ground level and he quits counting . . . "1,010!"
It works, usually somewhere between 10 and 20 attempts. We
pull it in practice at altitude, for real over runways, in
turns, in climbs, on landings, and any other maneuver that
we feel the student is putting too much concentration into
and not really paying attention to flying the airplane and
watching what their passengers are doing. Turn your head,
lose an engine. Makes for a very alert cockpit, believe me!
I teach, and rightly so, that if
you hurt that airplane on landing from an emergency
situation that it will hurt you back times three, and this
is a proven truth. So besides learning to land in an
emergency situation, where, when, why, and how also enter
into the equation. Our training has also revealed that these
little trainers we are flying prefer the shorter strips, are
not afraid of a bumpy area, work well in a little mud, and
are certainly not allergic to freshly farmed areas or a
newly mowed field.
The end result of all this
teaching, no matter what the maneuver, is to teach the
student what parameters they are going to be limited to in
case of an emergency. Here again is a great case for "no
demonstration." Let the student fly the airplane.
Eventually, and a lot quicker than we ourselves learned if
the truth be told, they come around to the very best they
are ever going to be. Look forward to this level of
compliance each and every time when doing this maneuver. It
will never get any better, but it is not likely to get much
worse.
Are you now thinking, what a
heartless, moronic way to teach this little baby how to fly
themselves out of a bad situation? Believe me, in too short
a time, this poor baby will be in that airplane by
themselves, and, if something happens, poor baby will be
glad that the method they are using to save their life was
taught to them in a "tough love" method simply because it is
working well enough that they are going to make it and so
will the airplane. As instructors, let's spend more time
doing emergency training exercise and finding better ways to
teach the same old thing, again and again, better ways to
make it happen and remove some of the terror from it and
really get 100% results, no matter the terrain, day or
night, high or low. When it happens, it is up to us, as
instructors, to have them totally prepared.
As students, tell those
instructors that you don't want anything special, you just
want to know how to fly the airplane in any situation.
Nothing special at all. Emergencies happen. Let's be
prepared! It doesn't have to be scary, no more so than
stalls and spins or any other maneuver that we teach
students so that they do not have to lose their life just
because it happened. As instructors, we owe our students
this much--to do our jobs.
We must be doing our jobs better
and better each year, according to the accident statistics
that come out. Fewer and fewer training accidents for over
20 years in a row, and that's really saying something for a
business venture like this. It makes you proud of being a
FAA Certificated Flight Instructor. The only thing that ever
makes me prouder than the safety record we compile each year
is when a student calls and tells me how they handled a
potentially dangerous situation, and they are very calm and
matter of fact about it. That's the result of good training,
nothing else. Prior planning prevents ---- poor performance,
and that's a true statement.
I'll see you at the airport!
Always remember, pilots who don't fly have no advantage over
people who can't fly. What's your excuse?
JIM TRUSTY, ATP/CFI/IGI/ASC, was
named the FAA/Aviation Industry National Flight Instructor
of the Year for 1997, and the first ever FAA Southern Region
Aviation Safety Counselor of the Year in 1995 and again in
2005. He still works full-time as a Corporate Pilot/ "Gold
Seal" Flight & Ground Instructor/ FAA Aviation Safety Team
Lead Representative/ National Aviation Magazine Writer. You
have been enjoying his work since 1973 in publications
worldwide. If you have comments, questions, complaints, or
compliments, please e-mail them directly to me, and I'll
respond. Thanks. (Lrn2Fly@bellsouth.net)
ACCIDENTS ARE CAUSED AND THEREFORE
PREVENTABLE
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"SAFE SIDE".
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