When time stood still for me
Posted by Deadoftheblade@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 2 comments
I am making this post partially as a little bit of therapy for myself but also so that anyone else in the world of aviation can benefit from my story. Not more than a couple hours ago I had my skills and experience called upon for the most life threatening situation I had ever faced and would give most pilots goosebumps to think about. I had a partial engine failure, at night, single engine, solo, in mountainous terrain. As I was on my IFR flight plan to salt lake airport for a little bit of enjoyment off of my usual job of teaching flying, I noticed some strange engine readings and I suspected carb ice. I was wrong. Carb heat never seemed to fix the issue and soon after the small indications on the tachometer became much more violent surging to idle power and then to half power every so often and the situation immediately became critical. I notified center of the issue and my intentions to return home. I immediately turned back towards a heading that would get me away from the mountains and towards a suitable airport while trying to maintain a minimum descent rate with my limited power. Switching tanks, mixture control, switching magnetos never seem to help. What did salvage the little power I had was reducing it from full throttle to half throttle and that seemed to let the RPMs come back a little bit which allowed me to limp the aircraft back home. After formally declaring an emergency, salt lake center was extremely helpful in giving me options and clearing the way for me. For all of the instructors who teach these topics, for the student pilots learning them, and for my other fellow aviators, knowing the systems of my aircraft and being able to think outside the box in a critical situation saved my life and fortunately saved the aircraft. No matter how many hours, no matter how much training you have, it will still shake you as it shook me. This is why we train the way we do, we are not training you for a check ride, we're training you to be a safe pilot so that when you face an emergency like I did, you'll be ready.
rFlyingTower@reddit
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
I am making this post partially as a little bit of therapy for myself but also so that anyone else in the world of aviation can benefit from my story. Not more than a couple hours ago I had my skills and experience called upon for the most life threatening situation I had ever faced and would give most pilots goosebumps to think about. I had a partial engine failure, at night, single engine, solo, in mountainous terrain. As I was on my IFR flight plan to salt lake airport for a little bit of enjoyment off of my usual job of teaching flying, I noticed some strange engine readings and I suspected carb ice. I was wrong. Carb heat never seemed to fix the issue and soon after the small indications on the tachometer became much more violent surging to idle power and then to half power every so often and the situation immediately became critical. I notified center of the issue and my intentions to return home. I immediately turned back towards a heading that would get me away from the mountains and towards a suitable airport while trying to maintain a minimum descent rate with my limited power. Switching tanks, mixture control, switching magnetos never seem to help. What did salvage the little power I had was reducing it from full throttle to half throttle and that seemed to let the RPMs come back a little bit which allowed me to limp the aircraft back home. After formally declaring an emergency, salt lake center was extremely helpful in giving me options and clearing the way for me. For all of the instructors who teach these topics, for the student pilots learning them, and for my other fellow aviators, knowing the systems of my aircraft and being able to think outside the box in a critical situation saved my life and fortunately saved the aircraft. No matter how many hours, no matter how much training you have, it will still shake you as it shook me. This is why we train the way we do, we are not training you for a check ride, we're training you to be a safe pilot so that when you face an emergency like I did, you'll be ready.
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