The one thing that should never happen....did.....and then time stood still
Posted by Deadoftheblade@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 134 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.
"Flying is not inherently dangerous, but to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity, or neglect
After-Cattle-7725@reddit
I had the same issue in a K model on my private solo XC. Delcared and was planning for emergency landing on highway. After losing a few thousand feet power came back. My school put switch to R or L tank when above 5,000 in the checklist after that
Specific-Islands@reddit
Excellent write-up of an emergency that I fear the most. Always important to know your airplane and more importantly know your surroundings. Sounds like good CRM with SLC was critical here. I'd buy them something nice if I were you!
Sharp_Experience_104@reddit
Coincidentally, was flying XC yesterday and heard a pilot asking SoCal for help in a rough-running engine situation. Everybody on this rapid-fire frequency clammed up and just let ATC help the guy. It was inspiring, and yet concerning, at the same time.
Hoping he got down OK. This was in day VMC and the stricken plane was close to a good non-towered field. Confidence is fairly high.
Love to our ATC!
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Haha I'd love to meet them
nineyourefine@reddit
Congrats on making it out alive and a great job. Now that time has passed I was reading some comments, and I noticed you kept saying you returned to your home airport? So you passed Idaho Falls and potentially another couple airports to get back to RXE? What was the reasoning behind that?
If you had a further issue and totally lost the motor, what would the explanation be for passing a suitable airport and instead try for your home field with a clear emergency? I only ask because I've been in your situation a couple times. Direct to the nearest airport is what I did, and it's what would have been the safest choice here. Single engine at night, you have no room for error and tackling a potential engine out glide at night is not something I would roll the dice with.
Don't take this as "beating you up" because job well done, you're alive and that's what matters, but here's my takeaway for your posts. You shouldn't be "limping" the aircraft back home if you have other airports around you. Altitude or no altitude, you don't want to go from "holy shit I'm on partial power but at least I can make IDA" to "Fuck the engine fully quit and now I need to GLIDE to safety, at night." If you landed on the highway after passing IDA, what do you say to the fed? "I know I could have landed at IDA but instead I took an already broken airplane and continued back home"?.
At the airlines, even with 2 very reliable jet engines, we land at the nearest suitable airport if we pop one. We're not flying back home or to a MX station, we're getting on the ground where it's safe.
The aircraft you trusted has now failed you, and you're trusting that it won't continue to fail. If there's a next time, you may not be able to limp it home, or you might get just close enough and the engine completely gives up.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
No no I totally get it. The reason why I opted for home was because I had Idaho falls and an airport known as Rigby in between Idaho falls and home which were well within gliding distance even if my engine fully quit on me and I was at 11,000 at the time. So if Rexburg wouldn't be possible I would still be within gliding distance of a suitable airport.
nineyourefine@reddit
Right, but not sure if we're losing something in translation here. That line of thinking is the issue.
Your engine is failing/failed. We want to be within gliding distance of a suitable airport when our engine is working. When our engine is shitting the bed, you don't want to be passing good airports with the thought of "Well I can glide back to there if this really goes to shit." That "Suitable airport" is the one that should be used for the emergency.
Again, you're flying a broken airplane in your situation, you need to get on the ground. LIke I said with my airline example, even with 1 good working jet engine, after our checklists we land at the nearest airport, we don't continue on with the thought of "Well if the other one blows up, we can land at one of the airports we passed along the way". In you're situation you're basically saying "I'm okay with passing a safe, usable airport while my engine is failing and I'll just plan to glide at night if it goes worse".
Again, not trying to beat anyone up here, just trying to pass some advice/knowledge in the event it ever happens again.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Yeah, if it ever happens again that's what I'm gonna go for, just land at Idaho falls
ExtraInterest8396@reddit
I had the same thing happen in a 172G. Lost power at 8500, regained at 4500 after doing the switch tanks thing where you have to let the bubbles rise out of a fuel line then switch back to it. The procedure was an insert in my POH. The placard way of satisfying that AD should not be acceptable to anyone in the mountain west.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Yeah no, we're amending our training after this incident
Western-Sky88@reddit
Hats off to you my man! Great job!
Also, this will make fantastic interview material!
I had something very similar happen, but luckily I was already well within gliding range of Knoxville. Took me a while to pull the seat cushion out of my ass!
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
DUDE SERIOUSLY! I fell out of the plane and slumped myself over the horizontal stabilizer for a good 10 straight minutes before I could catch my breath
Western-Sky88@reddit
Did you ever find out what caused the issue?
Mine was caused by an improper mixture cable installation. The cable had been getting looser and looser as we flew, apparently.
4 hours after takeoff, when we went full rich for landing at our fuel stop, it flooded out the engine and fouled some of the spark plugs. After landing, we found that we could get the engine to run smoothly if we twisted the mixture out about 6 times.
I never bothered with a lot of the engine failure memory items. I checked the mags and turned the boost pump on (which made it worse), but we were already on a straight in approach to TYS and we were well within gliding range. So we landed there and sorted out the issue.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
EDIT 2 - SO WE FOUND OUT! With the model 172G, it has a very difficult to spot and obscure placard on the fuel selector saying to switch to single tank operation above cruise altitudes of 5,000 ft. Being that Rexburg is nearly 5,000 ft of elevation it was definitely a factor. There's an AD for the plane mentioning that because of the fuel flow rate in the lines being very low there is a rare and remote possibility of fuel vapor forming and kind of creating a vacuum if you are on both tank operations. I've never seen this on any other 172 so I left it on both and I have been for the past several months flying these planes until it shows up as an issue now. So that's what happened!
Western-Sky88@reddit
Woah, that's super odd! I hope some company wide emails went out after that!
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
I'm the senior CFI at my school soooo yes we will be implementing SOP changes. Scary shit
skabberwobber@reddit
Damn, I'm gonna look for that placard lol.
ComfortablePatient84@reddit
My initial guess is you had lead deposits on the plugs, which causes this kind of power surges. Had it happen to me once but in daylight VFR conditions also on an IFR plan. Fortunately, minutes after I turned to divert the problem stopped entirely and I was already past the last line of mountains and close enough to destination to continue given the engine returned to normal operation.
What happens in that case is the lead deposit gets burned off and the plug is no longer fouled enough to reduce power output.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
EDIT 2 - SO WE FOUND OUT! With the model 172G, it has a very difficult to spot and obscure placard on the fuel selector saying to switch to single tank operation above cruise altitudes of 5,000 ft. Being that Rexburg is nearly 5,000 ft of elevation it was definitely a factor. There's an AD for the plane mentioning that because of the fuel flow rate in the lines being very low there is a rare and remote possibility of fuel vapor forming and kind of creating a vacuum if you are on both tank operations. I've never seen this on any other 172 so I left it on both and I have been for the past several months flying these planes until it shows up as an issue now. So that's what happened!
ComfortablePatient84@reddit
So, given that I presume that turning on the fuel pump might have corrected this, or was the vapor lock bad enough that not even the fuel pump overcame the block?
Cheers!
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
There isn't a fuel pump, it's carbureted
ComfortablePatient84@reddit
Ah, yes, forgot it wasn't until the S model that fuel pumps were used.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Yeeeeep, and even then you're allowed both tank operations 24/7 which would be nice
ComfortablePatient84@reddit
Interesting. I used to own a 172N that originally had the 160hp O320-H2D and then upgraded to an O-360-A4M. I don't recall seeing this caution in the POH, plus there was only a note in the POH that selecting both tanks for feed would mean that one tank (the right as I recall) would experience a greater flow rate than the other tank.
I guess the G model had a few limitations that were later rectified by Cessna.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Yeah I trained in M/N/S models and then am teaching these. The G for reference in 1967
AeroLog@reddit
Did your training taught you to pull back to half throttle? I haven’t heard of that before - sounds like you just had some good random troubleshooting luck!
Flying_4fun@reddit
I was taught by my CFI to try different throttle settings if the initial pass at fuel tanks, carb heat, mixture, primer and magnetos does not restart the engine. His instruction was based on his own partial engine failure on takeoff at 300ft experience. He was able to make the impossible turn over a very busy urban area because half throttle gave him enough engine rpms to return to the runway. I have also seen other pilots resolve critical engine failure situations with partial throttle settings in YouTube videos.
kytulu@reddit
It makes sense. If the engine is having a fuel delivery issue, having the throttle at full power would cause a lean condition. Pulling it back to half would reduce the amount of air going into the cylinders and enrichen the air/fuel mixture, depending on the amount of fuel getting to the engine.
Roverjosh@reddit
I am immediately thinking falling mechanical fuel pump and/or clogged jet… First off, I’m so happy you are on the ground alive to share this story. Second, out of curiosity, did you fire up the electric pump? These planes have them right? I’m learning so I don’t know… Thanks and so glad you made it down safely.
Accomplished-Ice-604@reddit
That’s 3 parts this plane doesn’t have.
Siftinghistory@reddit
I think they mean Carb jet, not jet engine
Roverjosh@reddit
Yes I was thinking carb jet… I am new to airplane engines but a carburetor , on principle, is the same yes?
Accomplished-Ice-604@reddit
Edited for clarity.
lordspidey@reddit
Not much different than getting the weed whacker started by fingering the throttle just right during startup... fucking two strokes are finnicky beasts.
Flying_4fun@reddit
Never thought of it this way, but it makes a lot of sense.
PiperFM@reddit
When troubleshooting a rough running engine there is not an engine control that should remain untouched. The throttle is probably last on my list, but it’s on it for sure.
If you have altitude, don’t give up. Try everything.
HorrifiedPilot@reddit
An amendment to this is if you blow a cylinder on a radial engine, do NOT touch anything if the engine is still running
PiperFM@reddit
At least on a single row. With 18 cylinders I’ve heard of crews not even noticing lol
sennais1@reddit
I was taught to, it's something that can clearly help with carb icing.
CohenC@reddit
During early training TAFMM was really drilled into me, I think it's a fairly standard acronym used in Australia.
Throttle Alternate Air Fuel Mixture Mags
keenly_disinterested@reddit
Check Section III of the SR22 POH. Look for "Engine Partial Power Loss." Good info there.
https://jasonblair.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Cirrus-SR22-POH.pdf
goestowhat@reddit
Page 3-13
That’s interesting
2dP_rdg@reddit
one reason to try it is because you limit the amount of air being sucked into the engine.. the surging could be due to a collapsed SCAT tub somewhere in the intake side and reducing the vacuum the to a point below the positive pressure of forced air intake could bring the tube back to its desired shape.
Haga@reddit
I was taught to go through throttle and mixture settings. Can’t hurt right?
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
No. I never even thought about it before now, I just thought, what is controlling this engine that can be changed? And it seemed to work
AOA001@reddit
Come back and tell us when you find out what caused it. Where did you end up landing? What was your flight path and plan like? I grew up in SLC so you can be detailed about canyon names and highways and things.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Luckily I wasn't very far into my flight plan when it happened, I was about 35ish miles away from Rexburg and just passed Idaho falls over the windmills to the east about to enter the mountains when I got the reroute. I ended up landing back in Rexburg but in the back of my mind I was prioritizing Idaho falls first as it was closest but I also had a lot of altitude left, my second choice after that would have been Rigby and then Rexburg. So if the engine would have fully quit I would have gone for one of those airports instead
AOA001@reddit
So wait, did you pass over an airport just to go to the airport you wanted? Just want to make sure I’m reading that right.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Sorry let me clarify, I was within gliding distance of Idaho falls and I was heading that direction, I was also in gliding distance of Rigby airport. As I troubleshooted the engine I minimized altitude loss enough to be able to make Rexburg. But my primary diversion point was Idaho falls first and as I noticed my altitude loss was very minimal, I was looking towards Rigby and as I was able to slow it to 300 ft per minute I chose Rexburg if my engine kept up. If it had failed I would have immediately turned towards Rigby and would have had more than enough energy to make it dead stick
AOA001@reddit
Ok. I don’t fully understand and that’s fine. I just hope you never left one good airport for one you MIGHT make in an effort to get back to the “desired” place to land. Being in no man’s land at any time would be a big red flag!
Did you find out what happened with the plane?
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
I did, I'll post an edit to the main post
AOA001@reddit
Oh man! It was the fuel tank thing?!? I have that in my 172D. Usually it just drained my tank.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Yeah apparently this is an AD for 172 model h and below. Though looking into it, you can pay a lot of money to get an STC and install a modified system that can be run on both
AOA001@reddit
Could you send me information on that STC? Probably wouldn’t do it, but still good to be educated.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
I just discovered that there was one, I have no idea where to find it. The only thing I was told about it was that it is very invasive and very expensive.
AOA001@reddit
Thanks.
ljthefa@reddit
More than a few Monday morning quarterbacks here
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
I guess that's the cost of coming back alive huh. Everyone always thinks they can do better and are quick to blame
hobojoe3111@reddit
I had a similar experience a few months ago in a similar model(172b) - I was flying from Sandpoint(KSZT) to Kalispell(S27)and over Libby(S59) had nearly the exact same thing happen. Turns out in this trainer plane there is a very hard to see plaque next to the fuel selector that says above 5,000 feet it has to be set to left or right and can cause a sort of vacuum in the tanks if it is on both and then fuel can’t feed to the engine. The chief pilot and mechanic were both scratching their heads for a few minutes figuring that one out. Was on my way home with the wife and had had to glide into Libby. Fun times.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Yep, that was exactly it. 172G has the same AD
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
HUH OK, gonna check that out
mclinny@reddit
glad you’re safe on the ground. please update us with what the diagnosis is!
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
EDIT 2 - SO WE FOUND OUT! With the model 172G, it has a very difficult to spot and obscure placard on the fuel selector saying to switch to single tank operation above cruise altitudes of 5,000 ft. Being that Rexburg is nearly 5,000 ft of elevation it was definitely a factor. There's an AD for the plane mentioning that because of the fuel flow rate in the lines being very low there is a rare and remote possibility of fuel vapor forming and kind of creating a vacuum if you are on both tank operations. I've never seen this on any other 172 so I left it on both and I have been for the past several months flying these planes until it shows up as an issue now. So that's what happened!
KeyOfGSharp@reddit
Dude, what a harrowing experience. I'm glad you are alive to tell the story
1886cola@reddit
Hmmm could it have been a cracked carburetor.
Derp_Animal@reddit
Glad you made it. Sounds like a good story for your grand kids.
What was wrong with the engine in the end?
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
I only landed about an hour ago so I guess we'll find out, I'm not sure.
Big_Beginning7725@reddit
Glad you made it to the ground unscathed. Appreciate this write up too!
CluelessPilot1971@reddit
Ouch. Make and model?
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
C172G
TheJohnRocker@reddit
Glad you made it. Thank you for the write up, well done.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
No problem, anything to help my fellow pilots. And while I can't verify it, I'm betting it's going to be a carburetor issue
guy999@reddit
!remind me in one week.
Icy_Stranger3818@reddit
I’m glad you are okay! A similar situation happened to me about a year ago while I was flying with a student. We were returning from performing maneuvers when the aircraft started losing power. Unfortunately, we were at only around 2,000 feet and 6 miles from the airport, so we couldn’t make it to the runway and had to ditch into an open field. During the FAA investigation, they discovered that a piece of the fuel float had broken mid-flight, causing the engine to flood and lose power. Initially, they considered attributing the incident to human error, but after a deeper investigation, they identified the faulty component as the cause.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Wow, glad you survived an off airport landing, that's awesome
Icy_Stranger3818@reddit
My advice is simple: if you’ve ever been in an emergency, don’t panic specially if you have a Student or a passenger with you —just focus on flying the aircraft. That’s exactly what I did and you did. I got back in the cockpit the very next day because if you stop flying, fear can start to take hold.
BeefyMcPissflaps@reddit
You can have single engine piston. Mountains. And night. Pick two. You can’t have all 3.
You were lucky.
diamonddealer@reddit
100%. I'm glad to see someone qualify that "single engine" with "piston." Totally different story in a turbine.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
I definitely was lucky, that's for sure
livebeta@reddit
wow the unholy multi-fecta of night, IFR, mountains, solo and single engine. thanks for sharing your story
weech@reddit
My simple rule - night, single engine, mountains, IMC: never combine more than 2.
sevettjr@reddit
Flying IMC in a single-engine airplane is a huge risk. If you have an engine failure, you’re simply going to land on whatever’s there when you pop out of the clouds. Each of us have to decide what level of risk we are comfortable with.
For me, adding night or mountains or overwater to single-engine IMC, doesn’t add that much more to the basic risk. When the engine fails, it’ll be just dumb luck if you survive it.
Of course, you can always mitigate this risk by setting higher enroute weather minimums for yourself.
weech@reddit
Flying IMC with bases down to the ground or over mountains is a risk. Flying IMC through a high layer with bottoms that are thousands of feet AGL is not much riskier than a VFR in similar conditions
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
IFR rules but the weather was not IMC, completely visual, otherwise I wouldn't have gone
Crazylamph1@reddit
except at night over mountains can you really see much?
Nardone69@reddit
unfortunately for us who live in mountainous terrain night single engine over mountains is just something we have to do
jcgam@reddit
If it's your job, yes
BillySpacs@reddit
Yeah I’m not trying to pile on but OP kind of put himself in a position with no margin of safety
NuttPunch@reddit
Sounds like he did fine.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Oh I was under IFR rules but I wasn't in IMC conditions. I should have clarified that before
goestowhat@reddit
Can probably add single pilot to the list. Even a competent passenger would’ve been nice to have along.
phatRV@reddit
This should be the main lesson.
q-milk@reddit
RemindMe! 5 days
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NastyWideOuts@reddit
How far were you from your home airport?
Engine out at night is probably my biggest fear. Add mountains, and it’s simply terrifying. Sure you could try to spot a road/highway that is lit, or get lucky and be in gliding distance of some airport. I fly in Wyoming, and you can go long distances without an airport of any kind around. Not many roads or highways either. In day time I would be able to spot a dirt road at least, but at night it’s incredibly dark all around, and there’s mountains. I’m glad you were able to get the engine somewhat working and make it back safe. Did you have any idea of where you’d land if it quit on you?
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
I was well outside glide range of my home airport, I departed Rexburg, KRXE for salt lake international and the weird indications started just past Idaho falls once I had headed into the mountains so about 30 miles away. I know the area pretty well so I knew that if it fully quit I would be turning towards Idaho falls first, if I was a little further along and it quit then I would have gone for Rigby. If no airport was an option, I would have put it down on highway 20.
LimeDry2865@reddit
Good job when it mattered, but there’s a legitimate question that I’d like to see your reaction to: Flying at night over mountains is an unacceptable risk for many of us. Why wasn’t it for you?
From Rexburg you could have at least followed highways and flatter terrain to Salt Lake, but you took the direct route that offered no options if something went wrong. There’s a solid 50 mile stretch of no airports but 7,000 foot peaks south of Idaho Falls. Fly just a bit to the west through Pocatello and you’ve got multiple airports plus the highway, and its lights. The route choice here is an important risk factor that’s a good lesson here too, no?
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
My original routing did go through that, but after departing and getting a clearance, center gave me a reroute and I accepted it without looking at it closely enough. It's definitely a good lesson here I agree
LimeDry2865@reddit
And you were IFR too so I get it.
Still, if you ever take a mountain flying course, one of the fundamental rules in many of them about night flying over mountains is pretty easy to remember: DON’T.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Yeah no I'm never doing that again. If I get a reroute I'm gonna be very careful about it and try and get something better. I 100% agree
LimeDry2865@reddit
Glad you’re here to tell the tale and talk about lessons. It helps the rest of us.
NastyWideOuts@reddit
Good stuff man, seems like you had some good route planning to keep you safe if it came to it.
vtjohnhurt@reddit
Flying small planes at night over mountains is in fact inherently dangerous.
Pretend_College_8446@reddit
Well done, thanks for the good advice. Just curious, what type of aircraft/engine? Let us know what issue was when you find out!
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
C172G with a continental o300d
Pretend_College_8446@reddit
glad you're ok ... and you've learnt something to boot!
saitekav@reddit
I had something similar happen with the same engine and airplane. It started running rough right after I was airborne. Flew a kind of teardrop and landed downwind, always ready to level the wings and land straight ahead. Two A&Ps looked at it, and never really had an answer except carbon buildup. That never seemed like a complete explanation to me, since it came on so suddenly. I think that engined ended up being overhauled within 60 hours of that when a piston decided to start wandering around. Wish I knew what really happened there.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
I hope that's not the case here, it's a training airplane and I don't feel comfortable putting a student in it anymore
WeekendOk6724@reddit
Love my SR22
svilla310@reddit
I’ve had 4 real life emergencies just this year lol Hopefully that covers me for the next 10.
Full_Wind_1966@reddit
Huge story. Glad it ended in a safe landing.
My question to you is, now that this situation, who left you cornered in a tricky situation (from the mechanical failure, but also the conditions of Flight, like night IFR and mountainous terrain), will you be making a change to your personal minimums based on what happened.
The engine issues you experienced is a sticky situation by itself, but what made it exponentially worse was that you were over mountainous terrain at night (possibly in imc?). Not saying that this wouldn't still be an emergency during the day, over farm fields, but the situation would have been much easier to deal with.
Obviously, the only way to take out the risk of flying completely is to stop flying at all, so there is going to be a risk level that you are comfortable with. Personally, with experience, there are definitely some things I do not want to experience again and some risks that I do not consider worth taking anymore. This is why I am curious to see if you will reevaluate what situations you are willing to fly in for the future.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Oh just to clarify, I was flying under IFR but the weather was completely VFR. My original flight plan took that into account but I got a reroute from center and I accepted it without even thinking about it. Lesson I learned was to be a lot more strict about my routing at night in those conditions. But I wasn't in IMC
AvocadoLarge@reddit
I had a similar flight last year, Anchorage to Fairbanks. Suspected carb ice, no luck. Ran through everything, which it sounds like you did too, no luck. Ended up limping back to Anchorage on fluctuation between 25-50% power. Long story short, ended up being a leaking primer liner. Don’t know if that’s the case in your situation, but could save you hours of hunting and troubleshooting. All this to say, I’m glad you’re okay. Shake it off, you lived to fly another day.
q-milk@reddit
remindme
Final-Muscle-7196@reddit
Sheesh, good job! Glad you made it back safe and sound (except maybe a pull muscle in ur butt from clenching 🤣)
Do post an update / new post when there’s a solid answer to the failure.
Once again. Good job. 👏
PasswordIsDongers@reddit
Can you elaborate on what kind of thinking outside the box was required here and how it helped you?
To a layman, what you describe doing to try to fix the situation seems pretty straight-forward (although going through all of it live is a different deal, of course).
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Because when thinking about an engine failure, no checklist I've ever seen at least in my aircraft, ever even mentions the throttle other than full or completely cutting it off after securing the engine to prevent a fire. Because the idea of reducing throttle and gaining power makes no sense
FromTheHangar@reddit
It can work if the problem is the delivery of fuel. I've seen a checklist (think it was from Diamond) that said to reduce throttle, and if that works increase it until power reduces again and pick a setting just below that point.
bryan2384@reddit
Sorry to be that guy, but paragraphs, my dude.
chuckop@reddit
I had power loss at night after departing over sloping terrain and water. A true pucker moment. I was able to nurse the aircraft higher and slowly bring it around to land.
Train train train.
erik325i@reddit
If you’re going to have an emergency, of course it’s a night XC. Similar to my story a couple years ago. Night XC with a student. Ended up cracking one of the cylinders.
Glad your story ended safely. Good work.
rogue-thinker@reddit
Very inspiring. Thanks for taking the time to share.
Purgent@reddit
Idk what kind of airplane you were flying and with what engine, but don’t rule out a stuck/sticky valve.
Dave_A480@reddit
You were lean.
Why the mixture didn't fix that, who knows...
But pulling the throttle back resulting in more power = you were running lean.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
A lean mixture wouldn't explain a surging engine deviating more than a thousand RPM at a time. Pulling back the throttle helped reduce the power loss but it was not a steady power
syntheticFLOPS@reddit
Scary shit. Magnetos or carb/fuel injection maybe?
Working on an emergency landing site database too. Will be useful once it's built out.
Geolandav.com Geolandblog.wordpress.com
SilvanestitheErudite@reddit
Yeah, sounds like a fuel delivery issue.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Honestly, I'm betting it's going to be the carburetor.
ArmadilloNo7637@reddit
Well done, your comment about thinking out of the box is true. A thorough knowledge about your aircraft and all its systems can be so valuable, most especially if there is no non-normal checklist for the symptoms you described. What was the fault once you had it all checked out.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
I just landed a few hours ago and tied it down, I might find out in the morning but I don't know yet, it literally just happened.
CoE1976@reddit
Well done my friend. And you're right about knowing systems and keeping your head. Sounds like you should be really proud of how you handled this.
Deadoftheblade@reddit (OP)
Thank you
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.
"Flying is not inherently dangerous, but to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity, or neglect
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