My 1st emergency, ENGINE FAILURE.

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powerstroke01@reddit

The restaurant at kfch is soooo good. Great people too. Good job!

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robertpnz@reddit

Gosh that landscape looks like New Zealand.

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makgross@reddit

Thats Santa Clara Valley, yes the same one that contains Silicon Valley (quite a bit north).

Unlike NZ (I presume you mean South Island around Queenstown), it’s not glacial. That’s the second largest earthquake fault in the region, the Calaveras.

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Creative-Grocery2581@reddit

Great job on this. Glad to hear everything went well.

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pdxc@reddit

I think I recognize that reservoir. Glad you landed the plane safely!

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TristanwithaT@reddit

San Luis Reservoir. I have spent way too much time driving on that highway… me and the Pacheco Pass are great friends at this point.

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This-You-1234@reddit (OP)

Yes if you fly in the bay area/south bay a lot its there in between San Martin and Hollister to the east

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daygloviking@reddit

Great to hear a successful outcome. Over this side of the Pond they’ve only recently mandated partial power failure as a PPL training item

As a post-event discussion point, why were you descending before you were in the overhead? At that point I’m teaching my guys to hold the altitude they have until they are in glide range of a field if they can maintain Vmp or more

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SaratogaFlyer@reddit

Congrats on safely landing on a runway! Walking away after an engine failure in a single engine airplane is the only thing that matters. Is this your plane or a flight school aircraft? Any preliminary guesses as to the cause?

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This-You-1234@reddit (OP)

Thank you very much!!! It was a friend's plane that I rented out. The folks at Hollister jet center suspected that it was most probably the accumulated lead in the sparkplugs or something, they also found water in the fuel sump standpipe.

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SalesAndMarketing202@reddit

Did you drain the sump before the flight?

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This-You-1234@reddit (OP)

ALWAYS. We did discover water from a month ago but that was taken care of. We also always put the cover on just in case it rains. The mechanic said it might be from the last station we got fuel in

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PhilRubdiez@reddit

Always sumo before flight and after getting fuel (wait like 15 minutes). Not only are you covering your ass, but you can potentially help other pilots by discovering fuel contamination at that FBO.

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Disastrous-Trash1025@reddit

Do you sump after refueling mid journey?

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SaratogaFlyer@reddit

I’d love to hear an update when they figure it out. Having a total engine failure from fouled plugs would be pretty wild… and in my mind unlikely if you were leaning. The water on the other hand… that’ll do if

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This-You-1234@reddit (OP)

I'll keep y'all posted. Imma talk to my friend tomorrow and get the the facts right. I do take my preflight seriously always giving my best to get the sump everytime every flight. Could be from the last airport we got fuel last. Idk? As for the sparkplugs the maintenance dude who was super cool tole me that it might be from taxing in full mixture which I don't do. He also said that although its 100"low lead" that would still be build up lead

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tehmightyengineer@reddit

Well done!

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rogue4life68@reddit

…air speed,altitude,where I’m at,M.O.A in consideration,look for a good spot down below,let’s go for a dead stick landing?!

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sqwk7700_pls@reddit

Ahhh I thought I could recognize Anderson reservoir. Glad you're safe tho. Stressful situation like this could make anyone shit the bed but keeping our heads cool for situations like this is the reason we trained so hard for.

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RogLatimer118@reddit

Friend (also a pilot) and I had a perhaps less serious emergency in our Cherokee 140, also with no power at the end. Taking off from a field with a short runway, he's flying from the right seat. At about 800AGL he says "We have a problem". I hadn't noticed any issues so I assumed he was joking with me. He was not. I looked down at his hand on the throttle and he was moving it from idle to full with no effect on the engine, currently at full throttle.

We quickly decided to declare an emergency, flew 5 miles to a nearby towered field with a long wide runway. I flew and he handled radios. I adjusted mixture to keep engine somewhat slower. Lots of backfiring. On about a half mile final, high and fast, I decided to kill the engine as the field was assured and I didn't want a runaway engine on the ground. Landed with no power, rolled out, and even made the high speed turnoff. A great learning experience. Throttle cable had broken.

You did super well and we learn from these things. You gain confidence in your airmanship and your ability to handle problems calmly. Good job.

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RogLatimer118@reddit

Congratulations! Low time pilot and you did your training and performed excellently. We never know how we will behave and you should be proud of yourself. Will be interesting to hear what the problem was.

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Phantom15q@reddit

I mean we train our asses off for this exact scenario so it’s not exactly weird that you feel good about actually being able to use your skills lol

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This-You-1234@reddit (OP)

100% not off to Instrument.

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PinguinLeo@reddit

Stupid question maybe, but why does the nav lights have to be on to transmit ADS-B out? (Says the the little placard on the dash)

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SouthBobcat5619@reddit

I believe there are aftermarket upgrades that replace NAV lights with Nav lights/ ADS-B combos.

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poisonandtheremedy@reddit

A lot of us (like in my Cherokee) have added ADSB-Out with something like a uAvionix Tailbeacon: https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/uavionix_11-17246.php

These are wired into the nav lights, so when the nav lights are on, the ADSB-Out is on.

I suppose one could turn off their nav lights if they didn't want ADSB-Out broadcasting... in theory.

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haveanairforceday@reddit

Good job!

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This-You-1234@reddit (OP)

Thank you very much. What a day

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JumboTrijet@reddit

Well done! Now you have this to put in your toolbox.

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This-You-1234@reddit (OP)

Thank you!! I was so super surprised how calm I was. Training definitely paid off and now I am super happy that I got my PPL over the national average flight hours.

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

New private pilot 120 plus hours in. I experience my 1st real emergency today. Cruising at 7,500 ft KRHV to KFCH. 35 mins into the flight my engine starts running rough. So I started with my memory items ABCDE right away and wasted no time. Engine got become so I decided to divert to KCVH. While I was descending around 5,000 ft or so 8NM away my engine completely quits on me. Did the whole merory items again/checklist but the engine would not restart. Luckily, I made it and landed safely. What an experience. Super scary, I definitely learned a lot from it. Is it weird I am glad it did happened? Lol

Be safe out there boys and girls! God speed!

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