I flew to work this morning. It was gorgeous clear, and cool. The weather was forecast to be nice all day. The winds picked up and varied, but that would be fine, as I planned to land on the grass back home at Waynesburg. Crosswind landings on pavement are not fun, as the slightest drift can quickly turn into a ground loop. While I've done plenty, I never look forward to a gusty crosswind landing on pavement.
The sun was shining bright and the preflight revealed the airplane was ready to fly. I tied the tail down, threw the prop, and listened to the Lycoming O-145 chug to life. I waited a few minutes as the engine warmed, untied and un-chocked and climbed aboard. Winds were favoring 23 so I taxied all the way back to the end and performed a quick runup. Everything fine and as expected.
I gradually added power, maintained a bit offfset from centerline, and was quickly airborne. Takeoffs on 23 at Fairmont can be a bit disconcerting as there's a nice tall road berm at the departure end. While there's plenty of room to get airborne and over the berm, a power loss anytime along the takeoff run would be interesting. I kept the speed up, popped up over the berm, and made a climbing a right turn over the river to head north back home. I kept the climb at 60 MPH to 2500' since it was a bit bumpy down low and the landing options are limited over downtown Fairmont.
Now that I was past the river I looked for options -- there was a nice emergency field off the left side. Good -- those are rare in West Virginia; land of hills and valleys and trees. I reached for the throttle as I started to level off --I hadn't touched it yet when suddenly power went from 2500 RPM to 2000, and the engine sounded sick -- very sick -- as if it were running on bad gas.
In the retelling I can state that many thoughts raced through my mind, but only one dominated -- get back to the airport NOW!
I glanced at the oil pressure, looked at the field to the left, then decided to do a 180 to see how far it was back to the airport. The engine was still putting out power -- barely. The RPM needle was bouncing now between 1500-1800 RPM.
I had the handheld radio set to 122.800 and announced: "Chief Returning to Fairmont, Loss of power, clear the runway" (there was a C172 at the fuel pump that just started after I taxied out -- I never heard him make any calls so didn't know where he was).
I looked ahead -- I had plenty of altitude with the power available to make it back to the airport. If it died between here and there I'd make the river.
I didn't touch the throttle until I was 2 miles out. I was over 1200' AGL.
I reduced the throttle slightly and it dropped immediately to 800 RPM. I slipped aggressively (very aggressively -- this airplane will fly sideways with enough aileron and counter-rudder) and was still pretty high. I kept the slip in until I was about 5 feet above the pavement, 1/3rd the way down the runway, then wheeled it on the upwind side (When I departed there was a direct crosswind varying from 6-10 knots. I couldn't see the sock before I landed, but really didn't care).
I rolled on one wheel for about 400' (I was doing about 70 when I touched down), and kept the weight on the upwind wheel. When the lift decayed I kept the tail up. Eventually both mains were down and I held some brake. I wheelied a long way, but actually only used about 1000' of runway. the combination brake and wheel landing allowed me to brake fairly heavily. I pulled the throttle completely to idle -- the engine continued to run, but unevenly.
I'd like to claim I planned to wheel land and do all this great aviating. I didn't. I planted it on and reverted to habit, which fortunately was based on good training.
There was no possibility of go around and the end of runway 23 at Fairmont has a nice tall road berm about 50' above the runway. I had plenty of runway left once I touched down.
I taxied in, parked in front of the hangar, and ran it up -- lots of unburned fuel smell. I'll bet it threw a plug.
The FBO owner and a mechanic came out -- they'd heard me on the radio and said they'd called 911. Oh great. They called back -- everything's fine.
We pulled the cowling off. Sure enough, plug #1 on the left front cylinder was hanging out in space.
They'll repair it there and I'll bring it back home later this week.
Bottom line: Training took over. As soon as I heard the power change I had my field in sight, did a turn to lose altitude. When I knew I had residual power, made for the airport, kept it high, had an out if the airport wasn't made, and slipped aggressively and wheelied when it was the only option.
The sun was shining bright and the preflight revealed the airplane was ready to fly. I tied the tail down, threw the prop, and listened to the Lycoming O-145 chug to life. I waited a few minutes as the engine warmed, untied and un-chocked and climbed aboard. Winds were favoring 23 so I taxied all the way back to the end and performed a quick runup. Everything fine and as expected.
I gradually added power, maintained a bit offfset from centerline, and was quickly airborne. Takeoffs on 23 at Fairmont can be a bit disconcerting as there's a nice tall road berm at the departure end. While there's plenty of room to get airborne and over the berm, a power loss anytime along the takeoff run would be interesting. I kept the speed up, popped up over the berm, and made a climbing a right turn over the river to head north back home. I kept the climb at 60 MPH to 2500' since it was a bit bumpy down low and the landing options are limited over downtown Fairmont.
Now that I was past the river I looked for options -- there was a nice emergency field off the left side. Good -- those are rare in West Virginia; land of hills and valleys and trees. I reached for the throttle as I started to level off --I hadn't touched it yet when suddenly power went from 2500 RPM to 2000, and the engine sounded sick -- very sick -- as if it were running on bad gas.
In the retelling I can state that many thoughts raced through my mind, but only one dominated -- get back to the airport NOW!
I glanced at the oil pressure, looked at the field to the left, then decided to do a 180 to see how far it was back to the airport. The engine was still putting out power -- barely. The RPM needle was bouncing now between 1500-1800 RPM.
I had the handheld radio set to 122.800 and announced: "Chief Returning to Fairmont, Loss of power, clear the runway" (there was a C172 at the fuel pump that just started after I taxied out -- I never heard him make any calls so didn't know where he was).
I looked ahead -- I had plenty of altitude with the power available to make it back to the airport. If it died between here and there I'd make the river.
I didn't touch the throttle until I was 2 miles out. I was over 1200' AGL.
I reduced the throttle slightly and it dropped immediately to 800 RPM. I slipped aggressively (very aggressively -- this airplane will fly sideways with enough aileron and counter-rudder) and was still pretty high. I kept the slip in until I was about 5 feet above the pavement, 1/3rd the way down the runway, then wheeled it on the upwind side (When I departed there was a direct crosswind varying from 6-10 knots. I couldn't see the sock before I landed, but really didn't care).
I rolled on one wheel for about 400' (I was doing about 70 when I touched down), and kept the weight on the upwind wheel. When the lift decayed I kept the tail up. Eventually both mains were down and I held some brake. I wheelied a long way, but actually only used about 1000' of runway. the combination brake and wheel landing allowed me to brake fairly heavily. I pulled the throttle completely to idle -- the engine continued to run, but unevenly.
I'd like to claim I planned to wheel land and do all this great aviating. I didn't. I planted it on and reverted to habit, which fortunately was based on good training.
There was no possibility of go around and the end of runway 23 at Fairmont has a nice tall road berm about 50' above the runway. I had plenty of runway left once I touched down.
I taxied in, parked in front of the hangar, and ran it up -- lots of unburned fuel smell. I'll bet it threw a plug.
The FBO owner and a mechanic came out -- they'd heard me on the radio and said they'd called 911. Oh great. They called back -- everything's fine.
We pulled the cowling off. Sure enough, plug #1 on the left front cylinder was hanging out in space.
They'll repair it there and I'll bring it back home later this week.
Bottom line: Training took over. As soon as I heard the power change I had my field in sight, did a turn to lose altitude. When I knew I had residual power, made for the airport, kept it high, had an out if the airport wasn't made, and slipped aggressively and wheelied when it was the only option.
Geeze Daniel. That sounds very intense. Glad you're good under pressure.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't very intense until afterwards.
ReplyDelete"Gee, that was interesting..."
;-)
I had something very similiar happen to me last week at KAVP(Wilkes Barre) I took off from KLNS (Lancaster) and leveled off at 9500ft. When I was 3 miles from KAVP the engine coughed and my RPM went from 2400 to 2000. I put on carb head, fuel pump on, changed fuel tanks, and mixture full rich. I didn't declare an emergency just notified ATC I was experiencing engine roughness. I landed just fine turns out I had multiple plugs that were fouled. The mag check didnt indicate anything wierd even after I landed. It wasnt until we pulled the plugs I could see the lead buildup on it. Now I know to lean it a little more aggressively and periodically check my plugs since I cant rely on my mag checks to indicate a problem.
ReplyDeleteThat's never a good feeling! Glad you landed safely!
Delete