A view, just south of the airport, a
partial view of San Jose, California
Today was one of those days where you
could see clear to the ocean! This was going to be a gorgeous
flight!!!
Approaching our first waypoint,
Hollister Airport (3O7). Little did I know this airport would play
an important role in the upcoming adventure.
....... And then the adventure
begins:
(no pictures here,,,, things got
busy!) :-)
I'm at 7,500 going over the hills that precede
Salinas
Airport
which is my second waypoint (my first waypoint was 3O7,
Hollister
Airport
, in
Hollister
,
California
which was now directly behind me).Suddenly
I noticed the RPM dropping and first thing I thought was that I had the
mixture a little too lean,,, so I enriched it, but the drop became more
pronounced and severe (like the engine was trying to quit).So, I thought,,, no problem,,,, perhaps I picked up some carb ice
(I had heard a pilot calling into a local airport announcing that he had
picked-up and dispensed with some carb ice, earlier in my flight) so I
turned on the carb heat.......Fine,,,
the engine seems to be running normally, now....Then all of a sudden the tach winds way down and the engine makes
the sound that you normally hear when you are shutting down the plane
and pulling the mixture to idle cut-off (but obviously I hadn't done
this). The engine stops for a few seconds and the prop windmills, then
the engine resumes,,, but at lower rpm.I turn the plane around 180 degrees to the flat area (since I was
looking at nothing but hills ahead and below me) and airport that had
been 8 or 9 miles behind me.I
thought that perhaps the carb ice (if that's what it was) might clear at
a lower altitude (I had sampled the fuel and checked the tanks visually
during preflight, I knew that I had plenty of fuel and there were no
contaminants in the fuel).I
began a descent that would take me (even if I lost all power) to the
Hollister airport and I had also picked out numerous landing
options in the nearby farmland just in case.Even at the lower altitude the engine continued threatening to
stop.Even though the engine
would run (kind-of) it kept making repeated 'threats' to quit and the
rpm it was generating wasn't even enough to maintain altitude.
I was going to need to land and soon.So, I eyeballed
Hollister
Airport
(it has two intersecting runways) and announced on the
CTAF that I was
experiencing intermittent engine failure and must land immediately on
31.Actually, I never said
'must', I told them that I WOULD be taking runway 31.I was at 2000 feet (1000 feet above
TPA) because I planned on
having a 'glider' at that point and was not going to rely on power
(which kept trying to cut out to nothing, quite a few times already).
So, I flew a downwind and made a turn to base
and final.All the way along
pilots were announcing that they would remain clear of the airport until
I was down.One very
comforting thing (something I will personally file away in my memory for
something to share with someone else who is in a similar situation) a
pilot calmly said to me on the radio were just the words, "Just
don't fall".I remember
thinking that was an odd thing to say, because planes just don't fall
out of the air without power, they continue to fly...I smiled a little, because it dawned on me that this was exactly
the point the other pilot wanted me to keep in mind.While I was very grateful for the other well-intentioned calls
made to me, at one point I told them all "Thank you all very much
but I have to land this plane [then the sound of
the engine sputtering like it
is about to quit]. Damn I'm losing the engine again". From
that point on (don't know if the other pilots heard my engine starting
to die over the transmission) there were no other transmissions from
pilots.And everyone seemed
to be quietly watching.As
odd as it sounds I apologized for the unintentional 'damn' J
by saying "Sorry about THAT, but things are
getting 'exciting' up here". So, I announce myself on HIGH
short final and the airport manager (I believe it was, anyways) tells me
on the radio that I should be aware that the winds were at 8 to 10 knots
at 270 degrees on runway 31 and that most of the flyers were landing on
runway 24.I replied with
"I am landing on runway 31 and I will just deal with the
crosswind" [sound of engine trying to quit
again].The airport manager once again announced that all pilots
would/were to remain clear for the pilot emergency.
So, I'm on high final, engine doesn't have any
useful/dependable RPM,,,, there is NO opportunity for a go-round (and I
had NO intention of doing one anyways,,,, I had a glider, at this point, in
my assessment) and notice the plane weathervaning for the
crosswind, that was indeed there.I
forward slipped all the way to the runway, rounded out straight-n-level, kicked
in the crosswind correction without a thought,,, flared and touched down
beautifully on the runway slowed down the plane. As I touched down and was slowing down for the taxiway I heard a
voice on the radio say,,,"Now THAT was 'textbook',,,, great
job". I announced
myself on the CTAF that I was clear of runway 31 taking taxiway 'XX'
(whatever it was) and continued and told everybody "Thank you
everyone, can't thank you enough,,, the pulse rate is returning to
normal..... :-) "I
heard some PTT clicks in succession, 'saying' "your welcome" that
sounded kind of like applause from the other pilots around and near the
airport as a the clicks went across the radio.
The airport manager and a friend/coworker came up to me in a 'golf cart' to the tie down area
where I tied down the plane.The
airport manager (I think) got out of the cart and came over to me,
smiling and shook my hand.He
said, "Son,,,, that was 'textbook'!!!" (I then realized who
the radio voice belonged to on my touchdown).I told them that I realized that I just had to 'keep my head' and
all would work out just fine. The three of us talked for a brief
while and I told them that after you get your 'ticket' you always hope
everything you've been taught to do in an emergency will come to mind
(and even after my ticket I have continued doing 'mental chair flying
emergencies'), but you are never sure until it happens.Well IT happened and I'm proud to say that it was all there when
I needed it, plan AND skills to deal with it.I told them that though the situation was certainly tense, I had
no reservations about hopping in a plane and continuing to fly,,,,,
if anything it made me feel even better about flying and what I 'knew'.
I walked over to the Ding-A-Ling airport cafe
and decided that I would have a 'celebratory' hamburger (though I
skipped the fries,,, 'cause I do want to keep passing those medicals
<wink>).It was quite
a contrast, sitting there in the cafe watching the calm chit-chat going
about in the cafe and yet not more than 25 minutes ago, I was in the air
performing an emergency descent with an engine continually threatening
to stop and barely running at
idle, to a runway where a crosswind was waiting...... and now I was sitting here peacefully sipping my root
beer.... Life is such a wonderful 'trip' isn't it?
J
Well, while I was waiting for my hamburger I
called the FBO the plane came from and told them what had happened and that they would
need to send out some mechanics to Hollister airport to take a peek at
the plane.Though I told
them I had initially suspected carb ice,,, it had become less and less
of a probability as the situation progressed and the engine needed
to be looked at.So I left
my cell phone number so that they could call me back after they decided
what to do to get there.I
got a call back from one of the mechanics telling me that they were
going to fly out to Hollister with another plane and that I could fly
the one they brought, back (if there was some reason that the plane
required more work).
So, I had a wonderful hamburger,,,,and as odd as
it may sound to some, I just relished the whole experience and found it
nothing but reassuring and positive.
So, the mechanics arrived
and replaced the lower plugs, did a run-up
check and told me it was clear to go and asked me which plane I wanted
to take back with me.I told
'em the one I came in would do just fine.You can bet I did an unusually critical mag check during my
run-up just to be sure.
So I announced my intentions
to take the active runway and headed back to my home airport (it
was too late by then to complete my originally planned adventure)
.
On the way back, I will say that
I found myself even more diligent than I am normally at picking
out emergency landing sites along the way!!! J
I got
ATIS for Reid-Hillview,
reported at 10 miles. Soon I was cleared for landing on 31R and
found myself purposely making a high final approach,,,, just in
case the 'adventure' wasn't completely over yet,,,, and forward slipped
down to the runway..... just wanted to be careful,,, just in case
J
.
SPECIAL NOTE FROM PILOTGUY:
After
talking with many pilots and CFI's, most agreed that the issue was more
likely a result of really bad carb icing and that a lower plug fowling
wouldn't have produced the phenomenon that I experienced. Carb ice
is kind of where I am leaning on this incident, in terms of its' cause.
By the way, until I got
encouragement, I was debating whether or not to post the
account, because I didn't want to scare any students or people lurking in the
wings,, thinking about whether or not to begin pursuing their life-long
dream - learning to fly. Suddenly, it
occurred to me,,,, THIS was the perfect story to tell,
not only because true
engine failures are extremely rare
in general aviation (in fact most general aviation. pilots go through
their entire flying career without ever experiencing an engine failure)
, but because it shows
that your training will
be there when you need it and that you just need to keep your head.
It was nothing
but a GREAT experience for me, because it reassured me about my
capabilities (something one always questions until those capabilities have the chance
to be tested, for real),
and
you know what????? .........
I
can hardly wait to go flying
again!!!! JJJ
.
GOOD FLIGHTS!!!
Below graphic
designed by: Jeff Bucchino,
"The Wizard of
Draws" (copyright owner) http://www.wizardofdraws.com
