Real Pilot Stories from AOPA

Allow me to offer my own perspective.

It's not that one should be nervous about flying. At some point you will feel just as comfortable getting into your aircraft as you do in your car. Now that's not complacency. Of course there are a couple of critical phases of flight, like takeoffs and landings where you need to have a plan of action ahead of time so if something goes awry you don't need to think about what to do you have already decided what you WILL do. I know that each takeoff, I've decided exactly what my course of action would be if I lost an engine on the runway, a few feet in the air, 100 feet in the air, etc. until I'm at a safe altitude. This will be different for each aiprort and for the prevailing conditions for each takeoff. On landing, I certainly expect to complete the landing uneventfully but am prepared for the go-around should something not be to my likeing which is not under my control. Could be as simple as another aircraft cutting you out in the pattern, an aircraft pulling on to the active runway improperly or even properly and sitting there tool long, an animal on the runway, ballooning, flaring too high, strong crosswinds or gusts, etc. (by the way, ALL of these things have happened to me on landing at various times.) Again, the plan allowed me to execute the maneuver immediately and safely.

It is not complacency but preparedness which will get you safely through these events. Unfortunately, one can never anticipate EVERY event and some instant dicision making is likely unavoidable. (I once lost my brakes after landing and a Learjet was taking off on a crossing runway)

One thing I would advise is to memorize a short list of emergency procedures for things like engine loss, fire, etc. so you can do them by rote. When you are on fire it is not the time to be fumbling for the emergency checklist for fire in the cockpit and trying to go down the items one by one. I say memorize them for one VERY important reason..... THEY WORK!

Case in point. I was coming home from Boston one winter some 27 years ago. I was new to my Comanche, only having about 20 hours, having owned and flown a Cherokee 140 for the previous 5 years. The Cherokee had 2 tanks and the Comanche had 4 with the fuel lever in different places and only asingle fuel gauge which read the selected tank. Only one tank can be selected at a time.

At 6500 feet over Ohio all of a sudden I felt a lurch forward and the sound changed drastically. An interesting thought hit me immediately and I remember it as if it were yesterday. The psychologists tell you that you spend so many seconds in denial, so many in reconcilliation, barganing, etc. Not so in this case. The firse thought which came to mind IMMEDIATELY was "I don't need this aggrevation". And then I went methodically through the engine out checklist I drilled into my head. FLY THE AIRPLANE; pick a landing spot and navigate to it; let someone know, troubleshoot. I did just that. There was no panic since I had several thousand feet of altitude and reaching the ground was quite some time away (relatively speaking) I slowed the aircraft to best glide speed and since I was on the frequency with Center, I declared an emergency indicating I lost the engine. Center immediately gave me a vector toward Sandusky Ohio and I turned toward the airport while I began my troubleshooting by rote. Fuel pump ON; switch tanks, check.... The engine started up. I did not know why (just as I did not know why it quit) but I wasn't about to argue with success. I radioed the re-light to Center and was asked "What are your intentions" to which I responded that I was going to land at Sandusky to try and see what casued the problem. I was asked to call center when on the ground.

I landed at Sandusky uneventfully (still didn't know what went wrong) and went into the office to call Center. Called and thanked them for their assistance. Asked at the front desk where I could find a mechanic. and was told where to look for him. (still didn't know what was wrong) Headed out to a group of hangars on another part of the field to find the mech. (stilldidn't know what was wrong. all of a sudden light bulbs went off, angels sang, etc. "Did you do what I think you did?" I said. Slowly, I turn... went back to the airplane and looked into the aux. fuel tank. "You dumb****" I said. Yep, I ran the tank dry. Not paying full atention when I was switching tanks on schedule, and fairly new at managing 4 tanks I moved the lever "click, click" instead of "click, click, click. I had switched back to an almost empty tank which I had decided I was done with for that flight and 10 minutes later it dutifully ran dry.

By not panicking, and knowing the emergency procedure by rote and executing it, everything had a happy, if personally embarassing ending. I learned why it is taught that way.... BECAUSE IT WORKS!

Hope I didn't bore you, or anybody else, with this story. Suffice to say it has never happened to me again in the ensuing 27 years with this airplane.

Planeflyr