Bootcamp Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 (edited) Hey Everyone, The attached files are being sent out for educational purposes only; as a tool to teach crew resource management and decision making under pressure. The voice you hear (N116SV) is the voice of a man who thinks he has about five to seven minutes to live. Feel free to redistribute as you feel necessary. For those of you who didn't hear this story last month, here is the shorthand…On May 13, I was flying solo in the clouds in a single-engine airplane. I was IFR shooting several practice and missed approaches. Cloud bases were at 1,000 ft. I was at 3,700 ft. While setting up for my fifth approach, I experienced an engine failure, declared an emergency, and ended up landing at a different airport nearby. I couldn't stop the airplane by the time I reached the end of the runway and ended up crashing in the bushes. I didn't incur any injuries and minimal damage was done to the aircraft. It was later determined that the cause for the engine failure was two valves seizing up and bending the push-pull rods. This intern dumped all of my oil out of the engine. I have attached the RADAR feed, ATC recordings, and crash photos. The RADAR feed has my notes on it to describe what's going on. The ATC recording has been clipped to remove dead air. The actual recording was 20 minutes, 57 seconds.ATC Recording - Clipped To Remove Dead Air.mp3 Edited June 16, 2011 by Bootcamp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azhigher Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 Glad you're ok, sounds like you handled it well. Posting this gives us all something to think about, thanks =) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nolapilot89 Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 That gave me chills just listening to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl Posted June 16, 2011 Report Share Posted June 16, 2011 That gave me chills just listening to it.ditto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IFLY Posted June 17, 2011 Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 Good job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlatoNC Posted June 17, 2011 Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 Way to stay frosty Rob, hell of a situation to be in. Any particular part of your training or experience you want to give credit to, or words of wisdom you'd like to share? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelFire_91 Posted June 18, 2011 Report Share Posted June 18, 2011 You handled that excellently!! Very well done... Glad you're ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldy Posted June 18, 2011 Report Share Posted June 18, 2011 Hey Everyone, The attached files are being sent out for educational purposes only; as a tool to teach crew resource management and decision making under pressure. The voice you hear (N116SV) is the voice of a man who thinks he has about five to seven minutes to live. Feel free to redistribute as you feel necessary. Thanks for sharing, once you start listening you can't stop until you are on the ground. Great flying...pretty scary understanding the current ceiling and the level of the terrain under you. Didnt sound like a lot of available room in between! Declaring an emergency early (at the first sign of trouble)I think made a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootcamp Posted June 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 (edited) Way to stay frosty Rob, hell of a situation to be in. Any particular part of your training or experience you want to give credit to, or words of wisdom you'd like to share? Funny thing you should ask, because it really just comes down to what we learn in training: (1) stay calm, cool, and collected and (2) fly the aircraft. Declaring the emergency early helped. I think Potomac Approach could have been more helpful - they should have encouraged me to stay on course to FDK, and then to GAI...W50 was really a last-ditch effort. I even contemplated landing on I-70...it's a 2500 mile long runway. I kept jumping between flying the suggested heading and flying the pink line on my G1000. Jumping between the two messed me up. I should have just used the GPS. Also, I kept asking for surface elevation and they kept giving me "surface weather", but with my adrenalin going through the roof, I didn't even realize they weren't giving me what I needed. Edited June 22, 2011 by Bootcamp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbo2181 Posted June 22, 2011 Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 Please please don't say that about approach. They were very helpful to you. I listened to it fully and the amount of info they did give you was amazing. You are the pilot. They are not there to make decisions or "encouragement" for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bootcamp Posted June 22, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 Please please don't say that about approach. They were very helpful to you. I listened to it fully and the amount of info they did give you was amazing. You are the pilot. They are not there to make decisions or "encouragement" for you. I'm not disagreeing with you in the least. Potomac approach was very helpful. However, if you listen to the recording closely, you'll hear me wanting to go to Frederick, but they insisted I go to Gaithersburg. Then when I was headed to Gaithersburg, they insisted I go to Davis. Furthermore, when I asked for surface elevation at Davis, they told me 900 ft. Surface elevation was actually 630 ft. That's a huge difference when you're trying to calculate at what altitude you're going to break out of the overcast layer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EYW-MIA Posted June 22, 2011 Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 Glad to know you are safe and your training paid off. Kudos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
500F Posted June 22, 2011 Report Share Posted June 22, 2011 Way to keep your cool. Great Job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heli.pilot Posted June 23, 2011 Report Share Posted June 23, 2011 Chilling... So glad that you made it through the experience.... GREAT job keeping your head in the game! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akscott60 Posted June 24, 2011 Report Share Posted June 24, 2011 You kept your head on your shoulders, and more importantly, kept flying. Kudos. I have had a stuck valve bend some pushrods too, and its not a good day when that happens. At least I was VFR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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