Flight 7 - Emergency Landing Procedures

Livermore practice area

For my first time, we turned east out of the airport and headed over the hills to the Livermore practice area where we have large sparsely populated areas ideal for practicing the steps required to execute an emergency landing (without actually landing of course).

The air route and air space was not as complicated as it looks (see skyvector.com map here). Basically we took off from KPAO, turn right after passing the Dumbarton bridge, flew parallel with it until reaching the other side of the bay, headed towards Coyote Hills, then headed for the low pass over Sunol. Regarding SFO air space we need to keep below 2500 until Coyote hills, then keep below 4000ft until the hills, then 6000ft to Pleasanton etc.

Over at the practice area there were plenty of empty fields, straight dirt roads (for pretend emergency runways), and a nice tree in a field to practice turning about a point.

What could go wrong with the plane systems?

• No fuel? - check valves and gauges, re-start if possible (either from windmilling or electric starter)
• Faulty magneto - backup should work but at reduced power, use ignition switch to test and prove magneto is the problem
• Electrical power - no issue, magnetos will keep engine running but avionics may not work
  
• Air intake blockage - drop or loss of power, use alternate (carb heat)
• Fuel mix too rich (e.g. high temp or altitude) - fuel may foul the spark plugs and performance would be reduced, solution is to lean the mix [SIDE NOTE: mix should be learned for hot weather and altitude, wind back until engine sputters then wind in 2 turns]
  
• Fuel mix too lean (e.g. coming from altitude to sea level) - engine will sputter, use mix to richen up
• Carb frosting (e.g. running engine slow too long without carb heat) - may reduce or stop air flow, fix with carb heat (if not completely blocked), note melting ice will put water into the engine which will reduce performance momentarily

Emergency Landing! (only pretending of course)

The four important steps:

1. Maximize Opportunities: set for best glide (60 knots), trim, pick landing area (should be pre-determined)
2. Troubleshoot: see above, use flow check: Fuel, Mix, Throttle, Carb Heat, Mags, Master, Prime
3. Communicate: Transponder SQUAWK on 7700, Radio (121.50 or current) Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, Cessna xxxxx over (location), Engine Failure, 2 on board.
4. Shut down: Concentrate on the landing, turn off systems as appropriate, leave master on until flaps are all the way down. Note everything should be turned off for the final landing to reduce risk of fire and ignition.
   

Descent for emergency landing:

Generally this should be a glide over a small area, i.e. the chosen landing spot should be close by, and should be circled as appropriate until the key position is reached and the final approach is made. Banking angle should be chosen based on amount of height that needs to be lost, e.g. 45 degrees would lose the least, approx 500ft/circle, and 15 degrees would lose approx 1000ft/circle. In all cases the descent would be at 60 knots, and the flaps would only be lowered on final approach.

Other things from this lesson:

• Turn to heading (box formation, 90 degrees each turn)
• Turn around a point (e.g. a tree) left and right sides

.... more to come.