Keeping your cool

pierre smith · #1 10-12-2005, 04:13 AM

Mornin' everybody. I just read the thread about a new RV10 door leaving the airplane on it's maiden flight but the pilot keeping his cool, landed the airplane safely.

Years ago, a ferry pilot was bringing a P-51 north from South America when the tach went to zero for some reason. Although the engine was humming along at the usual Saudi-pleasing gas guzzling rate, the pilot thought, "Uh-Oh! engine failure", pulled the throttle back and bellied the -51 into a dry riverbed. Needless to say, he filled the radiator scoop with piles of dirt, wrinkled a perfectly good warbird, all because of numbnuts!

Taking a deep breath, thinking quickly and then making a decision is a wise move for sure. I've had a door open on my Cessna 310 and also an Agwagon and it definitely startles you. My current workhorse, a PT-6 Airtractor, lost it's tach the other day and earlier, the oil pressure went to zero on that $250,000 engine!!! Both instances were gauges but hey, if the engine's running, keep flying and just go and land soon.

Glad the RV-10 pilot and airplane are OK,
Pierre

RV-6A, 0-360, 3 bladed Catto, very close to flying....

N941WR · #2 10-12-2005, 06:12 AM

Pierre,

Good point! I've had a tach cable snap before and it is strange to see the RPM's reading zero. Not a big deal as long as the big fan out front continues to make noise and blow air.

This is the same reason I don't plan on a backup for my Dynon EMS, if that big chunk of metal up front continues to run and all the gauges read zero, you can bet I'm going to leave the engine running until after I land.

Sure is a shame to hear about that guy wrinkling a Mustang for such a dumb reason.

Bob Axsom · #3 10-12-2005, 08:42 AM

Pierre, that's a good "instructor land" story but itis so counterintuitive for someone qualified to fly a Mustang to belly it in because the tach read zero that there has to be more to it than that. It sounds like a get back at or get even move by the pilot against someone - probably the seller or the buyer.

Bob Axsom

joe gremlin · #4 10-12-2005, 11:46 AM

An old cowboy CFI used to tell me this:

If you're ever flying an airplane and something happens that makes you think you have to do something about it right now, the first thing you should do is sit down, smoke a cigarette and think about it for a while.