From: rod@isgtec.uucp (Rod Gilchrist)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation
Subject: War story and story request
Date: 20 Jul 92 15:50:01 GMT

Last tuesday was the 20th anniversity of getting my private pilot's
license. Monday was a typical enough day. I worked 16 hours on stuff
to meet a deadline (I get a couple of deadlines a year). Left for home
at 2:30 AM. But then I got out on the highway and the car died 25 miles
from home. A dead ignition module. In the rain. I got my umbrella out
of the trunk, walked to a phone, and got the car towed, took a cab home,
all the while telling myself it could be worse, I could have been flying...

And come to think of it I've put about 1500 hours on that car without
it ever quiting before. That's pretty good for an engine without dual
ignition, 100 hour inspections and all that.

So Sunday comes around, I've met my deadline, and I want to catch up on
some flying. I book the Warrior (180 Hp, constant speed convertion) for
5 hours. My wife and I head north from Toronto to Georgian Bay for some
sightseeing. We get an hour or so north and have a look at 'cottage country'
(Collingwood, Huronia, Orillia, etc.). Its very pretty. We haven't been
up there since we moved to Ontario ten years ago. We get the wheels dirty
on a strip as far north as we get. We're looking for a place that would
be nice to go for a picnic.

We head back. We are under Toronto airspace at 2400 feet about 8-10 miles
out of our destination (Burlington) when we lose partial power. We have
maybe 75%, and a strange noise (a muffler or exhaust manifold problem?
I hope.). I back off on the power some more on general principles and
pay real close attention to the engine guages. I have fuel pressure.
I have fuel in the tank that's on. I haven't switched tanks in the last
5 minutes. I have reasonable oil temperature. Mixture is full rich.
Primer locked. I don't recall explicitly checking oil pressure, but
the guage is right next to the temperature/fuel guages so I probably did.
I don't see anything wrong at all, just the noise and power loss.
I turn on the fuel pump; general principles again. I have a quick look
for decent fields. There seem to be lots.

I could climb (maybe), but would need permission from Toronto terminal
who I haven't been talking to. I just have the one radio I trust, its not
a flip-flop and I would rather be on the ATF. I head straight for the
active runway. It would be a downwind landing in this direction. Watch
and listen for traffic. We're closer now. We could maybe glide. Traffic
climbing towards us off the active (we're a thousand feet above the circuit).
We contact him (my instructor, strange coincidence), he sees us and goes
under.

We will make it now. I keep as much altitude as possible as long
as possible. Do the downwind checks to keep well ahead. Carb heat gives
a significant, constant power loss. Leave it on (usually turn it off
on the Warrior at low power, leave it on on 172); more general principles,
as I think carb ice is unlikely (but why didn't I check it earlier?).

Reach circuit altitude just as we cross the runway in a standard circuit
entry to join mid downwind. Still have power. No change. Downwind.
15 inches, full fine. Keep it high and in close, no flaps till late.
We have extra runway so we will use some of it as insurance. On final,
a bit high. Add flaps, watch speed, bit of a cross wind, add some slip
to steepen approach. In ground effect, hold it off, touchdown close to
the numbers due to the slip, (a greaser, momentary flash of amazement),
brakes, clear of the active.

Engine still sounding sick. Taxi back to ramp. Gord, the line guy, is
out, showing me where to park. We get stopped. I start the shutdown list
(don't know why). He gives repeated shutdown signals. I pull the mixture.
The prop stops and Gord has the cowl open. A certain amount of gunk
inside. Gord figures "blown cylinder". Paul, the owner, thinks maybe a
stuck valve. I'm glad to be down. I feel really fortunate to have landed
on pavement, and even the right pavement for that matter, after 2.5 hours.

(My wife, incidentally, was great. A bit of panic when the engine noise
started, but settled down, and seemed to be mostly over it by the time
we got inside. Pretty good for someone with less than 15 hours in the
right seat.)

This, by the time I have been through it a hundred times, will likely have
been a very significant learning experience for me. Just at the moment,
though, I'm feeling a bit shook. I have 100 hours (60 in the last year,
and 40 from twenty years ago when you could get a license with 35 hours).

What I would like to know is, is this a common experience to have in your
first hundred hours? I was under the impression that the MTTF of an
aircraft engine was maybe 3000 to 4000 hours, and I didn't expect to
get much more total time than that altogether. I know there are lots of
people out there with engine failure and off airport landing stories to
tell. Could I encourage some of you to post them? I'd be particularly
fascinated, and hopefully reassured. How did you feel about flying
afterwards? This particular experience didn't turn out too badly
(pretty damn lucky actually), but I wouldn't want to throw the dice
on a situation like this every hundred hours.

Like the song says:

	Hearing the news isn't like being there.
	Nothing's like feeling it, when its happening to you.




Rod Gilchrist				Phone: (416) 672-2100
ISG Technologies			Fax:   (416) 672-2307
3030 Orlando Drive			Net:   rod@isgtec.com
Mississagua, Ontario, Canada, L4V-1S8
--
Rod Gilchrist				Phone: (416) 672-2100
ISG Technologies			Fax:   (416) 672-2307
3030 Orlando Drive			Net:   rod@isgtec.com
Mississagua, Ontario, Canada, L4V-1S8
Newsgroups: rec.aviation