Aviator90 Episode 42

[music]

Speaker: [0:31] Welcome to another episode of Aviator 90 from Angle of
Attack.
[0:36] At the end of the last episode I said that on this episode
we would be discussing emergency landings but from a crew
situation.

[0:44] So we’re en route.

[0:46] We have to find an airfield pretty quickly and decide where
we are going to land. I guess we wouldn’t call it an airfield. We
would call it best case scenario, maybe.

[0:59] I’ve already explained to you guys what we’re going to do,
so let’s jump in, and I will teach you guys a little bit about what
you can do to prepare for this type of situation and what you can
do in this situation. So, here we go.

[1:11] The first thing you can do to prepare yourself for an off
field landing is be familiar with the area around you, and this
goes for any time you are en route and flying around. Basically,
what you want to be doing is search for suitable landing sites,
fields, roads without power lines if you can spot the power lines
even and other places.

There’s a little strip to the right here just over the town. That
looks good like a good place to go. It looks like further up ahead
a couple minutes there’s some area to the right as well, maybe,
even some area to the left, more like 10-11: [1:39] 00 there not so
much 9:00. That just gives you an idea of what you should look for
when you guys are en route.

[2:10] Now, I don’t know you guys to keep yourself busy all the
time looking for an airfield because the chances are that you’ll go
through your whole simulator career or even an entire real career
and never have an emergency. It’s just a very seldom situation, a
very rare situation. It is still one of these things we plan for
and one of those things we train for. So that is why we do
something like this.

[2:39] So we know where our airfields are, and there goes the
engine. We no longer have our power. So what do we do? I think the
best suitable area is to the right. I don’t really want to mess
with the terrain up ahead. I’m also not too sure on what’s up
there, so I’m going to get a good glide out of the aircraft, a good
glide air speed, and generally there is a manufacturer recommended
air speed. In this aircraft it’s gone be around 90 knots, maybe, a
little more. That also depends on the weight and wind.

[3:17] I am actually going to land in those sand dunes up ahead. I
think that is going to be the best suitable landing for us. We
won’t have to worry about trees along the roadways if we’re trying
to land on the roadway. We won’t have to worry about power lines or
anything. It looks like we have plenty of glide out of the aircraft
in order to make it there.

[3:39] So the first part of that is just finding your airfield.
That is the number one priority. Then here I can try to start the
aircraft again and do what I can to get things up and going and see
what the issue is. Check the fuel. Check the mixture. Check
everything, the power and do everything I can to restart the
aircraft in the interim and…

Speaker: [3:52] …do what I can to get things up and going and see what the
issue is. Check the fuel. Check the mixture. Check everything, the
power and do everything I can to restart the aircraft in the
interim, and to be honest it isn’t going to restart today. We are
making an example out of this, so there’s no reason to continue
with that.
[4:17] As you are continuing to come down here, you would do things
like pop your doors as you see I’m looking over here. Now, you do
that because you don’t want the wreckage to, basically, close the
door so you can’t open it once you touch down. That can be one of
the last things you do, but it’s certainly important to make sure
that the door’s, at least, popped open just a little bit, at least,
unlocked so you can get out immediately.

[4:52] And then, you want to brief your passengers. Tell them what
the situation is and what they can expect and what they need to
prepare for and what they should do immediately, maybe, some things
they shouldn’t do. You are also responsible for them, so that is
quite a load on your shoulders to have to deal with this and deal
with them, too. In an airline, the stewardesses would do that, but
this is completely up to you to make sure that everyone on board
has their best chance of survival.

[5:25] A situation like this where you have an actual, pretty good
landing area, the chances of survival are very high, obviously not
100 percent. There are forces of nature that are out of mine and
your control, so that’s that.

[5:42] Now, I just turned off the master switch, and what that does
it turns off all the electronics in the aircraft, and it makes sure
that a spark cannot spark any fuel once we land and crash the
aircraft or just anything like that. It just ensures that that
whole system is shut down, and it doesn’t cause a problem there.

[6:04] We have made the airfield. I’m putting in my flaps, and this
will settle on down here on these sand dunes, and that will work
just nicely here. There might have been better areas to land, but
this will do just fine. Here we go. Let’s touch down here, touch
down. Here we go, and we are cruising.

[6:38] To be completely honest, this isn’t very realistic, this
part of it. You would most likely dig your wheels pretty well into
that sand, and you may even flip over. So, not very realistic but
regardless you have just made an off field landing, and I would
consider that one a success because in real life you wouldn’t have
traveled that far. It’s just some idiosyncrasies there with the
flight dynamics or something.

[7:12] So, anyway that is an off field landing in a nut shell. That
is an emergency landing procedure in a nut shell. Basically, what
you want to do is make sure everything in the aircraft was set and
that you’re not missing something, like starvation of a particular
fuel tank. Make sure that everything is running correctly, and if
you do find something, then try a restart and even try a restart
anyway.

[7:35] Often, that can even be the carburetor heat where there is
ice in the carburetor and simply needs to be burned off. That’s
definitely a situation that can also happen, although rare as well.
That is about it. You do what you have to do. You make your off
field landing, and you hopefully call it a day and live to fly
another day.

[7:59] So that’s it for this episode. We will do another emergency
procedure next time, and until then throttle on.

Transcription by CastingWords