Forced Landing-Have you?

[OrphicSeth]

Lost my engine in a C-172 while cruising along at 5500. GPS Nearest Airport (greatest button ever!) gave me a strip about 6 miles away, or I had an extremely remote field below me with 3 feet of snow. With the tail wind aloft I opted for the strip instead of flipping the bird onto its back in the field. Came over the runway at 1500, circled around, and landed. I was shaking pretty good when I called the FAA to let them know I was in one piece. Only had about 200 hrs at that point, but never forgot the things I learned during that flight.

 

[Swede]

Sailplanes... every landing is a "forced" landing. Especially exciting cross-country.

 

[FN FAL]

Four "forced" landings...

Three forced landings due to mechanical problems in single cessnas...two of those were dead stick landings to an airport. The third forced landing was a partial power landing which resulted in a dead engine in the flare...thank goodness for tugs.

The fourth "forced" landing was in a 210 cessna. We had full power, but diverted to an airport, due to a problem that would have shut the engine down within minutes.

 

[Texan Driver]

I am curious how many people have made forced landings because of engine failure? I made one near Sturgis, SD in an ultralight once.... Just curious.

Had a low altitude engine failure in a Citabriaand ended up in a ditch...and then one in an Avid Flyer I was test flying 3000' over Livermore Airport. I sez to the twr "Hey, my engine just quit, I am going to need to land". The tower goes "cleared to land number 2 behind the Cessna on 4 mile final". Idiot...so I declared and all that crap. I hate that particular controller....
Anyway...made a few precautionary landings and stuff...oh yea....had one in a 1946 Aeronca Champ...landed at Sierra Skypark when that thing quit.
So I guess 3 forced landings. I'll let you know if I remember any others.

 

[DaveJ]

Two

First one, I lost a jug on my Arrow (case cracked). Engine ran at 75% power, but really rough. I was at 7500 feet near CHA and had no problem making it in.

Second time, I was at 8500 feet and noticed oil pressure going down and oil temp going up. Hit the nearest airport button on the GPS and turned to the indicated heading. Once I realized I was only 8 miles out, I pulling the power all the way off and dead sticked into the airport. Turns out that the heat shield around the muffler had come loose and when I retracted the nose gear, it bumped the loose heat shield into the oil quick drain.

 

[MFRskyknight]

I hear that fuel starvation results in a forced landing every time, but I only have one (first and only) experience with that, so I could be mistaken.

 

[Vector4fun]

My very first ME lesson, 150 hp Apache, after about 30 min of airwork to aquaint me with the airplane, the grizzled old instructor reaches over a slaps the right mixture back to kill the engine. We do about 5 min of SE work, then the cyl temp on the left starts getting pretty high, and he decides to re-start the right. It won't. Tells me to head for an airport about 15 miles away, so I'm flying and he's cussin and messin with the controls of the right engine, still trying to get it to fire. I'm in a slow descent to arrive at pattern altitude and to cool the left. Finally, on short final, he gives up and I land, taxi to the ramp. He opens the cowling, still cussin a blue streak, and finds the mixture control broken at the carb. We found a small piece of safety wire on the ramp, wired that sucker full rich, took off and flew home... (He was an A/I, and I was a dumb 17 yr old kid)

So my first ME lesson ended with an actual SE landing.

I had another Apache engine quit on me years later just as I rotated for TO. Thankfully. If I'd been 50' in the air, and out of runway, that would have been real interesting.

Had the mixture control in a C-150 come out in my hand once, but I just pushed all the pieces gently back into place, and it kept running. Student landed while I held the parts.

 

[mar]

Same here

I was gettin' checked out in the Skyvan.

Empty airplane, right engine feathered, pull out checklist for the restart.

It won't come outta feather--the handle is jammed.

We land single engine (not exactly "forced" but it was inevitable). Anyway, the boss is *pissed*. He thinks we're a couple of amateurs who couldn't find their asses with both hands...

...and the first thing he checks is the oil qty. The resevoir is almost empty. (No kidding, the prop is feathered). So he throws in about three qts of oil, jumps into the cockpit, and he tries to position the handle but it's jammed. That's when he uses what I would consider an abusive amount of force to shove the handle back in...

...and he starts the engine...

...and it pisses oil all over the ramp.

Seven years later we still laugh about that one.

 

[av8orboy]

Lost an engine in an Arrow while working on my CFI. I push the power up a little bit just abeam the numbers and the engine quit. I landed the plane without incident and rolled off on to the taxiway. I was later told it was a fuel metering screw (or lack there of) on the carb. Unfortunately that same plane later killed my Instructor. RIP John.

 

[JimG]

"Lost an engine in an Arrow while working on my CFI. I push the power up a little bit just abeam the numbers and the engine quit. I landed the plane without incident and rolled off on to the taxiway. I was later told it was a fuel metering screw (or lack there of) on the carb. Unfortunately that same plane later killed my Instructor. RIP John."



Had a similar experience.

I was a brand new, young pilot flying a C172, my father flew a Bonanza...we shared one airport car and passed each other going the opposite direction on weekends (they weekended in Phoenix...I worked there and weekended where they lived).

After a top overhaul on the C172, I tested it out for hours circling the AP, then took off to Phoenix. 10+ miles out on a straight in...the pushrod tube seal slipped off and I lost all the oil, but was able to hold altitude as long as I could and made it in with a quart to spare.

Got it fixed, flew it back a few days later.

The following weekend, wx forced my parents to drive back, so I took the car and drove it back with the idea they'd fly the 172 back down.

They didn't make it as far as I did when they lost another one, threw a rod and landed it out on a divided highway in the desert about 15 miles from the airport.

That airplane had "gremlins" we used to say.

 

[bugchaser]

When the throttle cable breaks on a cessna ag wagon it locks wide open. Had to go back and land full power with a load. That was fun.

Have had that happen several times. One time It happened just after the tail came up but with not enough time to stop so I though no big deal, I'll just turn around and pull the mix. Well I pulled up into a tight climbing turn and pulled the mix, killing the engine. Worked out real good except that I only made it back on the runway by a few feet. That was a close one. Lost count of the cylinders that have come apart in one way or another. Most of those were able to limp back to the house. There have been several stuck valves, two spun main bearings, one broken rod, lost mags and other assorted things. And then there have been the occasional "landing" caused by having some of the airplane removed by stationary objects. The last one was a blown engine on a 421 right after takeoff. Luckily I was by myself and it flew pretty good at that weight on one. All in all I have been pretty lucky, not too much excitement considering.

 

[navigator72]

6000' over a dropzone in a C182 jump plane. It was a fuel problem, Errr... I mean a lack of fuel problem. Got it down and it never happened again.

 

[dhc8fo]

HOLY CRAP, some of these stories are amazing. Mine are far less exciting...

Lost an alternator in IMC, single engine over the mountains. Lucky enough to notice weird things happening in time to start metering battery power. Made position reports and got vectors to the closest airport and did a VOR approach. Not too sure what I would have done if it had totally crapped out....flew east, I guess.

In my old Cherokee, I had an oil pressure/temp indication problem forever. The mech's solution to the problem was to adjust some tube down there (I ain't no mechanic )...well, whatever tube he adjusted was now in my slipstream and it was basically sucking all of my oil out of the engine. I was always keeping an eye on these gauges since they had a history, but when the temp started rising to red line and the pressure was falling, I landed at the closest airport I could find (ahead about 5 miles). Shutdown, let it cool and settle. The underside of the plane was slicked up real nice. Had to put SIX quarts in (only holds 8)! I changed mechanics after that. No more trouble.

Many misc failures at the airlines, but as someone else stated, nothing that a redundant system didn't compensate for. Checklist and land.