January 31st 06, 05:08 AM
Marc Whisman worried:
>My glider instructor used to say that the though of actually having to bail
>out of a glider just scared the crap (he used another four letter expletive)
>out of him. I agreed. Now I feel the same way about having to do a real
>auto.
Have no fear, Marc. Or at least conquer it. Here's what you have to realize:
The engine is GOING to quit at some point. Accept it.
The majority of my 10,000 hours is in single-engine helicopters, and the ones I
fly still (post retirement) are singles. Did it turn me into a nervous,
jittery, paranoid, shifty-eyed, brooding anticipator of trouble? Hell no! Why
not? Because of two simple things that ruled my attitude toward flying:
1) NEVER fly low/slow/downwind or any combination thereof;
2) ALWAYS have a philosophy of keeping a good forced-landing area underneath
you.
Thus, do that and you won't have to worry or fret about doing a "for-real" auto
because WHEN it happens you'll be ready.
Now, can you really do those two things 100% of the time? Obviously not, there
are simply going to be times when an engine-failure might be a tad, well,
uncomfortable. Okay, just don't make a habit of being in those situations.
Rather, make it a habit to fly "conservatively" in that regard. Don't be
casual about forced-landing areas (to include wind orientation) as are so many
pilots that I see out there. And, when you find yourself in one of those
situations that <i>should</i> make you uncomfortable, don't spend a whole lot
of time there.
BONUS! Even if the engine <i>doesn't</i> ever quit on ya, if you do the above,
then you'll be in a pretty good position to handle any <i>other</i> emergency
that might befall you (tail rotor failure, main rotor departure, etc.).
Recently, I ferried an FH-1100 (single-engine turbine) from NW Florida down to
the Orlando area. The owner wanted (demanded?) that we fly low. Okay by me,
he's paying the bills. I don't get coerced into doing really unsafe things
anymore, but frankly, there were times of short duration during the flight over
the swamps of the Florida panhandle where an engine failure would have caused
us to be picking pine trees out of our ass. I advised him of this. Sometimes
you can't sugar-coat these things.
To minimize the risk, I kept the ship high enough (a <i>minimum</i> of 500'
agl) to give us some reaction time, angled toward good forced-landing areas,
and kept a wary eye on every little hole in the trees where I might put it down
if push came to bang. We happened to be right into the wind, as it is always
off the nose whenever I fly (or so it seems). So I probably wouldn't have had
to make any radical turns. We might have had to sacrifice the ship, but our
lives were never in jeopardy.
Remember, nobody's holding a gun to your head to fly in such a way or over such
an area where you can't put 'er down WHEN it quits. We pilots have a lot of
control over the amount of risk we expose ourselves and our passengers to. I
did a lot of stupid things when I was young and bulletproof that I would never
do now. And no, I've never had an engine failure in my career (knock wood).
Bob -don't fear the auto- Barbanes
"The dignity of the craft is that it creates a fellowship."
Antoine de St. Exupery
>My glider instructor used to say that the though of actually having to bail
>out of a glider just scared the crap (he used another four letter expletive)
>out of him. I agreed. Now I feel the same way about having to do a real
>auto.
Have no fear, Marc. Or at least conquer it. Here's what you have to realize:
The engine is GOING to quit at some point. Accept it.
The majority of my 10,000 hours is in single-engine helicopters, and the ones I
fly still (post retirement) are singles. Did it turn me into a nervous,
jittery, paranoid, shifty-eyed, brooding anticipator of trouble? Hell no! Why
not? Because of two simple things that ruled my attitude toward flying:
1) NEVER fly low/slow/downwind or any combination thereof;
2) ALWAYS have a philosophy of keeping a good forced-landing area underneath
you.
Thus, do that and you won't have to worry or fret about doing a "for-real" auto
because WHEN it happens you'll be ready.
Now, can you really do those two things 100% of the time? Obviously not, there
are simply going to be times when an engine-failure might be a tad, well,
uncomfortable. Okay, just don't make a habit of being in those situations.
Rather, make it a habit to fly "conservatively" in that regard. Don't be
casual about forced-landing areas (to include wind orientation) as are so many
pilots that I see out there. And, when you find yourself in one of those
situations that <i>should</i> make you uncomfortable, don't spend a whole lot
of time there.
BONUS! Even if the engine <i>doesn't</i> ever quit on ya, if you do the above,
then you'll be in a pretty good position to handle any <i>other</i> emergency
that might befall you (tail rotor failure, main rotor departure, etc.).
Recently, I ferried an FH-1100 (single-engine turbine) from NW Florida down to
the Orlando area. The owner wanted (demanded?) that we fly low. Okay by me,
he's paying the bills. I don't get coerced into doing really unsafe things
anymore, but frankly, there were times of short duration during the flight over
the swamps of the Florida panhandle where an engine failure would have caused
us to be picking pine trees out of our ass. I advised him of this. Sometimes
you can't sugar-coat these things.
To minimize the risk, I kept the ship high enough (a <i>minimum</i> of 500'
agl) to give us some reaction time, angled toward good forced-landing areas,
and kept a wary eye on every little hole in the trees where I might put it down
if push came to bang. We happened to be right into the wind, as it is always
off the nose whenever I fly (or so it seems). So I probably wouldn't have had
to make any radical turns. We might have had to sacrifice the ship, but our
lives were never in jeopardy.
Remember, nobody's holding a gun to your head to fly in such a way or over such
an area where you can't put 'er down WHEN it quits. We pilots have a lot of
control over the amount of risk we expose ourselves and our passengers to. I
did a lot of stupid things when I was young and bulletproof that I would never
do now. And no, I've never had an engine failure in my career (knock wood).
Bob -don't fear the auto- Barbanes
"The dignity of the craft is that it creates a fellowship."
Antoine de St. Exupery