On Sat, 13 Oct 2007 18:18:08 -0700, Ol Shy & Bashful
wrote:

This has come up a couple of times lately. Has anyone else here done
an off airport unscheduled landing? What were the circumstances and
outcome? How do you view it after the fact and what do you do to avoid
another one? (helicopters don't countgg)

I assume ultralights don't count either...

Had a few in my Taylorcraft, though.

One was fuel contamination... I had just filled up from the FBO's
brand new fuel truck, which I gathered had never been adequately
flushed. Out over the wilds of New Jersey somewhere the engine
started running rough, barely enough power to maintain altitude. I
decided to land in a remote field out in the pine barrens, found a
whole bunch of crud in the gascolator. Drained it out and things were
fine. Taxiing back to the end to takeoff again, I saw a rusty wind
sock frame in the weeds... I later learned it was an old crop duster's
field. You can be sure I had words with the FBO ower when I got back!

Put it on a Hudson RIver pier once while flying the NYC "slot". The
engine was still running, but I was nearly out of fuel when the full
wing tank refused to drain into the main tank (a common problem on the
early T-Crafts), and I didn't want to chance "maybe" having enough to
reach another airport. The landing was a non event and so was the
takeoff the next day (except for legal issues, both local and FAA, a
l-o-o-n-g story, suffice it to say I won in the end). From this I
learned not to wait so long before draining the wing tank into the
main tank, though I eventually solved the feed problem.

The complete engine failure on takeoff (engine swallowed a valve seat)
wasn't off airport, since I got it back on the runway... barely.

-Dana
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