Inflight Emergency

Today while towing my wife, a pre-solo student, the tow plane suffered a
power loss at about 300' AGL and started down. Too low to think of
turning back, I was chanting "Straight ahead, straight ahead" as I began
rocking the wings. I did not feel a release so I pulled my release and
began a slight turn to the left.

Looking down, I saw the mixture lever just above idle cutoff. I
advanced it and got the power back. Climbing towards downwind, I looked
back and saw the glider in a right turn back for the runway. Then the
engine cut out again! I found the mixture again at idle cutoff. Screw
this - I'm landing behind the glider if I can make it. I was too close
so I took the parallel taxiway and we rolled out together.

Turns out I was wearing gloves that I hadn't flown with before. They had
a tightening strap on the inside of the wrist and I think that strap
snagged the mixture lever. I changed gloves and had more problems for
the day.

My wife told me that, when I waved her off, she immediately pulled the
release and started a turn into the wind. Her instructor asked, "Did
you pull the release?", since he hadn't seen me rock the wings. She
said that she had. This was her first experience with a premature
termination of the tow and she handled it like a pro. I'm so proud of her!
--
Dan Marotta

Great report, great reactions for both pilots.
So I suppose you had to find some time locating the tow rope in the fields?

Always check your clothing as the season changes. We had a pilot with puffy sleeves, he reached up to close the Grob sliding window and unlached the aft canopy in the process. At least that's his story.

Bill

Speaking of mixture, remember the XC tow we did from Westcliffe to Salida?

Smoke over the Rockies... ;-)

It's great that it all worked out OK. Congratulations to your wife for her correct and quick reactions. Lose the gloves...

-John, Q3


On Wednesday, December 24, 2014 6:42:28 PM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
Today while towing my wife, a pre-solo student, the tow plane
suffered a power loss at about 300' AGL and started down.* Too low
to think of turning back, I was chanting "Straight ahead, straight
ahead" as I began rocking the wings.* I did not feel a release so I
pulled my release and began a slight turn to the left.



Looking down, I saw the mixture lever just above idle cutoff.* I
advanced it and got the power back.* Climbing towards downwind, I
looked back and saw the glider in a right turn back for the runway.*
Then the engine cut out again!* I found the mixture again at idle
cutoff.* Screw this - I'm landing behind the glider if I can make
it.* I was too close so I took the parallel taxiway and we rolled
out together.



Turns out I was wearing gloves that I hadn't flown with before.*
They had a tightening strap on the inside of the wrist and I think
that strap snagged the mixture lever.* I changed gloves and had more
problems for the day.



My wife told me that, when I waved her off, she immediately pulled
the release and started a turn into the wind.* Her instructor asked,
"Did you pull the release?", since he hadn't seen me rock the
wings.* She said that she had.* This was her first experience with a
premature termination of the tow and she handled it like a pro.* I'm
so proud of her!


--

Dan Marotta

Actually, Steve and I took the airport vehicle and drove straight off
the departure end of the runway. The rope was in the knee-deep grass
about 100 yards away. The ride was also quite bumpy and I'd probably
have nosed over had the engine not caught. But it would have been
better than the barbed wire which was another 50 yards out.

Happy endings and the training value was great.

Dan

On 12/24/2014 5:51 PM, Bill T wrote:
Great report, great reactions for both pilots.
So I suppose you had to find some time locating the tow rope in the fields?

Always check your clothing as the season changes. We had a pilot with puffy sleeves, he reached up to close the Grob sliding window and unlached the aft canopy in the process. At least that's his story.

Bill

--
Dan Marotta

How could I forget?

Neither the Blanik nor the Pawnee had a radio so we both had hand
helds. It was cold so we were bundled up with the radios inside our
clothes and we had pre-briefed that you would move from high to low tow
and back if you wanted to talk to me. We had crossed Music Pass, the
Sand Dunes, and the San Louis Valley and were just heading into the
mountains beyond when you gave me the signal. When I got out my radio
and called you, you told me I was trailing black smoke. I immediately
started looking for places to land, all of which were behind by now.
Then I noticed that I'd neglected to lean the mixture as we continued
climbing to about 12,500' MSL.

Mixture is not one the things done often when all your power flying is
from the surface to about 2K and back down. Thanks for the reminder.

On 12/24/2014 9:46 PM, wrote:
Speaking of mixture, remember the XC tow we did from Westcliffe to Salida?

Smoke over the Rockies... ;-)

--
Dan Marotta

Roger on the leaning. Surprised you do not normally lean on tow. In summer temps here I start leaning at 200-500 AGL, even for a 2K tow.
I can watch the RPM come up when I lean. DA is already at 5500 or higher on the ground.

Hi Bill,

We run DA in the 8,500+ range in the summer at Moriarty; the field
elevation at Silver West (C08) is 8,290' MSL so I expect DA was
considerably much higher. Back when the EGT and manifold pressure
gauges worked, I would lean on tow but, with a constant speed prop it's
better not to mess with it since cylinder head temperature is too slow
to respond.

Where are you flying?

On 12/25/2014 2:20 PM, Bill T wrote:
Roger on the leaning. Surprised you do not normally lean on tow. In summer temps here I start leaning at 200-500 AGL, even for a 2K tow.
I can watch the RPM come up when I lean. DA is already at 5500 or higher on the ground.

--
Dan Marotta

On Friday, December 26, 2014 9:59:26 AM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
Hi Bill,



We run DA in the 8,500+ range in the summer at Moriarty; the field
elevation at Silver West (C08) is 8,290' MSL so I expect DA was
considerably much higher.* Back when the EGT and manifold pressure
gauges worked, I would lean on tow but, with a constant speed prop
it's better not to mess with it since cylinder head temperature is
too slow to respond.



Where are you flying?




On 12/25/2014 2:20 PM, Bill T wrote:



Roger on the leaning. Surprised you do not normally lean on tow. In summer temps here I start leaning at 200-500 AGL, even for a 2K tow.
I can watch the RPM come up when I lean. DA is already at 5500 or higher on the ground.





--

Dan Marotta

I once sat next to a Lycoming engineer on an airline flight. His advice for leaning an engine with CS prop at high DA was to ignore the gauges and lean slowly until you feel a light stumble then enrich just enough so that it smooths out.

Gauges, he said, can lead a pilot to do stupid things with a mixture control. He said there was no chance whatsoever of harming an engine by leaning above 5,000' DA. His main point is if an engine is running strong and smooth, it's happy and lean engines are happier than rich ones.

It worked for me over many thousands of hours. I could cover the engine analyzer and lean "by ear/feel" then look at the analyzer to find it was showing that the engine was perfectly leaned. If you really do over-lean an engine at high DA, it will just quit as you found out.

Still another tip from the Lycoming guy was to lean for taxi using the technique above so the plugs stay clean.

Finally, the Lyc guy made an interesting economic argument. (using current costs) If an O-540 averages 15 GPH and AVGAS costs an average of $5/gal then a 2000 hr TBO run will have burned $150,000 worth of gas. An O-540 overhaul is about $35,000 so it's easy to see one might burn more dollars in gas by running rich than what, if anything, could be saved at overhaul.

Jean, NV. 2,833MSL, 100F jacks the DA.