Quiz Questions

[asra]

Its been a while since I have put these on the forum, but they provide food for thought.If your a student think about what you would do in these situations. What decision making processes will give you the best outcome. How can you best manage the risks???Your flying home into a 5 knot headwind at 500 foot AGL and about 3 miles from home.Landing spots are few and far between, the closest is 200m behind you and the others are 500m ahead.Everthing appears normal and then suddenly you engine starts to run rough for a few seconds then returns to normal . It does the same thing again ???.What are you going to do?????Ross B

[asra]

I usualy fly at seventy knots and i get a good 4 to oneglide power off (i do test this regularly) as 500ft/500mis 3 to one i will make the padock in front with heightto spare in the 5knot headwind with my excess speedWhile slowing to best glide speed of 45knots

[willatodd]

i too used to get roughly 4-1 in the mto3 and i am a bit undecided on this one. when i first started flying it was in gliders and it was always never turn back so i really would have to go for the clearing in front maintain 55kt (best glide) and i should get roughly 600mtrs from 500ft which should give me enough to clear any obstacles on approach keeping in mind the engine is still running I"m putting down on the clearing to check it out regardless. might even put some more height between me and Terra fir ma if i can as well

[tonydenton]

you lose height in a turn to go back and i would easily get to to the landing i front at those specs. i was taught to also consider any visible access roads to your out landing while flying over that type of country, so if there only seemed to be an acess road to the landing at the rear i would take that one.

[Disco]

Use the engine when it"s running to climb as best as possible and with enough height you can skip from clearing to clearing withing gliding distance the whole time and make it home to your safe runway and not roll in a ball after stopping for what may be no reason in an unknown paddock full of wombat holes.This is of course after checking fuel pump & amount, switches, throttle, carb heat BTW, i"d be climbing in a 180 turn to make sure I was within range of the paddock behind me before having enough height to press on home.

[willatodd]

This is why I like these questions gives you ideas I diddnt think Of a climbing turn I just might now if the situation arises

[tonydenton]

It does the same thing again .??????i would be prepared to get what you could out of an engine flying ahead somewhere but not RELY on climbing in a turn if it started playing up again.. and i suppose as others have also said with their accidents. once on the ground , DON"T try and taxi or you could you could hit a wombat hole an turn it all pear shape in the last second.

[Disco]

Why not climb in a turn, its not gonna stall n spin...

[Bill Cross]

I agree. A climbing turn back to the space 200m behind you while all the time being ready to get the nose down if the power suddenly disappears. Better to have lots of height to kill then the stress of trying to stretch a glide to another clearing somewhere ahead of you. I think this was demonstrated by the LSA aircraft that went down off Sydney heads. Stalled while concentrating on making the beach instead of a controlled ditch in aircraft that would float for some time. If the engine stops the only thing you should be worried about is yourself. When I was flying for a living, if the engined stopped (twice plus a fire in the cockpit on separate occasions. Never trust an aircraft for the first 10 hrs after a service

[asra]

[b]30 second later the engine fails You are now 100m to the clearing and at 500 foot

[tonydenton]

i"ve been for a late fly today and had been thinking about your quiz, i started thinking back to my training and these sort of questions my instructor would throw at me in flight, particulary around tiger country and obviously always when he had thought of the correct answer. this one particalor day after a cross flight {and i would of been getting mentally tired} and we had done 1 or 2 where would you land if the engine ..........then i got ." what would you do if he started having a heart attack ?"

[Disco]

My GF Emma wont let me answer because she says I"ll spoil it for everyone else..

[Bill Cross]

Get the nose down and get your glide established. (It"s up to you if you turn your engine off, personally i don"t want a burst of power when established in the glide. Can really give you a nasty suprise when your not expecting it

[birdy]

I honestly couldnt answer the question.If i had a 5kt headwind, id be at the bottom of the wind gradient, no matter wot im flyn over, and if the noise stops [ like it has in the past] iv got no time to weigh options, i just make be best of wot iv got [ which is usualy bout buggerall, or sumtimes next t nuthn.]Iv gotn away with it before, but coz it happens so quick i couldnt reliably say wot the thort process was, cept it probably started witha loud "SH!T"!!!.

[quoj]

I have no answer to the quiz, but like an obnoxious moron, who always comes up with sanctimonious quotes that are wise (and someone else"s words!) but rarely practically apply to the real-world situation, I"ll offer this old cliche":"Never let the aircraft take you anywhere that your mind didn"t take you 3 minutes ago!"But seriously, I"m gonna side with Birdy on this one and explore my repertoire of four-letter words!!