Sometimes you don’t get to
look. A friend of mine was practicing ILS approaches at night in his RV-6
when he forgot the carb heat. About 300 feet agl, the engine sputtered
and died. He had time for a Mayday call and tried to restart. No joy!
As he descended below the tree line, he lost the field lights, everything turned
black on the other side of the windscreen. He concentrated on flying the
airplane, staying on instruments. His wing caught a tall Palm tree and
spun him around 180 degrees and the wing tips caught in the tops of a couple of
rows of orange trees. The orange trees set the plane down gently on its
wheels facing in the opposite direction. Probably a smoother landing than
usual! No one was hurt. The plane was destroyed.
He salvaged the engine and radios out of
the plane and 9 months after first part delivery, was flying a new RV-7!
Try descending into a black hole on
instruments and see what puckers! He seems strangely focused on carb heat
now… :>)
Bill B
From: Lancair Mailing List [mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of Douglas Brunner
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010
8:48 PM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: [LML] Re: Tree Landings
Michael,
What about the speed differences between
a Lancair and a glider? Does that change the calculation?
We are all taught to look for an open
field to land on. Considering the altitude at which the decision is made
and in the time we have to make the decision, we probably can’t tell too
much about stumps and rocks when we pick a field.
Should our decision making process
change?
From: Lancair Mailing List [mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of Michael Newman
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2010
8:07 AM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: [LML] Tree Landings
It
may be counter intuitive but treetops are actually ‘soft’. They
bend and absorb energy over a fairly long period compared to other ground obstructions.
I would favor landing in dense trees over a field full of stumps and rocks.
It
is well known in the glider community that tree-top landings result in pilots
that walk away and surprisingly light aircraft damage as long as the plane maintains flying speed all the
way in. I have personally picked up after two of these and know of
four others. In only one case was there any injury to the pilot and that was
minor. Dense trees are preferred because falling to the ground after the
‘landing’ is where the people can get injured.