C210 Engine Failure After Takeoff- 43 Seconds 

The Salvage Company Sold the airplane before the NTSB could inspect the engine. We'll never know what went wrong.

Excellent interview! Thanks for posting! Especially in light of tonight’s tragic news….Jb.

Everyone has advice as to how this guy could have done it better… and they’re all sharing this advice from the comfort of their recliners. Engine out at 400 agl, after takeoff, in the woods? This guy did everything right, in the air, not typing into an iPad in his living room.

I’m so impressed that the pilot thought to turn the airplane into the wind when it became clear that there was really no place to land but in the trees. The effect of that 20-30 knot wind on his groundspeed also helps explain the ‘extra-steep’ glide angle that surprised him.

Great job by Brian to fly the airplane all the way into the landing, no matter how unappealing the landing site seems to be. It's the Bob Hoover advice in action -- while it is good to land at a slow speed, it is horrible to fly too slow and stall/spin.

When I got my commercial, I practiced engine out 180s until I could do them with my eyes closed. My takeaway was that you could hold around 800-900 FPM descent straight, but once you turned, you easily exceed 1000-1500 FPM descent rate. Also, the effect of at least 10 deg flaps is beneficial for picking up an initial bubble of lift as well as a reasonable tradeoff off of lift/drag in descent, my guess is it gives you roughly 100-150' of total altitude benefit. All in all this was a really well done descent into a crash landing. Bravo, nicely done, glad you are okay.

You gotta install shoulder harness long before you install new avionics. You just gotta!

The point he makes about the amount of nose down pitch required to maintain airspeed is what most light aircraft pilots need to hear and believe.

Brian has the right instincts to be a good pilot!! Great job of handling that emergency.

You do a great job with these interviews - you let them talk. Kudos.

Thank you both for a great discussion! The argument for a higher airspeed is compelling and I'll change my initial climb speeds based on this.

I had 4 engine fails on take off while flying old cargo Cherokees in South America decades ago. But the first 3 were only partial power and i flew the downwind leg turnaround at only 200 agl. The third time i already knew turnbacks and i did it from 700 agl when engine surging at 600 plus agl. Cherokees. Most people forget to pop flaps out on emergency landings. After those ROTOTs. And becoming a CFI in 1985 i always added two markers on Airspeed indicator. 1- A blue line on Vglide speed and 2- A small strip of alluminum foil under that Blue Line Vglide to easy see when you NEED FLAPS. The students and my pilots loved those lines. They called them Flight Indicators because they indicate what to do. Maybe those were the first USA GA DMMS lines but.. I never patented those indicators. I was just glad to have them there for our safety. Students and other pilots loved them and that was good to have.

Near the end, Brian says he has changed his approach to flying because of his crash. After my own engine-out off-airport landing in 2021, I did exactly the same thing. My personal minimums have been revised considerably. Perhaps the most important change was that, as much as I love night flying, I rarely do it any more. I had no injuries in my incident in large part because I was able to pick out a safe landing area and put her down there with good airspeed, attitude, and control. If it had been at night, that would have been impossible.

At your home airport, you should know your options from any runway. When you fly into another airport, check your options as you arrive, it's usually not that hard to do. Also, note that treetops can be a great energy absorber, so much better than rocks, buildings, power lines, traffic on a freeway etc. Two pilots I know have ended up in treetops, and both emerged with zero injuries. Neither incident was the result of engine failure as it happens.

So glad he didn't attempt the impossible turn. This is one of those things that I think more GA pilots need to train for. And knowing what his minimum speeds were and maintaining those despite the urge to pull back... very, very useful.

Great job Brian and Scott for videoing this….the plane can be replaced!!!!

Very fortunate. He's seen AQP videos before. Push that nose over. Yep, it will seem like you're going straight over. Good job man. So thankful you survived.

Great interview, Scott. You allowed Brian to speak ad libitum, and it's fantastic to hear his story of survival.

The reaction to pull up is strong in this situation or possibly turn for airport and with no power at this altitude you will stall and then drop a wing and spiral in , excellent job of flying the plane and recognizing the need to trade altitude for airspeed to keep flying for a controlled crash.. well done

GREAT job at getting it down..AND MOST IMPORTANTLY WALKING AWAY. Very fortunate you’re STILL with us! Can you imagine an engine (OR 2) loss AT NIGHT?!

What a thoughtful interview and well described event both in the aviation and human aspects. Thank you for sharing it. It's made me better.

Fantastic information! Thank you both!

What a great video! Very honest account of what was going through your mind. So easy to panic or pitch up and stall/spin. Thank you for sharing!! So glad you made it back and are flying again as well. Great job Brian!

Scott Another great video. Alot can be learned from this senerio. Glad the pilot is still around to talk about this accident. Not alot of time or choices to make other than fly the plane. Good job. Todd

Thankyou for a great interview. A text book response to the situation. I'm amazed at how little damage occurred to the plane considering the C210 is considered fairly fast and crashed into woodland. What a well considered action to turn into the wind and reduce ground speed. This is one awesome pilot!

happy to see him alive.

“I flew the plane…” and that’s why we get to hear this story. Keep flying the plane.

I am glad that you were able to walk away from this! One observation I made is that you left the prop forward. One thing I teach my students that have constant speed props is to pull the prop all the way back in the event of an engine failure. It will greatly reduce drag and extend your glide distance. I hope you get back in the air, soon!

Quick thinking. A couple of thoughts: If possible, turn fully into the wind. That will lower ground speed, which is the kinetic crash energy you must dissipate when stopping. Into the wind is your friend. If there are trees, aim for the bottom and in-between. You want the trees to take off the wings if they are dense. Keep the fuselage intact. You did well.

Some things you don't forget; props windmilling, and aluminum tearing apart on inpact are a couple of them. 30 years ago 4 of us walked away from from a crash landing after an engine out at low altitude. It could easily have ended entirely differntly.

Thanks for sharing. Good lessons.

Props to Brian. Flew it as far into the crash as he could!

I take it from the end of the interview he still does flight planning. So, he gave up on his "I'll never fly again" comment immediately after the crash. Good on him for picking up and moving on.

Great segment. Fly the plane. KISS. Great life lesson in many respects.

Excellent job Brian- PLEASE make sure your next mount has shoulder harnesses installed!

I'm just glad he's sitting there and able to tell us about it so yeah I suppose he at least made some good decisions and didn't panic.

Wow, what a terrific interview and analysis! I am adding "cruise climb" to my procedures, AND I have a new low altitude checklist for the 172R I rent - 1. open door latch, 2. fuel pump on. Forget all the other stuff for an sudden engine failure at low altitude!

I'm really happy to see this video where the pilot flew the plane all the way into a survivable landing with no more than minor injury. Trees ARE SURVIVABLE! Every flight school should make sure that all their students see this. It's possible to quibble over additional items the pilot could have done, but how much can you do in maybe thirty seconds while still flying the airplane.

Hello sir. Another great video!

Thanks Scott, good story with a good ending and yea, would like to know what caused the engine to shut down. It was about 11:30 one Friday night and I was in flight ops for a check hauling outfit at Love Field in Dallas. We had 13 Barons, 4 Bonanzas, a Mooney, a Navajo, a couple MU-2s, C-210's and a couple cabin class Cessnas. One twin had to reposition in Houston for the first return flight the following Monday for the Federal Reserve and that usually included whatever refugee Southwest Airline pilots or flight attendents we could stuff on board back to their Dallas Love home, but maybe based in Houston. The pilot of a C-401 was on his way back from Abilene and called in to say he was about 15 minutes out. I responded "cool, I gleefully responded, we can put on some fuel and I can turn you on to Houston", (his home base) in the 401. The Captain replied, "not sure we can take this airplane". I knew in an instant there was an issue, grabbed a flashlight and went out to the ramp. As he taxied in, the right engine was static, prop feathered. He shut down the left engine and I noticed the cowl on the right engine was afoul if you can guess what that means, I peered into the hole where there should have been cowling and an engine block and looked at parts of a turbocharger, pistons, gears, rods, bearings, more gears, and all manor of a totally nuked Continental TSIO520. I was stunned he was able to get that sucker feathered. It was blown to "itty bitty smithereenees" I've never seen anything worse since. He decided to spend the night in Dallas and see what we could do for him Saturday. Looking under the right engine, small bits of metal from this catastrophic event began to stack in the middle of the pool of remaining oil on the ramp. I asked the Captian, "when did this happen?" He said, "I just reduced power a little to begin the decent into Love Field and it just blew up". I said "I am amazed there was enough oil pressure to feather this prop with a hole like this". "I am amazed what was left ot the crankshaft didn't leave the block with the propeller!" It was really that bad. This engine had a reputation for cracked Cylinders and had a TBO of 1600 hrs as I recall, but we never had a cylinder make it that far. We never found out the culpret to this Kamakazi Continental, but we suspected it all started with a cracked cylinder somewhere even though our mechanics spent hours at every 50 hour inspection searching for that crack between the spark plug boss and fuel injector. I would still like to know exactly what started this engine destruction so we could learn how to stop it, but everyone who looked at it said the problem was obvious, "a handgrenade!"

What's important to me is ground speed at impact. Strong wind and trees slowed the ground speed. Looks like at point of impact ground speed was nearly nothing.

Great insights!

Scratching my head over why I would ever want to put my phone into airplane mode. This is just one of many reasons I don’t allow flight attendants on my Cessna 205. 😂 But on a serious note, thank you so much for some valuable lessons. You really had all of us sitting in the left seat with you. You did everything perfectly and if I come away with anything here, it’s the fact that I’m going to be shocked if the fan quits and your example has helped me plan a dead stick descent. Thank you!

Great point Brian on checking the airport environment on an EFB (or Google Earth) when planning a flight. As part of the pre-takeoff brief before taking the active runway, go through "when my engine quits at... I'm going to..." Lessens the reaction time from the startle effect. It helps to have chair flown this (even with a cockpit poster) or sit in the cockpit at the ramp and touching the buttons, levers, etc: Abort point, runway remaining or not, altitudes (straight ahead or how much can I turn or even a turnback). Memory or flow items; no time for a written checklist. I'm not yet familiar with Scott's articles/talks on the turnback but those by Brian and Barry Schiff, Charlie Precourt, Russell Still, the late Richard McSpadden, are great.

Great video. Glad hes ok. Im having harness installed in our 15AC Aeronca.

Great job getting down and safe.

Every landing you can walk away from... Very well done!

Brian, you crash real good. Well done and stick with it... and keep smiling.

Quick thinking!!! Glad you walked away!!

Great to still have you with us.

Speed is life!

Great video, Gunny. Great job Brian flying all the way to the crash. I was interested in your after action briefing because I have heard few concerning low altitude engine failure. The speed and pitch down angle you mentioned was common to me from crop dusting and my seven engine failures doing that were all six second deals. You experienced startle yet did not stall. To me that means the failure did not happen in a Vy pitch attitude. Airspeed is life down low where I worked so I taught staying in ground effect on takeoff same as in the field spraying. I also taught pitching to just over obstructions rather than well over obstructions, same as crop dusting. Because I always had zoom reserve airspeed coming out of fields and potential energy of altitude (200' AGL) going in, I was familiar with the significant pitch down when either slow or in a steep turn. Anyway, Gunny explains these things better than I do. A huge advantage the crop duster or pipeline patrol pilot has concerns what Gunny said last, be aware of what is around. We live in limited vertical and horizontal spaces...low altitude orientation. High altitude orientation does not teach immediate turn at 1 g (releasing all pull on the yoke) to the obvious survivable landing zone in the near hemisphere. No pull, no g, no stall. Zoom reserve airspeed will get us to that very near one with maneuvering. We almost always have to use full flaps if available and full rudder to stop slip to make that usually very near landing zone. Good job guys.

Great input from the pilot. Interesting. Of course too soon to know the engine failure cause . Thanks

Great job.

So glad he survived to tell the frightening story. My first instructor on day one lesson one said fly the airplane even if it is in to a brick wall, fly the airplane!

Thanks!

Brian, Great job. I've become increasingly anxious over the past 10 years about engine failure. I've had only one flying jumpers in the 80's in a 182 but managed to get back to the airport with no issue ( the whole top of the engine blew out from piston failure) I have flown mostly very high performance sport planes and slowly developed a real uneasiness about it. I remember conversing with Budd Davisson about 10 years back about climbing right after liftoff in a Pitts at steep angles and low air speeds because you could. He caution me that should the engine fail, even with immediate reaction, you still may not be able to push the nose over and down fast enough before stalling. He said with the uphill trajectory, the flat pitch on the prop which has now become a very effective brake you will either stall or will not have enough forward energy to stop the very high sink rate you just created. That put a stop to that hot dogging. In some ways I have decided the risk is just too high to put all my and my family's eggs in that single engine basket. Light twins are just about as dangerous and you have twice the chance of engine failure. Airframe parachutes, while not fool proof, could have been the savior of hundreds of people. All the IFR and night flying over the Appalachian mountains in a Beech Sierra, Oh my! One last piece of advice, everyone seems to forget to pull the prop back to course pitch if the engine is wind milling. You would be amazed at the difference in gliding distance gained.

Im sorry to say - I personally decided that I would never fly in a plane without a shoulder harness. Why would someone spend tons of money on an avionics upgrade and not put in 3 or 4 point safety harness. Also, after pitching down ( great job) pull the prop out to max glide.

That was so close. So glad you survived.

@05:00 i completely agree about not doing the procedures at 400ft. It's simple, just fly the aircraft!

Brian, you are definitely an aviator! The lessons learned are: Fly the aircraft. Fly the aircraft. And don't forget to fly the aircraft.

Sounds like AQP for general aviation.

Scott I suggest you to wear lenses with anti reflecting coat especially when you have light at you.

Good to hear a discussion with the pilot. Good landing. Walked away. The insurance company owned the airplane when the engine died.

Even if you have no other choice but the trees, if you continue to fly the plane, you are probably going to live. If you stall, and spin, probably not. I always want to know why the engine quit. Can you tell us why? Thanks for making this video.

G,day from Sydney Australia. Thank you for your story and analysing the time management in the control of the plane. "My nickel on the grass" "I left the landing gear down" That drag penalty: could you have gilded left to the grass field? 🌏🇭🇲

For the sake of learning, I’m going to sound a bit like DG here, but including a self briefing of “I expect to loose the engine, there it is, pitch for best glide and fly to the ground at the places I pre-determined”. One of the locations I would have preferred-picked would have been to the right. Had he been “expecting” LOTOTO the instant it died, had he pushed then he would have lost less air speed and would have been able to land on that road going toward that highway. My take away from this is “preflight LOTOTO” with predetermined set down points and have a preconceived idea of what you will do when it happens”. So glad the at least know to push for best glide and to fly it to the crash as slow as possible. Thank you for the lesson reminder.

When you go from “flying to falling” it’s all luck then. No amount of training or planning will help with that.

Yep. Aviate, its all that matters. Impressive piloting, flew it into the crash....but it cannot be easy as he mentioned. Cant imagine the shock effect.

I agree consider wind and take advantage of it! Agree nose gear took some of the impact…Flaps at last 10 seconds? Perhaps…next plane… shoulder harnesses before avionics ..many thanks for this education.

Does the gentleman still feel like he's never going to fly again?

Good job keeping the airspeed at best glide and accepting reality.

Inadvertent FLIT 👏🏼👏🏼

Sad, that Brian said he is done flying after this.... 😞 Great job walking away from this! I learned early on in my training to "fly the plane all the way to the ramp until the engine is shut off."

Something's up here. No apparent fuel leaks, no concern about fire. Engine just dying "as if shutdown" sounds like it ran out of fuel? No post-crash fire, no sign of fuel leaking anywhere. Photos taken immediately after the crash are pretty damning, IMHO.

All flying is mitigated risk, around 16:40 Brian is talking about practice and always wished we had practiced more etc, well he's right and you should run the possibility in your head, before and after turning the key. What are the options, what's my takeoff abort, where can I go if??? RTOT is deadly because you want to troubleshoot, total loss eliminated that possibility in this situation. Sterile takeoff, landing and sometimes even during flight to avoid imc etc, stay as far as possible ahead of your aircraft.

Regardless of cause, whatever training and mindset this guy has needs to be replicated across all GA pilots.

4:44 It was a good landing!

Curious Brian. Did you ever determine what caused the engine to fail?

Awesome video Scott and great airmanship Brian. I too am curious if putting in flaps would have given you just a little be more glide time.

Brian, there are people who fly airplanes and there are pilots. You, my friend, are a pilot!

Part of the reason for the brick like glide is the propeller running to the fine pitch stops as the governor tries to maintain climb RPM with the torque removed. When I owned a C-180, I made it part of my engine failure drill to pull the prop to MIN RPM ASAP after it quit. The RPM will still be close to where it was, say between 2000-2400, and MIN RPM if applied right away will make the governor will dump oil to move the blades coarse, trying to achieve the MIN RPM target value of down around 1000 RPM or whatever. With a CS/CW prop where the counterweights drive the prop to coarse pitch and oil pressure drives fine pitch, you will get the blades coming out of fine pitch even if oil pressure is gone as the governor provides an escape for oil trapped in the hub and the counterweights do their thing. When I did this I would notice an acceleration as the drag of the prop was reduced when I pulled the prop knob aft, IF I did it quickly. I was surprised at an owner not having a shoulder harness in his plane even in this day and age.

Wearing a helmet during takeoffs would be advantageous in this sort of situation .

What/where is the ForeFlight feature discussed at the end to help identify landing spots ahead of time? Is that available only with the top tier description?

Seemed to be small clear area just ahead when turning, the map doesn't show stuff like structures. The smaller vs large trees eventual landing is probably better. If it were large trees, is an attempt between or a smaller branched canopy hoping to slow down, though it is a lot higher. Also selecting a spot on takeoff, you probably conservatively only have half the distance already covered in the air to stay in the air and less with trees.

Seems very odd that he shows very little concern as to how this happened in the first place. Sounds like a lack of fuel flow to the engine. While it is very useful information to learn how to best land an airplane with no engine, it would be equally valuable information to learn how to prevent the engine from discontinuing power production in the first place. Airplane engines don’t just shut off, especially if the engine is free, as this was because he said the prop was windmilling on the way down. And the faa is not concerned with what went wrong with the engine???? 🤔

If the only thing you do is point into wind and fly it all the way, you have done an enormous ammount to stay alive. Windy days improve your forced landing chances.

Ice cold under extreme pressure, that's impressive.

Kudos for accepting reality and controlling your aircraft the whole way.

I was beginning to think you were never coming back

You had me at "the sound of the trees brushing against the aluminum". Confirm one thing for us please? The reported 55kts is clearly a ground speed number, correct? I would not think a 210 could keep flying at 55kts IAS, but I'll go look at a POH for it. Lastly, very grateful for the suggestion on cruise climb as a safer choice. I think my training was all about gathering potential versus kinetic, but if you are not instant with an elevator push... the party ends real quick.

Great story, great lesson. As preparation for this kind of possible emergency, would practice in a reasonably realistic sim help to familiarize you with: Oh snap! What just happened?!? Pitch for best glide and get used to the sight picture at low altitude. Thanks very much to you both for this eye-opening video.

Scott - the ideal climb speed to avoid engine out is best climb/glide speed. The issue with a cruise climb speed is you have higher drag at that higher speed. So in the transition from cruise climb speed to best glide, you have lost energy. Because of that higher drag in cruise climb, you will have less energy overall. That is a fancy way of saying you'll also be lower in altitude. The best configuration for an engine out is when it happens to be at your best glide speed, as high as possible.

Shoulder harness would have help him. Great job though imo

Oops it does look like he pulled the prop. Good job

The iPad stayed intact!!

Glad he walked away

Why did the engine stop?

Lucky that it didn't catch on fire.

Great job pitching down! I noticed the ignition switch on rt. mag only, could it have been a cause?