Cirrus Engine Failure at 1500 Feet 

I’ve had 4 emergencies in 52 yrs of flying, fortunately was able to nurse the plane to an airport each time. Just as you describe, I found my mental awareness instantly became hyper focused, alert and decisive. It’s fascinating to experience how the brain works when flooded with adrenaline.

I love how the big boys were talking with you. Aviation is an amazing community.

I've been a pilot for 30 years and an aircraft owner. I watched a hundred engine out videos. I'm a worrier and I believe it can, and will, happen to me. I practice engine out landings regularly. Still I have the fear of the real thing. IN all the videos and information I have studied, I never heard your perspective on this. The idea that all the training and practice I continue to do will allow my brain to act appropriately when it is necessary. It's a wonderfully positive thought that I will remember. And of course I will keep practicing and training for emergencies. Thank you for posting this. It really struck home to me.

I had an engine failure in February of this year. I had 82 total hours. Jut like you said, training kicked in and lucky for me and my wife, I had an airport 3.5 miles away. It was an uneventful landing. I credit my fantastic CFI's with pounding that training in my head!

Excellent flying, excellent video! TRAINING TRAINING TRAINING!! I'm a 30 year pilot, 23 year 121 driver, CRM/TEM instructor. I cannot give you enough hi 5's. I certainly appreciate your vulnerability, candor, and professionalism. Nice work my friend. Thank you for putting the time and energy into making this video. I hope it empowers everyone watching to put the same effort into their airmanship as have you. E

I love how another pilot on frequency reminded you to fly the airplane to the ground and how aviation is such a close community. Good job on this emergency and this video.

I'm a new pilot who is fortunate enough to own a plane and when I am flying with my wife she asks why are you always looking at the ground, and I say I am looking for place to land and she gets worried. I then let her know that I was trained to always look for your engine out landing area. Great job on your emergency landing!!

Great work!! I command the NW Ohio Civil Air Patrol and got a notice of your distress call from one of my lieutenants. I alerted my team and we tracked your ADSB data to that field while we got to our HQ/hangar. We all breathed a sigh of relief when we heard you were un-injured. Fantastic after action report, looking forward to hearing about the engine!

Glad you are safe and appreciate the time it took to share your experience.

I heard this somewhere recently...."In an emergency, you don't rise to the challenge, you sink to your training". We've all trained for off airport landings, and we all hope we don't have to remember our training.

Always chose BROWN over GREEN. Perfectly done here. As a glider pilot "out landing" is quite normal. No need to get scared. Just land at the lower or lowest end of the speed range! And keep the front wheel up... As long as possible

Back when I was a student pilot on my first cross country I reached the Set heading point and went through the set heading checklist which starts with pulling the carb heat on. I did that and the engine quit. Well instantly one of my Dads many and hard earned aviation anecdotes came jumping out at me. He used to say "if you move a lever or switch a switch and bad things start happening - move it back to where you found it" . So as I was reaching for the mic button this hit me and I simply pushed the carb heat back off and voila, the engine came back to life. The training school changed the carb the next day.

Thank you. Yours is the BEST aviation training video I have ever watched (and I have watched many). Your message confirms, in time of crisis we do not rise to the occasion. We revert to the level of our training. Again, thank you.

Thrilled to hear you are all right and here to fly another day. I have added this video to my CFI Training list to share with students. Thanks for sharing with us.

Brilliant. I am a cfi and am taking this to tell me to give my students even more practice in this area. Mix, pump, tank switch. Mags. Air source (carb heat ). Thanks for putting yourself out there for us. All the best neal sw fla

This is a great narrative and recap. Thanks for doing this, and more than anything, I’m glad you’re safe! Great job!

Took a lot of courage to make this video. Thank you for the great advice and candor. I’m so glad you are okay!

Excellent handling of this emergency. Glad you are still in the land of the living. I've had one emergency in my time - a night electrical failure when I was a low time pilot. I experienced the same feelings: extremely heightened awareness and decisive decision-making. I'm somewhat ashamed to say, I've never felt more alive. Training and proficiency are everything. Keep up the good work.

Fantastic video! I don’t think anyone could have explained that type of situation better and I am so happy you landed safely! I will def take some things I learned from your video which Ik will make me a better pilot but furthermore much more efficient with critical thinking. Thanks for this video!

GREAT JOB! I find my time as a sailplane pilot really helps with outlandings. You are always looking for a place to land and learn what kind of fields are best. When you run out of lift it's time to pick a field!

Thank you for your excellent job treating an emergency situation properly and not just pulling the chute. I hate it when Cirrus pilots have a manageable problem and just use their chute as a crutch to avoid having to deal with their problem. They belly-flop into a residential area, risking the lives of others, and damage their airplane, which causes insurance rates to go up for all of us. Meanwhile, there's a field or barren stretch of highway half a mile away. The true test of your composure in an emergency will only come when you have that emergency. I've had about 10 in over 22,000 hours of flying. I wouldn't change a thing on any of them. You remained calm and did what you were trained to do. Well done. Not everybody is like that. On two of my emergencies, my first officer froze in fear and shut down. I had to secure the engine myself and talk her down afterward to get her to take over the radio. You talked about the brain being wonderful by shutting off hearing the "pull up" calls to focus on the important things. That's not exactly a good thing - but it is something that affects all humans at a point of task saturation. Nobody is completely immune to it. The hearing is the first thing to go in a stressful situation. In some cases what you are not hearing (not in your case) IS the priority. Consider the Eastern Air Lines 401 crash in the Everglades. All four pilots were pre-occupied with a burned-out landing gear indication light, and not one of them heard the autopilot disconnect, the altitude warnings, or ATC trying to call them to check their altitude. 101 people died on that flight. The important take on that is to be aware of that Human Factor and try to avoid falling into its trap. Nicely done, sir! You should be proud of your accomplishment. Textbook prioritization example!

Similar experience engine out 1500 ft. Over lake out of Pomona. Tried to restart twice. Fortunately, the engine restarted. I fire walled and traded as much altitude for airspeed as I could and simultaneously headed back to the airport. Turned out it was fuel contamination.

I'm a new pilot and I watch as many of these videos as I can get my hands on to see what can go wrong and how the situations were successfully handled. I appreciate all the time people put into making these videos just so that others lives can be spared, should they be exposed to the same scenarios. Keep the blue side up!

How right you are, I had an engine failure a few weeks ago and I didn’t panic it was all automatic. Made a safe landing back at the airport I had departed.

Great to hear all the genuine congratulatory call outs from your brethren!

Great Job. Happy to hear this had a happy ending. In this particular situation, I think that scenario review in your head 30 minutes prior to the engine failure helped you as much if not more than the review with the CFI 6 months earlier since all the engine restart procedures were irrelevant and you realized that quickly. What you needed to do immediately was what you had just mentally rehearsed 30 minutes ago with the same terrain for landing....farmer's field, parallel to plowing rows. Again, great job getting down safely along with the good fortune of pretty firm dirt so you didn't sink in and nose over.

Thanks for expertly sharing your experience. Also, job well done Captain. My hat is off to you.

The beauty of small single engine airplanes they glide pretty good ! Glad you landed safely ! Good Job

An outstanding video. I teach military pilots in a small Grob 120 TP turboprop, flying with parachutes but no ejection seats, and I might just show your video on our next ‘Flight Safety Friday.’ We have loads of mnemonics to deal with such situations; but you basically covered them all seamlessly. As a professional pilot with 40 years experience I would have been proud to have handled the situation half as well as you did. Thank you for sharing this.

Great job on handling the situation. Enjoyed the learning experience, great video and very good advice mixed in. Appreciate you sharing.

What a great lesson for ALL of you pilot's & wannabes! So profound in explaining how to be PRO-actionary & not RE-actionary to a MAYDAY situation!

Thank you for your great commentary! I guess we have all learned much from this video! Thank you for posting! Wish you a great day! Many happy landings! 😊

Fantastic video. Thanks for sharing and teaching us all something with this experience.

This just shows at the beginning of the video that he must have been broadcasting on 121.5 and others were listening. We all while flying are one and we all look out for each other. That's awesome.....no air rage!!

This is a very well-done explanation of what you need to know. Obviously, inspections and AD compliance need to be taken very seriously and not just a get-her-done attitude. I had previously seen you on a "Then Finer Points" episode and was already impressed with your reaction and skills. Having never lost an engine I can not imagine how the surprise element grabs you.

Wonderful video with lots of great points! One of my favorite things about the aviation community is everyone's willingness to share their experience and eagerness to learn from others' experiences! - Beth

This is why we train! Great job, Marc (and CFI Bob)!

Thank you so much for sharing this. Very valuable information, and a great, real-life reminder of why these types of skills (my CFI calls them "perishable skills") are SO important to keep drilling on. Great narration too! Congratulations on handling this emergency so well.

What a great lesson here. Thanks for sharing your experience. Need to go up with my CFI for some proficiency.

well done. As a Glider pilot of airfield landing as somewhat more common, and our aircraft are defiantly more suited for them, but even then, it is always a challenge

Great! Thank you for sharing. I am a low time pilot and as I am usually flying in mountain areas I am always focused on "where to go in case". This gives me confidence.

Just saw this video but truly great advise for all pilots. Thanks for taking the time to share this.

Great video. Thank you for sharing this experience with us.

I own a hangar at Mansfield drove up to the site shortly after this incident. You did an awesome job! That field could not have been more perfect. With our rains the week before your incident I was worried everything would be soft. I had an engine failure in 2014 at 80 hours total time and had a very similar landing. Great job flying the plane!!!

That’s funny, I heard this mayday call on guard that day flying into CMH. I was working that day. Now here it is on RU-vid. Nicely done, sir.

Good job man! So happy you’re ok

Great stuff, Marc - one word stuck out to me - "hyperfocused." But I think the most important thing is your preparation for the event. Knowing your airplane REALLY well and having run simulations (even if only in your head) enabled your "good" brain to take over. I hope that never happens to you again!

A lot of firsts that day, the best of it is that you came out of the emergency unharmed and with the high spirits that come out of a job well done. Congrats .

I lost power last August at around 800' AGL shortly after takeoff. I ended up gliding under power lines and landing in a field of standing corn which made for a firm but fairly soft landing. Your mention about not being scared is the same thing I felt. I don't remember a bit of fear, just 100% concentration on what I was going to do next and how to get back on the ground safely. I later found one of the throttle cables broke which explained why the engine idled fine but would not produce any power. This event made me realize how one small failure can turn into an emergency at the worst time possible. Practice engine out landings often. Some day it might be for real.

Great video, great advice, well done on a great result.

Thank you, this video reassured me that those doubts that have crept into my mind from time to time are just fear of the unknown. Nothing more, nothing less. A strong mind and training will always prevail.

Congrats. Thanks for sharing. You were amazingly calm.

Was just at Mansfield today, plenty of places to land out there. Glad you made it out safe and chose to share. Great for new pilots like me (60 hours) cheers.

Fantastic video. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Great video that every - new as old - pilot aught to see! I'm glad you made it not that it's surprising consindering your mentality for safety and training.

Nice job. I enjoyed the video and incorporate many of the techniques you mentioned to mitigate the risk of engine failure in cruise. I’ve had several engine failures in multi-engine jets, but I hope I never have one in my Cardinal.

I love how you were calm and prepared for this accident. You handled this like a true professional. Also Glad you flew it all the way to the ground, as stated by ATC. Great job! You saved the airplane too, no chute deployment, how great. You took advantage of your terrain.

As a trainee pilot I would to thank you for this video and your thoughts and experience in this area. It has given me a new perspective and way of thinking about this. Especially as my cfi has said my lesson will be on stalls, lol.. I’m glad I watched this. Thank you

EXCELLENT situational process! Many Thanks!

WOW, so happy you were over some great countryside....nice job, remain calm, fly it to the ground.....thanks for sharing!

Excellent job on the landing! I'd also say that learning to fly from an airport surrounded by farmland & lots of fields, is a lot nicer experience than flying over lots of water and hills!

Great refresher and WELL DONE SIR!

A fantastic debrief. Thank you.

Fantastic job. Great video. Wonderful message. Thank you.

nice video, thanks for sharing your experience and insight. Some good wisdom! I am a Cirrus pilot as well, 800+ hour in G1/G2/G3 SR20/SR22/SR22T

Well done, thanks for sharing!

Glad you were able to walk away. Excellent.

Engine out, fire, airframe failure, control failure. Super worried about all of those. Engine out the least though since you'll most likely survive it.

Exceptional story and really valuable. Oh, and great job!!

Thought you recently overhauled it. Would love a follow up as to what happened with the engine, I know your diligent about maintenance. Good job keeping your cool and doing ad trained.

In 26 years of Motocross racing, I often noted how things slowed down once I accepted the reality that a crash was inevitable. A calm focus allows time to position the bike and body to minimize damage. I remember thinking clearly, “Here’s the part that’s gunna hurt”🤕

Thanks for sharing your story! My home airport is KDKB - DeKalb. I certainly will be scheduling some time with an instructor. Especially since “life” pulls you away from flying.

Great flying! Thank you for sharing.

I celebrated 50 years of private/military/commercial aviation last year.. I've had a plethora of engine failures and emergencies (never dead sticking in but a couple of zero thrust) but the one thing that has come back to me is training, training, and more training! (I guess that's three) It becomes mental muscle training. If you train correctly, it comes automatically when things go sh*t-house. Your brain autoshifted into that training mode. Never forget the aviation tenet, aviate, navigate, communicate as the basis of every emergency. Congrats on your decision process!! Well done...just like you trained.....as it should be!

Thanks for walking us through everything and nice job. I had a few emergencies in my lifetime but all were in turbine equipment and not too scary.

Yessir, you had a Catastrophic Engine Failure! You also picked the very best field to land in; well packed/not freshly plowed.

Great Job and a fantastic video! You made the extraordinary just another day in the office. That field looked really soft, you set that beautiful plane down perfectly. I am eager to know what they find out with your engine. Just curious if you know how many hours were on the engine? Blue skies and tail winds.

Thank you for sharing. Good work.

Thanks for this vid. Much appreciated. Glad your good 👍🏻

Excellent video. I'm a new pilot and constantly think about what will I do if I have engine problems. Just recently my headset mic quit working. I could hear everyone else but they couldn't hear me. I had a feeling others could not hear me as I could not hear myself through my headset and when asking for a radio check I got no response. Since there were quite a few planes in the pattern practicing landings, I opted to stay away for from the airport (since I had 3/4 fuel) and found an open area where if something else arose I could set the plane down there. Once there was only one plane left in the pattern on crosswind, I made my way towards entering downwind and entered downwind when the other plane was landing. Figured that was my best option for spacing. I spend quite a bit of time thinking about what I would do should I have an emergency which is great but I need to incorporate the thinking into doing action practice. I am glad that you made a safe landing and was willing to share this with the rest of the world.

Great job! As we said in the Marine Corps - Prior Planning (or Preparation) Prevents Piss-Poor Performance - the Six P's. I try to apply that to my flying as well.

Well done - Awesome instructional video...Blue Skies and Tailwinds!

Fantastic video - learnt a valuable lesson: we need to keep building/conditioning muscle-memory. I will do more checkflights from here on! (I had two unplanned outlandings with a glider in fields in the past 4 years - In the Swiss alps this is not so simple)

My first off "airport" landing was during primary flight instruction. The CFI simulated an engine out near a grass strip airport. We did a full landing on the grass strip which was not at all like a paved runway but my confidence grew greatly knowing I could safely land off pavement.

Great job 👍 (and video too) It's interesting to hear your account of the brain turning distractions off. There have been a few times after landing that the person I'm flying with has told me that they are re-asking a question asked earlier and I had no idea they even made a sound earlier! How did recovery go by the way? The transition from wing to fuselage looks so smooth that it doesn't look to me like the wings can be removed like on a Cessna or Piper. Oh, and my biggest fear, well, the two tied at the top, are in flight fire and in flight separation. Thanks for making this!

Great vid, thanks for sharing!

Great job. Thank you for sharing. Your story benefits many. I never heard the 3-2-1 rule....useful. Happy flying.

"[The brain] was just being perfect at bringing up data that I provided it earlier." This is the key reason to train! I fly from an airport with very few off-airport landing opportunities and rising terrain on departure. My departure briefing always includes the 5 different small fields that I will try to make and in which order they will be available during the departure. And while departing I will actively call out the fields in my head to make sure I am ready. I hope I will never need this knowledge, but if I ever do, I have it. Also: Wonderful piloting job there! There is not really anything to improve.

Awesome! You've earned my subscription. Well done on the landing

I have never seen an engine look like a grenade went off inside the case until now. Thankful for your safe landing.

Thanks for sharing, I'm so glad that you and the aircraft are okay. "Landing with the furrows" is sage advice. Your instructor gave sage advice. Although as you say, you were too low, so your decision making was spot on. Aviate, navigate and communicate. Can I ask:- What headset were to wearing (that enabled you to still hear the engine)? What went wrong with the engine (I see it blew out a con rod😲😲🤬)? Did the rough/soft field landing damage the aircraft further? Excellent video and insights. There are three aspects to the brain and Ive read two authors who've written about such. 😊👍👍✌️✌️✌️

great job! Very lucky that the field was harvested and hard packed with no ruts. Thank you for making this video. I would love a Cirrus some day. I currently share a 182 Skylane with a friend who is also a CFI.

great job landing, would be cool to see some of the eng photos showing the failure and damage as well.

Thanks for sharing. I learned a lot!

Congratulations ! and you don't have to add a repack to the list, Prop looks untouched too good job!

Very informative video, thank you.

I love your videos, and I'm grateful you are ok! Look forward to seeing you back in the air! Maybe a video about the lead up to this? Maintence events, and any other weird things in the past couple months?

Excellent Video and Narration

Great job. Man that's a beautiful plane.

Great job and video - thanks for sharing these tips (I hope I’ll never need them!). Glad that everything worked out so well, now you should be all set for the next 2,000 hours or so 🙂