This is a great example of how crew resource management extends beyond the cockpit. The other pilot on the radio recognized that the workload for the light sport pilot was high and asking if he needed any help and then even telling all aircraft to remain clear of the airport was an exemplary demonstration of professional piloting and professionalism. Great job by all here!
I cought that to Nate. It was great how the other pilot took charge of the airport traffic area and made an all call informing any aproaching traffic of the situation while giving Mark the runway. ATC would be proud of him.
That was impressive. Not only did the pilot keep calm throughout, maintaining altitude in an unhurried, shallow turn(s) back to Nut Tree, but also kept the passenger calm by verbalizing everything happening and everything he was doing, like saying, "It's going to look dramatic but it's not" in regard to the steep descent upon landing.
Partial engine problems are more dangerous than losing it completely imo. It gives you false hope and makes decision making more difficult. This guy did an awesome job!
You could see he was treating the situation as if the engine could fail entirely any any moment. He stayed close to the airport, he came in hot and high - even if the engine failed entirely, he could have reached the airport as his forced landing field. You could see he was considering landing straight ahead instead of trying the "impossible turn" until the engine came back and allowed him to fly a normal pattern.
@@realulli it was kinda sketchy though because at one point he was pointing towards a populated area in the turn and if the engine failed, would've been potentially dangerous, but they're lucky that there's a lot of empty fields in the area to land
3:37 "It's going to look dramatic, but it's not." The pilot gave a perfect reassurance with this statement. He had excess altitude, pulled extra flaps to dump airspeed as he descended, but this maneuver might have been especially frightening to the passenger if they don't understand how an airplane flies. I just love the efficiency of this statement, well done.
Beautifully landed and I loved how u kept your passenger (and yourself) calm at all times, knowing that you had the situation under control. Hope the flights ahead were more enjoyable, safe flights!
That was a fine example of airmanship right there. I laughed along with you guys once you were back on the ground, it's funny how it's contagious once it's over.
I like the calmness of the pilot and his words during the emergancy situation. So professional and no panic. So peaseful to hear you laughing as soon you touched ground 😊 ❤. The passenger kept silent and calm during landing maneuver despite the stress, great cooperation.
This gave me chills. What an amazing human in that pilot. You're a man I would fly with any day. Awesome job handling that level of stress and landing that thing.
Solid airmanship and ADM - really, textbook. You took advantage of the things that were working, adapted and got it on the ground safely in a normal landing. I think coming in high and hot was pretty well justified 🙂
For the curious, Nut Tree is in Vacaville, CA off of I-80. The Nut Tree was a huge restaurant/shop until it was demolished and turned into a strip mall. Great memories going there. Nice job pilot.
My dad flew us into the Nut Tree several times in the late 50’s. It was a grass field and a little train that would take you from the field to the restaurant and store and then would return you to the field. Such great memories.
Wow I’m bummed just learning of the restaurant and store no longer exist. I frequented the place many times while stationed at Travis AFB in the early 80’s. The restaurant put out good food and had a great all you can eat fish fry on Fridays.
Very well handled and kept a cool mindset. Realised he still had some power, but not reliably so. Did a full pattern, but maintained altitude, as power could be completely lost at any point. Excellent
Thanks for posting. Beautifully handled, including keeping the passenger calm. The other pilot's support was also great. Thanks also for your replies to comments below regarding the cause.
Nice job Captain! Kept it together under a lot of pressure and kept it loose for your... concerned... Passenger!! Sweet landing! Glad you are both still with us!!
It’s interesting the different schools of thought when it comes to handling emergencies. While I learned a lot from this experience I trust my basic training because I believe it helped me manage that incident. But there is always room to learn.
You know the old saying, haters gonna hate. Seems no matter what, there's always some knucklehead in the comments crapping all over whatever it is that's uploaded. Great job keeping your cool and getting it back in the ground safety. Curious to know what caused the problem.
I used to fly a a lot in that area: Nut Tree, Sac Metro, the old now-gone Natomas, Auburn...etc. My mom and dad used to fly into Nut Tree when I was in my mom's tummy. So glad to see you get that bird back on the runway safely. Glad you both are ok. I used to say that it's better to be "lucky AND good" and that's what you were there as PIC. Good job.
I had a very similar if not identical experience yesterday in my 2006 CTsw. I didn’t have the engine light flashing, and only made it about 20ft above the ground on a 10,000ft runway, so was easily able to land and taxi off. From your other comments you point to mogas, which I also use. And yesterday was fairly warm with a high-ish DA. So, 100LL from now on!
Flying from Salinas to San Andreas in a 152 with an instructor at 8K feet, our engine began sputtering over Stockton. The instructor asked what do I want to do, and I saw Stockton airport so I said let's land there. He handled the radio and I did a full slip 360 turns over final approach. Coolest thing ever. Got it on the ground and taxied and parked. Modesto FBO had the instructor fly home and another instructor picked me up by car. Turned out to be low cylinder pressure.
Your composure was remarkable given the situation. Also great ADM choosing to fly the pattern and come back around instead of attempting to land off field. Great job all around, even by the pilot on the ground.
Aircraft N427CT is a 2007 Flight Design GNBH CTSW with a Rotax 912ULS series 100 HP engine. Pretty high 'pucker factor' here, but looks like pilot handled it well. Kept his options open for an off-airport landing while attempting to return to a downwind & runway landing as long as the engine was still operating intermittently.
Pilot did a great job of remaining calm and flying the plane. My husband and I once had to declare an emergency 20 minutes after departing Burbank, CA to San Francisco when the cockpit suddenly filled with white smoke. We eventually nursed our sputtering Piper Saratoga to a safe landing. It turned out a clamp on the exhaust outlet to the turbo charger broke causing the hot exhaust gases to slowly melt things like the spark plug wiring harness and the plastic liner in a baggage compartment which created the smoke. In emergency situations it often seems like time begins running slower and that return flight seemed to take forever but when we finally touched down safely we experienced the same giddy feeling of relief mixed with excitement.
Among many ‘aircraft drivers’ around, this is a real ‘pilot’ and did an amazing job in every manner. Greetings and respect from a jumbo captain 👌🏼👏👏👏👏👏👏
Good job getting the nose down! I loved the relief once you were back on the ground Back in the 70s my father would fly us from Palo Alto to the Nut Tree, when the most exciting thing was the little train ride to the restaurant. Then, in the 80s, I would fly my girlfriend there from UC Davis, when the most exciting thing was the little train ride to the restaurant! In a few weeks my 18-year-old newly minted pilot daughter is going to fly me there from Denver. I guess the train is long gone, but still, it’s pretty cool. Thank you for sharing the video.
Nut Tree was my father’s favorite stop on the way back from Lake Tahoe when I was a kid. The train and the original restaurant are long gone but I still have great memories of the family spending time there.
Finished out my pilot training here after Woodland shut down their school. Brings back some memories! Great little airport. I remember being right in the path of a Galaxy coming out of Travis... I just about sh@t myself, but I bet the Galaxy jockeys were cracking up.
Had you not exibited exceptional pilot skills and sound judgement that aircraft may have been returned to the airport on a flatbed or in a wooden crate. Great job keeping the dirty side down and the passenger entertained all the way around the pattern Mark.
Great work, and excellent to see that instant response of pushing the nose down the moment the power dropped. That is what catches many out in similar situations the lighter the aircraft the less time you have at that critical moment, so well done.
@@USA-GreedyMenOfNoIntegrity The pitching down is actually caused by the thrust line being below the drag line. Remove the thrust and you get a change in the moment arm. This is designed into the aircraft.
Good job. I had a very similar experience, except I had just crossed the numbers on a down wind departure. I know it’s a judgment call but once you’re stabilized on final and are super high you can always slip it to get rid of that extra altitude.
Even though still had sporadic power at least he was focused on flying the plane first before trying to communicate! He also was very cognizant of maintaining a shallow turn back to the airport ensuring he maintained altitude before it was time to dump it off! Great job!!!
I fly the same type of aircraft, CT, even camera is located on the same place :) You could have aboryed if spotted the flashing red light just afger lift off, but I never understood, why these signal lights are on the right side - you never look there during take off roll. We had a similar case couple of years ago - the friend of mine experienced drop of fuel pressure after take off in ~1000 ft. AGL, reduced power and pressure came back. He flew a pattern and landed safely like you did. Reason: faulty mechanical pump did not deliver pressure above 4500 RPM. Thanks for the video, good airmanship! Fly safe!
Yes you have my permission to use it. You may want to check back on my channel in a couple of weeks. I was the fire attack chief at SFO when Asiana 214 crashed 10 years ago. I was wearing a helmet cam that recorded lots of video that was never released. People have asked me for years to show it and now that I’m retired I will start putting it out there.
Hi Mark, I just wanted to get back to you concerning the helmet cam footage of Asiana 214 - did you already get a chance to upload any? All the best to you!@@markjohnson9157
Good job, the panic was there for a second but he managed to gather himself and was calm talking to his friend letting him know it was ok, we're gonna land again.
theres always an initial state of panic when something happens esp on takeoff.. an already high-workload period, he gathered himself quickly, gained altitude while he had power not knowing if he always would.. came in a little high but most surely justified
Way back in the mid 80's, two friends and I rented an airplane to just have a recreational flight to Nut Tree from Napa, to meet up with and surprise my parents who had driven there. We had to declare an emergency landing when we suddenly heard a loud and consistent banging outside the cabin. Our pilot was concerned about the engine, or maybe a broken control surface, and we sweated bullets inbound to Nut Tree but like these pilots, maintained our composure. I guess if you think your time is coming, you just are born, or most of us are, with an innate Creator given calm to work things out til as long as possible, like these pilots did and my friend, a low time pilot did (I later became a light sport student in '06). We were embarassed upon landing at Nut Tree when an approaching pilot who'd just landed and heard us on Unicom came up laughing, and showed us the source of our 'emergency' -- one seat belt in the empty pax seat had been hanging loose outside the '172--the buckle was the source of our "emergency" and I guess this happens to low time pilots who don't pre flight well. Regardless, the three of us went thru the same emotions anyone would in a declared in flight or on ground emergency and used our internal calm to save ourselves from giving up hope. Five years later, I became a business instructor, traveling commercial weekly. I survived three aircraft incidents, one a ground collision and I was the only passenger who had not deplaned, the other (fortunately) a ground engine explosion but the fan blade did not penetrate the cabin--the 120 or so passengers and crew did not say a word until the crew ordered a casual evacuation since the plane was crippled and the danger had passed--it was a 737 in Bozeman Montana. So I find it odd, in these situations or the few serious car accidents I survived, how a calm, like a warm blanket, comes over me, as if dead or alive, I will be OK.
@@markjohnson9157 Try second solo and the smell of fuel from an unsecured fill point now that was interesting couldn't get it back on the black stuff quick enough lol
