In this AVweb video, Paul Bertorelli reviews two takeoff accidents--including the crash of his own Mooney--to illustrate how to recognize and avoid takeoff risks.
My instructor was an ex-RAAF pilot, he always told me when the engine quits it's the insurance companies plane now. Don't kill yourself trying to save the plane!
Your instructor was completely right - he was trying to save you. And thanks Paul for another great video! I've been in and out of Downtown myself. It was a great location for an airport - in 1927...
@@subthermosphere We're talking about engine failure on the climb out in a light aircraft, not evacuation. The passengers don't really factor into a decision about how to get your aircraft on the ground and walk away. In fact throughout that decision making process, they don't exist. If you have non-flying passengers onboard who would not be able to assist, it's advisable to pull the intercom so you don't hear them. Screaming puts you off...
I remember when Slick Willie said that same thing back in the 90's. It was my second favorite clip of him--after the "Tear on command" at that funeral.
@@heavyizthacrown-5842 I think by saying "these videos" he was referring to his enjoyment of his sense of humor in the whole series of videos but whatever
In this 15 minute video, Paul Bertorelli packs more practical advice on how to avoid an engine-failure-on-takeoff-stall-spin accident than I would have thought possible. Great job - thanks.
I had an engine cowl flip open on my Cherokee when I got out of ground effect on take-off. It partially obscured the windshield and I had to make an instant choice of continuing the climb, or landing on the rest of the runway. For that flight I had decided to back-track and use the full runway because I had gotten into the habit of doing an intersection take-off and reminded myself that my instructors always told me to use the whole runway. Glad I kicked myself in the pants on that one as I was able to land on the rest of the runway with about 30 feet left after heavy braking. I always use the full runway now.... lesson learned. Doesn't have to just be an engine quitting. Be ready for the unexpected.
When the engine quits, nose down increasing air speed IS you applying your backup power. Having glider hours really helps reaffirm this mindset and hard wires it into your every day pilot skills.
Literally was just coming here to say this. Got many glider hours in during my youth on winch tows. Nothing teaches you that reflex quicker that a cable break on a winch in a nose high attitude. That nose has gotta come down quick
I have a plan after finishing my LAPL TMG license to get a glider training. There is an other skill for you from gliders, always planning landing outside from airfield. Also flying patterns without the engine. In my opinion it is good experience for every pilot.
I did an intersection takeoff at Lake Placid, in a 172. . . Then I discovered the airport is in a bowl. . . and the terrain was rising at about the same speed as my rate of climb. “Nothing as useless as runway behind” came to mind. My heartrate was rising faster than the plane. 😀
@@MOTOBLADE Good headwork, especially in a Cessna 150. Many times I've preplanned my departures with circling climbs and descents to observe altitude limits in controlled airspace and other terrain restrictions to keep my aircraft entirely safe. But it's important, for cabin comfort and security to routinely pre-brief and occasionally inform unknowing passengers what the big rollercoaster ride is for - and don't forget barf-bags!
Ignore this rant if your young, isn’t RU-vid crazy though anyone at any age can make TV quality content for people to enjoy no matter what the interest is. Plus not to mention anything you want to learn is here literally anything I needed to know exactly how to upgrade the turbo in my car, well there’s an exact video on RU-vid with a step by step process to do so done by someone just like me or you. It’s actually insane and I can’t wait to see more of the technology in the future absolutely beautiful. I’m also only 27 seems young but I’m new to technology because I lived in the middle of the woods all my life with no internet until a year ago and wow I’ve been missing out. ❤️
These videos are so informative and even if there are some points I’ve heard before it’s great to have a refresher and bring it up to the top of my consciousness. Without doubt one of the videos in this series is going to save someone’s life. If it hasn’t already. Thanks again Paul.
I'm a glider pilot and to us a rope braking during a winch launch is one of the most critical situations in flight. We practice a rope brake many times until pushing the nose down becomes instinct. Often the instructor doesn't tell the student beforehand and just opens the hook during the launch. Unlike your pulling the throttle out, there is no "undo" on this one. Once the rope is gone you are committed. It also happens much quicker because of the 30 degree angle of climb when the rope is released. You have no time to think, you have to decide what to do at what altitude before takeoff. You can either land straight ahead if low enough or if high enough do a u-turn, do a full circle to be at the same position at lower altitude or do a short pattern. Landing in a nearby field is also always an option.
I was in the back seat of that Mooney in the swamp! I was young at the time, but I'd say to the pilots: be careful that you don't take a moment to absorb the sudden tranquility of an airplane going full power to no power. PUT THE F'ING NOSE DOWN.
Excellent. And, another great teacher on RU-vid says about instantly pitching down when power is lost, “feel light in your seat”. In other words you should feel the negative G because that is what is necessary when instantly pitching down so you don’t lose any speed, especially if it happens in a turn or a climb. Then you adjust for best glide speed.
My old instructor didn't believe one of the students that a 172 was putting out partial power. He took it out for a flight and on take off the engine went to just above idle power. He made it around the circuit but needed new underwear upon landing. I guess the lesson is if an engine is putting out partial power or quits and restarts, don;t trust it.
@@thefreedomguyuk I ended up joining the military and finishing my license after getting posted. He was a nice guy, the 172 ran fine on the ground but under full power it would suck up a peice of the heater box that had broken off and was still rattling around inside. Bad juju
Pitch down muscle memory, and taking off full length has saved me and the airplane I was flying 3 times in 30 + years of flying. Taking off midfield for a banner pickup cost my friend his ability to walk. Great video!
Don't do it, he'll mind and get extremely irate and likely ban you from his channel. I've seen it happen to two other subscribers, he takes this kind of thing serious. Your students will have to find the video organically on their own without using the search function.
I've been a weekend warrior pilot for 32 years, though have been medically grounded for just over 2 years. Hopefully will get medical back. In early days flying in late 80's I did a lot of time in a 1966 Mooney M20C. Was only a 20 year old plane then! It had the Johnson Bar for gear which was a great teacher for a new pilot in that you had to make sure your hands were in the right place before grabbing the lever and twisting your hand. You had to be safely climbing before pull + twist. The big lesson from its owner was though; only retract the gear when there is no more runway you can land on! You could suck the gear up super fast with the Johnson Bar, but if you were very low and engine died, you'd be too busy to grab the bar and drop it. Though you could also drop gear quickly with the Bar too. I've not flown retrac's for many years but have been in a 1975 Arrow II in recent years. Same situation even with electric gear. Positive rate, no more runway I can land on, gear up! Always loved your vids sir. Best from me Down Under in Middle Earth! Edit: Missed putting this in before. I was taught to always use full length, irrelevant of performance of plane I'm flying. Runway behind you is useless! As is altitude above you, and fuel not in your tanks!
In 1982 I almost crashed because I didn't use the whole runway in Saratoga, Wyoming. I had plenty of runway to get off the ground after an intersection takeoff. However, I encountered turbulence just past the end of the runway that I believe was due to the wind passing over some very small hillocks. For a short while it was all I could do to keep the plane in the air. I learned a valuable lesson that day!
I used to work in a place that was 50 yards from a runway. We would go out and plane spot for lunch and breaks. I watched this beat up old Cessna 152 taxiing. It’s engine died. He restarted and pulled onto the runway. It died again. He restarted and ran it up to TO power and it died again. The final restart it stayed running, he slipped the brakes and into the clear blue sky he went. Stupid, brave, over confidence and just plain nuts.
I started on the line and worked my way up to the SC Aeronautics Commission. Many made idiotic mistakes and lived and many that didn't get a 2nd chance. Some more memorable ones are numerous planes that were just chocked or maybe just the wings and a linemen secured the plane properly only to "jump" a chock or get run it up and realize the tail was tie down. A citation taxied out with the towbar still attached to the nose wheel. Take off and come back and whisper "I need some gas." One guyed "borrowed" a 24v battery cart for helis and hooked it up to his 12v system. IIRC a Moonie and a $10 grand bill. Numerous prop starts running away. "Smilies" getting sucked into the engine. Ouch $$. A foreign student sat for 15 minutes trying to contact someone on his radio. I walked out and stuck my head in the 172 and saw he was trying to talk to ATIS. Someone had a really bad breakfast and threw his underwear out of a Bonanza. They wrapped around the leading edge of the tail and taxied in that way. Passengers snapping off static wicks. Had a passenger in a 402b discharge a fire bottle in flight covering the back of the plane in white powder. I've seen seat fall off the rail on rotation. Another 402/404? pilot crew window flew open. When he tried to pull it down, the plane hit a pothole in the sky and yanked his arm out of socket. I literally could go on forever. KCAE/KCUB
Great job, Paul. I teach this to all my flight and ground students. I have had students who subsequently had engine-out situations. All lived to talk about it. I also practice what I preach.
Thank you Paul. When first starting to watch your "instructional" videos, I was doing it for the crash information. I quickly realized that your videos really ARE great instruction for almost any type flying, or landing, well lets face it, your videos cover just about all facets of plane life! From sitting at home making the choice to go flying today, to putting the plane back in the barn AFTER the day of flying is over. You cover all of it. You do this with a very well balanced mix of seriousness blended with tasteful humor. I guess my point is this: At first, I thought you were going to be just another self-proclaimed know it all and spew out the same ole drivel that really does nobody any useable good. How wrong I was! You are very informative. You are very knowledgeable. You are very well spoken. You are very personable. There are a few more descriptive statements I could add, but you get the point I'm sure. I've been very lucky. I've been interested in flight of all kinds all my life and as a child studied bird flight...and landings. You wouldn't believe just how much THAT has helped me! Birds REALLY know what they're doing, for the most part. But I've also had some great instructors. One thing I remember most of all is my one ex-military instructor giving me unpaid advice..LOUDLY!! It was this, at high volume so I could never use the.."I didn't hear you"..excuse. He said these words to me..."FLY THE PLANE"!!! That means from the time your ass is in the seat until you are standing next to it! If you are in the seat, then you are flying the plane, period!! His piece of advice has saved my life, and possibly others, more times than I can count. Paul, in your way, your advice is just as simply practical and I intend to sit fwd on the edge of my seat and listen intently when you speak. Lastly, after my long winded comment, I just want to thank you! Thank you Paul for everything you give to us out here who will listen and hear you! You obviously have a passion for humanity as well as a love of flying. A good combination. A good and decent man.
Your channel is an invaluable resource, the emphasis mainly toward private pilots, but valuable to any aviator regardless. The additional (and respectfully appropriate) humour would have made so many classroom hours literally ‘fly’ by. You’re a master of the craft who knows that you never stop learning, so you’re uploads are perfect for everyone, no matter what page of the logbook you’re on, or what number logbook. Happy Flying! (Just some hot air from the UK).
I had an issue in my light sport I was flying many years ago where the spring broke on the carburetor (Rotax engine) immediate on a touch-n-go. This caused the engine to throttle up extremely slowly - and when I say extremely I mean it too a few minutes for the engine to return to full power. When the spring broke and I tried to throttle up, I had enough power to stay in ground effect but very little to climb. While this isn’t necessarily an intersection departure issue, I did learn a great deal about having to make that quick go/no-go decision. As I had traffic behind me on final I made “go” my decision - which was bad. Nevertheless, as I painfully climbed at about 50fpm and finally had enough altitude to make the turn to the x-wind runway the power returned back to normal. In retrospect I should have shut the engine down immediately. Lessons learned.
Very good analysis and advice. I am not a pilot, but I am a driver and to this day I use a decision technique my instructor taught me in my youth. When approaching green signal light, I say to myself this mantra, "I have to stop, I have to stop..." until I reach a point of no return. Then I drone "I have to go, I have to go..." Your advice to tell yourself the engine is going to stop and be prepared sounded very familiar to me.
Excellent videos as always Paul, I coukd binge watch these. Easily the best GA advice, no holds barred practical life saving advice. Please Avweb - keep giving us more of these!!
I've always remembered a saying my ground school instructor said. "Eternity is forever why rush it?" Following a checklist and having a plan are essential. Great video.
It blows my mind that a jury would award 9 million over mags when they tested good and there were plenty of other reasons given for the stoppage of engine power and even with engine stoppage the pilot still had ways out including belly landing back on the runway. Lawyers are the reason we can't have fun these days.
That would come down to jury selection and ensuring that as defense counsel you did the absolute best to educate the jury in simple terms and to stick to three main points.
PA-28-140 takeoff with 25 degrees flaps, 6,200 feet of runway, and a Bendix magneto quit at 200AGL, leaving me with 2000RPM and rough running vs. 2700RPM. I saw I had 3000 feet of runway in front of me so "push-pull." I pushed the nose and pulled the power. My only mistake was not pulling the Johnson Bar for the final setting of 40-degrees of flaps, but my right hand was glued to the power. Minimal flare just to hit the mains first, then maximum brakes left me 1200 feet of runway. I had just practiced aborted takeoffs 2 weeks prior from as low as 50AGL. So, it was almost an instantaneous response. Seriously people, practice these starting at 200AGL then lower. You have to push the nose over very quickly and further than you think.
I am far from a pilot's license and even further from being in a plane. It is my dream however to fly and own one. I think for anyone in my position this is a very reassuring video in the sense that in the case that anything happens to the engine your life is still in your own hands. Thank you.
Fantastic video, thank you. I have two friends who walked away from engine out landings, one of which was on takeoff. Putting the nose down does work...the survival stories are not a myth.
Just a simple thank you, I always enjoy the breakdown. After watching your clips, I find myself thinking about the scenario off and on all day. Appreciate the time and effort.
Thanks for this very helpful analysis/recommendation for "take off preparation." I like that you said that you remind yourself before every take off that "this is the time it's gonna happen." I is the same thing I do when i skydive. Prior to my jump and as I am in free fall I actually "plan," and say to myself "here comes the malfunction" so that I am totally ready for the malfunction and not surprised by it if it happens. It's like I was taught in little league baseball to plan on the ball being hit to me on each pitch so that I am not caught off guard. I can see that this is a very good practice, and for me is simply part of my procedures that I ALWAYS follow. Another issue to address with this is the awareness that it creates prior to flying, or skydiving, altogether, and that is that "if you are hoping, and dreading, the possibility of an engine failure, or a parachute malfunction, you probably shouldn't be PIC or skydiving in the first place." This "dreading" can easily impact your judgement as well as your reaction time and have you be in "denial" of your circumstances costing you valuable "moments of time" and ultimately depleting altitude. I recommend that people in both cases confront their fears such that they become comfortable with emergency procedures. It may save the lives of others if not your own. What I got from this video: 1. Always use all the available runway. 2. Always do a thorough preflight check of the equipment and the aircraft including the fuel, etc. 3. Be prepared for a malfunction so as to not be caught "off guard." 4. If I encounter an engine malfunction during preflight, take off, or flying land the aircraft as soon as possible and as safe as possible and deal with it on the ground not in the air. 5. Plan ahead and be prepared so as to NOT be in a hurry, and always be responsible for being prepared and safe.
In think engine quitting then picking up again catches many out. A close friend had exactly that on take. He's an instructor and has life changing injuries, that brings it back to you that even though you know, it can still bite you.
Thanks Paul - wonderful 'takeaways' from all your videos and they are part of my weekly objective to learn/study something aviation wise every singel week of the year
I love these videos. As a new pilot, I learn a lot from them that was just glanced over (if covered at all) during instruction. Please keep the good content coming...it’s keeping pilots & passengers alive!
We are fortunate that we have people like you that are willing to give of their time and effort to dig into these issues and make them known and what to do. Valuable info to be sure. Another example of how the world is a better place because you are in it. Thanks!
I'm based out of Beaufort County Airport/"Frogmore International Airport" and vividly remember yall's accident/Mooney in the marsh. The community as a whole, we're very excited about yall's having made back in 1 piece.
I used to fuel GA aircraft at an FBO on the Pacific Wet Coast, for a living that is. We were always concerned about water in our tanks and tested accordingly, but always wondered at the number of pilots who just jumped into their freshly fuelled aircraft without doing their own tests. We would test at the beginning of a shift regardless of whether it had been done before or not and on a really wet day often in the middle of a shift too. I was surprised how many times I found traces in a tank truck that was now half full. So, yes, after stopping for fuel, sump those tanks. As a student pilot in the middle 70s, I was always taught that the proper response to a dead engine on take-off was dropping the nose and landing straight ahead. Few recreational pilots have the skills to pull off a return to the runway even if you do have time. I witnessed a stall spin accident once and the sound of impact was one I'll never forget. Two fatalities that did not need to happen as the field straight ahead was a nice fluffy, ready to harvest, wheat field. Sigh. It was a nice plane too.
One of the best videos you could ever watch regarding takeoffs. It is packed full of great practical information that should be used by every GA pilot preparing for takeoff. Follow this advice and you will be prepared for an engine failure and have a plan.
I fly Rc Planes and with these hobbies engines quit all the time , and pitching the nose down is the ONLY way to save the plane , ok its only a model and no lives on board are at risk but to the modeller the model is whats at risk so over the years of many deadstick landings no matter how high or low your at the nose MUST be pitched down in order to keep airspeed to have somewhat some control of the plane , this is a very good video and as a model flyer can relate to it lots , Thanks for the Lesson in Staying alive and best choice options in a deadstick Plane.
Also, on a multi-engine plane, don't bank or turn into the dead engine. Results in a wingover and a crash. Saw a female Navy C-1 pilot lose #1 engine, she turned left into it, and crashed burying the C-1 into the ground up to the wing leading edge and killing all 6 people on board. Could have been avoided had she leveled the wings and nursed it for altitude.
I've never heard the term "perishable" in relation to skills. I guess I'm young, but what a brilliant way to emphasize the importance of never growing too comfortable, even driving a car.
Haha @ Probably didn’t inhale! Great info! All pilots need to constantly review these mishaps to prevent becoming a statistic. Classic case of the Swiss Cheese model. Love your channel and website.
