Real Pilot Story: Lost Elevator 

I feel the same and I grew up in my father's Pacer. We practice landing with elv. trim, and it worked well. But that was a result of practicing just flying around with trim and throttle. and just using rudder and stuff like that just in case MCA. with all those scenarios, just in case.

He didn’t kill (or even injure) himself or anyone else, so in my opinion, well done

Trees, occupied river, squishy swamp, or empty road. Looking around, I didn't find exact coordinates, but one site had a vague map that placed it away from any roads or structures. This looks like it's probably real close. 60.45443, -150.90906 There's a dirt airstrip to the North, and a single runway paved to the West. Based on what he described, he wasn't going to make either of those. So crash in the mud, hit boaters in the water, die impaled on trees, or put it down hard on a nice flat paved road, and risk some repairable damage.

Absolutely *Top Bloke* .......... Anyone would be happy to fly with a pilot of that calbre. I think he is right saying with hindsight flaps would have been a better option than not. Doubt using the trim tab could have mitigated the problem given his smart diagnosis about airflow being dirupted over the elevators anyway? ~ Worth trying if it ever happens to you 'though. Cutting the engine was a ballsy move - knowing it would drop the nose but slow the 'plane. And it probably minimised shock load to the engine. *REALLY USEFUL VIDEO* Maybe the moral of the story is regularly look at *all* fabric with a suspicious eye?

I came here to post something like this. I'm just really impressed with the pilot here, in his ability to communicate this stuff in a down to earth way. The animations were cute too heh.

I think it was a trim tab that brought galloping ghost down at Reno

@@spannaspinna Yes, it detached in flight causing the plane to pitch up suddenly and it is believed that caused the pilot to either hit his head or the sudden G forces made him black out.

-It was still a good landing considering the circumstances of the damage aircraft. And most of all no injuries.

lol. Survival shouldn’t be a question. In 2023. It’s a shame the engineering is still from the 50s.

Agree. No need to be a pilot to enjoy and gain knowledge from this channel. Air safety institute has exceptional lessons that can cross disciplines. Situational awareness, avoiding overconfidence, not succumb to get-there-itis... the list goes on.

That's exactly why I appreciate these types of videos so much. I'm not a pilot but I've always looked to incident reports to better my understanding of common patterns and root cause analyses so that I can improve my own safety. In particular, these pilot interviews provide such great insight into the human factors, which are just as applicable to any discipline.

I like applying a pilots mind set to just about anything dangerous that I do, riding motorcycles has also taught me this. I have pre-ride inspections, I plan my navigation and I proceed as safely as possible, then a post ride inspection and cleaning. I'm never done training and practice is the only way to make perfect.

@@bigtxbullion get-there-itis seems to be very prevalent among the average car driver. I think our (American) culture here has always applied a very laid back attitude towards driving (not that driving isnt relaxing just as flying can be) I wish people treated driving their cars like a pilot treats flying a plane.

That's a wise Hillbilly

Thanks for your comment. That's why we do these, so that we can all learn and get better from other's experience.

Your comment just triggered a could be liefsaving idea. I was thinking, lots of places - in Alaska especialy - you don't get anywhere with a landing run. Floats definitely a good idea. But given the terrain ...... I'd like one of those 'whole plane' *parachutes* . Serriously what are they 50lb / 60lb extra?

@@Farweasel - I don't know much about them. On Mike Patey's RU-vid channel he has a video or two explaining all about them as he built one into his latest project plane called "Scrappy". Might be worth taking a look at those.

In the C-130, there was a failure that would cause lose of elevator. In this case we would use inboard engines to increase or decrease airflow over the elevator and outboard engines to change airspeed..

👍👍👍

Hmmm controlling an airliner just on the trims is far easier dan a small aircraft (at least for the aircraft types i used to be familiar with).

@@pascalcoole2725 C-130 isn’t an “airliner”, it is a military transport aircraft and I wouldn’t classify it as easy, thus we practiced it in the simulator. Look at the Sioux City Crash (DC-10). They were relegated to asymmetric engine thrust for pitch and adverse yaw. If I remember correctly the A330-200 had a manual trim backup for the rudder while the A330-300 did not. So not all airliners even have that option. That said, what are your options when something breaks? These procedures are not for everyday flying, the are for when you are having a very bad day and trying to give yourself a chance for survival. I look at the Dale Snodgrass accident. Nose pitch up and stall on takeoff. Something I always briefed my C-130 crews as we carried cargo that could break loose on takeoff and cause a centre of gravity shift, but this procedure could also be used for elevator and trim problems. If the nose uncontrollably pitches up on takeoff, counter with pitch, trim, angle of bank. Counter pitch with forward stick, trim nose down (in some airplanes this also stops runaway trim), and finally use angle of bank and put yourself in a turn, over banking can allow the nose to fall and avoid a stall. You can then vary angle of bank to control a climb or descent of maintain level flight (but in a turn). This gives you time. Time to analyse the situation and give you a fighting chance. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather “crash” in a turn with minimal rate of descent than stalling the airplane and diving straight into the ground. Again Sioux City. They still crashed but a lot of folks survived that day.

@@av8rgrip Of course it depends on the aircraft, dunno about the Herc or the 330, and never tried on the 310, but on the Fokker-F50 simulator you can afford some risc, and it was in this situation that i sitting on the jump seat showed a crew how to do a N-1 takeoff circuit and landing just using the elevator and rudder trim. This of course it not at all the usual way of flying but one has to do something to spend the boring nightly hours when crews do not turn up. You learn a lot from this stuff, as late Warren VandenBerg (you can find him on youtube) made verry clear to his trainees.

He shouldnt have been flying that low away from an airport. That was his original mistake and unnecessarily put himself in a nearly impossible situation.

Great comment on adding power to the engine. He did say that was probably a mistake too.

@@kurtreber9813 It's a low and slow airframe to begin with. People have these sorts of planes to see the sights. It's not like flying an SR22.

@@kurtreber9813 Sounds like a ppl student on here probably just soled that or an SR22 pilot 😂 A. He lives in Alaska there are very few strips much less airports. B. He is in a Piper Pacer much like a Cub they are purposely designed for low and slow flying. C. Operations sometimes call for low flying such as myself doing aerial survey in a Super Cub I stay at 1000 feet 99% of my flying.

@@gerryortiz8324 i admit that perhaps there's a legal vs practical perspective on this. I'm going to stay on the practical side :)

I write a little. In fact I wrote my story down very quickly after the accident. But when AOPA reached out, I knew they would have a larger pool of people to teach so I left it to them. They did a fantastic job

Thanks for watching, Scott!