Ahem….
“I mean, how likely is it to get engine problems duing the very last few minutes of a flight?
Been there… no t-shirt, but neither bandages, walked away. Total power loss on long final – incidentally, a Continental 6cyl
;-)
Yes, it is anecdotal, only. Beats speculation IMHO
:-)
That said, i wouldnt give anything for witness statements either. Whole raft of research how unreliable those are…
I don’t think there is such thing as partial engine power in a SEP either you have full power working properly or you have none (sooner than you think), trying to finish intial mission or stretch flight is a risky gamble that is probably best left to twin pilots…
Partial power failure certainly does happen. In my case it was cork in the carb. There are other mechanisms.
Probably you have more options flying a Turb, you already start the flight assuming the engine may pull on you and it feels so any time you turn your head in-flight ;) I was told 50m runway will do for an emergency landing (including going through 200ft cloudbase)
On most touring 4 seat SEPs, it seems to me an uncontrolled crash means death while a controlled one you walk away for sure, while you have more chance getting the former if you bet on partial engine power and get surprised…
Not many aircrafts allow for engine debug/repair in-flight, the covair peacemaker is the only one designed as such but it has 6 engines and 7 foot wing thickness !
I have had limping SEPs on several occasions. Mag failure (failure of one mag showed up weakness in the other), CSU failure, oil pouring out etc.
Have heard that pilot landed and collected his two PAX’s – believe younger male family members.
Incident was on subsequent takeoff.
Info hearsay and not confirmed.
If confirmed, then I won my bet that it was NOT an impromptu landing attempt following some engine failure. Would have been too weird after all…
It also seems to confirm that although the Cirrus is perfectly fit for strip flying, most of their pilots are not… but let‘s wait for more details…
boscomantico wrote:
Cirrus is perfectly fit for strip flying
A stol taildragger is… it’s possible in but not really the strong point of the Cirrus.
kwlf wrote:
Partial power failure certainly does happen.
It is more common than total engine failure. For example, a quite good woman pilot in my area not long ago had a cylinder detach from the engine case of her aerobatic biplane and she limped about 10 miles to make a very nice landing on the closest paved runway.
I think that Ibra’s point is that one is often better off just to close the throttle and treat a partial power failure as a complete power failure. I think that is a very valid point, particularly at low level.
Although both Silvaire’s compatriot and myself managed to have good outcomes following our partial engine failures, I did wonder whether I’d done the sensible thing in trying to go back to the airport.
My take would be that if you have altitude you can reasonably use partial power to better your circumstances. My engine started to run rough overhead a poor field; I could see a better one in the distance – beyond gliding range – but made sure I didn’t leave gliding range of the first field until I was clearly going to make the next one.
