My first option would be to always land ahead, agreed may not be possible, but preferable.
While I absolutely agree with that, I’m not sure that they had a lot of options here.
I was a bit surprised by the image shown in the first post, with the runways going out into the sea, and wondered if the runways were one of those where the runway is partly on land, and partly on stilts in the sea. So I looked it up in Google Earth. (It’s all on land apparently).
But when I looked in Google EArth, it looks like they had really no options, other than possibly on the golf course, or ditching in the sea. By the time they had turned enough to make ditching a possibility, it seems that they already knew that they could complete the turn.
Well done guys. A great job in a very difficult situation.
Why was the boost pump off?
Well done on a safe outcome.
Know of a few too many failed ‘impossible turns’ where the outcome was less good, in some cases involving some partial power which must make the judgment call harder.
I still brief the ACME school of flying preferred take off brief for single engine: ‘if an EFATO occurs and insufficient runway to land, best glide is xx IAS, and will land within 45 degrees either side of the nose, fuel and electrics off, not turning back’.
Too many variables (windshear, obstacles, how the engine ‘fails’) in a maneuovre which is not easy to train for in a realistic scenario.
Yes Robert that 45 degree spread. Just like this….
That’s spooky. Did this actually happen yesterday? I was there on Saturday! Agree not many land ahead options.
Ps do you actually use SD in the US?
Did this actually happen yesterday?
No. That’s been around for two years and has been discussed to death on various pilot forums… (maybe here too, can’t remember now).
Ps do you actually use SD in the US?
I don’t live in the US, so there’s no point me getting ForeFlight. Skydemon works reasonably well in the US and depicts all the important stuff. (The owner of the aircraft was actually P1 and in the left seat and flying, my sole contribution was to put the flaps down when we had the runway made. We joked that we have no fewer than 5 moving map GPS, my iPhone/iPad both with SD, her iPhone and iPad with ForeFlight, and the Garmin in the panel – so we would probably not get lost!)
If you saw the red/white Grumman Tiger parked at Flight Line First when you were there, that was us!
Hi
I did park overnight at Flight Line First, leaving Sunday. But that was this week, not 2 yrs ago!, so I’m confused about what’s being said here. Didn’t notice a Tiger but there were plenty of planes there and they hustled us after parking, towing the plane away before we’d unloaded the luggage! The upside was that they let me drive the golf cart to go and fetch it!
So if this did happen this week, I’m sorry to have missed you. Congratulations on the manouvre.
With respect, I’d say there’s every point in getting Foreflight. The representation of US airspace in SD is poor and obviously it totally lacks the legends that are a crucial part of US sectionals. I’m far happier flying on FF’s genuine photo realistic sectional charts than some representation of them and this particular flight was the proof of it, because I’d mislaid the New Orleans sectional prior to takeoff. I went back into the terminal at Alexandria to download the current chart into my back-up iPad and made the flight with two iPads, KLN-94 with MFD550, an iPhone with FF and flight following. The first time I’ve made a flight without a paper map to hand.
You might have seen us -English couple with a 172 N66104. In Nashville now.
Well done! Great recovery from a potentially fatal situation. But I too am puzzled why the electric fuel pump was off in the first place. I was trained on a Tiger and I was firmly told to always take off with the boost pump running and never to switch it off below 1000’. It’s also what the checklist calls for. Now I know why.
That question still hasn’t been answered.
