Causes of Forced Landings

[szicree]

Having read too many mentions of forced landings, I'd like to start a thread to simply collect them all in one place. If you've had one, it'd be great if you could post here with as much detail as possible about the cause and what might have prevented it? It's my hope that I may learn from the mistakes of others and keep my plane out of the dirt. Thanks.

[1SeventyZ]

Too much sausage and coffee at breakfast.... ;)

[wannafly]

had an electrical connector fail once. The kind you slip over the bolt and tighten with a nut. It was a cheap alluminum one...all steel from now on. It broke off on the kill switch and touch the frame. Instant engine off...800 feet off the ground on takeoff:eek:good thing the hay field I left from was 160 acres...landed with no issues. Was amazed how long it took to find it...

[Slyfox]

forward stick movement without any back movement.

[szicree]

had an electrical connector fail once. The kind you slip over the bolt and tighten with a nut. It was a cheap alluminum one...all steel from now on. It broke off on the kill switch and touch the frame. Instant engine off...800 feet off the ground on takeoff:eek:good thing the hay field I left from was 160 acres...landed with no issues. Was amazed how long it took to find it...

Can I assume that this engine had only one ignition system?

[wannafly]

yes it was a subaru back then

[HighWing]

Mine was a low oil pressure indication that prompted a precautionary landing in not great terrain. There was something in the oil tank that blocked the pick up tube.

FYI - be careful when setting down in unfamiliar terrain. We were in the Sierra foothills and chose a clearing surrounded by trees. We decided to land in a direction away from the river and powerlines, not realizing we were on the other side of a hill and trying to find the ground as it sloped away from us. We were approaching oak trees at the edge of the clearing and forced a stall.

[carlisle]

Fuel starvation due to debris in the tank. Plane had about 50 hrs on it. Rotax 582, single 13.5 gal fiberglass tank with 1 gal aluminum header. Had enough altitude to CAREFULLY turn back and return to departure runway (downwind) from about 400 agl on crosswind, much to the consternation of the plane that had just departed.

Never found out what the little white flakes in the float bowls was. My guess was fiberglass, although I had flushed/washed the tank before installation as per instructions. I'd also complied with the AD for 'sloshing' the header tank. Now have a clear glass filter just before the vacuum driven fuel pump and haven't seen any more stuff in it.

Chris Carlisle
Model 2, 582, C box
Sioux Falls, SD

[avidflyer]

I had filters between the wing tanks and the header tank on my Avid Flyer, and the filter on the tank I was running off of started to plug as I was taking off. I got to about 450' before the header tank started to run dry and the 582 started to miss and spit. The header tanks in many of the Avids is a 2" aluminum tube about 16" long. Not as big as most Kitfoxes use. Anyway, I landed in a neighbors hay field with no damage to me or the plane. It was exciting though and definatly got the blood presure up and the heart beating faster! Solution for me was to get rid of those filters and put them in after the header tank so it can have the first shot at catching any dirt or junk in the tank. Take care,
Jim Chuk
Avid MK IV (flying0
Kitfox 4 (building)
northern Mn

[fred colman]

Revs reduced from 6200 to 5100 during climb out,turned gently to go around.Engine stoped after turn,:eek: landed fast down wind in snow coverd croped field(same field as takeoff)port gear leg broke at bungee attachment point.When landing roll ceased plane slewed left and tipped on to starboard wing tip(not a great deal of damage).Evidence on back cylinder sugested "cold seizure".With low time on Kitfox,about 10 hrs,I did not handle the situation very well,hindsight is a marvellous thing,never stop learning.60+ hrs now and getting the hang of it :D Love it.
KF Mk2 582

[szicree]

Mine was a low oil pressure indication that prompted a precautionary landing in not great terrain. There was something in the oil tank that blocked the pick up tube.

Forgive my lack of familiarity about the Rotax, but does the oil pickup have a screen? Did you ever figure out exactly what caused the clog? Thanks for the info.

[HighWing]

Yes, there is a screen between the return line and the pick-up. Never really found out what it was for sure. It was black and hard when cold, but we took off with a high temp inversion lever and oil temps were high which melted it into a blob that stuck in the pick up - the most likely idea was one of the rings that safeties the cap on an oil bottle.

[SkyPirate]

there's 3 things I do when I first fly a plane I built or bought ,..first I do a power on stall ,..then I do a power off stall ,..then I do a dead stick landing,..of course I'll get my position right first ,..headed for the runway :) , I try to do this on a day with relatively low cross winds ,..
and just about every day that I fly I'd do one of the 3 mentioned do's...
so I guess one would have to call that a self induced forced landing ,..but it's a good thing to practice,..because you never know when you will have to do one without a choice.

Chase

[rogerh12]

Howdy all;

I actually had two forced landing, both in my Zenith 601 HDS running a VW conversion engine. The first one occurred when the new wood propeller broke off in flight, at about 6K feed AGL. I made it to about 1 mile from the airport, and landed in a soy bean field without event (thanks to the drought that year in Kansas). Turns out the new prop I installed threw the leading edge off again, it had a urethane leading edge which had come off once before. This time, it disrupted the airflow and sent the prop into a harmonic vibration for about 20-30 seconds, then BANG !!!. I suppose if I had more than 60 hours in my log book, I might have understood what was happening and throttled back, but I didn’t. Actually, when it broke one blade off, it was quickly followed by the other blade and the front of the crank. What with all the oil & sh@t flying up in the air, the first thing that went through my head was, crap, I just got hit by a flack burst. (perhaps I had been flying that combat flight simulator too much)…

The second time I was at 4K Agl and the intake valve roller popped off the valve face on one cylinder. With the engine now pulling a vacuum on one cylinder, is shook the plane awful bad, in fact I thought I lost part of the prop again, but landed at the airport at reduced power, with altitude to spare… Remember, altitude is insurance, I recommend everyone fly with a policy and always be thinking: what would I do if the engine quit right NOW?

[SkyPirate]

Roger ,.we (our EAA group) are building a 601 at TBN ,.I'd like to hear about your flight experiences in the 601 ,..pro's and con's on it's agility etc.
chase001@centurytel.net

thanks

Chase

[szicree]

the intake valve roller popped off the valve face on one cylinder.

I'm afraid I don't understand what this means. Can you elaborate and state the type of engine? Thanks.

[SkyPirate]

I'm afraid I don't understand what this means. Can you elaborate and state the type of engine? Thanks.


sounds to me like the roller rocker stud bolt failed or rocker assembly,.. and it left the valve closed,..which is worse then just having a fouled plug,.. because the intake valve being closed all the time will create a vacuum in the cylinder because no fuel is getting in the cylinder to be ignited,..just a wild guess:cool:

Chase

[rogerh12]

It's a VW conversion. The VW uses push rods to actuate the valves via a rocker arm. The end of the rocker arm touches the valve stem face via a screw adjustable roller ball, to reduce friction I guess.
The roller ball just broke off. They called it a freak failure.....
Roger

[SkyPirate]

that is odd roger ,..I've seen rocker studs break ,..posh rods get bent , or stuck into the valve cover..even valves get bent ,..never seen the ball on the rod break off,..

Chase

[szicree]

Got it. I know exactly the ones you mean, had em on an old notchback back in my teens. When you said valve face I took that to mean the actual face (the part that meets the valve seat). Thanks for the info. All of this info will help prevent others from having the same trouble.

[kitfoxvixen9095]

In my case it was pilot/preflight error. Series 5 Kitfox, went out for a late evening short flight, one tank had about 4 gallons and the other maybe 5. I was only planning on about an hour flight all close to my airport so off i went. About 45 minutes into the flight I was flying at about 800 agl and she went silent. this is one of those times where we realize we've got someone watching out for us, i had just made the decision to turn east and fly over a friends house rather than turning west which would have taken me over some bad terrain including a couple small lakes. Fortunately my friends house included a runway which i was able to make a 180 degree turn, slip and land on. The problem was that the only tank that got turned on was the one with only 4 gallons of fuel and my header tank low fuel warning light had failed!!! It was one of those in a hurry, not long till dark, etc etc... mistakes. In my case it all turned out ok but it could have been not so pretty!! The surprising thing was the lack of panic when it happened, i remember my knees starting to knock but not till after i was on the ground. Just remember...PREFLIGHT...

[Slyfox]

talk about fuel warning light. I remember a few years ago on my way back from arlington air show and the engine went quiet. Seems I forgot to switch tanks and one went empty. I quickly switched tanks, really not knowing what the cause was, and the wife said, what do we do know, I came back with, if it doesn't start back up soon I'll turnback and land on the road behind us. Well it kicked and started back up. After making it back home I ordered up the low fuel the same day. The one I have is the float type, which I like very much for the way I check it is to grab a wing on the ground and rock the airplane and look at the light on the dash for it to come on and off. system checked. It's also amazing that particularly the right tank with the vent will stop flowing at 3 gal left in the tank.:( Got to watch that one.

[Russell320]

My speedster does the exact same thing. Low fuel light came on with what I thought was plenty of fuel in the right tank. Landed ASAP and fueled. That tank won't feed as well. My fuel light works great though.:D

[Slyfox]

odly enough, I have experimented and found that only when you get down to about 3 gals of fuel and it stops flow, if you retrict the vent line it starts flowing again.:eek:

don't leave that vent line restricted, not cut off by the way, or when you have a full tank, the header tank goes emty, that's what if found out anyway.