Video: Failure during climb with the A2A T-6.

[boomshinesaigon]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nABSImGkaQk[/youtube]

Times:

00:00 - Some time after takeoff, during climb.
00:30 - A few minutes after entering the clouds; note (I didn't notice) that my fuel pressure is at 0.
00:40 - Loss of engine power.
01:15 - I realize I have no idea what I'm doing; I should have read the manual thoroughly.
02:05 - Contemplating where to land; doubting that I can make it back to CYFB.
02:20 - Retarded the throttle a bit. Regaining engine power.
07:45 - I find a number of issues in the maintenance hangar.

From 02:20 to 7:45 I make my way back and land at CYFB after getting power back.

Issues:

yellow - Oil leak : I suspected this one due to my oil consumption in a previous flight, but did not go to the maintenance hangar.
yellow - Hydraulic leak : Must have been minor, didn't notice.
yellow - Oil filter: I have no idea.
yellow - Fuel filter: I have no idea, but I lean very aggressively on the ground (down to 38-44%), is this damaging any components?
red - Air filter: I have no idea, but I've done some steep high-speed descents (just below the yellow part of the airspeed indicator) dropping at 6000 fpm. What can damage an air filter this badly?

This is what happens when an inexperienced person flies the airplane across Canada for ~45 hours, I suppose. I only visit the maintenance hangar when I notice an issue. This was my first visit in about 42 hours.

My landings have all been comparable to the one in the video. So I'm looking for someone with more experience to chime in as to why those systems could have been damaged and what I need to look out for. I imagine there's many variables involved, but any advice is welcome!

[Tomas Linnet]

What was the outside temperature when you flew into the clouds? I'm guessing the engine stopped because of carburettor icing.
Better check the manual

[boomshinesaigon]

What was the outside temperature when you flew into the clouds? I'm guessing the engine stopped because of carburettor icing.
Better check the manual

OAT was around -14C/7F. I haven't encountered carburetor icing that happened that quickly. I usually watch for manifold pressure drops in bad weather and can catch it without too much issue; I didn't notice any MP drops out of the ordinary. However, the fact that I was focusing so intently on the MP gauge caused me to completely ignore the fuel pressure reading until the engine gave out.

[Scott - A2A]

It's just great that you caught this on video - it's something you almost never see in real life or sim, to catch a failure and can review it later.

First, losing an engine at night over a dark area is a very scary thing indeed.

This doesn't appear to be carb icing. It appears from the video, the fuel pressure went to zero before the engine quit, which seems like you could have had some blockage in the fuel system which starved the engine of fuel. The fact the engine continued to windmill meant it kept sucking in fuel and air, which fortunately allowed whatever the blockage was to clear out. You were very lucky and what a nice feeling it was to see you make it back to a runway.

However, if you ever were to go into the dark abyss in an airplane, a T-6 would be high on the list of airplanes you would want to be in. It's built like a tank.

Scott.

[cflord]

Very cool video. It had me on the edge of my seat until you landed safely. I'm glad the engine recovered enough for you to make it. At least you did not burst into flames, which is always possible with a flammable fluid leak. Great timing to video the event!

Keep the shiny side up and the dirty side down!

Ret SMSgt Cliff Lord - C-130 Flight Engineer & Mechanic

[DHenriques_]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nABSImGkaQk[/youtube]

Times:

00:00 - Some time after takeoff, during climb.
00:30 - A few minutes after entering the clouds; note (I didn't notice) that my fuel pressure is at 0.
00:40 - Loss of engine power.
01:15 - I realize I have no idea what I'm doing; I should have read the manual thoroughly.
02:05 - Contemplating where to land; doubting that I can make it back to CYFB.
02:20 - Retarded the throttle a bit. Regaining engine power.
07:45 - I find a number of issues in the maintenance hangar.

From 02:20 to 7:45 I make my way back and land at CYFB after getting power back.

Issues:

yellow - Oil leak : I suspected this one due to my oil consumption in a previous flight, but did not go to the maintenance hangar.
yellow - Hydraulic leak : Must have been minor, didn't notice.
yellow - Oil filter: I have no idea.
yellow - Fuel filter: I have no idea, but I lean very aggressively on the ground (down to 38-44%), is this damaging any components?
red - Air filter: I have no idea, but I've done some steep high-speed descents (just below the yellow part of the airspeed indicator) dropping at 6000 fpm. What can damage an air filter this badly?

This is what happens when an inexperienced person flies the airplane across Canada for ~45 hours, I suppose. I only visit the maintenance hangar when I notice an issue. This was my first visit in about 42 hours.

My landings have all been comparable to the one in the video. So I'm looking for someone with more experience to chime in as to why those systems could have been damaged and what I need to look out for. I imagine there's many variables involved, but any advice is welcome!

Had this happen to me one night. Instinctively I changed tanks. That wasn't the problem but old habits (and good habits) die hard.
Dudley Henriques

[Paughco]

Hope you took a change of underwear on that flight!

Seeya
ATB

[boomshinesaigon]

It's just great that you caught this on video - it's something you almost never see in real life or sim, to catch a failure and can review it later.

First, losing an engine at night over a dark area is a very scary thing indeed.

This doesn't appear to be carb icing. It appears from the video, the fuel pressure went to zero before the engine quit, which seems like you could have had some blockage in the fuel system which starved the engine of fuel. The fact the engine continued to windmill meant it kept sucking in fuel and air, which fortunately allowed whatever the blockage was to clear out. You were very lucky and what a nice feeling it was to see you make it back to a runway.

However, if you ever were to go into the dark abyss in an airplane, a T-6 would be high on the list of airplanes you would want to be in. It's built like a tank.

Scott.

I definitely felt lucky when that engine started sputtering back to life. This is my first accu-sim failure and it caught me off guard. I initially thought I'd be able to react quickly in case of failure, but it definitely took me a few minutes to accept what was happening.

With hindsight, I'd have attempted a 180 turn back to CYFB much sooner as to take advantage of my altitude (I lost a lot just messing around with the controls) in order to get a longer glide distance from the start.

Very cool video. It had me on the edge of my seat until you landed safely. I'm glad the engine recovered enough for you to make it. At least you did not burst into flames, which is always possible with a flammable fluid leak. Great timing to video the event!

Keep the shiny side up and the dirty side down!

Ret SMSgt Cliff Lord - C-130 Flight Engineer & Mechanic

Those four wind gusts at 400 ft near the runway certainly didn't help the mood! It was a fun experience. It really caught me off guard.

[...]

Had this happen to me one night. Instinctively I changed tanks. That wasn't the problem but old habits (and good habits) die hard.
Dudley Henriques

I actually changed fuel tanks during the climb (bad idea?). When the failure occurred, I switched it back in hopes of getting back to the previous working state (it didn't help).

Hope you took a change of underwear on that flight!

Seeya
ATB

Just going to put a diaper on next time I decide to fly in bad weather.

[AKar]

yellow - Fuel filter: I have no idea, but I lean very aggressively on the ground (down to 38-44%), is this damaging any components?
red - Air filter: I have no idea, but I've done some steep high-speed descents (just below the yellow part of the airspeed indicator) dropping at 6000 fpm. What can damage an air filter this badly?

As a sidenote concerning these specific points, these components deteriorate over time as they accumulate stuff from the flow passing through them - per design, obviously. They very seldom "fail" per se, and are little, if at all, affected by how the airplane is operated. Environmental factors obviously mean a lot: if flown in, say, sandy conditions more frequent servicing may be what doctor orders.

Leaning aggressively on ground (or more specifically, at very low power settings) is not harmful at all, albeit if one gets frequent 'misfiring', it is not particularly good to the power plant either but it should prompt the pilot to advance the mixture enough to make the engine smooth again.

Re. air filter, I don't know what's the recommended servicing interval (cleaning most likely in an airplane of this age) of the air filter, but if I had to guess, I'd say maybe 25 hours in T-6.

-Esa