One lucky pilot!

[TuFun]

Serious damage to that engine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FdRQiHyWQs

[Piper_EEWL]

Serious damage to that engine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FdRQiHyWQs

Oh wow. And a quite interesting return to the field. Glad it worked out. Do you know what the cause for the catastrophic engine failure was?

[DHenriques_]

There is a secondary message available to the viewer of this film that isn't quite as obvious as the engine failure and it's an important message for real pilots.
Notice that this pilot committed not one but TWO errors involving a conflict between his prop control and his mixture control when involving an action where he wanted the prop control he used the mixture control.

This unfortunately is a very common occurrence with pilots and experience isn't really a player when it happens. In other words it can happen to any pilot and at any time.
In human factors study in accident investigation this type of error can occur when a checklist is being performed (or in this case a normal often practiced procedure such as a power reduction after takeoff) and the pilot's basic thought processing is conflicted.
In this instance the pilot was obviously deeply involved with the engine and whether or not the engine was performing properly. Note that this was the exact purpose of his flight.
So both times when he wanted one control and used the wrong one his mind had set up for the action to be performed but his thought processing short circuited that and failed to produce the required action from his physical body (in this case his right hand)
The message here is actually quite simple to understand and extremely difficult to put into practice.
Pilots MUST.........and I repeat it again for clarity.............MUST TRAIN themselves to ALWAYS MATCH their mental processing with a single action required by a physical response. In other words the brain has to match the action with the requirement to act and nothing else.
Believe it or not this is not easy to accomplish. It requires a concentrated effort to do correctly.
The pilot when performing an act MUST block out ALL mental processing not required to perform the required act.
The Thunderbird F16 crash by the solo pilot at Mountain Home AFB was a perfect example of this error when the pilot experienced a mental processing error involving conflict between his high side reversal energy gate altitude for where he was and where he practiced every day at another location.
Anyway.................just musing this morning. Thought all of you might like the "inside view" on these things as they exist in the real world.
Dudley Henriques

[Ron Attwood]

I'd have grave doubts about going up in that airplane again! There has to come a time when he says to himself That bugger wants to kill me'

[DHenriques_]

I'd have grave doubts about going up in that airplane again! There has to come a time when he says to himself That bugger wants to kill me'

All airplanes want to kill you. It's simply a contest every time you fly as to who wins, you or the airplane.
Dudley Henriques

[Ron Attwood]

I'd have grave doubts about going up in that airplane again! There has to come a time when he says to himself That bugger wants to kill me'

All airplanes want to kill you. It's simply a contest every time you fly as to who wins, you or the airplane.
Dudley Henriques

Gotta smile. That's a case of nail being struck soundly on the head.

[Killratio]

All airplanes want to kill you. It's simply a contest every time you fly as to who wins, you or the airplane.
Dudley Henriques

Some moreso than others

I'll introduce one further comment on this:

This pilot attempted (and, to be completely fair, achieved) the "Impossible Turn" on a day where he had TWICE failed to successfully complete a very basic, simple action. Whilst an engine failure is hardly the time to start second guessing yourself, I would have thought that making a decision to ignore what is essentially a "don't do it" mantra on a day where you are already suspect in your mental/physical processing , is problematic. I would suggest that there are many better pilots than this guy that have been retrieved from the bottom of smoking holes after attempting "the turn".

One very lucky pilot indeed!

[DHenriques_]

All airplanes want to kill you. It's simply a contest every time you fly as to who wins, you or the airplane.
Dudley Henriques

Some moreso than others

I'll introduce one further comment on this:

This pilot attempted (and, to be completely fair, achieved) the "Impossible Turn" on a day where he had TWICE failed to successfully complete a very basic, simple action. Whilst an engine failure is hardly the time to start second guessing yourself, I would have thought that making a decision to ignore what is essentially a "don't do it" mantra on a day where you are already suspect in your mental/physical processing , is problematic. I would suggest that there are many better pilots than this guy that have been retrieved from the bottom of smoking holes after attempting "the turn".

One very lucky pilot indeed!

About the impossible turn;

Two things; The FAA decided long ago that generally speaking, for the most part and dealing with the average pilot, the safest way to handle an engine failure on takeoff was to teach everyone NOT to attempt a return to the field.

Through my career teaching people to fly I've done considerable research on the impossible turn.
My overall take on it is that IF a pilot is willing to do some training........and IF a pilot is willing to devote some practice........and IF a pilot is willing to take the time and effort to make a mental note on the airfield and runway being used as to surrounding layout, the "impossible turn" is actually possible IF certain parameters can be met before the engine fails after a takeoff.
Granted it's only possible on specific runways and specific airfields so it's up to each individual pilot to prepare properly for the event and most certainly to be able to execute properly back to either the runway or an oblique landing on the airport property off runway.
There's a lot to doing the turn properly. Getting through the startle factor is only the beginning. Unloading the wing and controlling the airspeed must be accomplished perfectly.
If a pilot isn't willing to make all this effort...........just land the thing straight ahead or obliquely trying to avoid obstructions. If they can't be avoided, just fly the plane completely through the crash maintaining positive control as long as possible.
Dudley Henriques

[guillaume78150]

What was the main cause of the engine failure ?

[Piper_EEWL]

What was the main cause of the engine failure ?

I would be interested in that too.

[TuFun]

More on the incident...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3G1Y50Olls

He will have more on the engine on a later video.

[AerialShorts]

One thing about that impossible turn is it looked like he had lots of places to set down, even in the river if it came to that. It looked like through a lot of that turn he could have stopped the turn and still had options for where to actually set down. Can’t speak for the guy and don’t know what he was thinking, but it looked like he got lucky with just enough altitude and airspeed to go all the way to the runway but could have aborted and landed straight pretty much all the way through that turn. “All he had to do” was make sure he didn’t run out of altitude or airspeed before he committed to whatever options remained. I checked the map and things look pretty open and flat around him except for the concrete plant and UHaul rental he flew over about when the engine quit. He also had a residential neighborhood in front of him (but also a long field that would have been a good escape). As long as he wasn’t locked into get-there-itis and was mindful of when he needed to abort the turn and just land the plane, it looked ok to me.


https://goo.gl/maps/ewBuDmh67pnXV3gs7