Two and three engine transport aircraft have the same basic concept, able to maintain a certain flight path with a failed engine, though the numbers are slightly different.
Not a lot. The FBO did some.
No.
Yes. They kept building subdivision houses on one of the r/w approaches, then complained about the noise and low flying a/c!
There was another airport (commercial) whose r/w was 6 miles past the end of our main r/w, on the same orientation. I was horrified (sort of) to see a commercial jetliner abort a landing at our main 4,500’ r/w and proceed to the correct destination.
Been there, done that.
Friday, April 13th, 1973, North Central Oklahoma, a hot & rough morning, doing pipe line patrolling of flight G-2A. A fun field system to fly but on this day, a bad way to start the last day of the workweek.
I was in my usual aircraft, good old ‘900.’
This was a fun field to fly, it worked out just like a dance with full deflection of controls flowing into a wonderful dance with the aircraft as your partner. The start was a bit tricky as it was Northbound and there was usually a South wind in that area and that day was no different. It was a 130° cut back to the left, S/W and it would sneak up on you. “Damn, there it is.” And I slammed in full left aileron and rudder with just enough elevator to stay out of the dirt. Stood up on the left wingtip, made the turn without losing sight of the line and went to bring 900 back to level. The control wheel would not rotate at ALL. It was locked in the full left position.
Time went to a crawl. ( Probably 2/10ths of a second actually passed, seemed like forever. )
Now I was more inverted about 30 feet from the ground, pushed a bit of FWD pressure and let her come on around while dancing on the rudder at times that seemed like a good idea. Coming back upright, I went to full power, full top rudder and she was going to go around anyway.
This would kill us both so I just stood against the rudder pedals, lifted myself sorta up and with two hands on the control; wheel put everything into turning that wheel back to neutral.
I could feel metal ripping & grinding, it felt like I was ripping a pulley out of the wing but I did not care, that roll had to stop NOW… And it did…
So there I sat, full top rudder, (right), partial left aileron, full power, an airspeed gauge that said I was stalled, right at tree top height with the nose to the far right of the flight path heading up a gentle slope. I froze in terror, which was the smartest thing I could have done.
It I tried to straighten the yaw, that would slow the leading wing ( left one ) just enough to stall it, me & 900 die.
We have not stalled YET and we might just clear the trees, the little Continental engine it doing it’s best, the Cessna wing has not lost it’s grip on the airflow and I was breathing real careful and wishing there would be a gentle shift in the wind on the top of the slope past the trees. There was !!!
I eased the aircraft straight as I could get it, gaining precious airspeed and altitude. After a year or so, ( actually about 10 seconds, maybe ) I decidedd I need to rip up thew wing a bit more and have a better chance of continued flight. I needed my legs to stop shaking first. Putting a scary amount of effort into turning the control wheel I had gotten to the point that I thought I might be able to stay in the air. Now to find out where I was. I was going the wrong way by almost exactly 180°…
Such a gentle & careful turn you have never seen done better, I had herded 900 into the correct direction, called ther oil company I was doing that flight for and told them that I did not feel like finishing it today and I was going back home. As they had no inductions of trouble on their instruments, they were fine with that. "Like I cared if they cared… NOT. "
Got close to TUL and called them, told them what I wanted to do and they more or less gave me the whole airport to do whatever I felt like. “Neat.” My plan was to get down without bending me or anything else worse than it already was. I did not use the work, ‘mayday’ or ‘emergency’ or ‘unknown’ or any other word that would require much papoerwork & hassle. The whole control crew knew all of the local everyday pilots quite well and since we always did everthing in our power to make life easy for them, we got the same in return. A lovely working relationship.
I did !!!
Taxied to our hanger area and was met by my Chief Pilot. I just walked by him & headed for my DrPepper & cigarette. He went to look at the plane. About 15 minutes later he comes in and says, “You will not believe this.”
Outside and back to 900 we go.
That morning, I had dropped off the transponder at the radio repair and watched the mechanic tape up the antenna lead to the firewall with ‘masking tape.’ That was my first mistake. I know better but that day …
Had a rough morning and that had shaken the lead down to where it was swinging free.
Next I almost missed my first turn into the field system so I had banked & pulled strongly & suddenly which combined with a bump to :::::::::::::::::
Cause the connector on the end of the cable to get into the scissors bar of the yoke system which it can only do at full deflection with the control wheel fully pulled towards the pilot and coming in a straight line which it could only do if it was taped to the firewall at a certain amount of looseness.
A million to one with a million to one on top of another million to one series of events to produce this event.
Had I not been very very lucky, not listened to older pilots & their stories, not asked the airplane to do something that it was not designed to do, well, my flying would have ended that day.
I had very close to 2600 hrs total time on that day so I I was at one of the most dangerous times in a pilots life.
500 hrs = thinks he knows everything
1500 hrs = knows that he knows everything
2500 to 5000 hrs, does not care about careful because he never forgets to be careful so things start to slip by without checking. YMMV
I had another one in a Cherokee 180 on a maintenance test flight with another older wiser pilot but I can’t find the entry right now but it included a shop rag, elevators that were getting tighter & tighter and landing with me holding the control still in the for/aft position so it could not move and using the trim instead of the elevator to make the landing.
We had to think backward on that landing.
Links to my log book and a pic of 900 that go with this event.
900 is the older one in the middle.
From those that flew, it was setup with transport style seating, so all of the seats were along the wall facing in; one couldn’t even see out the windows with the 4 (5?) point harnesses on. The did fly the length of the gorge where we usually fly across it so that would have been cool if one could see anything. (One guy did have a GoPro suctioned to the cockpit window but I haven’t seen video yet.)
The cool part was the B-17 that was used in the movie Memphis Belle is there being renovated & they actually fired up some of the engines on Sat. Maybe we can get that one for next year!
I took this from the ground as it flew over us.
There are a couple of DC-3/C-47 at Udvar-Hazy where I’ll be in a few weeks for their annual Become a Pilot Day. Anyone else going to be there?
Winds can be deadly. RIP Ryan.
We were just flying up there with them two weeks ago.
This is the second death I’ve heard pf when someone did NOT do the opposite of “the Obvious”.
An airship trying to take off without anyone aboard?
Obviously, you grab it and hold on.
Wrong - that gets you dead unless you can get into the basket - and very few people can do that.
Eventually, you will let go. Unfortunately, it will be at an altitude inconsistent with survival when you do let go.
(the other was a tiny blimp at Hayward CA.)
I don’t know more than what’s been in the media but the pilot was still in the basket. The passengers had exited & the crew was holding weight on, which is not uncommon.
It sounds like a gust of wind came & lifted the balloon. Three of four crew let go. I’m guessing either he got caught (physically) or caught unaware & was off the ground before he knew what happened.
How about an “abort” system - the current crop of commercial space company’s crew modules have thrusters abord and can rocket away from the booster and land away from it if the launch fails.
Maybe a large level well above the basket that would release the basket under these conditions.
Or maybe put the levers (or whatever) under a curled railing along the edge of the basket so a hanger-on can activate it.
But, given the extreme rarity of these incidents, the cost and weight penalty may counter-indicate.
Or. maybe not - a cable run along the edge and covered so as to not be triggered accidentally - could release the connectors which attach the lines to the basket.
That is a spectacularly BAD idea.
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While it doesn’t happen all the time, “tree brakes” happens often enough that it’s taught to students - how to intentionally clip the top of a tree to scrub off some speed before landing. Sometimes this is done perfectly, sometimes one comes in a foot (or two) too low. Even when that occurs, no damage occurs to either tree or basket, but the tree can “grab” the basket; potentially triggering your disconnect mechanism.
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It would have to be a mechanical trigger (explosive bolts around propane tanks are not a good idea) w/o a lot of safety mechanisms. (ie. By the time you realize you’re off the ground, flip a protective plate open & then pull the lever you’re possibly already too high to survive the fall. You’ve also now sacrificed the pilot/passengers still in the basket.
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Even intentionally triggering it, you’re now causing an approx. 80’ tall, several hundred pound cloth bag to suddenly lose between ⅓ & ¼ ton of ballast, which will cause it to shoot up like a rocket, potentially flying into the restricted inverted wedding cake & interfering with other aircraft. The lack of metal & slow downwind speed means it probably won’t register on radar either.
4a. When the now-uncontrolled envelope cools off & comes down, it will come down wherever it’s blown. If this is in a lake or forest, the envelope is most likely destroyed.
4b. If it comes down across an interstate it’s liable to cause an accident & if it comes down across high-tension lines, you’ve just taken out power to an entire town. Of course, Murphy’s Law says it’s going to come down on the high-tension lines over the valley; you know, the ones only accessible by helicopter, which will delay clearing it.
Anybody hear the news about the FAA’s relaxation of the rules about (at least Third Class) Medical Certs?
The article I saw was talking about the frequency of exams.
While they are monkeying around in there: Dump the INSANE rule about
“If the word ‘cancer’ appears anywhere in your record, you are grounded forever”.
Back to the runaway gas bag.
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If there are people aboard, there should not be anyone lost - at least one of the people aboard should notice someone of the mooring line and either pull him up or land the aircraft
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I’ll allow a bag to ground flippin’ Air Force One if doing so saves a human life. The runaway in Hayward CA sent an unmanned blimp either into or really close to Oakland International’s restricted airspace. Nobody died on account of that blimp’s flight path into that space.
A simple cable which shears the soft metal “cotter key” holding clevis pins in eyelets below rings which connect basket to bag large-diameter pulleys at the corners for the release cable.
I would not advise the release mechanism used by two planes to release the sailplane it just launched, but something of that size, weight, and complexity would work very well.
I’d guess the whole thing could be brought in for 3 pounds for the first release lever, and 5-8 oz, for each additional.
I don’t know haw the baskets are connected to the bags - if the current setup can be easily modified, the weight penalty could be reduced.
The other solution: All lighter-than-air aircraft must always be tied down to a real tie-down or a motor vehicle weighing more the twice the max lift of the aircraft.
The only legal way of launching the craft is a remote detonator for a pyrotechnic device.
The pyro device is keyed to that particular craft, and the detonator can be removed from the basket by only a mechanic.
What is this about? SOMEBODY has to be IN THE BASKET before it can be released.
Hell, if there is a tower, the same person who says “Cleared for takeoff” can be the one with the detonator.
Either guarantee that somebody will be in the basket or at least give the guy hanging from the rope a chance to cut the bag loose.
Yes, NRA, we know “If the good guy had had a gun, he could’ve shot holes in the bag”.
Unbelievably, we STILL aren’t going to require all operators, passengers, and “airport kids” to carry .44 magnums.
IMO, the cost, complexity, and all the required red tape would not be cost effective. Not enough lives saved to justify doing it.
Ugh, add this to the list of dumb, outdated things the FAA should change. The big ones on my list are eliminating the expiration of instructor licenses, and implementing plain-language weather / NOTAMs / PIREPs.
↑ ↑ ↑ For president and everything airplane… 
The incident I referred to happened after landing, there is no mooring line when landing & the commercial pilot was still in the basket.
Even discounting that the pilot/owner died, one incident where no one on the ground was injured does not necessarily make something a good idea.
This is standard practice.
The last time you proposed this I said it was a spectacularly bad idea; I’m going to amend that…it has to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard! The tie-offs (mentioned above) are typically done to the top of the basket frame. This puts them inches below the top of the burners & 1-12" above the heads of people in the basket. This is where you want to put a remotely controlled explosive device??? :smack: :eek:
Are you familiar with the various classes of airspace? If you need a tower to clear you for takeoff, balloons are not typically going to be flying there.
Finally, the fabric part of a balloon is called an envelope. When putting it away after a flight, the envelope is packed into a bag.
During the Republican National Convention last week, I saw Trump’s jet, his helicopter, two USCG orange-and-white rescue helicopters, and 13 dark military helicopters - including five Black Hawks - on the ground at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland. The five Black Hawks all took off in formation on the afternoon of the day after the convention recessed.
The crew of a record-setting SR-71 Blackbird flight reunites: http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/28/aviation/sr71-blackbird-crew-reunites-anniversary-speed-record/index.html
The USAF is investing big bucks in F-15 Eagle upgrades: http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/02/politics/us-air-force-f-15-upgrades/?iid=ob_lockedrail_topeditorial
I know your comment is a couple months old, but where did you ever get the idea that cancer is permanently grounding? That’s absolutely positively not so, at least for the FAA. I can’t speak to other countrys’ procedures.
You do have to get through the treatment and be in full remission. No chemo on Monday, radiation on Tuesday, and fly to Chicago on Wednesday.
I know several professionals who are still flying today years after their original bout w cancer. This has been true for decades; my dad was a flying cancer survivor back in the 1980s.