It never ceases to amaze me... :-(

[River]

G’day ‘team’…

 

Noted this report in one of our newsfeed aviation sites in the US. While it is not an incident about us here in Australia I feel it is an incidnet that we all should consider... MarkOne common sense!

 

On the information presented I find it difficult to understand why, the person, who appears to be an experienced aviation flyer would attempt to continue a take-off experiencing engine performance problems…

 

Fairdinkum, If the report is correct an aborted take-off was the order of the day, and it reads as if he had more than enough runway left to effect a successful safe stop. Why in heavens name attempt a take-off with an engine producing only 4000 rpm from a Rotax 912 which is severely low in the power curve with an obvious performance problem and still try…? What worries me more(with due respect) is this aviator is both a aviation writer and experienced pilot as we are lead to believe by the acticle. Yes, I know there may be more to the story and facts but as this has already been written up in the public domain and media the damage is doneto our recreational aviation/ultralight industry by someone who should have known better.

 

Rodger

 

Attached is a (File) photo of the type of aircraft

 

"Aviation Writer Injured in LSA Accident

 

Dan Johnson Suffers Back Injury In Take-Off Accident

 

A Lakeland bound LSA went down in Southern Florida Tuesday after a takeoff went awry. The departure reportedly fell victim to a lack of power from the four-stroke Rotax engine.

 

Aviation writer Dan Johnson, who had flown the aircraft previously, was enroute to Lakeland FL, for a Fly-In, from South Florida's Naked Lady Ranch

 

when he went down at the side of the runway in small trees and brush. Johnson suffered serious back injuries, including a compression fracture, and is scheduled for surgery Wednesday morning to repair the damage, though the prognosis is positive for a full recovery.

 

No control difficulties or other issues appear to have contributed to the accident. The aircraft involved, a Czech Aircraft Works (CZAW) Parrot, had approximately 120 hours of time in service.

 

ANN spoke to CZAW Parrot Manufacturer, Chip Erwin, a witness to the accident, about the situation and Johnson's unfortunate injury. Chip reported that the aircraft failed to make power on takeoff, a fact reportedly confirmed to him by Johnson, developing only 4000 RPM or so on the Rotax 912 (where revs well above 5K are considered minimum). Despite the lack of take-off power (audible to those on the ground in the immediate area),

 

Johnson attempted to continue the flight, continuing most of the length of the runway, before attempting a partial turn attempt to line up with a crosswind runway -- a decision that was apparently aborted after nearly 90 degrees of turn was completed.

 

Attempting to turn back, the Parrot, a two-place high-wing Certified LSA, settled into small trees and brush at the side of the runway, injuring Johnson

 

and pretty much destroying the aircraft. Erwin noted that the airframe remained fairly well intact throughout the accident, but that the attendant sink rate contributed significantly to the damage suffered by Johnson.

 

Erwin and others rendered aid at the scene, and kept Johnson hydrated until medical help arrived, whereupon Johnson was treated for transport and moved to a St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, FL. The CZAW Parrot is a fairly new LSA. The all-metal Parrot utilizes a fully-cantilevered metal wing, with surprisingly curvy fuselage, a forward-hinged canopy, and a 530 pound payload. The aircraft is powered by a single Rotax 912 ULS, offering 100HP."

 

 

[Admin]

He took off on low power and then tried to turn back to the strip ;)

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Dan Johnson has been writing and test flying for many years in many types of aircraft.. so it always seems hardeer to understand how these decisions sre made try his site lots of interesting stories and such www.bydanjohnson.com also try www.ultraflightradio.com if you haven't already

 

 

[Guest micgrace]

These sorts of things seem to happen with monotonous regularity.

 

Engine failure on takeoff, attempted steep descending turn back to runway.

 

Training is quite clear, fly the aircraft and land ahead (easy to say, hard to do in an emergency). I'd say itwould be "better" (relative) to rip a wing off on a tree and destroy the undercarriage, than stall in a steep descending turn where, more than likely the aircraft is already at a minimum speed and not at manouvering speed, greatly increasing the possibility of stall/spin. With insufficient height to recover.

 

However, human nature as such, will still try the impossible (save the aircraft) I, and fellow aviators, knock wood, are never in such a situation with such a miserable choice.

 

Rule 1.2.3... Fly the aircraft

 

 

[Guest babs1aus]

Nothing as useless as the runway behind you!!!

 

 

[Guest micgrace]

Hopefully the runway is ahead when the fan calls it quits.

 

 

[Guest danda]

Engine failure on landing if inexperienced is no fun either believe me the end product hurts although he Doctors and Nurses where great Oh didn’t do the aircraft much good either.

 

After a number of days in hospital I can at least say that I learnt a lot and not everyone will help you either but that’s another story.

 

DON

 

 

[Guest babs1aus]

Just as a thought not knowing how regularly you all fly but who still regularly tries out their training, You know cutting the throttle to idle and simulating a glide approach do stalls practice engine failure in takeoff attitude(at Height) A real important one if you are fully loaded on climb out and the engine cuts how hard or easy is it to roll over the curve back to flying speed. Knew some one who reckoned he had practiced a turn back at 500 feet idle speed and it was easy. Then I tried from steep climb as if in shortfield paddock you know your worst case scenario as its not going to happen in perfect conditions. This was done at 2500 feet, plane approches stall rapidly you push over the top o build up speed to turn safely, guess what new turn back simulated height is now 300feet. Now im sure you could do it as a planned manouver and land perfectly however the short delay and reaction times even knowing the power is going to be pulled make it a tight manouver with no warning I think most likely not a pleasant outcome. I guess it really depends on the aircraft because gliders seem to do lovely turnbacks at 500.

 

 

[Guest micgrace]

I have some (limited) gliding experience, well drummed in even for that short time (6 launches plus a cable break, that was scary) was the necessity of putting height in relation to potential landing areas at all times. It was no problem turning back at 500' to the strip provided you wern't much more than 5000' away (with no lift) or so of course low aspect wings help, which powered aircraft don't have (apart from motor gliders)

 

But, it's worth remembering, stalling a glider atlow heightsis near suicide. Which, fortunately, is relatively harder to do than, (cause you are already gliding) say, than engine failure in a powered aircraft.

 

Just some thoughts

 

Micgrace

 

 

[Guest micgrace]

I should have added this in the last post, I had a real engine failure at 500' near end downwind in a wire braced Drifter, and even with a immediate descending turn, with base cut real shortthere was no height to spare. As for anywhere else in the circuit (except base orfinal), not likely on this aircraft anyway.

 

Micgrace

 

 

[greggf]

Hmm, funny you should write that today Micgrace. I was flying my drifter this morning (two-up) and practiced a few engine failures on downwind. From 500' agl I was very easily able to take my pick of landing spots on the runway. The only point that bothers me with the drifter is at about the 200 to 300'

 

range after takeoff - which usually happens about over threshold of the shortish grass strip I usually use. At 200 to 300' I am below my (called out loud every takeoff) "safety height" of 400' and I have very few options. No remaining strip. Low trees and scrub ahead, and worse to either side. At 400' I

 

have practiced (solo) engine out turn backs and they are pretty straightforward. So I call 400' my "safety height". Every takeoff I announce it out loud to myself as I pass 400' agl. I'm drumming into my head that I don't even consider the possibility of turnback below 400.Above 500', in the drifter, unless I've strayed over real bad tiger country, I don't have a care in the world. From 1,000 feet, a flameout in a drifter is a total non-event. Any higher is just

 

extended boredom.

 

 

[Guest micgrace]

I never had a problem practicing failures at this height. (with heaps of height left) I can assure you with the fan not turning youdescend a lot faster. But it is still easily achieved. (best landing I've ever done)

 

I wasn't about to experiment with a dead engine to find out the hard way that I mighn't make it.

 

As for landing ahead, my tactic was to start moving away from the strip at an angle to line up with a possible free area (still terrible option, but better)

 

than going for the trees. With 300' up going upwind aturn back was a possiblity at much less than 180 degree. This was out of a bush strip with no room for mistakes or engine failure.

 

Micgrace

 

 

[Guest Guest]

Try an engine failure at night on take-off in a single engine... I was toying around with this concept on the weekend. Very difficult to achieve a successful landing straight ahead if you can't see what's below you. When I was practicing the turn-back move with nil visibile horizon outside it was difficult. Also difficult to know how far to turn back to simulate turning downwind for a glide approach as I was turning very quickly and the DG takes a while to catch up.

 

Not a good move for the beginner which is why I cringe when I see Lee's writeups in the RAA magazing talking about RA-Aus pilots flying their U/L's in the dark! - Don't do it guys!

 

 

[Student Pilot]

Ask the blokes who were doing practice engine failures at night in a Metro at Tamworth a few years ago, or the fellows who were practicing engines failures in a 707 over Bass Straight...............there were comments afterwards it's like practicing to die, you only have to do it once. How do you get on doing practice forced landings at night with your lowest safe?

 

 

[Guest Guest]

"toying around with this concept"

 

Quote and clarification: "When I was practicing the turn-back move with nil visibile horizon outside it was difficult." - at altitude.

 

Trust me, I know a little about night flying and my lowest safe.

 

 

[Guest debra stewart]

hi Guys, I'd just like to add that we are all "experts" in hindsight. None of us were in that cockpit and none of us ( who have never experienced such a thing) would know how we would react. Up until 18 months ago I would have curled up into a foetal position and screamed "I'm gonna die". Then I started doing power-offs and learned what we are all supposed to do, either abort the take-off if possible, or dip the nose immediately and look for a place to safely land ( safely as possible). It is an awful thing to think about. I suppose any pilot would be thinking at a million miles an hour, about safety, landing, and their aircraft, all at the same time, and nerves would play a part.

 

It is nice to think that we are all professional enough to complete the absolute textbook scenario in any of these eventualities ( for which we we train) but we are only human and this is why 90 odd percent of all accidents are human error. I am not the best pilot, nor the worst. I have my frailties and my strong points. I can only hope and pray that I will do everything as I have been trained if this ever happens to me and every take-off nearing 400 to 500ft I remind myself of this. We can only train hard and hope that if anything like that ever happens to us that the mercies of the gods are with us such as, good weather, great paddocks ahead etc, and that we will go into auto mode and do it all right.

 

Debb

 

 

[Garfly]

Though it's 10 years on, the lessons to be learned don't get old:

 

So...What Happened in that Accident?

 

By Dan Johnson, April 21, 2006

 

 

The Czech Aircraft Works Parrot is represented in the USA by Sport Aircraft Works of Florida. It's a fine plane that I enjoyed flying and is part of their family of Mermaid amphibian and Sport Cruiser.

 

A lot of folks have asked what happened in the accident I sustained (April 17th SPLOG). It's a fair question. Pilots can learn from accidents. So, here's my replay: First, any accident I've ever investigated had multiple causes and so did this one. The Czech Aircraft Works prototype Parrot is a fine plane with which I have only minor complaints -- and I expect they'll fix every one by the time it goes into production; this is an experienced company with expert engineers and developers. But on April 2nd, the Parrot's Rotax 912S engine didn't make full power. It revved only to about 4300 rpm, not the expected 5600 rpm. My contributing error, therefore, was not immediately aborting the flight after seeing less than full power. I was number one in a flight of two aircraft. The number two was behind me and while I didn't dwell on his presence, it may have been one reason I didn't abort. But also, this engine usually provides a LSA with plenty of power and I simply wasn't that concerned that it wouldn't lift above the fully tree-lined runway (which was otherwise of sufficient length). I lifted off in ground effect and seemed to climb almost normally though not as fast with full power. When I rose above ground effect and saw I was barely above the tree tops and not climbing, I had my first twinge of real concern. I tried an aggressive turn down a perpendicular runway but I couldn't make the turn so I turned back to the east runway heading. The sharp bank robbed me of more altitude and now I was running out of runway. Since I was flying a one-and-only Parrot heading to Sun 'n Fun, I didn't want to damage the plane. Because I needed braking power to stop before the trees at the end of the runway, I chose to plant the gear firmly on the ground and hoped to stop in time. I hit hard, breaking one gear and veering off into trees and brush on the side of the runway. Despite my effort to save the bird, I damaged it substantially and hurt my back in the process. I was solo in the plane, have flown other comparable planes with this much power and often not needed full power so I convinced myself I could continue. As another friend noted, I also had a lot on my mind with Sun 'n Fun about to start. I had a zillion things to do at that show and while I don't believe I was thinking about it, it surely was part of my mental process that day. Here's my two new personal rules of flying (adding to a long list that helps me not do dumb stuff in aviation): (1) I will always abort any flight that has less than full power showing even if full power is not needed to launch. (2) I will no longer conduct a flight of two as I believe it limits options for the pilot. OK, this will end my accident update...next SPLOG will return to airplane info.