Hey everyone. Jason Schappert here
of MzeroA.com. We're flying along at
2,000 feet and let's say forbid, we're coming around and all of a sudden
the engine quits. What do I do? Remember
it's the ABCs of an emergency. A first
and foremost is for my airspeed. I'm pitching and I'm trimming most importantly for
that best glide speed. B is my
best landing area. Well I'm lucky enough I happen to have an airport here. But I want to make
this an interesting scenario. I'm going to start heading towards that best landing area. But that best
landing area, to make this a little more realistic, happens to have a grass
strip. I'm going to land on that grass strip because think of it this way,
your first real soft field landing unfortunately could be in
the event of an emergency. I don't want you as you are about to make the most important
landing of your life, be thinking about as you are putting it down in this field, or whatever it may be,
that you've never touched down, you've practiced it, but you've never touched down on a real
soft field. So that's what we're going to recreate here.
ABCs. Airspeed, best landing area. And start heading
towards it. And then lastly, the C in there is my checklist.
Assuming I have some time to work through my checklist. If not, I
work through my FLOW. My fuel is on both here. Mixture is
rich. Carburetor heat on for a second, see if that fixes it. I'm going to turn it off
because I am touching down on a real soft field and I don't want the carb heat open here. Coming across,
everything's good. Primer is in lock. Ignition. Trying to crank it up again. Crank, crank, crank and darn it, nothing happens.
7700 and I'm going to broadcast my emergency really
to anybody that will listen in this case. And I'm just going to let them know we're doing a simulated
engine failure. At Williston traffic, 23 Mike Zulu is over top the field
1,300 feet, simulated engine failure. We're going to spiral down to
land on 18, the grass runway at Williston. So everything is looking good.
I'm right over top the grass runway. At this point here, I can kind of
make just a nice normal approach back to landing.
So I'm going to make kind of like a shallow little turn here.
Come back around just like I would. I want to make this
as normal as possible here. I want to fly a traffic pattern. See
the things I'm used to. A lot of times people aren't used to making straight in approaches and everything else.
So don't chance it, don't push it. Go ahead and make the kind of approach
you are used to, which is making a downwind to base to final towards that field.
Not everybody is familiar, not everybody is used to making a straight in approach.
Especially in say some farmer's field where you may or may not
have any markings or anything like that or anything to help gage
that distance on a green field like you're going to see, it can be very difficult sometimes.
And Williston traffic 23 Mike Zulu is left base simulated engine failure
for 18 at Williston. And again, nothing says I have
to make this a perfectly square, perfect little pattern here. If I want to
creep on in and kind of angle towards it, I want to assure
myself the landing site. I want to confirm
I mean I haven't added flaps just yet. I'll add flaps once the runway is made which it is now.
20 degrees on flaps in this case. It's much easier to get down than it is
to get back up in this situation here.
And Williston traffic, 23 Mike Zulu is turning final for 18 in the
grass at Williston. Again a little bit high in this case. I would much rather
be too high than too low in this case. Everything's looking good.
Got a little bit of a crosswind you can kind of see me correcting for. And we're just coming on
in for 2,000 down to the grass. Remember the name of the game
is to protect that nose wheel. That's what we're really and truly
after in this case is to protect that nose wheel here.
Look at that wind blowing me around. Holding it off. Holding it off.
Through ground effect, on the ground, and protecting that
nose wheel. Avoiding braking. Allowing the airplane to just roll out naturally
like it wants to here. Letting it roll, haven't even touched the brakes just yet. Like it wants to here.
She's just going to come to a stop on her own and that
is what we want to happen in this case. When's the last time you did a steep spiral down to land
and when is the last time you did onto actual grass. Keeping in mind
you have an engine failure, there's a high probability that your first soft field landing
may be in some farmer's field somewhere. These are the kinds of things I want
you to be practicing. If you need help with soft field, go back and watch some of our great
soft field landing content. If not we have a lot of great videos inside the online ground school.
LIsten, enjoy the rest of your day and most importantly remember
that a good pilot is always learning. Have a great day guys. We'll see ya.
I wrote the Private Pilot Blueprint with the intention of if I
could do my flight training over what I wished someone would have
told me. And I want that book to be yours for free. All I ask is
that you pay shipping. Visit PrivatePilotBlueprint.com
to get your free copy.