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Introduction to Emergencies
The time to think through your emergency situations and procedures is prior to the flight and on the ground. You will always be surprised by an emergency. That's what makes it an emergency. Since aircraft control is #1, you need to do what is necessary as conditions allow. You will develop a procedure for determining priorities.

At the end of the preflight you should think through your takeoff emergency options. After leveling off at altitude, get your emergency list up front. This is the basic list that applies to all situations and may include expansions for more specific emergencies.

We have been developing and adding checklists from the beginning. The last list is in many ways the most important. You will never be prepared for an emergency. The sequence of importance is #1 Fly the Plane. Make the most conservative decision quickly and don't change it. Don't waste position, airspeed, or altitude. Clean up the cockpit and instruct your passengers. In over 10,000 hours I have had only a couple of minutes of actual emergency all of which were resolved without incident. 20% of all flying is instructional but only 12% of the accidents are instructionally related. Mid-airs, propeller failures, and ground type propeller accidents occur each about once a month on average.

Most aviation emergencies are of the pilot's making related to weather or inappropriate maneuvers. 65% of the accidents are related to pilot error. A few mechanical emergencies come as complete surprises and lead to reactive behavior. Most mechanical emergencies occur at an altitude such that a reactive response is inappropriate. Mechanical failure is a very small factor in accident statistics (8%). Hasty reactions are, more likely than not, to be the wrong thing to do.

Darkness is a compounding factor in any emergency. You don't want your negligent eagerness to get home or 'there' to allow your self to get low on fuel or into weather and dark at the same time. Turn around, get down early and get fuel, stay down if weather doesn't promise legal night VFR. Don't push your night capabilities in strange areas or airports. Night get-there-itis is the worst kind. Darkness and weather (19% of cause) is serving notice to turn around and get down. The risk of drowning in your bathtub is five times greater than even having an aircraft accident. Only one in six aircraft accidents result in anyone being seriously hurt or killed.

An emergency checklist is the first item of any emergency. Don't do anything until you have this list, altitude and time permitting. At several thousand feet you have plenty of time. Most systems failures are slow motion emergencies. You get to plan where to have your accident. The more training and experience you have the more time you will have to do the right thing. There is seldom the time or capability for doing something over.

If you have a problem, the nature of which you are unable to determine, and cannot fix, then get down as soon and as safely as possible. Don't try to control a situation that cannot be controlled. Make the best choice of a suitable landing/accident site as soon and as high as possible. Once you pick your spot that includes a good, safe approach don't try to second-guess yourself.

Instructional Emergencies
I welcome the opportunity to run through my area of emergencies that I usually expose to my students. One emergency I do only once because it is hard on the airplane. That is the aborted takeoff.

The takeoff and initial climb is a rich source of potential problems. One of my favorites is the "seatbelt out the door". Works with thin passengers where the tail of belt hangs out the door and bangs against the side of the aircraft. Makes quite a racket. Directly related is the open door 'emergency'. Should a student fail to advise me of my belt and harness the door always seems to open just as we lift off. Best solution to these is to ignore and return to land. Otherwise, door is ignored until reaching a safe altitude at which time the opposite window is opened and the door closed. Two people make it easier than one.

On reaching 300' I have student look back to determine runway alignment. We then lower the nose and look for emergency landing spots that are available at altitudes too low to make a return to the takeoff runway. I then point out how intersecting runways may be easily available. The first cold day of the year offers a great opportunity to fill the cockpit with 'smoke'. Had this happen when I pulled on the heater at 500' only to have the cockpit fill with dirt and fumes. Called an emergency and landed on intersecting runway.

Having winds that exceed student and aircraft capability can be an 'emergency' At my home field an old abandoned runway now used, as a taxiway will eliminate any crosswind emergency problems. It is commonly used by taildraggers when winds are difficult on the other runways. I will, as a practice, set up with ground control taxiing problems for the students. The tower will give a sequence of instructions to the student designed to confuse. While not your usual emergency it teaches the student to get on the radio and get instructions straightened out before proceeding. This is especially important at night.

Prior to solo I have a radio-failure exercise. I will have my student take off his headset. I will call the tower and set up a practice radio-failure exercise where we overfly the airport and make an arrival just as we would at an uncontrolled airport. I maintain a listening/advisory watch on the radio to avoid any problems. Lately towers want to know where you are all the time so some realism is lost. Student is expected to watch for green light and wave wings to indicate getting landing clearance.

Preliminary to the usual airborne emergencies I teach emergency descents. I have found that you can lose altitude just as quickly using full flaps and descending at the top of the white arc as you can by diving at the structural cruise speed. The advantage of flaps would be that when you would reach the ground you would dissipate speed more quickly. I include in the descent exercise steep turn descents and slips with flaps).

One of my favorite 'emergencies' is to simulate an engine failure on short final while in full flap landing configuration. I incorporate this in conjunction with a radio exercise that uses all the runways on the airport along with all the different things ATC may require of a solo student. We change runways, sidestep, do 360s, 270s, and 180s to make it possible to economize flight time. We will extend downwind, make short approaches, no-flap landings and even simulated radio reception problems and light signals. The 'emergency' of the first sentence occurs at 400'AGL. I pull the throttle, expect the student to immediately remove all the flaps, accept the sudden altitude loss of 100' or so while maintaining the best glide speed. Not only will we reach the runway, we could expect to land quite a way down the runway.

Roy's Engine Failure
I never pull throttles (or mixtures!) on my students. Before the flight, I explain that when we do engine-out drills, I'll tell them, and they'll bring the throttle back to idle. I also have them do the engine clearing drill. Sometimes I make the signal to start the drill me shouting BOOM! With the explanation (beforehand) this is to simulate the noise of a piston rod punching a hole in the crankcase.

Emergency Preparation:
In an engine out emergency you should have previously acquired knowledge as to how many turns of trim it takes you to acquire the minimum rate of descent as indicated on the VSI. In most Cessnas this takes four + full turns from an initial level flight condition. This same amount of trim will allow level flight with a minimum power application for maximum endurance. With the application of power there will be a 25% decrease in airspeed

Best-glide is at minimum drag and maximum lift-over-drag speed. This occurs when induced drag and parasitic drag are equal. At minimum level power speed induced drag is three times parasitic drag. Lighter weights will give lower speeds.

Emergency Authority
The FARs give the pilot all the authority he needs to handle an emergency so long as the emergency was not of his own making and he tells ATC about it. Far 91.3 makes the pilot the final authority for what he does. This is just fine but the FAA reserves to second-guess any pilot's decision or use of authority to determine what caused the problem. A pilot explanation is required only if the FAA asks for one. FAR 91.123(a)(b) FAR 91.113 give emergency aircraft the priority right of way and requires other aircraft to give way to this priority.

Flight into weather is generally such an emergency but the NTSB has ruled in the favor of pilots on occasion. A pilot who declares a real emergency has no reason otherwise to fear the ability of the FAA to second guess. AOPA would like to know of any emergency you may declare. Your right to claim an emergency applies only to arrivals; not departures.

Help Is Just a Sound Away
Jets have 58 different sounds for 31 functions. 16 tones, 8 horns, 5 bells, 6 clackers, 14 chimes, 1 clicker, 9 warblers. Some warnings are identical for ground and air operations so pilot must know area of operation for correct interpretation. Synthesized voice is found to be best warning method.

Cockpit Smoke
Smoke is more likely to incapacitate a pilot than the fire. Non-lethal inhalation will impair performance and cause fatal mistakes. Carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide are the main toxic combustion gasses. Carbon dioxide increases the respiration rate and makes you breathe in all the more deadly hydrogen cyanide gas. Wet cloth over the mouth and nose is a quick solution but a small fire extinguisher is best.

Accident Causes
--Controlled flight into terrain (CFIT)
--Loss of control
--Unconfined engine failure
--Runway incursions
--Approach/landing
--Weather accidents

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