Search Results for: impossible turn

Attempting the “impossible turn” proves fatal in Florida

On Friday afternoon, a small plane crashed into a parking lot after developing engine trouble shortly after taking off from the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. All three people onboard were killed with no injuries on the ground.

According to Terry Knowles who owns the repossession lot, six of the destroyed vehicles were repos with the seventh being his own truck. His boat, mud buggy and camper were also destroyed while several other vehicles sustained lesser fire damage. Terry also indicated that he and one of his employees were in the lot at the time, which is part of a busy industrial area filled with warehouses and stores; but luckily they were not injured in the accident.

Apparently and in part according to Terry’s eyewitness account, the pilot made a classic pilot mistake: His engine failed after takeoff and he attempted to make the so-called “impossible turn” back to the airport. You can see some of our past articles about the impossible turn here with one of our articles quoting a pilot as saying:

…if the engine ever really did quit on takeoff below 500 feet, the best thing to do is just land straight ahead. Once you get above 500 feet (and get some airspeed) your options improve greatly, to maybe include a return to the field.

In other words, the pilot might have been better off trying to find a road or something to land straight ahead on, but he or she was flying over a well developed area and its probably to early to second guess the pilot’s decision making until an actual investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is concluded.

The Associated Press article posted on Yahoo! also listed several other high-profile crashes at the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport over the last decade with the latest incident no doubt going to lead to more scrutiny of the airport.

Making the impossible turn possible

Vincent, the blogger behind the Plastic Pilot blog, has written a great post discussing the “impossible turn” that focused around a video released by the AOPA Air Safety Foundation that showed a pilot making the turn and safely returning to the airport. However, its also made clear in the video that this is not the recommended course of action. Moreover, the pilot involved, Dave Keller, had a cracked cylinder that finally failed and then separated from the rest of the aircraft’s engine (he freely admits that he was very very lucky).

Commenter Bob Barbanes then pointed out a personal experience performing the impossible turn in a Cessna 150 when he was “young(er) and stupid(er)” and he concluded that:

It was this demonstration that convinced me that if the engine ever really did quit on takeoff below 500 feet, the best thing to do is just land straight ahead. Once you get above 500 feet (and get some airspeed) your options improve greatly, to maybe include a return to the field.

He also pointed out that:

There are simply too many variables to say: Never attempt “the impossible turn!” Taking off from a larger airport (like the one the Mooney took off from) gives you plenty more room to work with than a little single-runway airport out in the country with trees all around like my home base (82J). And of course it depends on the nature of the power failure. That Mooney reportedly had a cracked head on one of the cylinders. So unless the pilot intentionally pulled the power off (which may have been instinctive), the engine was producing at least a little thrust.

Bob concluded that the predicted success or failure of “the impossible turn” is and will always be: “It depends.”

Hence, we want to ask you our readers for your opinions about the impossible turn. Moreover, have you ever been in a situation where you had to consider performing the impossible turn? If so, what did you choose to do?

Engine failure on takeoff and the impossible turn

Jason Schappert has posted the second video in his series about engine failures after takeoff. In part one, he had explained what to do if an engine quits at a low altitude while in part two, he moves on to what happens when there is no usable runway left and then he covers the topic of so-called “impossible turns.”

Regarding impossible turns, Jason says that if you are flying below 1,000 feet, you should not even think about trying to turn back but if you are flying at 1,000 feet or above, then you can consider it. He also makes the interesting point that while you my not make the runway, you will at least be on airport property (that is, in the example he used).

Moreover and as we mentioned in a recent post (How impossible is the impossible turn?), there are situations where the impossible turn can be performed but it can really depend on the circumstances and the pilot’s training. After all and as Bruce Mamont commented in the post’s comment’s section:

Learning how to execute, the right altitude and practice are critical. It shouldn’t be attempted on the strength of reading an article, blog, or listening to hanger talk; I’d hope that all of the above might inspire a desire to seek out competent instruction.

A point definitely worth noting!

How impossible is the impossible turn?

Every pilot has been told that attempting to return to the airport after experiencing an engine failure right after take-off is a bad idea. After all, conventional wisdom tells pilots to avoid as much maneuvering as possible and to find a suitable place to land that is ahead and not behind the aircraft. However, just how impossible is the “impossible” turn and are there situations where it can be safely pulled off?

As Bruce Landsberg, the President of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation, recently noted on the AOPA blog:

We have ample evidence that a poorly executed turn or an attempt at too low an altitude is disastrous. What we don’t know is how many people successfully pulled it off because there are no statistics on the positive side. Sorry, but local hangar flying does not quite qualify as a reliable source even as the story gets better with each retelling!

Bruce then noted a new “Real Pilot Story” entitled The Impossible Turn which covers an incident involving a Mooney that managed to perform the impossible turn and it was all captured on video.

Hence, what do you think about the possibility of doing the “impossible” turn and have you ever heard of an instance where it was successfully performed? Are there any circumstances or a particular aircraft where you feel that the impossible turn is possibly worth attempting?

When an engine fails after takeoff

In a detailed two part series, Max Trescott covers what every pilot needs to be aware of: What to do when an engine fails after take-off. In part one (Turn Back to the Runway or Land Straight Ahead?), Max points out that a pilot’s first instincts (return and attempt an airport runway landing) is completely wrong:

One problem with relying on instincts in this situation is that the decision making process required is the exact opposite of the learning conditioned into a pilot by hundreds or thousands of hours of flying experience. During most flights, 100% of our efforts are dedicated to returning the airplane to the airport without a scratch. Why? Because scratches are expensive and nobody wants to spend money they don’t have to. Also, if the airplane returns without a scratch, then we’ll surely arrive without one too.

A 21-year old dyslexic pilot makes a record breaking flight

Last week we mentioned a 20-year old Californian pilot who is attempting to fly around the world, but recently a 21-year-old Malaysian pilot named James Anthony Tan who suffers from dyslexia made a record breaking half-way around the world flight in a single-engine Cessna 210 Eagle aircraft – making him the first Malaysian and the youngest pilot to do so according to Malaysian media accounts.

However, Tan’s achievement as a pilot is extra special because dyslexia makes reading words, numbers and symbols difficult, but dyslexic people are also highly creative, intuitive and excel at three-dimensional problem solving. Tan avoids flying at night but he still holds a pilot’s licence from Australia and UK authorities.

His 20,000 km flight began in Langkawi, Malaysia on March 26 and ended at Teteboro, New Jersey in April with the route taking him to or through Subang, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, Russia and Canada. Upon landing the “The Spirit of Malaysia,” Tan was given a rousing welcome by the Malaysian community in New York and he will return to Kuala Lumpur via Phuket on May 15.

Regarding the flight, Tan commented:

“I had some moments of concern…about adequate fuel, whether I was on the right course, etc. But I was really scared when I flew across Russia to Alaska. The ocean below me was frozen…I even saw frozen waves! What would happen if something went wrong with the plane as I flew this long stretch of airspace. It was scary…”

Tan’s flight was intended to raise awareness about the problems faced by children with special needs and to show that such children can still “chase their own dreams, no matter how impossible they may seem.” He has also already been inducted into Malaysia’s Book of Record for his previous expedition of 13,000 nautical miles from the UK to Bangkok last year.