My engine failure (and crash)

[kasper]

OK I will share my experience.

 

Flying out of Stoke airfield in Kent UK (google Middle Stoke, Kent)

 

Runway 06/24 has all circuits to the South over the Medway estuary ... the seawall is along the southern edge of the runway. Along the north edge of the strip (less than 5m from the edge) are the hangars and 10m further to the north is a raised railwayline and 10m to the north of the rail line are BIG electric pylons running from the power station 1 mile off the end of the runway ... to the east between the runway end and the container port and power station is a sewerage works

 

912 powered trike - early morning flight in autumn dew still on the ground - 10knts wind from the west flying late downwind (pure tailwind) at 600ft AGL/AMSL engine seizes, throws the entire airframe 90deg in the air pointing south out to the middle of the estuary and the wing is rolling and yawing with the cross flow.

 

Get the wing under control and basically heading downwind and I am over the sewerage plant at around 200ft with around 150m of wet bog to put down on before more seawalls and in the water.

 

Got the wheels down with about 100m to run - wet grass not too boggy - no brake action - with about 50m to go I chose to collapse the undercarriage to stop before the seawall/going in the water. Came to a stop less than 5m from the sea wall.

 

My radio call heard on the airstrip frequency was as the engine blew - I was about to call turning final but instead said 'Oh dear'.

 

Cause of engine failure was complete oil starvation - trust me the 912 stops quickly after the oil exists (or stops entering) the engine.

 

What I did wrong/would do differently

 

- low oil light came on 5 ish seconds before seizure ... I did not immediately cut power and do abbreviated circuit. If I had I might have got it on the ground before it seized. As it was I had cruise power on when it failed.

 

- I was late downwind and was already descending as I went into the base turn - big no-no, I was 200ft low and that 200ft would have been REALLY helpful

 

- we fly an extended downwind leg on that runway to avoid the sewerage works and get away from the powerlines ... for my trike there is around 3 minutes of circuit when I cannot make it to the runway in still air ... on the day I had 10kts tailwind and basically should have been turning base at the end of the runway to safely do the 800ft circuit glide approach ... but there were 3axis in the circuit so was fitting in with their better performance patterns

 

And really I should reconsider the radio call when it all goes tits up ... 'Oh dear' has caused me more embarrassment than the fact I blew up a 912 and destroyed the lower 2 ft of my aircraft

 

 

[kasper]

 

basic google view of what went wrong and where

 

 

[turboplanner]

With that workload you could have been excused the radio call.

 

 

[JEM]

Glad you're safe Kasper. They say any landing you can walk away from is a good landing. Hope the trike is repairable.

 

Regards

 

JEM

 

 

[Ultralights]

scary stuff, yeah, dont beat yourself up over a radio call. remember Aviate, Navigate, communicate. dont waste time communicating when you should be aviating. but im interested to know what led to the oil starvation?

 

 

[kasper]

Just to note - this crash was back in 2012. The airframe was rebuilt by me in the factory and back in the air by spring ... longest time being waiting for the insurance to sort out scrap vs repair then waiting for the fibreglass pod n spats from the shop. Airframe is still flying around today.

 

And it was not scary until I was on the ground ... there was no time to worry ... it was all over in under a minute and a half

 

 

[Teckair]

I thought you did alright in the circumstances you had.

 

 

[flying dog]

Hey Kasper,

 

As the saying goes: If you can walk away from the landing, you did alright.

 

(Slight tangent)

 

I just watched one of the new Air Crash Investigations, and a Fokker taking off had problems.

 

One of the engine's reversers deployed just after take off.

 

They only had about 2 minutes for flight time before they crashed and all killed.

 

When things go wrong, you have to do what you have to do.

 

As others have mentioned:

 

Given the situation the call was not really anything to worry about.