EFATO incorrect meaning

[Admin]

As we know EFATO stands for "Engine Failure After Take Off" and is referred to an engine failure while climbing after take off. However, the word "After" is missused as isn't all engine failures in the air after take off? Wonder who came up with this, better still, why am I posting this...well it is a question

 

 

[Marty_d]

Maybe to differentiate it from an engine failure that happens in the roll before wheels leave the ground?

 

 

[Subsonic]

I always thought it meant Engine Failure At Takeoff.

 

 

[kaz3g]

I always thought it meant Engine Failure At Takeoff.

That's what it means but it generally doesn't say that. Once you have departed the circuit an engine failure is "in flight".

 

Kaz

 

 

[onetrack]

EFOTO would certainly be a slightly better description - Engine Failure On Takeoff. However, the word AFTER is used, to define an engine failure after the aircraft has left the ground, and is actually flying - to differentiate from an engine failure when still rolling, and V1 hasn't been reached.

 

Maybe the abbreviation needs to be expanded to EFIATO - Engine Failure Immediately After Take Off. However, that abbreviation sounds too much like an Italian car model failure.

 

 

[Admin]

Shouldn't it be EFITO or EFOTO or EFDTO as in the i for "in", o for "on" or d for "during"...how boring of me...I must get a life

 

 

[Garfly]

From this dictionary of Aviation Terms:

 

Aviation Terms / Directory

 

EFATO

 

Engine Failure At Take-Off (JAR-FCL)

 

 

And 'at' is probably the best word because the term needs to cover, as well, engine failure during the take-off roll which might, of course, mean that take-off will happen anyway.

 

By the way, Wiki explains that "The JAR-FCL is the Joint Aviation Requirements Flight Crew License, an international designation of member states pilots' (and other related aviation) licenses."

 

 

[Oscar]

Surely, common sense indicates that this should be a description of the period during which an engine failure requires an 'extreme' emergency response: a 'one-shot' decision to (hopefully) mitigate disastrous consequences.

 

An engine failure before V1, means you stay on the ground.. An engine failure at any cruising altitude, means (in our class of aircraft), that you should be in a position to undertake a 'forced landing'.

 

To me, an EFATO occurs in that regime where a safe 'turn-back' is not possible, and nor is there a selection process of viable forced landing sites available. In crude terms: it is the: 'oh sh!t, THERE, make it happen right' situation. For a recent example: landing on the Golf Course beside Bankstown. Or in the pond therein.

 

 

[Garfly]

Sure, it's only a term.

 

That which we call EFATO by any other name will need a BIGPUSH immediately - if not sooner!

 

Or, as in the case of that recent Cirrus, a BIGPULL. ;-)

 

 

[David Isaac]

Or depending on the height in my Auster, a big pull then a big push then a big roll upright and a flare .....

 

 

[Aldo]

My understanding of EFATO is after the wheels leave the ground and before yo reach 500 feet, if it happens during this period you select somewhere 10 deg either side of the nose and do your best. An engine failure after this point you have far more options.

 

Aldo

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Shouldn't it be EFITO or EFOTO or EFDTO as in the i for "in", o for "on" or d for "during"...how boring of me...I must get a life

WHAT ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ! ! ! ! ! FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE MAN. . .YOU ARE THE CHIEF ADMINISTRATOR OF THE PREMIER AVIATION BLOGSITE IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE ! . . . . . YOU HAVE NOT GOT THE TIME. . . . . for a life. . . . .

 

Thank you for what you do Ian.. . . AND for putting up with wankpuffins like me.

 

Phil. X

 

 

[dutchroll]

In the big planes we just call it what it is.

 

"Engine failure at V1". "Engine failure at Vr". "Engine failure between V2 and green dot". "Engine failure in the cruise". "Engine failure on approach". Rather than trying to squish it all into one definition.

 

It's also about the only terminology we don't have a TLA or FLA or SLA for, which is kind of refreshing.

 

 

[djpacro]

In little aeroplanes too per CASR Part 61.

 

 

[facthunter]

In our stuff it's fortunately simplified. If you are on the ground, you aren't going anywhere, so stop the thing short of the fence. If you are airborne, you have to find a place to safely(more or less) land it. That possibility includes (sometimes) landing straight ahead on the remaining runway. Landing ahead with a moderate turn for into wind or more suitable site, or the contentious one, return for landing.

 

EFATO is too general to have any meaning in the above context. In cruise you just have a bit more time, and an area you are less familiar with.

 

Partial failure should be dealt with too. On the ground if the donk isn't delivering full power don't expect it to fix itself. Pull the throttle and get it checked.. Nev

 

 

[Garfly]

Have to agree about landing into wind is possible.I had an engine out on climb out( after a dummy approach with a tailwind) around 300', I was off the runway centreline deliberately, as it takes me over a nice open paddock. Knowing I had a good tailwind component, I maintained my airspeed and immediately started a right turn, and was just rolling my wings level just prior to touchdown. The turn of about 170 degrees both got me a nice slow touchdown and lined up with the furrows. I could have landed straight ahead touching down in soft soil at around 60kts ground speed, instead I had around 30. Mind you if I looked like running out of altitude, I could have levelled the wings and landed with no obstacles any time through the turn.

Okay, since we've moved on from the term to the thing-itself, this post from M61A1 caught my eye a few weeks back. Especially the part "Mind you if I looked like running out of altitude, I could have levelled the wings and landed with no obstacles any time through the turn."

 

I thought it made a lot of sense - a 3rd way between the Impossible Turn and the Possibly Possible Turn positions. It might be called the continuously assessed and safe upwind turn or CAASUT.

 

 

[eightyknots]

As we know EFATO stands for "Engine Failure After Take Off" ... the word "After" is misused as isn't all engine failures in the air after take off? Wonder who came up with this, better still, why am I posting this...well it is a question

Every flight that is airborne needs to land eventually: perhaps it should have been named EFBL (Engine Failure Before Landing)?

 

 

[eightyknots]

I always thought it meant Engine Failure At Takeoff.

All references I consulted tonight calls it after takeoff, not at takeoff.

 

 

[pmccarthy]

EFARTO...engine failure after recent takeoff.

 

 

[Oscar]

Often leading to an OSH1T moment...

 

 

[M61A1]

I'm thinking that maybe if people put as much thought into their flying as they did arguing about definitions, we might have a lot fewer fatalities.

 

 

[Guernsey]

EFATO easily fooled at take off.