Precautionary Landings

[USMCmech]

How many of you CFIs teach your student's anything about precautionary off airport landings.

Read the following and comment.

http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/191533-1.html

The gist of the article is that in the case of a low time VFR pilot caught under low clouds would be better served by landing in any field than by pressing on untill they loose controll and crash. "Would you rather be embaresed or dead?"

I had never thought of things this way, but it is definately a good tool for your mental toolbox, and one I will pass along to my students. I think that so many pilots today have never landed on grass that they are scared to do so.

[gtpilot]

I'm a little wary of this article for a couple of reasons -
#1 If the trip is only 150NM, I have trouble believing that the weather would change drastically in the hour+ it would take to complete. I emphasize a preflight weather breifing (computer or FSS) before any trip my students take.
#2 He descended to 800 feet AGL when still 40NM from the destination! His precautionary landing should have occurred at another airport prior to this descent.
#3 The summer haze. I live in the Atlanta area and the summer haze can significantly reduce visibility and flying into the sun on a 3sm visibility day can be like flying in IFR. I take all of my students up into conditions like this at least once to show them why flying in legally allowed VFR is not always appropriate. Usually, given the conditions listed above, my students will make a no-go decision.

Now, I'm not trying to make a case against precautionary off-field landings but the incident the article is based off of could have and should have been prevented by better aeronautical decision making.

Also, I'm a little biased-It would be extremely difficult to find a good field for landing at low altitude in the mid to north georgia area! Too many darn trees.

[flyover]

Originally Posted by USMCmech

How many of you CFIs teach your student's anything about precautionary off airport landings.

I had never thought of things this way, but it is definately a good tool for your mental toolbox, and one I will pass along to my students. I think that so many pilots today have never landed on grass that they are scared to do so.

Absolutely right!!!! As Doug would say "ding, ding, ding".

It even extends into professional airline ranks. Two contrasting cases:

A DC-9 crew has their engines taken out be a severe thunderstorm. The captain is flying and asks the FO to help him find an open field. The FO rebels, tells the captain they have to put it on a road. He takes control of the aircraft and they overfly a number of open fields ending in a fiery crash on a winding country road. Few survivors.

A year or two later a 737 crew experiences dual engine failure, again after penetrating a severe thunderstorm. They elect to land on a grassy area next to a river levee. Not a scratch on the airplane. No injuries. The aircraft is later flown out from the landing site.

Back in the day it was standard practice to land in any open field rather than press a bad situation. Today most pilots equate landing in an open field with dying. My primary flight instructor (a crop-duster who had made some off airport landings) definitely made sure I knew it was an option. And since I was based on a grass strip, it didn't seem like a big deal.

[jrh]

Yes! I definitely teach my students to never rule out a field.

I feel especially strongly about this because I came close to doing it once myself. It was a textbook scenario. I had just over 100 hours and was flying with a friend on a XC. I consider both my friend and I to be fairly cautious, competent pilots, and the weather had been forecast to be fine. To make a long story short, winter weather of sleet and snow dropped on all sides, we were over a fairly desolate area of eastern Washington, and there was only one airport we could make it to in VFR conditions. It was a narrow, short strip with a 15 or 20 knot crosswind and we were in a 152. Even in a slip with full right rudder we couldn't track the centerline. We went around, decided to try a couple more times (we only had one hour of fuel left after flying for three hours), then if we still couldn't make it in, we would "try somewhere else." In the back of my mind, I remembered hearing about landing in a field, and I was considering it.

Thankfully, the wind died down just enough that we were able to make it in on the second try. I tell that story to all of my private students though to make sure they understand it can happen to them, because it almost happened to me. Putting it in a field is much better than running out of fuel as you fly in to IMC. Either you can decide where the flight will end, or circumstances will decide that for you.

[SeanD]

What about in the desert. Here in Vegas the ground is rocky and we dont have open fields? What might an option be other than a dry lake bed?

[jrh]

Originally Posted by SeanD

What about in the desert. Here in Vegas the ground is rocky and we dont have open fields? What might an option be other than a dry lake bed?

I don't have any experience flying in the desert...does the desert get much IFR weather?

I'm not sure what to tell you. Just remember that any time you have control over a situation, you're in a better spot than not having control over it. That sounds obvious, but what I mean is, if you still have time and fuel, you can pick out the best, least rocky spot possible, then land in that spot in the most controlled manner possible. You'll have better odds of success at doing it that way, rather than flying around aimlessly until you run out of fuel and are forced to "take what you get" so to speak, with only one chance at getting it right.

Where have you been taught to land if you have an engine failure? I would start by looking at places like those.

Also remember, doing this is only for when stuff really hits the fan-, you're in deep over your head-type scenarios. The goal is to not get into one of those spots to begin with. I know plenty of pilots who have never come close to landing in a field because they've never gotten into a spot where they needed to.

[SeanD]

Not too much IFR weather. We get a monsoon season . Vegas does pack some pretty wicked winds though from time to time. I know of some airline pilots that hate landing at LAS when its windy because of its heavy gusts. I have not heard any stories of anyone having to land in the desert. I was just curious on what an option other than a random uncontrolled airport would be. Just in case