No flight is perfect. Some may become very “perfection-challenged” as a result of an omission or error. If something you do leads to an abnormal or emergency situation in flight, it’s key to avoid letting that error escalate into something worse. Take this example of a B55 Baron (NTSB Final Report CEN21LA174):
When the pilot rotated the airplane for takeoff, he felt the left rudder pedal “slam to the floor,” and he could not depress the right rudder pedal, which resulted in a sustained adverse yaw condition. The airplane climbed and drifted left of the runway, so the pilot continued the climb to pattern altitude.
During the climb, he saw the towbar attached to the nosewheel through a mirror on the left engine nacelle. The pilot circled the airport for about 30 minutes while assistance arrived. During the last circle, as he was descending, the right engine lost power. The pilot recalled that the right fuel gauge showed “low,” and the left fuel gauge was about 1/2 full. The pilot began to crossfeed fuel to the right engine, but he was unsuccessful in getting the right engine to restart. The pilot was unable to maintain airspeed and altitude and was having difficulty maintaining directional control of the airplane, so he elected to land the airplane in an open field. The airplane sustained damage to the fuselage and right wing during the landing.
Although the airplane manual states that the crossfeed is to be used in level flight only, the pilot reported that fuel was being fed to the right fuel tank, as evidenced by the fuel gauge indication increasing. The pilot reported the airplane’s altitude was “a couple hundred feet above the ground” when he turned the crossfeed on, and this may have prevented him from having adequate time to restart the engine as he was occupied with trying to land the airplane.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be: The pilot’s failure to remove the towbar from the nose landing gear before takeoff, which resulted in a sustained adverse yaw condition, and his failure to adequately monitor the fuel system while circling the airport, which resulted in fuel starvation and loss of power to the right engine.”
AOPA Air Safety Institute posts a video, “Reality Check: What Are the Most Costly Insurance Claims?” It identifies aircraft towbars as a factor among the “top four” most frequent claims scenarios. The video does so in the context of propeller strikes, but if you forgot the towbar on a twin, that’s not the hazard. Watch the video at www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/online-learning/reality-check/reality-check-costliest-claims. I’m not going to dwell on this in this article except to say people whom I’ve provided transition training when they’ve become a first-time aircraft owner have heard me preach: attach the tow bar and immediately move the airplane, then immediately detach the tow bar. Don’t leave it on and walk away from the tow bar. Make it a habit that the tow bar is on only during the time you’re actively towing the airplane. This includes removing the tow bar when the airplane is inside its hangar.
Deconstructing
Instead, let’s look at the idea of de-escalating abnormal and emergency procedures. First, a recap of our example:
- The pilot experiences a flight control issue. The rudder is stuck at full left rudder.
- The pilot circles the airport until help on the ground arrives.
- During that time, the pilot flies into a fuel-critical state.
- During descent, the right engine loses power. At climb, approach and landing speeds, this would require substantial left rudder to compensate. In this case left rudder was already applied—maybe even too much left rudder.
- The pilot attempts to use fuel crossfeed to restart the right engine, but the engine does not restart.
- The pilot “elected to land the airplane in an open field.”
The 40-year-old pilot’s decision to put the Baron down in a field probably saved his life. Without rudder control, it would have been enormously difficult, if not impossible, to land. It would have required extreme measures to avoid loss of control in flight and a possible rollover into the ground. However he did it, he survived with only “minor” injuries. The NTSB final report says the Baron had “substantial” damage, but it is currently registered with a parts sales company in Colorado, so it’s unlikely it will ever fly again.
What other options might have been available to the pilot?
- Land before the fuel state became critical. Even if waiting for “assistance” (fire trucks? An ambulance? a mechanic?), as fuel became critical, it would have become more important to get on the ground…any ground, including the field he eventually chose.
- Switch to crossfeed before descending. The B55 Baron in this event was a later, interconnected tanks model, that is, it did not have independently selectable auxiliary tanks. Both fuel cells in each wing act as a single fuel tank with an ON position of the fuel selector valve.
- Avoid unporting. If the fuel level is low, fuel may unport in a descent attitude. Fuel unporting using crossfeed in other than level flight is a known issue in Barons; trying to switch from ON to CROSSFEED during a descent, or trying to operate in crossfeed during a descent, are both unlikely to succeed in restoring fuel flow to the engine. It’s probably better to shut down an engine on your terms in level flight and descend on one engine than to have it quit on its own terms sometime during that descent.
- Don’t add to your workload by trying to “save” the airplane. If doing something out of the ordinary (e.g., switching to crossfeed and trying to start an engine) is necessary for survival, then by all means try it. But if heroic measures are diverting your attention from the basics—aviate, navigate, and communicate—then take what you’ve got to work with and don’t make things potentially worse.
- Observe any takeoff fuel level limitation. In the case of this B55, there’s a limitation that requires at least 13 gallons of usable fuel in each (main) tank for takeoff. The fuel gauges are marked accordingly with a yellow arc range in which takeoff is not permitted. It’s possible, I suppose, for one IO-470L to go through 13 gallons in half an hour if at full power and full rich mixture. It’s also possible that the fuel level was below the minimum required amount before takeoff, and the engine ran out sooner. Adding the possibility of fuel unporting in descent with something more than zero fuel and less than 13 gallons on that side, however, we don’t know where the fuel level may have been at takeoff.
- Before fuel starvation, reduce power on the right engine. The pilot may have been able to balance the effects of rudder deflection somewhat by using partial power on the engine that was adding to pushing the airplane’s nose to the left, then landing in this newly balanced state—carefully adjusting power on both engines as the rudder became less effective.
- Land gear up with power to maintain directional balance, knowing directional control would be lost as soon as the nosewheel touched down, or at the very least, the nose gear would collapse. There is no way this could have been turned into a normal landing.
De-escalation
The Crisis Prevention Institute (www.crisisprevention.com)
publishes a Top 10 De-Escalation Tips to use during times of high stress. Although much of this does not apply to an in-flight emergency, a few of the items might, including:
- “Keep your emotional brain in check. Remain calm, rational and professional…. Positive thoughts like ‘I know I can handle this’ and ‘I know what to do’ will help you maintain…rationality and calm….”
- “Set limits…[consider] concise…choices and consequences…. Offer the positive choice first.”
- “Choose wisely what you insist upon…. Decid[e] which rules are negotiable and which are not.”
- “Allow time for decisions…. A person’s stress rises when they feel rushed. Allowing time calms things down.”
Here’s the bigger picture: if faced with any abnormal or emergency situation in flight, whether from something you did, something you did not do, or through no fault of your own, ask yourself:
- How can I maintain or regain control, and
- What is the minimum I need to do to get this airplane on the ground with the lowest chance of injury to its occupants?
Then do those things, and only those things, to maintain command of your aircraft until it comes to a stop.
