What Would You Do?

This page is meant to make you think. It will list actual events that have occurred that have lead to accidents where accidents should not have occurred. We'll list scenarios and want you to think about how you would have handled each. The answers below are only our opinion as to how you should have handled the problem. They are by no means the only possible way of doing things but meant to show you that if you take the time to think you can usually solve problems before they get out of hand. Most things that occur give you some time to think. Remember that it is rare for the plane to fail the pilot. It is usually the pilot that fails themselves.

This discussion is not meant to scare you away from aviation, after all, aviation is our business, but we have an obligation to teach you all about aviation and this is part of it.

Accidents happen in all walks of life but are rare in aviation. But we want to teach. We want you to think. We want you to be prepared for the unexpected. When you get in a car accident there is not much of a system to reconstruct and teach you to prevent it again. You just pay your insurance and off you go in your next car. In aviation, a pilot is likely to go through their whole life without ever having and engine go out but we still want you to learn and be prepared. That, in essence, is what helps make aviation so safe.

The answers are listed at the bottom of this page or you can use the link in each scenario to go to that answer.

Case #1: This is a real incident that occurred in South Jersey in December 2000. A pilot was flying back home to Cross Keys Airport at night when he lost his electrical system. Without an electrical system he has no landing light. Also, he needs the radio to turn on the runway lights so without electrical power he has no way of lighting up the airport. He can not fix the problem so he is not getting his electrical system back. He starts following the VASI (Visual Glideslope which was on) which will lead him to the beginning of the runway but at some point he has no references left. He attempts the landing, lands long and goes off the end of the runway damages the plane but survives. What would you have done?

Case #2: This happened in late 1999 at an unknown location. A pilot had smoke in the cockpit. He declared an emergency. On first approach the tower told him that it appeared that his landing gear was not fully extended. The tower advised him to go around and work on the landing gear. The pilot went around for another approach. On the second approach the tower told him there was a piece of equipment on the runway (such as an airport vehicle) and that he needed to go around again. On this go-around the plane crashed and the pilot did not survive. What would you have done?

Case #3: A door pops open on takeoff. This happens once in a while but seems to cause drastic results when it should be a minor problem. But you just took off and the door pops - not completely open but it is not tightly closed and you hear and feel the rush of air. What would you do?

Case # 4: Engine out on takeoff. Again, this is a very rare occurrence, but you gain some altitude and the engine quits. The airports is just below or behind you. You would love to be facing that airport right now but you're not. What would you do?

Case # 5: April 30, 2001, a Private Pilot with instrument rating and over 5000 hours hits a mountain during daylight in Afton, VA in what is called an "in-flight collision with terrain". That means that he was not having a problem - he was just flying along and hit a mountain that he didn't see. He did not survive. The pilot was making a return trip from Leesburg, VA to Broken Straw, PA. He hit the 3600 foot mountain at 2112 feet.

The pilot did not file a flight plan so no one knows what his intended route was but if you draw a straight line from Leesburg to Broken Straw you come up with a course of 344 degrees and 185 miles. If you draw a straight line from Leesburg to the accident site you get 238 degrees and 88 miles. What's wrong with this scenario?

Case # 6: Sun Glare
On October 12, 2001, at 1720 hours, a Cessna 172 was substantially damaged during landing at the Pennridge Airport (N70), Perkasie, Pennsylvania. The certificated private pilot was not injured.

In a telephone interview, the pilot stated that he departed the Perkiomen Valley Airport (N10), Collegeville, Pennsylvania, about 1610, and flew to N70 to practice touch-and-go landings on a "larger" runway. In a written statement he said, "...As I turned final, I picked up considerable amount of sun glare on windshield; it was annoying but not distractive. The sun was low in the sky and directly off the end of runway 26. It was late afternoon but still a bright clear day. Windshield seemed to be full of small fractures that turned the entire windshield milky white in the sun. Continued my descent on final approach, put in 30 degrees of flaps, VASI lights were slightly hard to see but visible and they indicated that I was on the glide path. During final, the glare on windshield was not getting any worse. I reduced power and was holding approximately 65 knots. As I entered my flare and the nose of the aircraft came up, the sun was now positioned right into the windshield causing it to turn completely white. Visibility was very bad. As I slowed down I had to look out my side window to determine my height above the runway. As I did this, the aircraft sunk slightly faster then I had expected and the aircraft touched down and bounced. As I was trying to maintain directional control the aircraft bounced one or two more times. The contacts with the runway did not indicate any type of damage had occurred and it was not until the aircraft slowed down that it seemed as though the nose tire was flat. I let the aircraft come to a stop, the engine was running normally and there were no abnormal vibrations. I wanted to clear the runway even though there didn't appear to be anybody in the pattern. I taxied slowly back to the hangar area and shut the engine down and exited the airplane."

Weather reported at the Willow Grove Naval Airstation (NXX) (14 miles away), Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, at 1655, included variable winds at 6 knots, 7 miles visibility, few clouds at 4,000 feet, and overcast clouds at 20,000 feet.

How would you handle Sun Glare?

Answer #1: There is certainly no emergency situation here. Take the time to figure out your options. Fly around awhile and think. Do you have a back-up radio. It's a good idea but I guess there wasn't any in this case. Think to yourself, you need runway lights to land. You can land without the landing light (it's part of your training) but you need the runway lights at minimum. Here's some possible things to do:

1. Can you just fly around the airport hoping that someone else will land or takeoff soon and will turn on the runway light for you? They usually stay on for 15 minutes once turned on.

2. Can you go to another airport where lights might be on all the time or maybe someone turned them on recently at a more frequently used airport?

3. A few minutes away is N.E. Airport where the lights are always on. You might ask how you get permission to land - who cares. You goal is to survive and not worry about paperwork. With no radio there is a procedure to get the tower's attention and he will clear you with light signals but at night, with no radio or transponder and no exterior lighting the tower is not likely to know you are there. Other planes can't see you since you have no lights on the outside of your aircraft but you certainly can use extra caution since you can see them. Land the plane and then call the tower. If you have to land at Phila Intl Airport you do it. In an emergency all rules go out the window (and that is a rule in itself). You do whatever you have to do but it has to be reasonable. You can't put another plane in danger because you don't have any lights. Your response to the situation has to be reasonable. Next Case!

Answer # 2: This is one of the most dangerous situations you can have (smoke or fire). It is an extremely rare one but can occur. Remember the old adage, "Where there's smoke there's fire". You are going to try to land at the closest possible location. If that happens to be an airport then fine otherwise make it an open field but you must get down quickly. You can try to determine if you have an electrical problem or fuel problem. If it is an electrical problem you might be able to stop the smoke or fire by shutting off ALL electrical systems except for the engine mags. If this stops the problem you have more time to find a suitable landing spot. 

But let's go back to the airport approach itself. You're coming in for a landing and your on fire. You are not going around. That plane is landing no matter what anyone on the field likes or dislikes. Remember, you are the sole decision maker. Anyone else is just an advisor. You call the shots. You tell everyone to get out of your way because you're coming in whether they like it or not. With no landing gear you'll scratch up the belly but that's it. But let it be known that if you have to you'll land on the runway, taxiway or grass but you're coming in. Next case!

Answer # 3: The first thing you must always do "FLY THE AIRPLANE". Don't let yourself get distracted to the point that the situation gets out of control.

Many years ago there was a commercial aircraft loaded with passengers. A landing gear light should have come on for the gear but the light didn't come on. The crew was trying to determine if it was just a bad bulb. They all gathered around this bulb tapping it and whatever trying to figure out if it was just a bad bulb. The problem was that none of the crew noticed that the plane was in a slow descent. No one was flying the airplane. They all played with this bulb all the way down to the ground. No one survived. The voice recorder recorded all their voices talking about the bulb while the data recorder recorded the plane in a slow decent. 

Fly the plane first and figure out your problem second. On takeoff, you're too close to the ground to play with the door. Obviously the wind has not opened it yet so it probably won't open it at all. Just like car doors, plane doors are forced closed in the wind. They do not open against the wind. The wind itself will keep the door from opening. Fly the plane, get away from the airport to a safe altitude and then play with the door or just return for a normal landing and close the door. Nothing will happen if the door is not fully latched but pilots have gotten distracted when playing with the door (or other problems) just after takeoff. Next case!

Answer # 4: The airport you just took off from is behind you. You need an airport in front of you. The one behind is now useless. Statistically, the pilots that try to return to the airport don't make it while the ones that land in a field ahead of them do fine. Before takeoff it's a good idea to know what the landscape is past the end of the runway but even if you don't know let's look at what it takes to return to the airport.

Once the engine is out you now have a full view of what is in front of you and have a certain amount of time to pick a landing spot while descending. Behind you is an airport but you have no idea how you will be aligned with the airport until you make the 180 degree turn. But while turning you are losing altitude at a greater rate than if you just glided forward so once you turn around you will have much less time to figure out what to do. You not only have to spend time turning around but that turn is causing you to descend at a greater rate than straight flight. Now, once you turn around 180 you still aren't even aligned with the runway. To look at it another way, if you make a U-turn on the road with your car you're not on the same lane as before you turned. You are on the opposite side of the road. You are in the opposite direction from where you began your turn but you are off to one side. You need to turn some more to get back to the same lane. Therefore, it takes more than a 180 degree turn to turn around and head towards the runway and then another turn to align yourself with the runway and at the same time you are descending at a greater rate while you are turning so it is likely that you will run out of altitude before you get back to the airport. If you only have one runway at the airport there is likely to be obstacles on either side of the runway anyway so you can't land unless you can get aligned with the runway. You might have a better chance if there are intersecting runways. That will usually mean a large square piece of land with grass that can be used instead of a small swath of runway.

Answer # 5: We know two things. The first is that the plane was off course and the second is that he was low. Weather nearby was reported 10 miles visibility and sky clear. 

As to the first, how much off course was he? He should have been on a course of 344 degrees yet he was found in a direction of 238 degrees. That's 106 degrees off course. Some might surmise that he changed his mind and actually wanted to go in that direction but people connected to the case stated that he was returning home. If he was truly off his intended course one might think that he had some kind of malfunction but how can that continue for 88 miles without him realizing it? If his DG is off he should notice that when he periodically checks it with the compass as he is supposed to. If he is flying by VORs than didn't he realize that he never passed one of his intended VORs? If he was flying by GPS did he program it right? And no matter how he was flying, didn't he have any kind of back-up or confirming information? It would be a good idea to use two methods of navigation and make sure that they periodically agree.

As far as his altitude, it was low for no matter where he was. He should only have been that low during the initial or final phase of flight so there might have indeed been something else wrong that caused him to go in the wrong direction and fly low. Since there seem to be multiple things wrong than we might surmise that something might have been wrong with the pilot where he has been incapacitated to the extent that he is making bad decisions or unable to make any decisions. Some causes can be carbon monoxide poisoning, heart attack, intoxication or maybe there really were several bad decisions made. We won't know until a final report comes out on this case.

Answer # 6: If the sun is in your eyes then you can't see where you're going. This is, in essence, instrument conditions. But even in instrument conditions you can't land on instruments all the way to the runway. You're on approach, you can't see...get out of there. How can you even tell were the trees are or a fence? You can't land on something that you can't see. If you just come in from the other direction then you will have the sun behind you and won't have any sun glare at all. If the winds are light then you can use the opposite runway. If the winds do not favor the other runway then you must leave.

That's it for now! 
Top of Page | Home

Home | Contact Us | Who We Are | Meet the Staff | Directions | Learning To Fly | Advanced Ratings
Aircraft & Rates | Application | Program Costs | Aviation Links | CATS | Student Corner