PFF - Pennock's Fiero Forum, PDA Edition

The 'What I'm Seeing Today' thread. (Page 17/51)

williegoat

AUG 08, 04:38 PM

I was sitting at a bench over by the Glendale Municipal Airport this morning, taking a break and watching the airplanes come and go.

I watched a small (Cessna 152, maybe) airplane take off and just as it reached the end of the runway, just before the point where many of the smallest planes start to turn either right or left, maybe 200 to 300 feet in the air, it suddenly went completely silent. I thought that seemed like an odd place to cut the throttle. He suddenly made a hard 180 and headed back down to the runway. Just before he set it back down, the engine started briefly then sputtered out again. If it had happened one second earlier, he would not have had enough altitude to turn it around.

I can't imagine a worse time to loose power. I'm guessing he was a very lucky guy. It was about 100^o and dead calm.

Hudini

AUG 10, 05:26 AM

Damn lucky he wasn't a statistic. Standard procedure says maintain wings level and pick a landing spot. Turns induce drag which cause a loss of airspeed which can only be made up with altitude loss without a working engine. He must have been super lightweight to get away with a turn back at such a low altitude. Many many pilots have become smoking holes trying this. I'm glad it worked this time but the FAA is probably going to have questions.