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Posted for "Tom Gourley" <tom.gourley@verizon.net>:
If the engine quits save your butt, not the airplane.
Very true, but here are a few other issues that crop up in real life. I have no way of knowing what happened in this particular case, but here are two issues to think about as we are getting ready to advance the throttle the next time:
1) How do you know that the engine has quit? The prop usually does not stop and things do not always go quiet. The manifold pressure is still high, the RPM is low but still very much alive and oil pressure may be in the green. EGT is about the only instrument that has registered a noticeable change. The engine is frequently making a sound and sometimes even some power. Is it enough power to maintain altitude? Is it enough power that you can make it back to the runway with only 500 feet of altitude loss versus the 1000 feet of altitude that you know you need in case of a total engine failure?
2) Even if you write off the aircraft immediately and start looking out only for the wellbeing of your body, you face a dilemma. You are facing a landing straight ahead in trees, uneven terrain or a street with power lines. Survival is extremely likely, but so is injury. Injury is invariably accompanied by severe physical pain and possibly lifelong disability/pain. The other alternative is a wheels down landing on a runway like you have done thousands of times before. The prospect of pain and hope of escaping it by landing on a runway will certainly bias the decision in favor of trying to make it to the runway, especially if there is hope that the engine is still putting out some power
Basic evolution theory tells us that we are all optimists at the core. It is also basic animal nature that we try and avoid physical pain at any cost. Combine these with the hope that the engine is still producing some power and the prospect of pain associated with landing straight ahead and we find seasoned pilots that should have known better heading back to the runway, only to meet their demise before getting there.
Before you throw stones at someone else's actions, ask yourself if you will be willing to accept virtually certain injury and potentially serious injury/disability to yourself and your passengers while resisting the temptation of making it back to the airport with what may be a partially running engine? I know there is no way, sitting in a comfortable chair on the ground, you can make the prospect of severe pain truly imminent or the temptation of making it to the runway as tempting as it would be in the air. But try your best to imagine what that situation would be like and then picture yourself making the right decision.
Regards,
Hamid
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