![\"\"](\"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/DSCN4279-1024x768.jpg\")
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\u00a0 The Tailwheel Town Cessna 140.\u00a0 It never had an engine failure… well I ran it outta gas once, but that doesn’t count…<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n “They are also taught that, contrary to what is often taught at \u201cAcme\u201d, it\u2019s not the angle of bank that causes stall speed to increase, but the \u201cG\u201d force required to maintain the climb during that turn.\u00a0 Relax the back pressure and the \u201cG\u201d force goes away, thus eliminating the reason to \u201cnever make steep turns close to the ground\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,38,58,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}It was some of the best damned training you could get!\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t just a drill\u2026 it would just up and quit!\u00a0 I got used to putting it into fields, runways, roads\u2026. Just about anywhere you could think of.<\/h3>\n
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Part of the conventional wisdom regarding engine failures, as well as other emergencies, is the time it takes to accept the misfortune.\u00a0 Experts in such things have estimated the time to accept the truth as being of varying lengths.\u00a0 I generally like to assume that it will take most of us about five seconds to accept the truth that our engine has quit (or whatever other horrible event has happened!)\u00a0Do you realize how much altitude you might lose if you are climbing out and your engine quits?\u00a0 If you don\u2019t accept that fact for five seconds or so, it\u2019s a bunch!\u00a0 And THAT is precisely why I absolutely insist that whenever we are close to the ground (as we are on initial climb out) we constantly plan for a loss of power and an immediate landing.<\/h3>\n
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I happen to be currently based at Sisters Eagle Airport (6K5) which has an excellent layout to discuss just this eventuality.\u00a0 The Sisters\u2019 runway lays roughly north and south.\u00a0 As we depart on runway 02, we can see a ridge right off the departure end of the runway.\u00a0 Most airplanes can cross this ridge on departure, although there aren\u2019t a lot of places to go if one has an engine failure on departure.\u00a0 However, right off the end of the runway there is a meadow which runs roughly east and west.\u00a0 I\u2019ve often estimated that we can actually lose an engine at any time when departing on runway 02 and we\u2019ll be okay.\u00a0 We just stay over the creek bed or meadow and, although we might end up using a barbed wire fence as an arresting wire, we\u2019ll be okay even if the airplane suffers minimal damage.<\/h3>\n
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Contrast that departure with one from Runway 20.\u00a0That runway runs slightly uphill and there are not too many places to go if the engine quits on departure.\u00a0Although there is a moment when we can set the plane down on a road through the industrial park, it\u2019s more likely that we\u2019ll end up on Highway 20 as it runs through the city of Sisters.\u00a0We\u2019d probably end up in one of the shops on that main drag.\u00a0 Hmmm, that\u2019d be embarrassing!\u00a0 Since I\u2019ve been flying the PA12 Super Cruiser, I\u2019ve been using runway 20 more than I ever did with the little 85HP Cessna 140.\u00a0However, I do turn rather sharply after departure in order to get back over the runway in the event of an engine failure.\u00a0 That maneuver may have many of my students gulping, but they do see the wisdom of it.\u00a0\u00a0They are also taught that, contrary to what is often taught at \u201cAcme\u201d, it\u2019s not the angle of bank that causes stall speed to increase, but the \u201cG\u201d force required to maintain the climb during that turn.\u00a0 Relax the back pressure and the \u201cG\u201d force goes away, thus eliminating the reason to \u201cnever make steep turns close to the ground\u201d. \u00a0The ridge, however, will always scare most pilots and that is why the majority of them, even locals, depart on 20 and go straight out.\u00a0\u00a0Not me!\u00a0 I find runway 02 to be FAR less risky.\u00a0 It may take me some time, but I do learn.\u00a0 And, to borrow a line from a popular television commercial, thirteen engine failures \u201chave taught me a thing or two!\u201d<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"