Pick a field, any field.

The next fun thing to attempt is so called “forced approaches.” Basically I have to demonstrate that if I was out in my little aeroplane and the engine decided that it’d had a bad day and  quit on me that I’d be able to stick it down in a field somewhere (the plane , not  the engine, although hopefully the two are still attached to each other at this point!)

The lesson itself started the day before. In my attempt to wrestle back some semblance of “ownership” of my training. I told Bob that it looked like the winds were unfavourable for solo circuits so could-we-please-go-out-to-the-practice-area-before-I-die-from-boredom? He agreed that seemed like a sound plan of action. I pressed him a little for more details of what to expect. I was in a rare “I feel like studying mood,” so wanted to exploit this opportunity to prep before my lesson.  One option that was discussed was the aforementioned forced approaches.

I’ve heard RTH talk about these, they kind of get mixed reviews. He thinks they are “fun”* but challenging and freely admits that he “didn’t always make it”**. Anyways, I thought it sounded like a bit of a laugh so started reading up on what I needed to know. The book, as ever, was not entirely helpful. I don’t know who they get to draw the diagrams but they need to be shot. Not just fired, shot! In these situations I resort to my usual cry for help whereby I manage to stretch RTH’s real name into a full 6 syllables! He is then duty bound to stop whatever he may be doing and rush to my assistance. We put aside the text book and replaced it with a Nexus tablet showing a map of the practice area and a small model Cessna.  Hey so the scales were out a bit but it gave me something to play with!

The prep helped a lot. The pre-flight briefing made sense to me. I had a good sense of what we were actually trying to achieve. I could answer most of Bob’s questions and even threw a few of my own in there. I wanted a bit of a discussion as to what circumstances would lead to you dumping it in a field. As I’ve mentioned before I'm a little nervy that I’d over react and not be able to judge when you need to find a field vs. an airport.  We talked about engine failures, fires, control surface issues, bird strikes etc. I’ve come to the conclusion that forced approaches are for when the plane is going down anyway, whether you like it or not! A bit like life rafts on boats, ideally you never leave the comfort of your vessel unless you have to step UP to get into the life raft.

We trundled out to the practice area. I got us there without too many issues. I still maintain that it is nigh on impossible to map read AND fly a plane at the same time. Then it was time for Bob to demo the manoeuvre. He cut the power ***and down we went. He demoed the basic order of events 1) trim for best glide 2) pick a field 3) fly the approach. It really is that simple! Except of course it isn’t.

You need to get the plane trimmed out relatively quickly and pick out your field ASAP. Every second you hesitate loses you precious altitude. If time is money then altitude is insurance. There are many factors you are meant to take into consideration to pick a suitable field but to be honest a small piece of advice I did pick up from the internet was “ better a good approach into a poor field than a poor approach into a good field.” Sometimes your choices are going to be limited but apparently every time I have a spare second up there ^**** I should be looking out for potential landing sites in case it all goes horribly wrong.

Bob of course made the field perfectly (I’d expect nothing less!) and then proceeded to give me a minor heart attack when I realised just how low you get in this particular manoeuvre. Apparently RTH wasn’t winding me up when he talked about “scaring cows”^*****Anytime you wanna pull up Bob , fine with me!!!

Then came my turn. For simplicities sake I choose the same field as Bob did. Then I got my North and South all mixed up and almost tried to approach from the wrong side. It turns out that although steps 1 and 2 might be the most time critical, they are actually the easiest. The trickiest is flying the approach. It is very easy to find yourself too far out (easy to remedy) or about to come down too soon (a lot harder to deal with). Despite it looking like I wasn’t going to, I did actually make my field. Although at one point on the video you can hear me cry out “we’re not going to make it, no survivors!!” I was enjoying every moment of it.

It was the most fun I’ve had up there for a while now. I want to go again!

 

* His definition of fun and mine don’t always mesh J

** I think this refers to the fact that he would have either overshot or come up short , not that he’s ever killed anyone or crashed a plane!

*** Actually during winter we are not allowed to cut the power entirely lest the engine decide not to start again! We fly it at 1300rpm with 10 degrees of flaps

**** I’ve yet to discover this mysterious “spare” time. Maybe they give it to you when you get your license?

***** For some reason this made me look up the Wikipedia entry on “Cow Tipping,” which is apparently an urban myth.