Poor Decisions

I like to pride myself on survival skills and fast decision making. Being a former skydiver with over 1000 jumps, AFF jumpmaster, and tandem-master, many people have put their lives in my hands and have come back safely. Today I made some decisions that I'm not too proud of.

I had flown up to the Hilltop Lakes Fly-in and enjoyed the BBQ and RV talk. I had several people compliment me on my -8 and that always feels good. After a while people started leaving and I decided it was time to go. I did a good pre-flight and pulled the plane clear of the line of planes so I wouldn't blast anyone as I started to taxi. I had flown up on the right tank so switched to the left. Started up and taxied about 50 feet to the runway. One plane was rolling for take-off as I got to the edge of the runway and then another took off. I was then called "yellow RV, position and hold".

I did a quick run-up and was cleared to depart. I rolled the throttle forward like normal and the A/C accelerated as I would expect. I pushed forward on the stick and the tail came up. About 5 seconds later, the engine started stumbling. It was very rough and I was totally caught off guard. I knew I should abort but couldn't make the decision. After several more seconds went by, I had used too much runway and was committed to flying. I had airspeed and started climbing. The plane wasn't climbing or accelerating the way it normally did (duh!), I would estimate I was getting about 1/2 power. The planes in front of me had turned right so I turned left to get some clear air. I checked the throttle quadrant by putting my flat hand against the levers and pushing forward on all three levers. To my amazement, the mixture moved forward quite a bit. Several seconds later the roughness and stumbling quit and I had pretty much full power. I continued to climb and kept an eye on the runway in case the roughness came back and I had to land. I climbed thru 1000 ft and continued on a Southerly heading on my way home. The rest of the trip was uneventful (except for the rain and thunderstorms around Houston).

Now for the Post-Op. Here are the things I did wrong and will try to learn from my mistakes. I am posting this "story" so that others will hopefully also learn from my poor decisions. So, here's the list:

1. I didn't abort. I had plenty of room to abort and had brought my tool kit. I should have aborted and taxiied back, run up the engine and checked it out.

2. By habit I leaned the engine after starting to keep the plugs from fouling. It was not needed this time because I was very near the runway and had a very short wait to take-off. My run-up was also pretty sloppy and I didn't catch that the mixture was leaned about half way back.

3. I can't remember sumping the tanks (actually I'm pretty sure I didn't). I always sump them before flying and I got out of my normal routine because I was loading my tool kit, a chair, my camera bag, loading the destination on the GPS and doing some other things. Since I didn't use the left tank on the way up and the engine run was very short before taking off, its possible there was something in the tank that didn't reach the engine until half way down the runway.

4. Not real current. This really bothers me but I can't fly as much as I would like. Our budget is kind of tight and I only get to fly 3 or 4 times per month, at the most. Because I don't fly much, I don't tend to practice emergency procedures as much as I should. If I were more current I might have recognized the problem earlier and made the right decision.

There's probably more stuff but these are the things I came up with on the drive home. So, here's hoping that anyone that reads this will do an interal audit of their decision making and possibly go practice some emergencies... I know I will very soon.

Karl

The good news is you are a student of the lesson you learned, and you are willing to bring it up in order to get all of us to think about safety, checklists, and emergency procedures. We all make "mistakes". Live & learn. You are only a fool if you don't learn something from it. Just like OSH, most "mistakes" are made (IMHO) because pilots attempt maneuvers, procedures, ect., they have not done before and think they can do it cause; "I'm at OSH" . There are just too many distractions to try anything new at an air show.

Friday night I landed at my home airport thinking I should have at least 45 mins of fuel like a good little night flying pilot. When I fuel it up Sat am I put in 33.5 gallons in a 36 gallon capacity airplane.

You should have, and could have aborted. When was the last time any of us practiced an aborted take off?

Good safety thread.

Thanks for the report. It helps everyone keep safety "top of mind", because it is a reminder not to be complacent. Complacency easily leads to seemingly minor mistakes which can be deadly in the right circumstances.

The most recent "oops" I remember is getting distracted doing my run-up, and departing on one mag. After liftoff, it was obvious that the engine wasn't delivering normal power. I did a cockpit scan, and quickly identified and corrected the problem.

The really stupid part (in hindsight) is that I should have aborted the takeoff and done the problem solving on the ground. If the problem had been something other than an ignition switch, and had gotten worse, I'd have been the dummy who could have aborted a takeoff, but got hard headed and suffered an off-field landing or worse.

Karl,

I had one of those oh sh** moments a couple of weekends ago as I was out running thru an hour of T/O and Lnds. Downwind, throttle back, distracted by something on the ground as I was getting set-up for proper pitch and speed, reach down and pull carb heat only to hear the engine begin to cough and run rough! I mistakenly pulled the mixture to full lean. Immediately pushed it back to the firewall. Almost did my first "dead stick". Two things I learned from that episode. 1. Always look at what you touch (I use to jump as well and you always look at the chord), 2. Gotta get a big red handle for the mixture control. My cherokee does not have one and it is the same color as carb heat although it is a good foot to the right in its postion on the panel.

Felt as dumb as dirt, but would have felt dumber if the accident report read that the pilot was an idiot and never realized his mistake.

Good post. Thanks for sharing.

The Opposite Case....

Great report Karl - I heard them clear you off, then didn't hear anymore - figured you'd had a normal return until the Wx (like me!)

I have been (nearly) bit by the opposite condition recently - operating from high altitude fields with the mixture full rich. Most of my 30+ years of flying has been in the central part of the country, with ground elevations of 1,000' or less, so taking off with anything other than the mixture full rich is very foreign. I've leaned that is a great prescription for a low-power take-off from Big Bear (almost 7,000 msl).

Leaned out at Seal Level, or full rich at altitude...neither are good!

I guess that it is really good to brush up on those things we were taught years ago but never had to apply....

Paul

I'm a fairly low time guy building a 7A. I have my airflow performance purge valve control right next to the throttle. (I was thinking cutoff, throttle, prop, mixture from left to right was pretty standard). It has briefly crossed my mind that if I got distracted or flustered I might be at risk of killing the engine when I meant to idle it but I haven't decided how (or if) to try to address that. This thread got me thinking again. Anyone out there with a purge valve thought about or tried to address this? (Or am I a rookie worrying about something I shouldn't be?)

Thanks,
Jay

RV8N said:

2. By habit I leaned the engine after starting to keep the plugs from fouling.
Karl

Click to expand...

I do too, but make sure to lean it aggressively. That way, if you leave the mixture out, you will not be able to generate any power when you put the throttle to it. You will know right now that something is not right and wont have enough power to take off.
My procedure is to start at 1100rpm, watch the RPM rise while leaning until it just starts to drop, stop and back in 1/4 turn. Taxi. Sometimes, I have to enrichen slightly to taxi if I need a little more power like in grass or something.
Thanks for sharing your "lesson"

Me too....

Stogie 6 said:

Karl,

I had one of those oh sh** moments a couple of weekends ago as I was out running thru an hour of T/O and Lnds. Downwind, throttle back, distracted by something on the ground as I was getting set-up for proper pitch and speed, reach down and pull carb heat only to hear the engine begin to cough and run rough! I mistakenly pulled the mixture to full lean. Immediately pushed it back to the firewall. Almost did my first "dead stick". Two things I learned from that episode. 1. Always look at what you touch (I use to jump as well and you always look at the chord), 2. Gotta get a big red handle for the mixture control. My cherokee does not have one and it is the same color as carb heat although it is a good foot to the right in its postion on the panel.

Felt as dumb as dirt, but would have felt dumber if the accident report read that the pilot was an idiot and never realized his mistake.

Good post. Thanks for sharing.

Click to expand...

My first cross-country after getting my PPL (don't know why that would be) in my newly purchased (1970) 172. Coming into the pattern, pulled the power for the downwind and pulled the carb-heat (but it was the mixture). Slowed down on the downwind like normal and put in some flaps. Turned base and put in some more and then decided that I was getting a little low, so I adjusted the throttle. No response. I was very busy trying to figure out if I would make the field, but then I noticed that I had pulled the Mixture and not the carb-heat. I pushed the Mixture in and the engine started making power.
The prop never quite wind-milling and all seemed normal until I wanted a little power.

Lesson learned!

Kent

Karl,

I really appreciate you having the guts and honesty to fess up. As others have already said, the best thing to do is neither deny it nor beat yourself up over it. Just be glad you're still flying and learn from it. There are those who will read it and say "I would never do that", and they may be right, but they would do some other bonehead thing instead. We've all got our own special brand of screwup. Thanks again.

szicree said:

Karl,

I really appreciate you having the guts and honesty to fess up. As others have already said, the best thing to do is neither deny it nor beat yourself up over it. Just be glad you're still flying and learn from it. There are those who will read it and say "I would never do that", and they may be right, but they would do some other bonehead thing instead. We've all got our own special brand of screwup. Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Me too. That's how I got my tag line.

A good time to review...

Thanks for the safety stop.

I think this a good time to review my ops practices and see where I have gotten lax. It's all to easy to get a "little out of pocket" when everything has been going good.

Thanks for helping us all "break the chain".

Karl,

Good debrief, I was one of those people ewing and awing over your -8 at Hill Top. I was taking pictures of you and Paul taking off. In this picture ,if you look at 12 oclock high, Paul can be seen climbing out to the right (the small white dot). Thanks for the honesty, and glad that this was not your last picture..


link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/c177tx/HillTop/photo#5115822943406467186

How about..

Does taking off with the canopy open (tip up), full flaps (not intentional) and an oil door left open qualify as stupid?

I aborted just the other day for the oil door, it was good practice.

I did the oil door during phase I.

Walt said:

Does taking off with the canopy open (tip up), full flaps (not intentional) and an oil door left open qualify as stupid?

I aborted just the other day for the oil door, it was good practice.

Click to expand...

But I think that it was on my test plan.

You have to test that it can still fly that way.

Kent

Back in the dark ages...

when I learn to fly, my instructor taught us to push everything forward, not just the throttle.

This works great, until you are at a high elevation airport and need to leave the mixture out. Hopefully I will continue to remember to lean for best power on the run-up and then not touch the mixture.

Karl, thanks for the post and it is good to hear all is good with you, the plane, and the engine.

N941WR said:

when I learn to fly, my instructor taught us to push everything forward, not just the throttle.

This works great, until you are at a high elevation airport and need to leave the mixture out.

Click to expand...

yup. 'swhy the baron i was flyin' out of angelfire a coupla decades ago lost 2 on takeoff.......

Jay, I have the same system and I mounted the purge valve actuator left of the throttle but the knob is flush with the panel. Thus the throttle is significantly forward and you must go slightly under the panel for the purge valve. I may have a pix on my website at www.websites.expercraft.com/jimn If you have and problems, e-mail me.

My view

I start with the mixture out close to ideal (Field elevation 6840'). Then I lean further for taxi to minimize plug fouling. At the run-up, I always use the checklist and the first thing I do is verify proper mixture by pushing in part way in then leaning to max RPM.

All other checks often involve looking and touching knobs, looking at fuel gauges and fuel selector setting....not just a look at the checklist and casual glance at something. It is too easy to see what you think you should see. I have done that so I know.

Position and hold is a stupid procedure. Get ready, verify that you are ready, the final is clear, then taxi onto the runway and go. Position and hold saves precious little time and I prefer to clear final just before I enter the runway.

Never let pressure change your established routine.

Forced to hurry

Great post Karl- reminds me of the same distraction that interrupts an out of normal check list sequence. I was leaving an airshow in a Cherokee 235 and had departures in front and behind. No good place to do a real run-up or full checklist, Decided to just do a mag check while coming out of the taxiway-onto the runway in the last second?. And ya know there is no way to get that top door latch closed while flying...that would be distraction #2....
What I learned from that is when you know an out of normal taxi will occure, plan for the distractions rather than push ahead with a hurried full runup/checklist...

kentb said:

My first cross-country after getting my PPL (don't know why that would be) in my newly purchased (1970) 172. Coming into the pattern, pulled the power for the downwind and pulled the carb-heat (but it was the mixture). Slowed down on the downwind like normal and put in some flaps. Turned base and put in some more and then decided that I was getting a little low, so I adjusted the throttle. No response. I was very busy trying to figure out if I would make the field, but then I noticed that I had pulled the Mixture and not the carb-heat. I pushed the Mixture in and the engine started making power.
The prop never quite wind-milling and all seemed normal until I wanted a little power.

Lesson learned!

Kent

Click to expand...

been there, done that as a student in 1984, still remember it EVERY time i set up to land!
1st thing i did after landing was to change shorts then went to nearest wall and played head ram with it. trying to knock some sense into me! LOL
do care for those OS moments! (oh s---)

Well, I finally got to the airport on Saturday and thought I would check out the engine before just blasting off. I removed the cowl and inspected the engine. I could find no issues and everything looked normal. I taxiied out and did several runs down the runway and no hint of power loss.

I re-installed the cowling and went for a local flight and had no signs of power loss. I must assume that the cause was either slight contamination in the fuel or the partial mixture. I have religiously sumped the tanks and have never found any contamination or water. I believe it was the mixture even though I had full power before the power loss.

I will continue to be cautious during take-offs for quite some time just to be sure it doesn't return. I want to thank everyone for the kind words... and yes I have done some of the bone-headed things mentioned, I just never got caught like this before.

Karl

By the way, I was just about to leave the airport and heard an aircraft taking off. By the sound, I was pretty sure it was a Pawnee that is used by the local banner-towers. All of a sudden the engine was totally silent (not the idle you hear when the instructor pulls the power, I mean tomb-like quiet). I couldn't see the a/c. Several seconds later the power came back then quit again. This happened several times. A guy went running by and said the a/c had gone down.

To make a long story short, the plane was totally destroyed but the pilot walked away. He was very shaken and had some cuts on his face. I believe he was transported to the hospital by ambulance.

This really brought home how fortunate I was. I didn't have total power loss and was able to recover power. I hope to remember these lessons for many years.

I went and looked at the Pawnee yesterday evening Karl - they brought it back to the hangar, and actually, if they find a new fuselage, new wings, a couple of tail surfaces, and engine and a prop, I figure it's repairable.....Yeah, he was very lucky to have been in that roll cage!

Paul

I didn't even see the wings at the scene. Not sure where they were. I think I heard a witness state that he was gliding for the field and clipped the trees. Looked to me like the plane nosed in and flipped over. The engine was separated and the fuselage was bent in half behind the cockpit.

Yes, he was very lucky.

Karl