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Left Logan at 4:10 ish KLGU- for a company meeting in SLC U42 No problems during the flight. Unfortunately They route you pretty low right over the middle of salt lake as you're passing by the tower- so i was at 5500 ft as i squawked vfr and set up for a right base for the field. So problem one- already lower than i like- field elevation is 4600. make my turn to final- pull the power back a bit more to get under 100 mph for flaps-- put the first notch of flaps in, and run through landing check again- somewhere amidst this i go to add power because my glide path is a little low- This is the tricky part. I still don't know exactly how long my engine was out before i figured it out. You have to understand- smooth airplane (i've had compliments on the smoothness and quietness from other rv owners) power is supposed to be at idle anyway- and the prop didn't stop, its windmilling. Lightspeed Zulu? not much to hear. Anyway, so eventually pumping the throttle i realize that i am engineless. This is how high? maybe 750 ft high? at that point my glide dropped far below the runway and i am suddenly super concerned that i am right on the edge of making the soccer field. I put my flaps back up as this glide thing is going through my mind. I have maybe 10 more seconds to try anything to get the motor going- put the mixture richer, confirm carb heat, boost pump, fuel selector- pump pump pump throttle. Nothing. No time. No more time. Fly the airplane. (south valley traffic 00Z going down in a park just south of the runway) I am not going to make the field. i do an intermediate level off to clear the building south of the park, but only enough to clear (actually split the buildings thats how close it was) and then pitch back down to try to maintain the rest of my airspeed as possible for the flare. Flare- happened so fast, obviously didn't have much airspeed left because i went full rear stick fast- was hard but good enough- next problem. Trees. had one or two seconds- hard rudder input, whack, (split trees but hit park sign) and go up a hill to a level off where i jamb the breaks and keep elevator back of course. wow i stopped fast. I stop just before the second sidewalk and a second set of trees. I am alive! I am ridiculously lucky i made that field. I didn't flip! I hit my wing.... I am ALIVE! GET OUT! gas is coming out of my right wing- flip everything off and jump out.
some basic observations-
1) the time between when i knew i had an emergency and the time i was stopped on the ground felt like 1 minute at the most. Could have been longer but thats my guess. Couldn't have been much worse as far as loosing an engine at the wrong time. absolutely no time to pick a field, almost zero time to troubleshoot the motor, already lower than i like to fly my approach.
2) the wind hurt my glide but also reduced my landing speed. there was a pretty good wind from the north that day. THAT is why i was wearing a hat i had in my plane, sorry flyboy1963 to loose your PR vote. It was realllly cold and i was out there for hours. furthermore I didn't jump out of the plane and go run for an interview, they came an hour later, and i couldn't think of a reason not to talk to them. This was a positive general aviation incident- if there is such a thing?
3) I am really really lucky! some may substitute lucky for divine intervention, that would be appropriate. What if anything can i really give myself credit for? at least i maximized my glide, flew the airplane, and kept her from stalling. missed the trees? almost... clipped the edge of one and took out a sign, it was as good as i could have asked for but of course no damage would have been better. I absolutely cannot complain.
4) This is a scary one to admit. I didn't look at the airspeed gauge once during the emergency. The last time i looked at it was right as i was falling below 95mph to make sure i could get some flaps out. i would guess i flew the glide around 90- just kept my nose pointed where i knew it had to be to maintain. my prop stopped windmilling as i leveled out right before the field, it stopped horizontally which was nice. after the initial landing i split the trees and was moving really fast- went up a hill that seemed steeper at the time than after- this caused my nose to fly up in the air and my tail to smack the ground pretty hard. bent up the rear tie down. doesn't seem too bad. FAA guy told me today there is no spar damage and that this will be considered an incident, not an accident which is great for many reasons.
5) not even enough time to put flaps in. when would i have done that? they're electric it takes like 5 or more seconds? might have been a nice touch to have jerked the handle up on the manual ones if i had had them.- right at touchdown...
The nose held up! It does have the antisplatt nose job if anyone is wondering. no wheel pant damage at all.
Now as for the reason- yes everyone kept asking if it was gas but i had plenty. i started thinking about carb ice initially- i had used carb heat on my descent from 8k down to 5,5k (15-16mp) and remember pushing it back in after. then flew 5.5k over downtown slc for 5 more minutes and headed for the airport. There was no significant long descent at a pulled back power setting- i used it when i was supposed to.
My mixture was rich enough. I richened it during my descent and am very confident about the setting where it was at. FAA guy checked out throttle and mixture linkages today and said they worked great. He also gave a great compliment to the guy i bought this from- told me he could eat off the motor and that it was very nicely done (recent OH 50 hours ago new crank, the works and FWF was brand new practically- A&P rebuilt after a previous owner's nose collapse on a bad soft field)
But that just maddens me even more- this was supposed to be a new airplane mechanically speaking. i have already put a lot of hours in this thing (over 25 in 3 months) and the only trouble i have had was a dirty contact point on the impulse mag a couple weeks ago. I had around 5 hours or more on the plane since the mag incident.
The FAA guy was on the phone with me during the day today a few times- near the end of the day he was mentioning that the left tank wasn't draining very well and suspected a possible blockage somewhere? started asking about tank sump filters and other possible blockages. So he hasn't found the answer yet. I keep replaying it in my mind, trying to think of something i did wrong or could have done. I can't wait to find out.
I am so glad i was in an RV! My last plane was a Varieze and it would have been ugly. i am impressed with the sturdiness of my RV and although i would have enjoyed a 9As wing for glide, I was really glad to have a 23 ft wingspan when the local FBO towed me back to the airport!! police escort, and shimmied it through the gate. only 1/2 a mile or so. Any other plane would have had to be disassembled!
At this point i don't know exactly how this is going to affect my future flying and decision making. The biggest loss is the confidence of those around me that have or would have flown with me in the future. I love flying but sharing it is hard enough without those you know hearing your plane went down, and its an EXPERIMENTAL, and only crazy people build airplanes, and they crash all the time. Sigh. I am alive though!