Flight School – Lesson #12 – 8AM-10AM – Engine Out Procedures and Presolo Written Exam
Posted on November 21, 2006 – 11:34 am by admin
I know this post is a little late. Things have been busy lately, so my apologies. This lesson was on Friday, Nov.17.
We decided to check my mad skillz on landings again. We are prepping for my solo. You know the drill by now, take off, do the pattern and land for some touch and goes. I have to say, sleeping on it really improves you for the next lesson. I think you learn a lot during your sleep. I aced every landing during this lesson. Yigal looked over and said, “Good, now that you learned how to land, let’s get you ready for your solo and do some emergency procedures.” Now, we did some of these during my first few lessons, but we went more in depth this time.
Basically, there are different procedures for different times you may lose your engine. Each circumstance calls for something else. We practiced what to do if you had pretty good elevation. Ok, here goes: If you encounter engine loss in flight, you,
1. Immediately trim for best glide. In the case of a 1977 Cessna 172, that is 65kts
2. Pick a suitable landing site and fly towards it
3. Make sure carburetor heat is on
4. Make sure your fuel mixture is rich
5. Make sure your fuel selector is on “both”
6. Make sure your magnetos are on “both”
7. Make sure your primer is in and locked
8. At this point, if you can’t get the plane restarted or if an off airport landing becomes necessary, you radio “mayday, mayday”
9. Turn your transponder to 7700
10. Turn your mixture, mags, master switch and fuel off (no spark for hard landing)
11. Seats and seatbelts secure
12. All sharp objects away
13. Doors ajar and open slightly before touchdown
I think this might be pretty hard to remember right now, but will become second nature if it happens. The main problem I was having was gauging my distance from the runway. Once I overshot and had to go around and once I undershot. I could’ve landed, but it was on the beginning of the runway where you aren’t supposed to land. During an actual emergency, that would’ve been a good spot to land though.
I made a few more good landings and finished up the lesson. I asked for the pre-solo written exam and they gave it to me. I am completing it right now, so I will let you know how I do. To complete it, you need your training airplane POH, the checklist for your airplane and the FAR/AIM.
