Plane Engine Cuts Out, Crazy Video

I thought this was a pretty cool/terrifying watch and thought some of you might enjoy it. Can someone tell me why the plane starts spinning like that? I was under the impression that if the engine went out they would just glide and lose altitude.

reply to post by Domo1


Explanation: S&F!

I hope the pilot escaped without injury.

Personal Disclosure: I am of the feeling that such a small plane was nose heavy and that the forces of physics in play inside the engine may have contributed to it plus possible some poor rudder and stick control from the pilot during a stressfull situation allowing the internal momentum of the engine to 'throw' the plane out of alignment and into a flat nose down spin. I hope this helps.

Wow.. idiot pulled back on the stick when the engine quit. Then he decided not to fly the plane, concentrating on restarting the engine instead. Image the landing options he would have had if he pulled out of the spin a couple thousand feet sooner. This knucklehead is lucky to be alive.

Appears he stalled it and had to get enough air flow over the wings before he could regain any sort of control. It was going down no matter what he did though and it might have been far worse (especially if he stalled at a lower altitude).

'pretty cool/terrifying watch and thought some of you might enjoy it' ?
All of the above

The pilot purposefully stalled the aircraft as an entry into a conventional spin where the nose is pointing down and the airflow is still moving over the control surfaces.

For whatever reason the spin turned into a flat spin where the aircraft is rotating laterally around its Y axis and no airflow is moving over the control surfaces (is the type rated to spin? Some aircraft aren't for exactly the reason shown in the video.)

The pilot ends up getting the nose down again and recovers from the spin at the last moment and regains controlled flight long enough to effect a crash landing.. This video could/should have been much worse.

Originally posted by Drunkenparrot
The pilot purposefully stalled the aircraft as an entry into a conventional spin where the nose is pointing down and the airflow is still moving over the control surfaces.

Um, pushing forward on the stick would have had the same effect. I don't think there's a pilot alive today who thinks that intentionally stalling a plane is the best thing to do after an engine failure.

Originally posted by AwakeinNM

Originally posted by Drunkenparrot
The pilot purposefully stalled the aircraft as an entry into a conventional spin where the nose is pointing down and the airflow is still moving over the control surfaces.

Um, pushing forward on the stick would have had the same effect. I don't think there's a pilot alive today who thinks that intentionally stalling a plane is the best thing to do after an engine failure.

The prop was turning when the pilot began to maneuver the aircraft.

Besides, read the Youtube comments, the pilot says the same thing himself.

The spin was supposed to be a normal erect spin to the right, but for various unintentional reasons the spin went flat, up until that point I had never flat spun an aircraft. I eventualy mananged to get the aircraft into a normal erect spin from which I was able to recover. This aircraft is not fitted with an electric starter motor, so I was unable to restart the engine. During the "flare" to land the main undercarriage caught the top wires of a barbed wire fence that was invisible to me. After coming to rest inverted I waited 20mins for the rescue services to come and right the aircraft so I was able to exit via the outward opening canopy. The aircraft rotated 26 times total, I was extremely dissorientated after the recovery to straight and level flight, and was unable to read the instruments. From the video I estimate I recovered at about 700ft from an entry altitude of 3500ft. If you listen carefully you will hear me say:"I think this is it". At that stage I did not think I would be able to recover. However I continued to try various control inputs based on the aircraft attitude and rotational rate, which eventually effected a recovery.
My thanks go to the emergency services that found me and allowed my escape.

Here's a video of the pilot explaining what happened.



It's amazing that he walked away from this with everything intact.

reply to post by Drunkenparrot


I'll have to watch again. I thought the engine failed before he pulled back and stalled?

Originally posted by AwakeinNM
Wow.. idiot pulled back on the stick when the engine quit. Then he decided not to fly the plane, concentrating on restarting the engine instead. Image the landing options he would have had if he pulled out of the spin a couple thousand feet sooner. This knucklehead is lucky to be alive.

So that's what happened? he pulled back on the stick? I don't know much but thought perhaps it was a headwind or something but if he did pull back on the stick that then you are correct. The pilot is a lucky fool. I am also wondering what the reasoning for trying to go into any kind of spin after your engine dies could be

Would the correct course of action been to immediately start gliding and looking for a place to set down that isn't a #ing swamp?

I kept thinking - when is he going to call mayday?

Originally posted by AwakeinNM
reply to post by Drunkenparrot

 

I'll have to watch again. I thought the engine failed before he pulled back and stalled?

The video posted above gives a thorough accounting.

At 0:25 the pilot retards the throttle prior to entering the spin. The engine doesn't quit until 0:53 after he has goosed it a couple of times, I assume in an attempt to rock the nose back over into the slipstream.

I would guess the engine quit because of a fuel problem, either he flooded the engine with the abrupt throttle changes trying to force the nose back over or the lateral G forces somehow impeded fuel delivery and starved the engine.

He says in the video the aircraft is rated for inverted flight but it is possible the lateral G forces pulled the fuel into the side of the tank away from the pickups or some such thing.

The cause was essentially pilot error, its a short coupled aircraft and he entered the spin improperly using a lot of aileron rather than rudder from a stall.

What happens is their isn't enough airflow to maintain the aerodynamic authority of the tail and the drag from the ailerons imparts a lateral motion.