Monday, December 15, 2014

WingsOfun BLOG #69: December 9, 2014: Complete Control Failure

"Keeping the Fun in Flying!"

                                                                                                                          
Piper Tri-Pacer, source: creative commons

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WingsOfun.com BLOG #69: December 9, 2014


WELCOME PILOTS

      I've just received the new book cover for, “How to Save Money on Flight Training” and am pleasantly surprised. There seems to be continued interest in the media about learning to fly in the most efficient, cost effective manner. One important addition to the book was the tagline, “Overcoming the 80% drop-out rate while saving big bucks on learning to fly.” The drop-out rate is probably the greatest obstacle that the flight training industry faces today. However, with adversity I see great potential to re-invent flight training for the sake of the customer and the longevity of the flight training industry. I challenge you all to join me in helping future pilots make the dream of flight a reality.

“Keeping the fun in flying!"
tom@wingsofun.com

*I wanted to give a quick shout-out to Don Piasecki for the PC-12 NTSB final investigation report information.


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COMPLETE CONTROL FAILURE
By TC FREEMAN
      I was on downwind on an instructional flight with a student. From the instructor’s perspective things were going well; which means not a lot of prompting for the landing. Calls were made to Unicom, power reduced for descent, and approach checklist initiated. I was proud of my client’s progress and felt comfortable enough to fold my arms and not be there right at the controls anticipating the need to take over at a moment’s notice. We entered the 45 to the downwind and my client pressed the push-to-talk switch, “Bright Leaf Unicom N555AB downwind Runway 5 full stop, Bright Leaf Unicom.”
      My client proceeded to click off a couple more items on the“before landing checklist” when he looked at me with eyes wide open, white as a sheet and said, “The controls won't move.” Always known for being able to state the obvious I said, “What do you mean the controls won't move, are you sure?” The client responded, “If I force the control stick much more I'm afraid it will bend or worse, break.” I asked to take control to verify. Sure enough, the control stick was frozen solid.
      At this point we were well into the downwind leg of the traffic pattern and I was troubleshooting, wondering what on earth could have caused a total loss of aileron and elevator control. The second thought was coming up with a game plan on getting us both on the ground in our respective one piece. To our advantage, we still had throttle and elevator trim for pitch and rudder for bank (or turning). We also were fortunate to have a very long runway to which we could make a long approach, and hopefully not a life-ending final approach. The game plan was to keep bank angles to a minimum since pitch corrections required more intense coordination.
      Now on an extended downwind, I was still wondering about the controls and looked at the ailerons just to make sure something wasn't binding. In my mind, I was imagining the push-pull tube routing. Aileron push-pull tubes go from the underside of the control stick to the baggage area where they proceed vertically to tubes that go out to the wings. As a matter of fact, a pilot can actually see the tubes actuate by turning around in the seat to see the vertical tubes and looking straight up to see the wing connection. I asked the client to take control of the aircraft while I looked at the push-pull tubes. The tube came up through the baggage area directly behind the left seat, giving a good vantage point to see the control system. Apparently, the seat was adjusted so far back that it pushed on the push-pull tube ultimately keeping it from moving. After asking the client to move his seat forward the controls freed up immediately.
      After a normal landing, the client was still shaken and said, “If you were not there I don't know if I would have figured out the problem and would have been forced to make a landing with limited controls.” The good news was that I was there to assist. In reality, much of dealing with emergency issues boils down to training and experience. This situation gave me a great opportunity to make a major impact on this client’s training. In just a few flight lessons later he was able to handle a no aileron and elevator approach like a pro.
About the author:TC Freeman has been flying since he was a teenager and is now an aviation speaker and author. Being employed as an Aviation Safety Specialist for state government, he has a passion for spreading the thrill of flying just for the fun of it via the website, www.WingsOfun.com.

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In this audio book TC Freeman discusses; straight in approaches, dealing
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(Run time: 34 minutes)
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A Pilot's worst nightmare, landing without primary controls





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