AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - December 2018 - 96

P&E

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NEVER AGAIN

I had always told myself I would never
hesitate to declare an emergency, but when you
are in the situation it is much harder than
I would have thought to do so.
are some cross runways I can circle and land
on, do I go for a field, am I going to lose the
engine right now? All I knew was I needed
to get this thing on the ground as soon as
possible; we weren't making it to any other
airports today.
I still had some power, and my first
thought was go back around and land.
I started a left crosswind turn and told
tower I had a rough engine and needed
to get back on the ground. I made my first
and maybe second mistake right there.
I should have declared an emergency
immediately, and I probably shouldn't
have turned around like that, but the
engine was still producing some power
and I thought I could get back around the
pattern.
The tower asked if I needed any assistance and I declined; I said, "I think I am
fine for now." I had always told myself if I
am ever in a situation I would never hesitate to declare an emergency, but when
you are in the situation it is much harder
than I would have thought to do so. All my
training had been simulated engine-outs.
I had been trained to establish best glide
and look for somewhere to put the aircraft down. I had never been thrown into
a situation where I still had some power
available; it opens up a whole new bag of
options and I wasn't prepared for it.
I was losing power but had enough
to hold altitude; I never got to pattern
altitude. The engine was still running
extremely rough and it felt as if it was going
to die at any moment. I had myself in a position where if the engine did cut out I could
definitely make the runway. Tower cleared
me to land number two behind an aircraft
that was turning base to final and asked if I
would be able to make it in behind them. I
said, "I think I have enough time to follow
them in," which looking back couldn't have
sounded very convincing. The controller
96 | AOPA PILOT December 2018

then said he could have them go around
and I could make a short approach, and the
light bulb went off in my head: Don't be an
idiot, get this airplane on the ground. I told
him I wanted to get on the ground and have
them go around. The situation felt real at
that point.
The other aircraft did a go-around,
and I started my short approach. I made
an uneventful landing, maybe one of the
smoothest in my recent history. I never
ended up completely losing the engine,
but I am convinced if I hadn't acted
quickly or turned back to land it was only
a matter of time. Turns out there was a
stuck exhaust valve, and the engine had
lost a cylinder. That could have turned
out much differently if I made any different choices. What if it happened five
minutes later when I was no longer near
the airport? What if I had decided to try
and keep going? What if I tried to land
number two behind that traffic?
Maybe I made the right calls or maybe
I could have acted differently, but in the
end I got me, my passenger, and the aircraft back to the ground safely. An engine
failure on takeoff is always the most
dreaded worst-case scenario emergency,
and it happened to me. I will never take
another takeoff for granted again, no
matter how routine it seems.
AOPA
JEFF DURANTE is a sport pilot who lives in

Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

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AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - December 2018

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