Originally Posted by Planespotta

In FAA-H-8083-3A (Airplane Flying Handbook) it says:

- Maintain positive control; Vg; and turn towards an airport (look for beacons or tune in a CTAF and click for PCL) or AWAY from congested areas.

- Check to determine cause of the engine failure. If you changed something just before the engine failed, undo it.

- Announce the emergency situation to ATC or UNICOM . . . if you are already in contact with a facility, do not change frequencies unless instructed to.

- If the nearby terrain is not known, turn towards an unlighted portion of the area (but NOT one that is reflecting stars or other light . . . ditching a GA airplane in the water is almost suicidal because of the tendency for the airplane to cartwheel upon contacting the water. I heard that your best bet is to trim for level flight 10-30 feet above the water just above a stall and jump out because it won't be much worse than falling when water-skiing)

- If possible, choose a landing sight close to public access.

- Maintain wind awareness to avoid a downwind landing (check ATIS/AWOS/ASOS, groundspeed, etc. . . . this is where it pays to know where factories are located to look for steam)

Landing light working: complete the landing in the normal landing attitude at the slowest possible airspeed.

Landing light not working and outside visual references not available: hold airplane in level-landing attitude until ground is contacted.

- After landing, turn off all switches and evacuate ASAP

Another thing to consider is to plan your flight along a route with plentiful airports or fields. Also, the FAA does not recommend flying above 5000 MSL without supplemental oxygen at night for aeromedical reasons, so consider purchasing an oxygen system and cruising higher to improve your odds of gliding to a suitable landing site. Also, get that instrument rating.

Hope this helps!

Originally Posted by Planespotta

Good luck avoiding those power lines/over passes/highway signs/cars with broken lights/telephone poles . . .[/

even so, if you were to hit those things at stall speed, your chances of survival are better than a lake in the middle of feb (that was thought to be a field). youd also be accessible to emergency vehicles, etc.

someone at a company i used to work for landed a caravan in IA at midnight on a highway. he didnt' hit anything and was undoubtedly lucky, but he survived.

the point is, if you can find a straight piece of concrete, it's not a bad option. better than the "shut the lights off if you don't like what you see" theory, but to each his own

Originally Posted by bernouli

even so, if you were to hit those things at stall speed, your chances of survival are better than a lake in the middle of feb (that was thought to be a field). youd also be accessible to emergency vehicles, etc.

Originally Posted by bernouli

the point is, if you can find a straight piece of concrete, it's not a bad option. better than the "shut the lights off if you don't like what you see" theory, but to each his own

Originally Posted by bernouli

copying and pasting textbook answers from the AFH is all well and good. lets be realistic though; completing all of those steps while the engines on fire 3k feet about the ground is a little far fetched.

Originally Posted by Planespotta

Reference this video - the CFI died:

YouTube - Cessna 172 Crash

That wasn't a highway. It was a road in a neighborhood, during the day.

Plane Makes Emergency Landing Near Winterset | KCRG-TV9 | Cedar Rapids, Iowa News, Sports, and Weather | Local News

granted, this person was a better pilot...........

If the impact doesn't kill you, the electricity or resulting fire may finish off the job. And, it's easy to avoid water at night . . . just look for reflections. Unless it's a completely overcast night, you can tell the difference between water and fields. If you're flying over a lake, as you wrote, that is plain poor judgment - when you get a job flying scheduled routes with canned flight plans, tell your boss you don't want to fly over any water, and see how it goes . . . just like flying a single recip at night when it's cloudy out. this one is just an assanine statement. it must be really nice to only fly when its completely clear out. where can i send a resume?


You are putting words in my mouth. I never said that.



. . . not really. You can maintain backpressure until you're at Vg, start looking for a suitable landing site, and troubleshoot all at once. The point is to memorize them on the ground and think up a plan of action ahead of time, just like any emergency checklist, so that they are second nature in the air. And, I didn't copy and paste . . .