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Ever sustained Engine problems?
A while back one of the flight school’s P-92 had a loose magneto that reduced some R.P.M. Have you ever had anything similar? Engine failure, FOD, damage, loss of R.P.M etc.
CMercieca |
Lost one engine, had another go to crap pretty much. One because i was new to flying and didn't have enough experience to know to look at the ruber seal on the fuel cap. It was dry-rotted off and I lost 4hrs of fuel in about 25-35 min. Was over an airport. Second time I was in a very beatup piper Tomahawk and it started running real rough from a mag that went out. I inched back to the airport and by the time I landed I wasn't getting more than 1200rpm out of it. I think the other plugs were going bad too. I quit working for the guy after that. So it wasn't really a failure, just a butt pucker upper lol.
Important thing to remember is that airplanes will talk to you. They don't just up and fail. You get an indication first. If it starts running bad ect then don't risk it. Head on back in. NEVER EVER EVER let a school or anyone else push you to flying when you feel you shouldn't. Just to ease the decision process, if you have any issues at a flight school go back and land and they will refund the flight for MX issues. |
I have had one get partial power. I was flight instructing and as the student was doing the run up I noticed the mag drop was rather large. The student was far enough along that he should have known there was a problem. When he finished I gave him a hint..."Was that normal?"
"Yes!...Altus Tower, xyz ready for takeoff." I rolled my eyes and let him take the runway. When he pushed up the power we go something like 2000 RPM (this was in a 152 btw). I pointed to the RPM and said "Is that normal." "Yes....Rotate!" So we where off the ground, and I was seriously worried that the a/c wouldn't clear the trees at the end of the runway. We did, but not by more than 50 ft. As we where climbing out I started probing the student about how much power he should be able to get. Finally, I had enough. At 2000 feet (I'm not sure how we got that high, we didn't have the power to get up there, but we did) I took the airplane and limped it back to the airport. Turns out that a float in the carb had been signed off as being replaced in accordance with an AD. The old, larger, float was still in there and was causing the mixture to run extremely lean. Like Duck said, aircraft will almost always tell you something is wrong long before it fails on you. We had 2 very clear clues that the engine was not working properly. Lesson to learn: I let the student continue when I knew there was a problem. I let him continue because I thought a good instructor lets a student get to a problem before he "saves" the student. The fact is a good instructor teaches a student how to stop at the first sign of a problem, not the last. |
Originally Posted by wildcat1
(Post 79747)
I have had one get partial power. I was flight instructing and as the student was doing the run up I noticed the mag drop was rather large. The student was far enough along that he should have known there was a problem. When he finished I gave him a hint..."Was that normal?"
"Yes!...Altus Tower, xyz ready for takeoff." I rolled my eyes and let him take the runway. When he pushed up the power we go something like 2000 RPM (this was in a 152 btw). I pointed to the RPM and said "Is that normal." "Yes....Rotate!" So we where off the ground, and I was seriously worried that the a/c wouldn't clear the trees at the end of the runway. We did, but not by more than 50 ft. As we where climbing out I started probing the student about how much power he should be able to get. Finally, I had enough. At 2000 feet (I'm not sure how we got that high, we didn't have the power to get up there, but we did) I took the airplane and limped it back to the airport. Turns out that a float in the carb had been signed off as being replaced in accordance with an AD. The old, larger, float was still in there and was causing the mixture to run extremely lean. Like Duck said, aircraft will almost always tell you something is wrong long before it fails on you. We had 2 very clear clues that the engine was not working properly. Lesson to learn: I let the student continue when I knew there was a problem. I let him continue because I thought a good instructor lets a student get to a problem before he "saves" the student. The fact is a good instructor teaches a student how to stop at the first sign of a problem, not the last. I seriously don't mean to be a smart ass and don't want to offend you in any way but what if you didn't clear the trees? |
Originally Posted by CMercieca
(Post 79722)
A while back one of the flight school’s P-92 had a loose magneto that reduced some R.P.M. Have you ever had anything similar? Engine failure, FOD, damage, loss of R.P.M etc.
CMercieca If you are going down the professional road, you can assume this kind of thing will happen occasionally, especially in piston aircraft. Jets are different, they have so many systems that some minor gadget is almost always broken, but turbine engines are so reliable that you might go your whole career and never have an engine failure. |
Originally Posted by wildcat1
(Post 79747)
I have had one get partial power. I was flight instructing and as the student was doing the run up I noticed the mag drop was rather large. The student was far enough along that he should have known there was a problem. When he finished I gave him a hint..."Was that normal?"
"Yes!...Altus Tower, xyz ready for takeoff." I rolled my eyes and let him take the runway. When he pushed up the power we go something like 2000 RPM (this was in a 152 btw). I pointed to the RPM and said "Is that normal." "Yes....Rotate!" So we where off the ground, and I was seriously worried that the a/c wouldn't clear the trees at the end of the runway. We did, but not by more than 50 ft. As we where climbing out I started probing the student about how much power he should be able to get. Finally, I had enough. At 2000 feet (I'm not sure how we got that high, we didn't have the power to get up there, but we did) I took the airplane and limped it back to the airport. Turns out that a float in the carb had been signed off as being replaced in accordance with an AD. The old, larger, float was still in there and was causing the mixture to run extremely lean. Like Duck said, aircraft will almost always tell you something is wrong long before it fails on you. We had 2 very clear clues that the engine was not working properly. Lesson to learn: I let the student continue when I knew there was a problem. I let him continue because I thought a good instructor lets a student get to a problem before he "saves" the student. The fact is a good instructor teaches a student how to stop at the first sign of a problem, not the last. I've spent some time flying that 152 out of Altus, it barely clears the trees with just me in it on a good hot day! Fun little plane though and good fun flying around there. |
That would sure teach the student a lesson if you had hit those trees.
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Flying a 2002 C-172 had power loss just after takeoff, getting about 800 RPM. After we came back and landed, we told the mx guy what happened and he shrugged it off and said it's a well know problem with the Lycoming IO-360 in the Cessna's. The problem is that it's the same exact engine as the O-360 and therefore was not designed to be injected, so what happens is that the fuel distributor sits right next to the block and gets too hot - vapor lock. All they need is a nice little heat sheild to do the trick! All you 172 drivers...watch yourself!
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The distributor sits right on top of the block. FI engines also run very rich at idle, which is why you should always lean for taxi.
You're right about it being the same engine as an O-360. It IS an IO-360. There are dozens of variations of most piston engines. Most use a similiar block and in some cases cylinders. The differences are in things like oil filler location, carburator/FI location, valve design, etc. |
My old instructor was on climbout and lost all oil pressure and the engine shut off. Went into the trees. You can still see parts of the plane hanging up in them after all these years. They crashed, took off running, the thing blew up as they were running way just like in a movie it was neat. This was at Waco Regional airport.
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Word of the wise, if the plane doesn't feel right don't fly it. I had a serious phobia back in the day with one of the 172s at our flight school, this plane was a POS. I had to return many times to the airport because of problems. One day the engine all of a sudden quit but we had it restart, barely. From that day on I never flew that 172 even if that was the only plane available. Murphy's law is a *****.
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I`ve lost three in my years of flying. The first was a P&W J57. I last saw 30% rpm and 1000degrees C (that`s as far as the needle would go). Since this was my only source of power, I left the machine at 15,000 feet. I also lost an RB 211, luckly, I had two more. Proceed to destination (SAN) on the ground, found all fan blades missing. Someone got a bunch of metal in their yard in New Mexico.Also lost another P&W on climb out from SRQ (in a 757), compressor stall, a couple of chugs and a loud explosion, with fire out the front end, landed, changed underwear and went to the hotel.
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Ahh yes
I had one about 3 1/2 years ago. I was flying a traffic watch C-172. It was about 6am and still completely dark out. I had just taken off from KLEX with two radio station reporters and myself aboard. I had just started my crosswind turn at about 650AGL when the engine began to run very rough, and then quit.
I quickly turned back toward the runway and notified the tower who cleared me for landing on any runway. Unfortunately there was an airline turboprop getting ready to take off on the same runway and when the tower controller cancelled his takeoff clearance, the pilot replied "Okay, cleared for takeoff" and began his takeoff roll. Now I couldn't land in front of the turboprop that was rolling down the runway, so I elected to go behind the airplane. The tower controller ordered the airliner to abort his takeoff roll, and I told him over the radio to continue taxiiing down the runway as I needed room to land behind him. He continued down the runway and I landed a couple hundred feet behind them on the same runway. The mechanic found a faulty spark plug that had exploded in the cylinder and locked up part of the engine. |
i was doing pattern work at LGB two weeks back and on take off climb had a hawk with a swear a good 5ft wing span pass inches from my wing...
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A few years back was instructing in a C-172 (at night). 400' AGL after takeoff I hear a loud bang and lose alot of power, and starts running so rough feels like it's about shake right off the engine mount (I lost a cylinder obviously) so I had to reduce the power even more to bring the vibrations to a tolerable level. Did a 180 and landed the opposite direction, not too much fun as it had to be done at 400' as there was no power to climb, ugh.
Turns out a renter before me liked to lean the mixture beyond peak EGT on the lean side for all operations, including full power takeoffs at sea level in cold temperature, sheer genius. So after frying some rings, I get it and it proceeds to suck a valve right through the cylinder head. The sight of it was amazing, it must really have pulled that valve through the head with some force, that was some seriously bent metal. Apparently the mechanic said the shape of the other cylinders were pretty bad too, so I guess I was lucky the entire engine didn't explode. Don't trust rental airplanes. |
I have also had a problem with a cylinder. I had just soloed the week before, so I'm still getting a feel for the aircraft. It was a 172. I had spent about an hour practicing manuevers, and decided to come back and practice landings. I did the first one ok, but on the second I just couldn't climb. I blew a cylinder. I barely had over 1,000 r.p.m. I was at 200 feet, and fortunately was able to maintain my altitude. I circled back, and made a normal landing. As a new student I was terrified, but I managed to stay calm. I believe most pilots die because they freak out. I'm just glad that I decided to come back and practice landings or I might have had to make a landing in the desert.
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As a college student ferrying a C-150 from San Marcos, TX to Beaumont, TX I lost the quick drain oil plug when climbing to get over the Houston TCA. The engine seized up right there......... Ironacally the airplane was getting an engine change.
Later in during Navy days I lost a few engines in a F-14 Tomcat and ended up during precautionary shutdowns. Still have to land on the boat when blue water ops. ( Meaning nowhere else to land. Land or swim) Also had a TA-4J Skyhawk engine completely blow apart. Started with really bad compressor stalls and after 30 seconds, totally on fire, gave that airplane back to the goverment with a silk ride (eject) for me and my partner. Finally knock on wood, only lost one engine due to a bleed duct failure in a Boeing 727. Bottom line it does happen and will happen so you need to be prepared. |
Originally Posted by CMercieca
(Post 79753)
I seriously don't mean to be a smart ass and don't want to offend you in any way but what if you didn't clear the trees?
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I lost an engine once in a DA20. We were slow enough that the prop stopped completely. I took the controls from my student and was able to get it restarted. Needless to say we cut that lesson short. We flew back to the airport with the electric fuel pump on the whole time. As it turns out, the engine driven fuel pump failed as my student was reducing power for a power off stall.
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