CAP Pilot makes emrgency landing off-field

[NIN]

yeah you need to be proficient at it, but night flying is more dangerous. Does CAP allow people to do proficiency flying at night?

A) Night flying is really no more "dangerous" than, say, instrument flying. And people do instrument flying all the time and nobody goes "whoa, thats dangerous. why would you do that?"

B) Night VFR flying in the right weather is quite fun and fairly safe.  Obviously, if the fan up front stops working over the inky blankness, it won't be so easy to pick out the "best field" in the dark.

C) The only instrument approach I've ever flown was at night.

D) I have more time in a CAP plane at night than I do during the day, I think....

[a2capt]

If I didn't fly at night for CAP, about 1/3rd of the couple hundred hours I racked up would not be in my logbook.

Open mouth. Insert propeller.

[CAP_Marine]

It was a transport flight by the way.

[a2capt]

I figured nearly as much, and things like transport flights are efficient at night because that puts the asset on site for use at first light.

...in a mission scenario, or efficient scheduling of downtime due to getting it to centralized MX and back quickly, etc.

[DBlair]

A reportedly brand new pilot, the 22 year old from TX made an emergency landing after losing power in a CAP Cessna.

Video: Good Morning America
http://gma.yahoo.com/video/news-26797925/young-pilot-makes-emergency-landing-in-street-27790133.html

[MIKE]

Merged.

[starshippe]

   excellent job of keeping control of the situation and maintaining control of the aircraft.
   perhaps she can be asked to come here to cap talk and give us a first hand description of the experience?


thanks,
bill

[DBlair]

Merged.

Thanks for the merge, I didn't see the other thread until after posting.

[CAP_Marine]

   excellent job of keeping control of the situation and maintaining control of the aircraft.
   perhaps she can be asked to come here to cap talk and give us a first hand description of the experience?

I will ask her next week when I see her at our meeting. She just might.

[davidsinn]

I figured nearly as much, and things like transport flights are efficient at night because that puts the asset on site for use at first light.

...in a mission scenario, or efficient scheduling of downtime due to getting it to centralized MX and back quickly, etc.

Wanna bet it was an A9 flight and she got the honors because she's a low hour pilot and needs the time?

[Sky_Can]

Awsome pilot. Unless it was her fault, then she just bought a broken aircraft.

[davidsinn]

Awsome pilot. Unless it was her fault, then she just bought a broken aircraft.

That makes no sense.

Everything I've heard says engine failure. The only speculation I've heard was on the specific cause of the engine failure but in the event of loss of power that's not her fault and she has no liability.

[FW]

^ +1.  from what I heard, NTSB preliminary report was a blown engine rod.  Stuff happens.  She performed admirably.  Time to move on.

[Eclipse]

This video has some more recent daylight photos of the damage:  http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=8490515

[JeffDG]

Awsome pilot. Unless it was her fault, then she just bought a broken aircraft.

That makes no sense.

Everything I've heard says engine failure. The only speculation I've heard was on the specific cause of the engine failure but in the event of loss of power that's not her fault and she has no liability.

And if someone is dumb enough to hang some kind of assessment on her, post it here, I'm sure I'd contribute to covering it for her...

[Spaceman3750]

Awsome pilot. Unless it was her fault, then she just bought a broken aircraft.

That makes no sense.

Everything I've heard says engine failure. The only speculation I've heard was on the specific cause of the engine failure but in the event of loss of power that's not her fault and she has no liability.

And if someone is dumb enough to hang some kind of assessment on her, post it here, I'm sure I'd contribute to covering it for her...

If the engine threw a rod there's absolutely nothing she could have done except put the plane on the ground, which she apparently did very well. Nothing to assess there IMHO.

That said, the engine is likely toast - I wonder if they'll pay the $30k+ (? I'm not a pilot but I'm guessing a new Lycoming is $20-30k?) to replace it or if they'll scrap it out.

[Mark_Wheeler]

Here is a link to the NTSB report as it stands:

http://dms.ntsb.gov/aviation/AccidentReports/n5vpm43f53vwlg55fiwegr551/W01102012120000.pdf

[Brad]

This video has some more recent daylight photos of the damage:  http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=8490515

Thanks for the vid! Although every time they said "Civilian Air Patrol" I wanted to bang my head against the desk. Not bringing up volunteer vs civilian vs military or anything like that....just get the name right.

[simon]

Night flying is really no more "dangerous" than, say, instrument flying.

Er, well, I'd add that night flying under VMC can be more dangerous than under IFR amongst terrain or at close to the ground (Think antennas). Those two highly experienced CAP pilots who drilled the CAP plane into a mountain a couple of years ago in California would agree.

Perhaps a better question on your point is "Would you rather lose an engine at night or in IMC?" Both would be awful, but if you break out a thousand feet AGL during the day, I'd probably take that over a night engine failure. Who knows. Either way it would be a gut wrenching experience. The recently plated pilot did a great job.

[denverpilot]

Met her by chance at one of the CAP displays at Oshkosh.

She was looking to see if she could get a copy of Volunteer because hers hadn't arrived before she left for Wisconsin. She wanted to see her article in print.

She was about to go give a safety seminar on her experience in the FAA forum building. Unfortunately I couldn't attend.