Dan wrote:
height above our planet
Uncontrolled release of potential or kinetic energy is a good point 
There must be many examples of differences in cockpit layouts, especially when moving away from a familiar aircraft (e.g. identical switches in inverted/reversed locations). One would hope that aircraft design and accident study would make this less and less likely.
I can’t of anything of any actions or systems that are a) easily done b) irreversible c) not obviously fatal
For me, in a Bolkow Junior, it’s CO. The cockpit is well sealed and cannot be opened in flight, and the small window opening produces little draught. Only option would be a quick emergency landing. I have a CO meter which shows nothing so far.
When I had it in my flight bag in the draughty Jodel DR1050 cockpit it went off after 20m or so, and didn’t stop until taken outside after landing.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
assymetric flaps (or slats) will cause massive problems and near the ground almost always result in fatal crashes.
Some Piper Navajos are AD’d to limit flap extension from 40 to 25 degrees for this vulnerability.
The thing most likely to kill me in an aircraft is me…….. the day I stop thinking this way is the day I stop flying.
What tried to kill us was the business of our ex-prime minister.
In February, after two months of being grounded by snow, there was a chance for a pleasure flight in our Europa.
We did a thorough preflight, added some mogas to top up the tank, and took off. Then the sheer pleasure turned into emergency. The engine sounded as if it wrestled with itself. Revs dropping, airspeed so-so, trees at the extended centerline growing high. I did all I was trained to – nose down, reserve fuel filter on, check second fuel pump on, turn left towards the only place allowing for emergency landing. With engine still somehow running and enough altitude, I reduced throttle from TO power to 50%. That solved the problem, engine run became smooth and we returned successfully to the airfield.
Later I tried to diagnose the problem with the help of the local engineers and finally brought the engine to the Rotax authorized workshop. They dismantled the engine, checked everything, assembled it again and told me “Your engine is good. Use better fuel.”
That was it. The plenty of ethanol in my tank absorbed so much water during the two winter months that the engine was not able to burn it at a full power setting. Since that we have been using the ethanol free mogas and fly happily.
To explain the first sentence, our ex-prime minister owns all the rape fields (in May our country is just yellow), owns all the ethanol making companies, and uses his political power to make sure his products get burned by our engines.
Yet, if you say it was my own stupidity, I take it, too.
phew, that’s quite a story @Pavel.
And from my perspective, well handled
Pavel wrote:
I reduced throttle from TO power to 50%
Probably the action that saved you. Reducing the throttle, maybe even to idle, before reapplying enough to at least keep enough height for either a return or a better landing area is a good idea. Assuming one has that little extra speed in reserve.
The same action saved my bacon during another event (carb heat flap off its shaft and sucked against carb inlet with power), and I was able to pump the throttle permitting an “impossible” turn.
Thanks for sharing what in reality is a ILAFFT.
I had a partial fuel restriction that also responded to closing the throttle. Until I landed I thought it must be the fuel pump playing up. Perhaps sometimes there’s something to be said for playing with the controls and seeing what happens – though that’s not in the checklists.
Glad to see you did the right thing Pavel. Rotax allows up to 10% of Ethanol and basically does not say anything on what to do if your engine has been sitting still for months, other than making sure you use fuel ‘of the right season’ in case of Mogas. How much Ethanol is in that PM’s fuel?
As far as I know, the Natural 95 shall have 5% of ethanol. However, the Rotax guys told me that the mixing companies use this as a minimum value and do not guarantee any precise percentage. The content could be even 10% and more. Apparently I was the lucky one winning an extra enriched batch.
The tank was about half full for two months, and connected with the outer world via a 5mm air vent. I topped it up with no-ethanol mogas (Verva100 is the local brand name) and still got this experience.
I did static run tests after the adventure. I was advancing throttle in 200rpm steps and left some 20 seconds between the steps. Until cca 5200 rpm the engine ran smooth. When I reached 5400, the rpm was steady for about 10 seconds (the same like during the takeoff run) and then started dropping down to about 4000 with a very unhappy sound. I had to pull the throttle pretty much back to let the engine get in shape again, and then I could repeat the test.
My theory is that there must be something with timing. The wet ethanol makes the mixture burn slow, or something like that.
Maoraigh wrote:
For me, in a Bolkow Junior, it’s CO. The cockpit is well sealed and cannot be opened in flight, and the small window opening produces little draught.
For me, in the Auster at FL65 over Cumbria, it was hypothermia :-) The cockpit is very draughty (with somehow a draught going up my back from somewhere) and the windows tend to open themselves in flight. The cabin heater does a good job of making my right knee lukewarm! Good job I brought my thermals and a flask of hot tea.
