Menu Sign In Contact FAQ
Banner
Welcome to our forums

My engine failure followed by forced landing...

I have always been under the impression that as long as you make sure that there is fuel in the tanks and the aircraft is maintained by a reputable shop, the engine will keep running. This worked for me until yesterday…

Returning from a day trip to Ameland (EHAL) with a C182 I was approaching my home base Lelystad.
Close to reporting point BRAVO the engine started to run rough. I did the usual checks (mixture, carb heat, magnetos, switched tanks, etc) but to no avail.
I could not maintain altitude and declared a mayday.

Since I was already flying low my options were limited. With full power I was losing 200-300ft per minute.
It was clear I could not make the runway and headed for a field.

There was a field at my 10 o’clock which looked like grass, about 500m long. The field was located downwind but as it seemed to be the best choice I continued for this field.
I had to slalom between two windmills and aimed at the beginning of the field. I did not flare but pushed the aircraft to the ground and applied maximum brakes.
I had the presence of mind to raise the flaps; a bush pilot trick to make the aircraft brake better


The trees at the end of the field closed in quite fast, but fortunately we came to a stop at about 50m distance from the trees.
The field wasn’t grass, but in fact a just harvested rapeseed field. The ground was very dry and even. I must have been lucky

First the local police showed up. I asked them whether they want to see my license, but they said they didn’t bother because they didn’t have the knowledge to validate it anyway.
Then the farmer came, together with his wife and kids. The wife started whining about why we didn’t came to them, that it is inappropriate to land on their field without letting them know, etc. I told them I had an incident and was instructed to stay with the aircraft, and that I fully understood her complaint, etc

The Aviation Police arrived about an hour later. They started to check all my papers, the aircraft papers, etc. They then took a sample of the fuel and measured the amount of fuel in the wings. It was 31 USG total.

One of the Aviation inspectors told me that he already knew the cause of the failure. He said: If the engine isn’t seized, and there is no trace of oil leaking, and fuel is not an issue, than it must be Carburetor Icing: “Look at the black soot on the exhaust, definitely a sign of carb icing”. You will see that when we do a test run it will run smoothly and the sooth will be gone.


The farmer came back with a picnic basket with coffee. That was really cool. The local police were making selfies with the coffee standing next to the aircraft

Next a test run was performed. I was scared as hell that the engine would perform normally because that would make me a look like an idiot having to make a forced landing because of carb icing. I felt a big relieve when I saw black smoke coming from the exhaust

I went to the officer to discuss his premature “carb ice” conclusion. He said: I understand that for you it makes a big difference. But for us it doesn’t matter as we are here just to check whether any criminal activities have been commited. I found that kind of unsympathetic.

This morning the aircraft has been recovered from the field. I got a call that they found the cause:
A gasket came loose and got into the air intake.

I reported this to the Dutch Safety Board. They called me that this is going to be investigated…


A fellow pilot was so nice to take an airborne picture and forwarded it to the media.

Well done lenthamen

EDWF, Germany

+1 !

EBST, Belgium

Good work!

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Good to hear it ended so well, but I feel with you because it is no fun and probably kind of kills your confidence.

LFPT, LFPN

Great outcome!

Now you can be completely relaxed because the statistical likelihood of having two engine failures is practically zero!

Great job, congrats!

Well done, happy ending!

Private field, Mallorca, Spain

One minor remark: did you try a mixture sweep or did you just go full rich?

EBKT
One minor remark: did you try a mixture sweep or did you just go full rich?

Valid remark. I was full rich and carb heat on.
With a later test run on the ground we were able to get about 60% power by heavily leaning the engine.

In flight I haven’t touched the mixture as I was afraid to completely lose the engine…

89 Posts
Sign in to add your message

Back to Top