The thread on the aircraft that crashed in Spain made me thing about what reactions could a pilot take following structural failure. I don’t want to cause any disrespect for he deceased, so a started a separate thread here for this hypothetical discussion.
Suppose for some reason or other you lose one wing near the root. Everything else is in tact. This is about as bad a structural failure as you an get!
Obviously you are done flying today, but you should never give up trying to minimise the harm. What options are open to you to reduce the force of the impact and maximise you and your passengers chances of survival?
Would full rudder (provoking a turn towards the still in tact wing) help? The drag from the wing plus the turn induced by the rudder, would create a big spinning effect. Could this be enough to give an “acorn” effect and slow the descent rate down?
How about trying to stall the aircraft (so that the remaining wing causes no drag) and then recover into very slow flight with full rudder away from the remaining wing? (A long shot I know, but anything is worth a shot!) Perhaps with really slow flight the rudder could overcome the drag from the remaining wing.
Would abandoning the aircraft altogether and bringing with you anything that would give you lots of drag be a better option? Eg bring the aircraft cover with you? Fabrics trailing in the wind create a lot of drag and people have been known to survive from flight level falls, though that’s usually arriving in tree canopies.
So how do you maximise your survival chances in such a difficult situation (assuming you’ve some time to execute a plan)?
Colm
Unless flying with passengers I wear my parachute. I wouldn´t want to be in a situation where I could use it while it sits on its shelf at home.
Provided that you can get out of the cockpit it is the only real option of survival if you don´t happen to fly in an F15 at 300+ KIAS.
The parachute is no good idea when flying with passengers though. Guess it wouldn´t encourage them to have faith in your ability as a pilot. Also I wouldn´t want to leave my kids behind.
In a scenario with a massive structural failure you could just sit and pray. When missing a wing I would not even rule out loosing consciousness, the airplane would be absolutely uncontrollable and spinning wildly. Just google, you will find videos of such mishaps…but it´s not nice to watch.
I think there can’t be any one general answer to this question, there’s too many variables.
Aviathor wrote:
What about this ?
Or this one?
There is nothing one can do after a major structural failure. Ailerons and Rudder are not even big enough to cope with asymmetric flap deployment or asymmetric fueling on many aircraft. One can only hope (as I believe in nothing that other people would pray to) to hit something which absorbs a lot of energy like a dense forest canopy. A kind of miracle so to say.
Caba wrote:
Unless flying with passengers I wear my parachute.
I always wear my parachute in the Europa where I have a realistic chance to get out and so do my passengers.
Caba wrote:
Provided that you can get out of the cockpit it is the only real option of survival
Agree.
Caba wrote:
The parachute is no good idea when flying with passengers though. Guess it wouldn´t encourage them to have faith in your ability as a pilot. Also I wouldn´t want to leave my kids behind.
I really would care a sh… what passengers think of my flying abilities. They want to fly with me in my aircraft – they wear the chute, absolutely no discussion about that. I also would never leave my kids behind. That’s why I would only take them on a flight in my aircraft at an age where they have at least the same chance to bail out as me. Okay, in the club’s C 172 and PA 28 none of the crew and passengers has any options in a total structural failure.
Caba wrote:
In a scenario with a massive structural failure you could just sit and pray. When missing a wing I would not even rule out loosing consciousness, the airplane would be absolutely uncontrollable and spinning wildly.
There are several lucky outcomes and I even know one (Mr. Dirks from DG Sailplanes) who had two successful bailouts. On test flights of the ETA-sailplane the crew also bailed out successfully in an inverted spin after the tailplane seperated the aircraft, although the G-forces were huge in that scenario. A few months ago a south african aerobatic pilot escaped the aircraft after a structural failure during a Training only a few hundred feet GND. Anyway I would try to get out until the very end rather than just sitting and praying. My chutes open at a hight of only 80 meters. And I think you’ll have huge capabilities in the face of the death.
I think that video has been shown to show a model aircraft, and on those it’s obviously possible.
As to the original Q, I don’t know the answer. I have thought about it at times and wondered what one could try to do. Maybe rudder “into” the remaining wing, so as to create a “falling leaf” spin around the remaining wing? That should slow down the ROD.
Plus, use max power. That also means switching to the fuel tank in the remaining wing.
That’s my theory 
ahem Pull CAPS?
Seriously, this is one of the scenarios which make me prefer planes with parachutes. Though it is rare, it does happen e.g. after a midair. I know this might not be considered a constructive answer to the original question.
I would say there is absolutely no credible scenario in which loss of a wing is survivable…best not to think about it…
OK Neil Williams didn’t lose a wing, but he did regain control of the Zlin and land after it failed by unloading it and rolling inverted, then rolling upright before landing at a height only slightly more than half a wing span.
Then there was the Israeli F-15 with a little help from his afterburners:
