paul@ctvax.UUCP (11/09/84)
A few months ago, on a VFR flight, I had an engine failure and had
to put the plane (a cessna 152) down in a field. Fortunately I was able
to find a suitable field and land safely. Earlier in the flight however,
I had been flying over a pine forest. I wonder what would have happened
if I had lost power over the forest (where there were no clearings at all).
I dont believe that I was ever told "how to land in a pine forest"
Has anyone out there done this and survived? What is the accepted wisdom?
Paul
paul.ct@csnet-relay
ctvax!paul (UCCP)rl@ucsfcgl.UUCP (Robert Langridge%CGL) (11/14/84)
No personal experience, but a friend of mine once landed his sailplane (an HP-13) in trees when he ran out of lift while ridge-running the Alleghenies. Of course, your wing tip is brushing the trees already, so you don't have much time to contemplate alternates. He was unscathed, and his ship incurred only relatively minor damage. His advice was: Don't, but if you have to, do it as slowly as possible. Fortunately a sailplane of this class is slower and lighter than a C-152, and you don't have to worry about gallons of gasoline sloshing about. Bob Langridge ucbvax!ucsfcgl!rl
gmm@bunker.UUCP (Gregory M. Mandas) (11/14/84)
> if I had lost power over the forest (where there were no clearings at all). > I dont believe that I was ever told "how to land in a pine forest" > Has anyone out there done this and survived? What is the accepted wisdom? > Paul I'm not sure what proscribed procedures are but I would think you would want to stall at tree top level with full flaps. Just a thought. gmm
calvert@ut-sally.UUCP (Ken Calvert) (11/14/84)
About putting it down in the pines: a CFI told me once that you want to "drop in" with as little forward speed as possible, and with the plane in a normal attitude. That way, the wings and trees will break your fall as much as possible. I would think you want to bleed off speed and stall at the last second before you hit. (In other words, pretend you're going to land on the treetops?) Ken Calvert calvert@ut-sally
marcum@rhino.UUCP (Alan M. Marcum) (11/15/84)
In many, many forced landings, if the plane is under control as
it hits, the landing is survivable. If I had to set down in some
trees, I'd come in at, ideally, best sink speed (or best glide,
without best sink knowledge), and keep the plane under control as
long as possible.
--
Alan M. Marcum Fortune Systems, Redwood City, California
...!{ihnp4, ucbvax!amd, hpda, sri-unix, harpo}!fortune!rhino!marcumc-hunt@tesla.UUCP (Charles Hunt) (11/19/84)
I learned to fly in the Rockies, where this can be a realistic concern. I
was taught that if no other alternative was available (a road, field, or even
a pond to ditch on), the best thing to do was attempt to find a "lane" in a
grove of pines which you could enter by a stall. The crucial trick is to enter
this lane at a point between two trees which would excise the wings in one fell
swoop, without whipping the remains all over, and hopefully, having slowed the
fuselage suitably, allow YOU to slither to a safe ker-plop landing in the lane.
I actually know of ONE successful application of this technique; no statistics
available on less than perfect applications. My CFI also strongly suggested
that if it is determined that this is the best available course of action, it
is advisable, if this has not already been done, to make peace with the Creator
with great haste, thereby leaving yourself the maximum amount of time for
maneuvering to optimum position before attempting this touchy procedure.
Hope to see you, here, there, or in the air.... Charles Hunt
{...!tesla!c-hunt}mlf@druxv.UUCP (Fontenot) (11/21/84)
Tree landings happen occasionally to glider pilots ridge-soaring the Alleganies. I've heard of a good many cases where the pilot escaped injury, and of several cases where the glider itself suffered very little damage. The advice that I've heard is, if a tree landing is necessary, you should choose the densest possible area, with the tops at as uniform a hight as possible; this maximizes the chance that the aircraft will remain near the tops of the trees, where the branches are smaller. When this works as planned, the biggest hazard can be getting down out of the tree.
paul@uiucuxc.UUCP (11/28/84)
An important point to remember, should a forced landing in a forest be
necessary, is to somehow mark the crash site to be visible to search
and rescue teams. Tree cover in an area like the Pacific Northwest
is dense enough to swallow an airplane w.o. a trace unless the search
plane flies directly over the crash site. Hikers turn up lost aircraft
in the region about once every three years. Crash injuries are likely
to be fatal if the ELT fails.
Paul Pomes
UUCP: {ihnp4,pur-ee}!uiucdcs!uiucuxc!paul
ARPA: paul%uiucuxc%uiuc.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa
CSNET: paul%uiucuxc@uiuc
US Mail: Univ of Illinois, CSO, 1304 W Springfield Ave, Urbana, IL 618016912ar04@sjuvax.UUCP (rowley) (11/28/84)
(---psilocybin--- trip out on this, bug!!!)
Gee, I prefer to land on the runway(grass or otherwise) myself! :-)
A. J. Rowley
--
There is no dark side of the moon really; matter of fact it's all dark...
-"Eclipse", Pink Floyd
______________________________________________________________________________
*Anthony J. Rowley**Professional Adventurer***********************************
*Wars fought**Banana Republics administered**Elections bought**Treasure found*
*Currency manufactured**Safes cracked**Buildings demolished**Charter flights**
*Photographer at weddings,birthdays and funerals******************************
*Space flight a specialty*****************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------