Off Airport / Forced Landing Practice

[JPerez1690]

While trying to lean into more responsible flight planning and emergency preparedness, I’ve started injecting off-airport/forced landing scenarios into some of my MSFS journeys. Although the game won’t reproduce the physics of a soft, rugged, rutted field, or power lines and road signs, I’m growing to appreciate the idea of scanning for the most survivable landing spots and getting a feel for glide-to-landing time frames and constraints.

Today’s engine failure occurred north of Thunderhawk, North Dakota, USA.

The process I’m using so far, is to zoom far back on World Map, roughly select a general area for an in-air departure. Then zoom in just close enough to select a distant, unreachable airport for destination so I’ll have access to Nav Log altitude selection. Then set Nav Log altitude to a height above ground level I might find myself flying in that kind of scenario, say 5,000 ft over hilly farmland in the northern Plains.

Once the flight loads up and we’re in motion, I’m giving myself a count of 30 to do a from-the-cockpit scan of the surrounding terrain, roads, fields, bodies of water, etc. — gaining some degree of awareness I’d already have flying into the area.

After the count, pull mixture fully out, throttle to zero and shut off ignition.

From there, a bit of vicarious clenching, then pitch to best glide and start searching/evaluating best landing ops before angling for an approach and bringing it in for a hopefully survivable landing. Working on holding 60-65kts for best glide with the C-152 with no flaps extended. Out the windows on this one, a blend of wooded lots and green or harvested/plowed fields in this area, with multiple creek drainages throwing a good dose of hills into the mix.

A couple old, maybe-airfields catch the eye, southeast of my position. Both are surrounded by reasonably smooth looking fields. Nothing better seemed to be available elsewhere, so make a gradual left turn in their direction to decide which to take. The closer, 90° strip starts to look more like a narrow patch of freshly tilled field with a couple road-like crossings over it, so that’s more sketchy than it initially looked.

So, went next for the further 350°-ish field which seriously looked like an old, faded airfield, but getting closer, definitely looked planted over. It’ll have to do. Finish angling onto makeshift base and drop first level of flaps.

Getting lower on short final and drop second level of flaps. Better relief becomes visible in the terrain and that dark strip up there looks increasingly ditch-like. Time to quickly but smoothly hedge left and go for the less creased, adjacent portion of the field that also has a sturdy looking tree hanging out down there to keep uninvited guests honest.

Flaring and trying to keep the stall horn from sounding until just before contact. Hope there isn’t a fast moving, suicidal deer hiding behind that tree.

Working to finesse the nose, keep it off the ground as long as possible, and resisting the urge to apply any braking. Finally need a bit of braking, once speed is low enough, to keep from rolling into fence, ditch & road at end of the field.

And there she sits, waiting for a tow trailer and awkward conversations with the farmer & curious neighbors. IRL, any number of extra, non-sim-able problems such as snagging on stray barbed wire in the field, going end-over after sinking into a prairie dog colony, last bit of braking maybe having zero effect & winding up in the fence, etc.

Things I need to start adding to that process —

• Dialing 7700 on transponder
• Mocking up a distress call to ATC with position and condition (playing on XBOX-X, so no Vatsim, just self verbalizing)
• Working on engine re-start procedures on the way down (with idea of forcing it to fail most times to get full amount of practice in).
• Mentally or in-sim going through motions of executing inbound & pre-contact steps — safety harness tightening, door open, fuel off, electric off & other steps I’m still researching.
• Adding other scenarios with higher & lower altitudes as well as engine failures immediately after take-off.

So who else doing this sort of thing?

[CaptainRude91]

Also add wind awareness, flying with tailwind as soon as the engine fails to cover as much ground and therefore increase the chance of finding a suitable landing area.

We used to do something like this:

• Above 1500 ft AGL: fly with tailwind, find a suitable area for landing, then turn crosswind and final.
• Between 1500 ft and 750 ft AGL: fly 90 on the wind in either direction (direction with most potential landing fields), find a landing area, turn final.
• Below 750 ft AGL: land more or less straight ahead, and as much into the wind as possible, crosswind is acceptable.

Then there are some key-points, the glide range in zero wind can be estimated by drawing an imaginary circle between the wing-striping (not sure how this is done with high wing aircraft). The correct downwind distance to the field is to keep the wing-striping on the field, basically you aim for 1000 ft AGL abeam the beginning of the landing area (called 1000 ft aiming point). Depending on the wind:

• When above 1000 ft AGL, turn base a little outwards.
• When at 1000 ft AGL, fly a normal crosswind and final.
• When below 1000 ft AGL, turn base a little inward (cut final short).

Keep crosschecking altitude versus distance to go, depending on the wind you might need to be a little higher or lower at the 1000 ft aiming point. Keep adjusting the base leg a little in or out as required. On final, aim initially for 1/3 of the area, if landing on 1/3 is assured, select full flaps, battery off and aim for the beginning.

Checklists should not interfere with a safe landing, should you have the time however, perform the appropriate memory items and checklist to attempt restart. They are usually cut into the following “chunks” depending on the aircraft:

1. Engine failure during flight.
2. Engine restart in flight.
3. Forced landing without engine power.

Part of the third checklist, in preparation of a forced landing should be mayday call on the radio and activating ELT, removing sharp objects, unlocking doors etc. Mayday call:

• “MAYDAY” x3
• Station (e.g. Schiphol Tower)
• Callsign
• Aircraft type
• Nature of emergency
• Intentions of PIC
• Position, heading, altitude, speed (as relevant)
• Other useful info such as color and markings of the aircraft, persons on board, fuel on board and endurance, survival equipment etc.

Example: “MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY, Amsterdam Information, PH-ABC, Cessna 172, engine failure, performing emergency landing, 5 nm south of PAM VOR, altitude 1500 ft descending, 2 POB”.

[EzRyder6869]

i fly with a group that has exactly this

they stream on twitch and the viewers can call a ‘deadstick’ where we all shut down and try to survive
quite fun

[PacificSet90456]

For a very challenging emergency, kill the engine(s) at about 800 ft. after takeoff. Should you return to the airport? Can you return to the airport? Should engine restart be attempted? Or fail one engine in a muttienginge aircraft.

[Parorng]

Excellent to see users thinking about and practicing these types of manoeuvres.

To make it even more challenging, select a random time, perhaps set a countdown on your phone and then kill the engine regardless of where you are. Also consider the wind into the equation.

Haha Ez that sounds like a lot of fun!

[SuperSonicDodo]

Great practice! I love the idea. Sometimes I do something similar when I run out of time for flying (or get bored) - switch off the engine and try to land safely. But that’s much less systematic.
In flight school I learned that many forced landings go wrong because the pilot chooses a different landing spot late in the process. I never understood why but it seems to be a rule. I liked your train of thought writing including the late change of the intended landing spot so I thought I mention it.

[SuperSonicDodo]

That‘s the super professional (sometimes super human) way so thanks for the additions.
How do you assess the wind direction in the sim? Even in real life it’s difficult. You have to watch for the direction of smoke or dust being blown, things that aren’t simulated (and hard to find in real life too). Unless you have a GNS that shows the wind arrow, it’s often a matter of luck. Even with diligent flight planning and weather briefing, you can’t be sure because the wind direction can change significantly based on altitude and orographic influences.

[CaptainRude91]

There are numerous ways, and yes none of them are 100% accurate for the reasons you mentioned. Although the wind rarely changes 180 degrees in direction compared to what has been forecasted.

First of all you should have a rough idea about wind direction from pre-flight planning and navigational log. The runway you took off and reported wind from the tower if it happens shortly after departure.

In flight the best indication are the direction of wind turbines, otherwise smoke plumes, waves on water surfaces.

Its not an exact science, but you should at least prevent landing with a 30 kt tailwind for example, crosswind is acceptable.

[SuperSonicDodo]

Yes, also really strong wind is something you feel in flight because your airspeed visibly doesn’t match your ground speed or you find yourself correcting for wind all the time. I was wondering about the weak,2-4 knot winds. I guess most of my instructors were glider pilots, too, so they read the air in a way I never mastered.

[StatesideSiren4]

And this scenario teaches you to remember the winds aloft. All things being equal you always want to turn into the wind, which at 1,000 feet AGL is generally perpendicular to the surface winds.

[JPerez1690]

Great additional considerations everyone, thank you! And Nijntje91, thanks for that detailed list on flight level tactics on descent and checklist & mayday call. Looking forward to plugging that into the process.

The discussion on assessment of wind is well taken. Determining wind direction at ground level through flight level across the flight plan in advance needs to be mentally embedded much better than I’ve been considering so far.

EzRyder6869, that sounds like a blast!

PacificSet90456, that’s what I’ve been thinking about. If you lose power at a couple hundred feet on takeoff, seems you’re committed to what’s straight ahead, like it or not, and doing the best with short options to dissipate energy away from the cockpit & as evenly as possible. But if you lost it more in the range you noted, now you have some slightly wider but extremely difficult choices very quickly.

Parorng, I like that idea — I’m looking up random timer apps now…

SuperSonicDodo, that makes sense, changing your lineup or target last second without power should be a bad idea. But seems it would be really tough as you get closer and can better see details to not want to nudge left or right if you finally see a stump or divot directly in the path where you’d be rolling out. Another tough choice in that situation.

[willisxdc]

Not at my sim right now, but I seem to remember a menu in the options to set up failures, very similar to the FSX failure menu. Might want to have a look for that.

[ANCRM114]

Should you really use flaps in an engine out scenario?

[willisxdc]

Once landing is assured, yes. The slower you can touch the ground the better.

[FlippinFlow]

Depends on how much speed you have to work with (but normally yes). Might be an interesting read if this is your thing…

Engine Out

[willisxdc]

@willisxdc

Not at my sim right now, but I seem to remember a menu in the options to set up failures, very similar to the FSX failure menu. Might want to have a look for that.

@JPerez1690 just had a thought. Another way to set yourself up for a failure would be to put a minimal amount of fuel into the plane to begin with. Try not to pay too much attention to fuel quantity while flying. At some point enroute, cough, quit. practice time.

[FlippinFlow]

FYI… Very well reviewed failure mod… https://flightsim.to/file/2272/randfailuresfs2020

[NeoKingRthur]

I usually practice landing by selecting an airport runway that I want to land to, and select it as arrival without a departure point. The sim will automatically spawn you on short final so you can do all the preparation and land the aircraft.

[PacificSet90456]

@willisxdc

Another way to set yourself up for a failure would be to put a minimal amount of fuel into the plane to begin with.

Recently IRL there have been several fuel contamination issues causing all engines to fail almost at the same time. Using a minimum amount of fuel would’ve a good simulation of fuel contamination. Losing both engines in a two engine jet would be challenging, especially if dependent systems are modeled correctly.

[CaptainRude91]

Found this picture on the internet. We used to ALWAYS turn when abeam landing area (1000 ft point) and then resolve any wind or being high / low by flying crosswind a little inwards or outwards, but that was on a training aircraft with the glide ratio of a piano so maybe this does work better on a Cessna:

I don’t know what this “high key” is supposed to mean, we never used that. We used to fly with the wind (depending on height) and then look left and right for a suitable field for landing, you are then basically approaching from downwind position.

It all sounds nice and fun on paper, but there are many variations of course in real life. Maybe you are following a coast line and flying with tailwind means flying towards the water, or you are flying over a forrest and the only suitable field is below you, which means you need to circle for landing.