Night Engine Failure

[ame206350]

Edmon-chucks municipal airport is in the middle of the city, for those who have never had the privilege of visiting the city of champions. If they where within city limits, the airport wouldn't be far away.

 

 

Sling its "Land as soon as possible" at the first suitable landing spot. Not crash into the wal-mart parking lot at night because you have chip light.

 

Well said and without any insults...board members take note.

[__________]

Edmon-chucks municipal airport is in the middle of the city, for those who have never had the privilege of visiting the city of champions. If they where within city limits, the airport wouldn't be far away.

 

 

Sling its "Land as soon as possible" at the first suitable landing spot. Not crash into the wal-mart parking lot at night because you have chip light.

 

Well put WTF and JD

 

Its easy to sit back at your computers and critisise with out all the facts. Where there any secondary indications Temp. Pressure, noise? what where the conditions?...........

 

Its up to PIC to make the Call and looks like he/she made a good call.........

[Jamhands]

 

Big pat on the back to the crew of this story. I've often worried/wondered about the outcome of any kind of emergency while doing Night VFR over the city during the few months I was doing it. Large dark fields often left me wondering if that would really be a good idea due the mentioned power lines and light posts. Even with the odd wide open spaces within the city the urban pilot (and the bush pilot for that matter) are still left with very few options. The best mitigation of risk I was ever able to come up with was to maintain sufficient height AGL to give the most options. (not trying to indicate this solves all your problems though) I realize that's what almost every pilot will tell you is a given for any flying day or night but this story brings up a concern I've often had witnessing the policing operations a few 100 kms to the south of where this incident took place.

 

I understand the Police have a job to do that requires them to sacrifice the cushion of decent altitude but this is a prime example that ANY helicopter, Police or civilian are subject to the same rules and risks. As a fellow single engine Night VFR pilot the thought often crossed my mind while watching the 120 fly over my house at less than 500 feet at 2 AM what would happen if things took a turn for the worse. There are a lot of people down below and that's why us non police pilots are required to maintain 1000 feet AGL to protect the population. Again I commend the crew for a job well done but maybe one should use this as a wake up call that anything can happen and a little more margin for error is sometimes worth the inconvenience to the mission. Just some food for thought.

 

G

[arctic_front]

Wouldn't this type of flying be a perfect example of the need for a twin? I would have thought TC would deem it a necessity considering that the night time urban flying environment is risky enough.

[FREDDIE]

yup that would be me just waiting to ambush someone when they post not. I want to see the balls(I think really big ones) on the pilot who would roll the thottle off or make a precautionary landing in a city at night. Christ there are a lot of areas in a city a lot more dangerous than booting it back to the airport with a chip light.

 

Heres a good one I had a fire light years ago in a 205 I did not roll the throttle off I did not turn the fuel valve off I did not enter a autorotational decent heck didnt even fire the fire bottle. I did do a landing turning to the right to safe area approx 3 miles away to investgate. Steve

[Guest sharky]

It's a thin line from zero to hero...

 

Edmonton Police Service Eurocopter EC120B, C-GEPD, was on patrol about 6 miles from the Edmonton City Centre airport when the engine chip light illuminated. An immediate off-site landing was assessed and rejected by the crew. A decision was made to maintain altitude and to return to the airport. A low power approach was entered over runway 12, with sufficient airspeed to ensure a successful autorotation in the event of an engine failure. As the crew decellerated into a hover on approaching the pad, a loud bang was heard and a right yaw experienced as the engine failed. An uneventful landing was completed. The engine has been removed and shipped to the manufacturer for examination.

 

What if they were 6.5......7 miles out?

 

Would they still be heroes on this board or would they be crucified?

 

 

[chopper_guy]

It's a thin line from zero to hero...

 

 

 

What if they were 6.5......7 miles out?

 

Would they still be heroes on this board or would they be crucified?

 

True. but we are still left with the fact that there are no lighted clear areas or known safe dark landing areas to make a safe precautionary landing. Under those conditions the crew probably made the right decision. Also, lets face it that 99 times out of 100, when the chip plug is checked it only has fuzz on it, which of course, doesn't mean that a chip light should be treated lightly. When I work fires I always plug in all of the fuel caches in the area as well as the non obvious water sources near the fire. If I was night-flying regularly S/E over the city I would be plugging in potential night landing sites when I was day-flying over the city so I would have at least another option.

[Cirrus]

While in a 7 foot hover maneuvering to the landing area, the pilot experienced an engine failure and landed with no damage to the aircraft.

 

 

Nice job. Real thing must be hairy.

[Jay Flight]

Im sure the flir system would be of some help in the event of a park/school yard night landing wouldn't it?

[twinstar_ca]

Im sure the flir system would be of some help in the event of a park/school yard night landing wouldn't it?

 

i don't know if it would.. the TFO will be busy with his role in helping the driver and the flir screen is pretty small for the driver to see and land by... mind you, i've only seen it from sitting in the right front of HAWCS once.. i think the flight crew made the choice they felt was appropriate and would work and it did... i say good show to them... :up: