When things happen very quickly after liftoff and you're faced with landing somewhere right now, there usually just isn't time to pick a good spot. That's why it's so important for you to evaluate the possibilities ahead of time, have a plan, and just don't launch if circumstances offer you no reasonable options.
Look Before You Launch
One day the pilot of a Cessna 210 making a cross-country flight departed Destin, Florida, to the southeast - out over the Gulf of Mexico. According to the NTSB report, winds were 3 knots from an unknown direction. One thing, however, definitely was known: The pilot "could not return to the shoreline for an emergency landing..." when his engine failed at 800 feet because he was out of gliding distance of land after takeoff. With only 3 kt of wind and a runway nearly 5,000 feet long, I wouldn't depart over the water - especially when dry land is the other way. And that's not 20/20 hindsight. It's just good planning.
Think about what you're doing before you have to do it. Pay for that extra tenth of an hour on the Hobbs meter and survey your options for an emergency landing site before you have to use them - and before you land at your en-route stop.
If your engine suddenly stops after takeoff, it makes little difference who or what caused it. The immediate problem is that you've got to land somewhere - now! An ounce of luck is al- ways worth a pound of knowledge, but I think I'd still rather know and not have to rely on being lucky. Luck is a fickle friend. Knowledge is always with you, if you take the time to make it so.
Always have an escape plan, regardless of your phase of flight. As you approach en-route airfields on cross-country flights, take the time to look at the territory surrounding these areas. Scanning them will help you to form a plan for emergencies immediately after takeoff. Understand the situations around your home airport and other airfields that you use frequently, too.
Fly over the fields that you want to evaluate at least 500 feet above pattern altitude, circling to the left. You may have to get permission from the tower at controlled airports, but do it. Check out the ground off both ends of each of the runways; look for construction and terrain features; note the wind sock; and evaluate the length, general character, visible obstructions, and slopes of potential "escape fields." Is it better to go straight ahead, turn to the left, or incline right? Have a takeoff engine failure plan in mind before you ever land at an en-route stop for the first time.
Use PLOWS To Assess That Farmer's Field
As you circle your airfield of intended landing, your quick research should include these points: performance, length, obstructions, wind, and slope. These points are not necessarily listed in order of their importance but in the order that they are most easily remembered. Use the acronym PLOWS. Visualize a farmer's field full of "plows" and you'll better remember what to look for as you circle the airport before landing and search the area for a potential emergency landing site.
Performance: Many things affect airplane performance. A cross-country flight, as its name implies, can cover significant distances. In some areas of the country, there can be terrain variations of more than 10,000 feet over less than 100 miles. The significance of this is that an altitude increase of only 4,000 to 5,000 feet can critically degrade an airplane's aerodynamic efficiency and engine power output (3 percent or more per 1,000 feet).
I once flew my Piper Arrow to Colorado Springs from Boston. I encountered a situation in which the terrain rose faster off the end of the takeoff runway (to the north) than my 200- horsepower aircraft would climb if the landing gear were left extended. Colorado Springs airport is at 6,200 feet mean sea level. Throw in a hotter-than-standard day and the potential for trouble was there. On this particular day, the takeoff distance was nearly twice normal, and climb capability was cut by more than 70 percent.
Each en-route landing must be considered individually, and aircraft performance at that specific site and under the prevailing conditions - not where you came from two hours ago - might be a very important factor in your decision about how (in which direction) you want to depart the airfield. Performance counts. Consider it in selecting takeoff direction and emergency courses of action.
Length: It really doesn't take a lot of distance to stop an airplane in the dirt. If we make the assumption that most engine-failure-after-takeoff scenarios will put you into a dirt field or onto some similar non-hard surface, the main limiting factor is usually not ground roll after you touch down, although it goes without saying that having more room is definitely better than less. The critical factor to remember in an off-airport landing is to touch down absolutely under control. Make it the best landing you have ever made, and the chances are great that everyone will walk away from the site in good health.
As you evaluate potential emergency landing sites, remember that nothing says you have to land down the center of the field. How about going from one corner diagonally across the field to another corner if your glide capability, and any furrows or crops, permit? The longer the landing area, the better. Allow yourself all the space you can.
Obstructions: The real limiting factor that combines with length to cause potential problems is obstacles. Assume that every landing site is obstructed. It is! Power lines; telephone poles; ditches; gullies; uneven or undulating terrain; irregular and soft areas caused by water; streams; erosion; lakes and rivers; rocks; and everything else you can imagine constitute obstructions. No matter where you choose to land, chances are good that you will pick a site with one or more of these obstacles.
A good rule of thumb is that an above-ground obstruction that you have to fly over will cost you 10 times its height in landing distance. That means that if there are 100-foot trees on the edge of your selected landing site, you will normally not be able to touch down until you have flown 1,000 feet past them. If you pass 50 feet over the trees, your touchdown point moves out to a minimum of 1,500 feet away.
Think through this scenario: You are making a landing roll on the surface of your selected emergency landing site at 40 to 60 kt. Suddenly, you roll into a barbed wire fence with poles four feet high, or into an invisible low spot filled with water, or a rock-hard gully a foot deep. Now what?
How about rolling out of the field and onto a perpendicular rural roadway raised three feet above the field you have landed in? Or hitting your wing on a telephone pole on one side of the dirt road? What effect would that have on your airplane?
All of these possibilities should remind you to look before you land. In urban areas, you may be able to do absolutely nothing about obstructions, but you still should make the time to look for them before you land so that you can pick the path with the fewest obstacles. Obstructions exist at absolutely every landing site. Be aware of them.
Wind: The slower and more controlled your touchdown, the better your chance to minimize injury. Whatever you do, don't stall the airplane. Be firmly in control at good speed and touch down smoothly. Landing into the wind encourages that.
Doesn't it just make sense to land into the prevailing wind if you want to make the slowest possible controlled touchdown? A 40-kt (55 kt minus a 15-kt headwind) touchdown is much better than a 70-kt touchdown (55 kt plus a 15-kt tailwind).
Check the wind as close as possible to takeoff time, and try to land into the wind under absolute control. Also use anything around you to help you tell the wind direction - trees, grass, and water are good indicators of wind direction. Maintaining good directional control is imperative.
Slope: Regardless of surface conditions, an upslope landing will shorten the landing roll. But realize that the illusion caused by an upslope could create a problem if you aren't mentally alert. Your touchdown will need to be made in a slight climb, even though it will seem to be level. Again, the key objective is to touch down absolutely under control.
Just as an uphill slope will shorten the landing roll, a downhill slope will lengthen it. Avoid landing downhill when possible.
We all agree that sudden engine loss is startling under the best of circumstances. You can take the edge off the shock by being as psychologically and operationally prepared as possible. Have a plan of where to go if something unexpected happens, especially on takeoff when you are most vulnerable. If after making a brief aerial survey all of the options are unsatisfactory, consider bypassing your intended stop for another airport that is more suitable. It only takes a simple flight plan change. And one more thing. From now on, when you head for a new field, don't forget about those PLOWS!
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