No deal
Should you always follow ATC orders?
By Mark Robertson
I had just entered a very busy Class B area on an IFR flight plan. ATC told me to maintain 5,000 feet and gave me a heading to fly. I finished the published arrival and was now ready for a familiar set of vectors around traffic to my home field. Ahead and to my left was the airport where I take my Cirrus SR22T for maintenance.
What happened
I started a turn to the runway and informed ATC. The response I got was to maintain the assigned heading because a business jet was landing at the airport.
Emergency procedures
There’s no way to be totally prepared for every emergency. Despite our best intentions, sometimes things just go wrong. But practice, planning, and good judgment can improve the odds of dealing with an emergency for the best outcome. First, do no harm—fly the airplane and stay in control. Then assess the situation and troubleshoot. Take the AOPA Air Safety Institute Emergency Procedures course for more information.
The turbo Continental had been running smoothly, but suddenly not so much. A strong vibration abruptly got my attention. I have had four other occasions of a rough engine in my 28 years of flying. One was a failed cylinder valve, which forced a landing far from home and a new cylinder. Another was bad gas and a rough engine on takeoff, which ended successfully with a return to the runway. That was exciting! The other two were caused by defective spark plug leads and were only a minor vibration.
On this incident, the roughness was at least as bad as the failed cylinder, and most concerning was a complete drop of exhaust gas temperature immediately on number one. I obviously had lost the cylinder but did not know the extent of the damage. Even with the nonstop chatter on the ATC frequency, I didn’t hesitate to declare an emergency. This was the first time in my flying career to have done so.
The controller asked for an explanation and my intent. I told him I wanted vectors to the airport to my left. He gave me a vector to a final approach course. The broken layer below me became more scattered and I could see an opening directly to the field, so I started a turn to the runway and informed ATC. The response I got was to maintain the assigned heading because a business jet was landing at the airport. Before everyone says, “you should have overruled him,” let’s put this in perspective. I’ve flown more than 3,000 hours of mostly IFR. That’s a lot of time following ATC commands. My instinct is to just do it first and think about it second.
On the other hand, the ATC controller is conditioned to prevent a lack of separation between aircraft. When I later talked to a retired controller friend about this, he said “that guy was mostly thinking about preventing a ‘deal,’” ATC jargon for when two airplanes lose minimum separation. It seems we were both reacting to instinct and not logic at that moment.
Contributing to this improper response on both sides, I believe, was the assumption that a rough engine is only marginally an “emergency.” The engine was still producing ample power to maintain altitude and I did not think that would change. ATC was focused on no Deal and not that I could be a glider at any moment.
After landing and taxiing up to the maintenance hangar, I was surprised to see the mechanics coming out and looking under my airplane with a fire extinguisher in hand. The smoke was alarming to me as well. The cylinder in question had failed catastrophically, and oil was running out from under the cowling. I had oil pressure, but I don’t know how long that would have lasted.
As pilot in command in an emergency, I should have told ATC that I was going directly to the runway and told them do what you need to with the bizjet. But the other point is that ATC controllers are human too, and being focused on a no deal is not always the right choice either.
Related Articles
