Colonel Sanders wrote: I know of several occasions, that due to poor maintenance, light single Cessnas have experienced complete yoke failures. A bolt falls out - something like that. No aileron, no elevator. I'm surprised no one has mentioned it. Check the SDR's.
That is an emergency I give to experienced pilots who have no problem with a PFL. You can fly the aircraft with power, trim and rudders, but it takes some practice. The flare won't be pretty at first.
column failure mode in a Cessna - no ailerons, no elevator - Yes, you can actually fly (and land) a Cessna with only the throttle, trim and doors. You probably won't be able to do that trick later in your career when you fly an Airbus or Boeing, but the point is to think and figure out a way to live.
It happened to my friend...twice...He picked up his C-172M from the shop after an annual. On the way home, which was 110 nm from the shop, the yoke came free, with no ailerons, or elevator. he was alone in the plane, and almost panicked. After a while, he realized that the plane was still flying. Slowly, he got his cool back, and started to experiment with the pedals and the throttle. He realized that he would not die, but could attemp at landing the plane. So he gently turned back, and landed at the field he had taken off from, to get it fixed. They fixed the plane, and he got back home, and told us about his freightening experience. He told us he felt the hair on his head go straight up, from the fright. The AME apologized, but gave him nothing in form of a rebate for a poor job done. The following week, on his way to Montreal, the same thing happened. He got so upset that he called an emergency, so that AME would be caught... It appears that sometimes the two tubes of the control column are not fixed properly, and the locking bolt is inserted at the end of the tube, rather than through the two holes. The tubes then slowly slip out of each other, during flight. After his ordeal, I practised a few times, and the last time at night, flying hands off, except for the throttle, and landed without problems... |
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