I recently gave a flight review to an experienced pilot who flies a modern Cessna single-engine airplane for recreation and transportation purposes. A topic we covered thoroughly was emergency procedures, since most pilots don’t encounter emergencies often over the course of normal flight operations. After retaining positive control of the airplane and accomplishing a few critical memory items (if necessary for the situation), your next course of action when something out of the ordinary happens with the airplane is to grab a checklist and follow the steps listed there.

Now before going further, let me clarify memory items — these are tasks you should have committed to memory at all times for that particular airplane model. For example, in a Cessna 172 when experiencing an engine fire in flight, you should, without delay, pull the mixture to idle cut off, turn off the fuel shutoff valve, verify the auxiliary fuel pump is turned off and then turn the electrical master switch off.

The intent here is to cut off all sources of fuel to the engine as soon as possible — pulling out a checklist after seeing flames would waste valuable time and allow the fire to further increase in intensity. Once those items are complete, then grab the checklist and follow the remaining steps for that scenario. You’ll find the memory items listed in bold in the POH, and many quick-reference checklists highlight memory items in yellow to help you quickly identify them.

The newer aircraft models, like the Cessna 172R, have a thorough listing of emergency checklist procedures. There are 18 separate emergency procedures for the 172R model. Most are cut and dry like engine failures, fires, icing and electrical system malfunctions. But like everything in life, emergency scenarios in the airplane aren’t always cut and dry. They may result from a combination of factors that will require you to run through several different emergency checklists.

For example, after finishing the Engine Fire in Flight checklist, you need to keep your brain working to think about what needs to happen next. You lost your engine and are now a glider, so you then need to look at the Emergency Landing without Engine Power checklist to prepare for and execute an off airport landing.

There are other situations that could occur that aren’t explicitly covered by the emergency checklist. One example that comes to mind is the partial loss of engine power. A quick glance at the checklist in the cockpit will list procedures for total engine failure, but nothing for partial-power loss. This is where your knowledge of the airplane systems will come into play to help you play detective and figure out what is happening.

The urgency of the situation depends on altitude, the amount of power loss, oil temp/pressure readings, and what type of terrain you are flying over. If you’re able to maintain altitude, common sense would tell you to find the nearest airport and start heading that way. If it looks like you’re still descending at best glide speed and are out of range of an airport, run the engine failure checklist which will get you thinking about and troubleshooting items related to fuel, induction air and ignition/magnetos.

If none of those checklist items work and you have time to further diagnose the situation before an off-field landing becomes necessary, grab the POH and refer to the Amplified Emergency Procedures section. This is just after the Emergency Procedures and contains helpful information on how to deal with additional abnormal scenarios. While this section was not designed for in-flight use, a quick glance may help you come up with a solution if time permits. For example, there is a section on Rough Engine Operation/Loss of Power that will prove very useful in this scenario. It will lead you to troubleshoot the magnetos, check for spark plug fouling, fuel-pump failure, excessive fuel vapor, fuel selector issues and low oil pressure.

The main takeaway here is don’t wait every two years for a flight review or an actual emergency to get your brain thinking about “what-if” scenarios. It’s normal throughout your training for your instructor to continually simulate emergencies with you in the airplane, but once you get your certificate you’ll find these events really don’t happen that often. Make it a point to review the POH every few months and also read the Amplified Emergency Procedures section for helpful narratives on troubleshooting techniques.

The opening paragraph to that section in the Cessna POH summarizes it best: this information should be reviewed prior to flying the airplane, as well as reviewed on a regular basis to keep pilot’s knowledge of procedures fresh.

As pilots we are taught from early on that managing an emergency during our flying career is not a question of “If” but a question of “when”. We are meticulous in our preflight planning, preparation and use good maintenance procedures to ensure that we mitigate as much risk as we possibly can, but the rules of statistics dictate that we will eventually be met with some situation that is unplanned.

 

Aviate, Navigate, Communicate

You have probably heard that expression before from a flight instructor or other aviation publication. It is a simple adage but it is one that helps keep our priorities when handling any situation, whether planned or unplanned.

• Aviate – Regardless of the inflight issue, the most important task of the pilot is to maintain positive control of the aircraft. You cannot allow distractions or handling of the emergency to pull you away from flying the airplane. The most common example that I will use from standard flight training is the in-flight engine failure. You are taught to run a checklist or flow to get the engine restarted, after you designate a landing site and slow the aircraft to best glide speed. Students will then shift their entire attention to the checklist and neglect flying the aircraft to the site or maintaining speed control. When they are finished with the checklist, they look up to find the field not where they left it and/or their airspeed off the mark.
• Navigate – Once we have positive control of the airplane, we can then take time to designate a path of where the airplane should be going. In my running example of the in-flight engine failure, once we maintain the desired airspeed and manage the situation, we then glide the aircraft to our determined off-field landing site. Use of a chart or navigational aid is a great tool, but not at the expense of flying the airplane.
• Communicate – The lowest item of priority that we should consider is dedicated time to communicate. This does not mean that communication is not important; just simply that aviate and navigate are more important. Communication can cover many items such as radio communications, but also crew communications or checklists can go in this spot.

Keep in mind that A.N.C. is just a rough guideline and not a literal checklist to follow. It does not apply to all circumstances and situations.

 

Is this an Emergency?

When we notice that something is not as it should be during a flight, the first item that the PIC needs to do is to determine the nature of the situation, i.e. Is this an Emergency? Determining if a true emergency exists will greatly affect how we handle the situation and how we respond. Let’s use an example to guide this situation. Assume for a moment that as we are flying along during a VFR clear day at cruise altitude and we detect flames coming out of the side of the cowling in our C-172. This is a true emergency. Any delay in response could negatively affect the outcome of the situation. In this case we would run the memory items called for in the C-172 POH and prepare for an off-field landing.

By contrast, let’s see what we would do is this circumstance; Same VFR clear day and we notice that the alternator has stopped working. Is this a true emergency? Unless you are in a unique set of circumstances, this is not an immediate emergency; it is an abnormal situation. If we do not respond in a timely fashion, then it could become an emergency. In the case of an abnormal situation, the best thing we can do is fly the airplane (aviate) and then consult the checklist or POH for the appropriate response. It is important to note that not responding from memory for an abnormal situation is key to prevent any mistakes in response that could make the situation worse.

 

Declaring an Emergency

If we have determined that we have an immediate emergency or an abnormal situation has degraded into an emergency, we need to respond accordingly. The most important thing is to respond to the needs of the emergency and not make the situation any worse by how we react. Once we have completed our list of priorities and we have sufficient time and capacity, we can then declare an emergency to ATC or other resource. Keep in mind that FAR 91.3 already gives us the authority to respond to the situation as needed to meet the needs of the emergency; you do not have to call on the radio to exercise this privilege. Calling on the radio will only give us access to additional resources and ATC priority; it will not solve the emergency for you. Sometimes that additional resource that ATC can provide or having ATC move traffic or provide a vector can be crucial to the safe outcome of the situation, so do not hesitate to declare the emergency when the time is right.

 

Safe outcome

Preparing for the eventual situation that will come is part of every pilot’s responsibility. Your job is to make sure that you are proficient in your aircraft’s specific procedures, and to have a clear process in your mind to analyzing and handling any situation that comes your way. How do you achieve this level of precision and preparation? Study, prepare, and practice. Simulating these circumstances and having someone challenge you to new situations is key to building your aeronautical decision making skills to be up to the task when the situation calls.

 

Safe flying,