Introduction:
● PIC is directly responsible for and is the final authority as to the operation of that
aircraft
● In an emergency requiring immediate action, the pilot-in-command and remote
pilot-in-command may deviate from FAR 91 or FAR 107 respectively, to the extend
required to meet the emergency
● If the PIC choses to deviate from the provisions of an ATC clearance, the PIC
must notify ATC as soon as possible and obtain an amended clearance
● Note this is not a blanket clearance to perform unnecessary
deviations!
● Unless deviation is necessary under the emergency authority of 91.3, pilots of
IFR flights experiencing two-way radio communication failure are expected to
adhere to the procedures prescribed under "IFR operations, two-way radio
communications failure"
● Troubleshooting is important but don't fix an airplane airborne when you can safely
land first
● Be directive, if you want something, tell them, don't let ATC drive you
● Declare emergencies with general terms, use "electrical" or "engine" for example
● The PIC must notify ATC as soon as possible and obtain an amended clearance
● Discrete emergency frequencies may be assigned by ATC
● By default use CTAF or guard (121.5/243.0)
● You must hear different radio communications
● Emergency hand signals are listed in 6-5-3
● First 3 seconds, ask yourself, where am I? What do I have? Is the light valid?
● With every emergency there will be primary and secondary signals
● It is important to realize that secondary indications may, or may not be
present
WARNING:
All procedures are GENERALIZED.
Fly the maneuver in accordance with the Pilot Operating Handbook (POH)
and/or current Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
Emergency Procedures:
● ALWAYS:
● Aircraft control - MAINTAIN
● Precise nature of problem - DETERMINE
● Applicable emergency procedures - EXECUTE
● Appropriate landing criteria - DETERMINE AND EXECUTE
● As always, the most important emergency procedure you can ever remember is to
aviate, navigate, and then communicate
● These three steps are really a continuous process which never stops requiring pilot
judgment to prioritize steps
● Aviate:
● Complete any immediate action procedures that may be required
● Reduce the electrical load, as required, to buy yourself time
● Position the aircraft in the best position to address the emergency,
such as "climbing to cope"
●
●
●
●
●
After the situation is under control, and while
navigating/communicating, open to Chapter 7 of the POH and begin
going through the emergency procedure steps, starting back at step 1
Navigate:
● Evaluate the situation and determine if you think the aircraft needs to
land as soon as possible, or as soon as practical
● Depending on your decision and the situation at hand, prepare for
arrival
● Remember that without electrical power to your instruments, you will
have to rely on dead reckoning or radar vectors from ATC
● If you don't know where to go, don't go anywhere
Communicate:
● Contact ATC if able
● If you have not already had to address your passengers, take the time
to do so now
● If you have a hand held radio, break it out and attempt to establish
radio communication, as able, with a local agency
● While less reliable but more predominant, reach for your cell phone
and attempt calling ATC
● With this option in mind, remember that fumbling to find the
phone number while in flight is going to be distracting and
could make the situation much worse, causing distraction and
possibly loss of situational awareness
● Consider loading your phone with the appropriate telephone
numbers a step in preflight
●
Troubleshooting:
● Request block altitudes and orbit on the approach end, offset to the runway of
intended landing if possible
● Climb above the weather of possible
● When contacting base start with what you have, what you've done and what page
you're now on
● Consider fuel remaining for the urgency to get the aircraft on deck
● Receiving vectors it is a good idea to constantly repeat headings and altitudes are
you are busy and it is easy to forget
Types of Emergencies:
● Immediate Action: do as quick as possible consistent with flying (aviating, navigating,
communicating)
● Non-Immediate Action: Get to them when you get to them
Emergency Notification:
● Emergency notification may come in several forms including aural, visual, or tactical
● Aural:
● Alarms may be utilized with more advanced avionics
● Alerts are intended to cause people to stop what they are doing and attend to
a potential hazard. However, some alerts fail to provide useful information and
can create their own human factors problems. These are known as nuisance
alerts (Sanquist, Thurman, & Mahy, 2005). Nuisance alerts are troubling
because the person receiving the alert must devote attention to deciding if the
alert is valid and whether action is necessary
●
What to do?
● Breathe, determine what is going on
● Panic is no solution
● Prioritize emergencies (if compounding)
● Point to field/Immediate Action
● Climb if possible to improve communication and radar coverage
● Note that you cannot climb unauthorized in IFR
● Continue squawking the same code under radar coverage, if unable to contact ATC,
squawk 7700 and this can keep you free from violations, though an explanation may
be requested later
● Orbit near field in VMC
Powerplant Emergencies:
● Powerplant emergencies can range from minor degradation to all out engine failure
● Regardless, treat everything as if it will lead to an engine failure
● Consider thinking of the memory aid: glide, grass, and gas
● Catastrophic Engine Failure:
● Although uncommon, catastrophic engine failures are when an engine comes
apart in flight
● Any oil that escapes the cowling and impacts the windscreen is likely to blur
the windscreen and won't simply blow off
● In this instance, enhanced vision systems are life-savers
● When selecting an off-airport landing site, consider: wind, space, obstacles,
and surface condition
● Consider the memory aid of "A-B-C-D-E" whereby you pitch for AIRSPEED,
fly at BEST GLIDE, run the CHECKLIST, and finally DECLARE AN
EMERGENCY, as appropriate, and EXECUTE the landing
●
● High Cylinder Head Temperature:
● High temperatures of any kind are cause for concern
● High cylinder head temperatures are cause for concern about your engine
● High Cylinder Head Temperature Indications:
● Your cylinder head temperature gauge will operate high than normal,
though not yet necessarily in a 'red' area
●
● High Cylinder Head Temperature Secondary Indications:
●
●
● High Cylinder Head Temperature Considerations:
● Insufficient air is getting into the engine cowling calling for reduced
pitch, increased speed, open cowl flaps, or a removal of a blockage
● Improper fuel-to-air mixture ratio (lean mixtures could
● run hotter)
● Equipment failure (spark plugs, magnetos)
●
●
●
Expect engine power to decrease
Eexpect egine oil consumption to increase
Left uncorrected, detonation and pre-ignition may start occurring,
exacerbating the problem
●
Engine Failure:
● With engine failures, speed (trading speed for altitude) is life, and altitude (time) is life
insurance
● Engine failures are largely due to mechanical failure, loss of spark, loss of air, or loss
of fuel
● Engine failures require immediate action
● You should always have a plan, based on phase of flight, before you take off
● Engine Failure Primary Indications:
● Dropping, low, or no RPM
●
● Engine Failure Secondary Indications:
● Dropping temperatures and pressures
● Reduced noise from the engine
●
● Engine Failure Considerations:
● Consider an action just performed may be the source of the problem
● There may be enough time to restart the engine
● Altitude is important, but without the appropriate airspeed you will lose too
much altitude or stall
● As part of takeoff, engine failure must be discussed in as much detail as
practical with altitudes and turning limitations
● Electrical abnormalities may distract the pilot from engine abnormalities,
leading to improper immediate action procedures
● Following an engine failure you will lose several systems such as the vacuum
system which will result in a partial panel situation
● Loose mixture controls may slowly move to idle
● Sometimes the engine is receiving too much fuel (esp. at higher altitudes),
resulting a flooded engine that requires leaning, counter to most conventional
engine failure immediate actions
● A partially open primer allows raw fuel to get into the engine intake without
atomizing as required for proper combustion
● Loss of the alternator will mean you're running off battery power which is
limited to the condition of the battery
● If conducting an off-field landing, remember that magneto wires can be
broken leading to a hot mag
● Make your landing crash as slow and as controlled as possible
● Deceleration impacts increase as the square of the speed
● Impact forces at 60 kts are four times those at 30 kts
● At 45 kts only 9.4 feet of deceleration will bring you to a stop
● Losing situational awareness and stalling the aircraft is far more lethal than
the emergency landing
● Engine Failure on Takeoff:
●
●
●
●
●
●
Pilots must have a plan for engine failure on takeoff before they take
the runway
● Failure to obtain and/or maintain flying speed is a leading cause of
accidents, so fly the aircraft at the appropriate speed first and
foremost
● Based on glide performance, pilots may chose altitudes at which their
options on where to land and how far they will turn may be
● Turning back to the departure runway (often referred to as the
impossible turn) is a highly dangerous maneuver
● The FAA now states matter-of-factly in Advisory Circular
61-83J that flight instructors should demonstrate and teach
trainees when and how to make a safe turnback to the field
after an engine failure
● The impossible turn is only impossible if you do not have the
performance, so know when you do, and practice-don't guess!
● Factors to consider is not just altitude, but also, and most
importantly, the distance required
● Aircraft that climb and glide at relatively higher airspeeds will
be further from the airport and eat up more distance in the
turns, resulting in a reduced likelyhood of success
Be sure to feather (if available) the propeller
● In multi-engine aircraft, use a call-out similar to "Identify, Verify,
Feather" where identify is putting your hand on the feather for the
correct engine, verifying is verification (potentially from another
crewmember, and feather is the action
Engine Failure Prevention:
● Ensure sufficient fuel quantity (between all tanks), type
● Avoid changing fuel tanks (on selector driven aircraft) away from suitable
ditch points
● Mark navlogs when fuel selectors are swapped
● Minimize actions that could foul spark plugs, like running excessively rich
Best Glide:
●
●
Code 7700, L/D(MAX) Curve
When you're trying to stretch the range of an aircraft with no engine, fly best
glide airspeed
●
●
The closer you can nail the airspeed but if you're task saturated, +/- 5 knots
should be acceptable in order to not fixate on the airspeed indicator causing
other airwork or procedures to lag behind
Best glide is THE best glide airspeed (occurring where total drag is least)
● Pulling up the nose will cause the aircraft to shift on the drag curve
toward higher induced drag
● Lowering the nose will cause the airspeed to shift on the drag curve
toward higher parasite drag
● In both cases the result is an increased rate of descent!
●
●
●
Selecting a Landing Area:
● It would make sense to say that we want to land on a runway, or a piece of
terrain that most closely mirrors
● From the air however, this can be challenging and even more-so if you're over
terrain you're not familiar with, its dark, or you're in the clouds
● See also:BoldMethod - Your Engine Just Quit, Should You Land On A Road
Or A Field?
● Be sure to tighten seat belts and shoulder harnesses as appropriate when
making an emergency landing
●
Partial Power:
● If experiencing a partial power situation, consider and recent changes made, such as
switching fuel tanks or mixture modifications
● Aircraft, if trimmed, will pitch down to compensate for loss in airspeed
● Slow to best glide or minimum sink, depending on which is most appropriate
● Set up for an emergency landing with the expectation that a full power loss can
happen at any time
Stuck Throttle:
● Throttle inputs may stick, causing the engine to be unresponsive to pilot controls
● Throttles can stick anywhere along the range of travel, but are generally considered
as high, mid, or low
● Stuck Throttle (High):
● Stuck throttle high occurs when the engine is stuck at a high power setting,
generally relative to cruise settings
● Stuck Throttle (High) Primary Indications:
● Throttle remains high when lever retarded
●
● Stuck Throttle (High) Considerations:
● Consider flying to a point of intended landing and performing a
power-off 180
●
●
Magneto Failure:
● Magnetos failues cause one of the spark plugs in a cylinder to stop firing
●
The cylinder effected will experience a higher than average EGT
Overheating:
● Engines can overheat due to a failed cooling system or operations prohibiting
effective heat management
● In turbine engines, engines may be cooled by motoring the engine, thereby moving
cool air throughout the engine
● This may also extinguish fires due to fuel leaks
● To better diagnose, consider that cylinders are generally numbered higher as they
move from the front of the engine to the back
● In most engines, the right side, as viewed from the cockpit, are odd numbered
and the left are even
● Some aircraft are different, and so cylinder placement should be verified if
relying on that data to make a decision
Constant-Speed Propeller Feathering:
● Loss of oil pressure will impact constant-speed propellers which utilize oil to control
pitch
● In this case, the propeller will begin, if not fully transition to its neutral setting
● In most aircraft, this will mean the aircraft will feather, and no longer produce thrust
Propeller Overspeed:
● Loss of oil pressure may first present itself in propeller overspeed in constant speed
propellers
● Reduce the throttle
● Reduce pitch, as able
Fuel Delivery:
● Within fuel-related accidents, fuel exhaustion and fuel starvation continue to be
leading causes
● From 2011 to 2015, an average of more than 50 accidents per year occurred
due to fuel management issues
● Fuel exhaustion accounted for 56% of fuel-related accidents while fuel
starvation was responsible for 35% of these accidents
● Fuel Delivery Primary Indications:
● Rough engine
●
● Fuel Delivery Secondary Indications:
● Dropping or low RPM
●
● Fuel Delivery Considerations:
● If fuel delivery is not sufficient to keep the engine running smoothly, the
engine may be about to quit
●
Hot Start:
● When the EGT exceeds the safe limit of a turbine-powered aircraft, the engine
experiences a "hot start"
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●
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Hot starts occur when too much fuel enters the combustion chamber or turbine RPM
is insufficient
Hot starts are caused by improper starting procedures which may be cause of the
pilot or electronically controlled systems
Any time an engine has a hot start, refer to the AFM/POH or an appropriate
maintenance manual for inspection requirements
If the engine fails to accelerate to the proper speed after ignition or does not
accelerate to idle RPM, a hung or false start has occurred
Reciprocating engines may be hot when start, but these procedures are deviations,
and not usually cause for concern
Hot Start Primary Indications:
● Rising Interstage Turbine Temperature (ITT)
Hot Start Secondary Indications:
● Engine smoke or fire
Hot Start Considerations:
● Be prepared to turn off the engine
● Note dark colored smoke is most often attributed to gas or oil while white
smoke is likely electrical
● Aging magnetos may show as the increased frequency of hot, or at least
hotter, starts
●
Hung Start:
● A hung start is typically associated with turbine engines
● A hung start occurs when there is insufficient starting power source or fuel control
malfunction
● Hung Start Primary Indications:
● Rising Exhaust Gas Temperatures
●
● Hung Start Secondary Indications:
● RPM does not rise
● The engine fails to start
●
● Hung Start Considerations:
● Hung starts may be an indication of a weak or disconnecting starter
●
Tachometer Failure:
● Tachometers can fail, be it the instrument, or connections that feed the instrument
display
● Listen to the powerplant, and determine if it is in fact the engine (see engine failure)
or the instrument malfunctioning
● The instrument is the only direct reading of RPM the pilot has, which means even if
the engine sounds healthy, the engine or the tachometer are unairworthy
● See also: First XC Solo didn't go as planned
Aviation Fuel Anomalies and Malfunctions:
● Aviation Fuel: Fuel Imbalance:
● Fuel imbalances are covered in controllability, below
●
● SAviation Fuel: ystem Failures:
● Running a tank completely dry may allow air to enter the fuel system and
cause vapor lock, which makes it difficult to restart the engine
● Vapor Lock: on fuel-injected engines, the fuel becomes so hot it vaporizes in
the fuel line, not allowing fuel to reach the cylinders
●
● Aviation Fuel: Loss of Fuel Pressure:
● Loss of fuel pressure can be caused by malfunctioning/failed pumps or
cavitation
●
● Aviation Fuel: Fuel Leaks:
● Fuel leave severity will dictate the response required
● Aside from running out of gas (a common accident casual factor), fuel leaks
can lead to inflight fires
●
Electrical Emergencies:
● Loss of Electrical Power:
● A total loss of electrical power, especially at night, can be extremely
uncomfortable
● Considerations:
● Aircraft radios will not work, requiring the use of a hand held radio
● If at night, pilot controlled lighting will not work
●
● Alternator Failure:
● Leading to failure, alternators may cause a whining sound to be picked up on
the headset as well as generally under-perform (degraded charging)
● An alternator failure can be recognized by the batteries picking up the
electrical load on the aircraft
● The aircraft will continue to fly without the alternator, if that is the only issue
● However, aircraft components such as radios and lights will eventually
cease to function
● This means the aircraft will not be legal to fly and may prohibit safe
landing at the intended airport due to the loss of radios and
transponder
● Alternator Failure Considerations:
● Alternator failures at night should be considered an emergency in
most situations
● Declaring emergency to buys attention and priority handling
● How much battery time you have depends on the health and size of
your battery, as well as how quickly you notice and respond to the
failure
● Turn off as much as you reasonably can
● Consider turning off nonessential lights, especially non-LED lights
● Pitot heat uses a lot of power, but don't turn it off if you need it
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
You can likely turn off one radio, and possibly your transponder if
you're not being vectored by ATC
If you have an iPad you can navigate with, turn off the GPS too
Keep radio transmissions to a minimum—they're a significant power
draw—and consider using a handheld radio proactively
Turn off autopilots
Dim the backlighting on glass displays as low as possible. If you have
instruments with internal battery backups, understand how to make
them switch to their internal batteries if not automatic
If you need more range than the battery alone will provide, you still
have an option:
● Turn off the master switch and fly by iPad or dead reckoning
until you're in range of an airport
● Then turn the master back on and you'll have power to spare
when you need it most
● This is even an option in IMC on an IFR flight plan
● Let ATC know when and where you plan to turn your radios
back on, and they'll provide a frequency to call, and the
controllers there will be expecting you
Save battery for approach phase, including instrument approaches,
pilot-controlled lighting, as well as for electric flaps and landing gear
Tell ATC your plan and ETA before the battery dies so they can look,
provide signals, and clear airspace
●
●
Pitot-Static Emergencies:
● see Pitot-Static systems
Avionics Emergencies:
● Making time updates on navlog will help identify the approximate location in event of
an avionics failure
● If vectored off route, the creation of internal reporting intervals will assist
● An example would be time crossing landmarks or waypoints
Oil/Lubrication Malfunctions/Emergencies:
● Oil consumption depends primarily upon the efficiency of the seals
● Oil can be lost through internal leakage, and, in some engines, by malfunctioning of
the pressurizing or venting system
● Increases in oil temperature are not always associated with a drop in oil pressure,
nor a rise in CHTs
● Low Oil Pressure:
● Low oil pressure can be caused by an oil leak which leads to lack of oil in the
system, or an ineffective oil pump
● These emergencies can be particularly detrimental when flying an aircraft
utilizing a constant-speed propeller
● Low Oil Pressure Primary Indications:
● Oil pressure will indicate low
●
● Low Oil Pressure Secondary Indications:
● Rising Cylinder Head Temperatures (CHT)
●
●
Oil temperature may rise (if the pressure drops rapidly then it is less
likely you will have a corresponding temperature indication
Rough engine indications
●
●
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●
Low Oil Temperature:
● Primary Indications:
● Oil temperature will indicate low
● Secondary Indications:
●
High Oil Temperature:
● High Oil Temperature Primary Indications:
● Oil temperature will indicate high
●
● High Oil Temperature Secondary Indications:
● Other temperatures will indicate high
● Possible smoke
● Low oil pressure
● High RPM
●
● High Oil Temperature Considerations:
● Open cowl flaps, if equipped
●
Oil Leaks:
● Ensure dipsticks are properly secured (i.e., closed all the way, not
cross-threaded) to prevent leaks
● Oil on windscreen may come from engine or propeller
● Oil leaks will smoke when in contact with hot engine components
●
Communication &/or Navigation Failures:
​
Icom IC-A25N VHF Airband Transceiver
​ (NAV & COM channels)
​ Related to electrical failures, consider carrying a hand-held device as a backup
VMC into IMC:
● VMC into IMC, also called inadvertant IMC, remains a killer for pilots
● These conditions can creep up on pilots in areas with fast moving weather/storm
development and especially at night
●
In a 1954 study conducted by the University of Illinois, it was found that pilots under a
particular VMC into IMC scenario had on average 178 seconds before they would
become disoriented and lose control after entering IMC and attempting a 180 degree
turn out
● This study demonstrates the importance for instrument instruction and
occasional proficiency to handle such situations
● If entering IMC, relax and realize your quickest way out is almost certainly a 180
degree turn
● When executing a 180 degree turn, perform a standard rate or even slower
rate/lower bank angle turn
● Pilots can get into trouble by trying to speed up the turn and using an overly
aggressive bank angle, resulting in lost altitudes, pitch adjustments, etc. simplify the problem as much as possible
● Ask for help from ATC if needed
● See also AOPA's VFR into IMC Avoidance and Escape resources
Aircraft Fires:
● Consider, if the operating handbook does not already call for it, bringing the mixture
to idle cut-off, and moving the fuel selector to OFF to remove a fuel source from the
fire
● When exiting the aircraft, always exit to the upwind direction as smoke and fumes are
toxic
● Expect smoke and fumes may result in tearing of the eyes, impairing vision
● Aircraft fires on start up (called stack fires) can occur with a flooded engine
● Consider always wearing flame resistent clothing or cotton when flying, but never
synthetics as they can melt to skin
● If smoke comes from the engine cowling, if winds permit, consider slipping in such a
way to be able to see
Controllability:
● Flight Control Jam:
● Once identified, use other control surfaces to overcome the forces
● Consider the use of trim to increase effects while minimize control pressures
● If necessary, but unable, to lower the nose to prevent an unsafe condition
(i.e., a stall), rolling the aircraft into an angle of bank will cause the nose to
drop
●
● Controllability: Fuel Imbalance:
● Many aircraft are equipped with a fuel selector which allows you to select
which tank, or both, from which to draw fuel
● Aircraft can at times develop a fuel imbalance from various sources:
● Prolonged turns in the same direction
● Mechanical reasons
● If a fuel imbalance occurs, select the appropriate (fullest tank) to even out the
fuel levels
●
● Flap Asymmetry:
● An asymmetric "split" flap situation is one in which one flap deploys or retracts
while the other remains in position
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This is also called a split-flap condition and is not to be confused with
split-flap flight control designs
Split-flap conditions can result in a dramatic rolling moment toward the least
deflected flap
Rolling moment are countered with opposite aileron
Opposite rudder will be required to overcome the adverse yaw caused by the
additional drag on the wing with the extended flap
● The aircraft is now in a cross-controlled situation
To solve this problem, you may attempt to match the flaps again
Weigh the cost of retracting the flaps which could fix the situation or could
cause more damage
Consider flying faster approaches, remember with one wing that does not
have flaps, it will stall earlier, requiring a higher than normal approach speed
● Almost full aileron may be required to maintain a wings-level attitude,
especially at the reduced airspeed necessary for approach and
landing
● The pilot should not risk an asymmetric stall and subsequent loss of
control by flaring excessively
● Rather, the airplane should be flown onto the runway so that the
touchdown occurs at an airspeed consistent with a safe margin above
flaps-up stall speed
The pilot should not attempt to land with a crosswind from the side of the
deployed flap because the additional roll control required to counteract the
crosswind may not be available
Some aircraft are designed with physically interconnected flaps to prevent
flap asymmetry
Pilots may chose not to extend flaps in a turn to avoid risks associated with
an asymetric flap situation while already in a turn
Flap Actuation Failure:
● If the flap fails to respond to an input (i.e., extension commanded, no
extension occurs) then consider leaving the flap lever in the position to the
corresponding flap position
● If the flap actuator suddenly works, you don't want a surprise like full
flap extension or retraction
Runaway Trim:
● Runaway trim is a condition in which an electric trim motor has become stuck,
causing the trim to move when uncommanded
● This can result in a serious flight control problem where the pilot has to
muscle the controls to try and maintain a flyable aircraft
● The solution is rather simple but complicated in the moment if not considered
on the ground:
● Trim buttons may simply be stuck, and need to be pushed back to
neutral
● Know where your trim motor circuit breaker is, and pull it if you
suspect runaway trim due to an electrical short
●
●
●
Opened Door:
● An opened door is not an emergency until the pilot tries to take an action and
loses control of the aircraft
● The amount of airflow over the fuselage makes opening the door to slam it
shut difficult, tempting the slowing of airspeed closer to stall speed
● The performance impacts of a door opening in flight are minimal
● It is always best to simply land, shut the door, and take off again
Controllability Test:
● Consider a controllability test if time and altitude permit when aircraft control
has been called into question before attempting a recovery
● Consider the impacts of not only control surfaces, but configuration and
throttle settings
● High throttle settings can help pitch aircraft up, or reduce descent
●
Landing Gear:
● Landing Gear Fails to Retract:
● When the landing gear will not retract after takeoff, the pilot should leave the
landing gear extended
● Trying to force the landing gear to retract may cause the landing gear
to become stuck in the retracted position
● Landing gear position may be confirmed by the tower, or other aircraft
● If the landing gear appears locked down then flight may be continued at
reduced performance
● Consideration should be given to rescue services at the destination in the
event of further emergency
● Consideration should be given to inspecting the landing gear prior to taxi
following landing
●
● Landing Gear Fails to Extend:
● When the landing gear will not extend, the pilot should first find a safe location
at a safe altitude to troubleshoot
● Try to manually extend the landing gear
● If a gear up landing is required, consideration should be given to pavement
vs. grass, to ensure a smoother landing (no bumps, etc.
● Consideration should also be given to fields with the appropriate services
desired after an emergency landing
● Landing gear position may be confirmed by the tower, or other aircraft
● Even if tower confirms gear appears down, it may not be locked
●
● Parking Brake Fails to Disengage:
● If the parking brake fails to disengage in a tricycle gear aircraft, more than
likely the aircraft won't move or it will try to rotate about the stuck wheel
● The risk to the aircraft is relatively minimal, of course unless their are
objects very near by
● Tail dragger airplanes risk a prop strike if attempted to move, as the aircraft
will immediately rotate forward
●
●
Shimmy Damper Failure:
● Dampener shimmy will be felt in rudder pedals when malfunctioning
●
Emergency Autoland:
● Emergency Autoland Overview
Night Specific Considerations:
● If lased, consider turning off aircraft lights to mask position from future incidents in
that area, but notify ATC
Distress Procedures:
● Do not hesitate to declare an emergency if in distress
● An aircraft in an urgency condition needs to recognize when a situation becomes that
of distress
● Safety is not a luxury! Take action
● Distress frequencies, procedures, signals, and call signs may be assigned
● A copy of the applicable procedures and signals shall be carried in the cockpit of all
naval aircraft and may be used in time of peace regardless of the degree of radio
silence that may be imposed during tactical exercises
● They will be used in time of war when prescribed by the officer in tactical command
and may be amplified as necessary to cover local conditions or specific military
operations
Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Communications (ARFF):
​ Discrete Emergency Frequency:
● Direct contact between an emergency aircraft flight crew, Aircraft Rescue and
Fire Fighting Incident Commander (ARFF IC), and the Airport Traffic Control
Tower (ATCT), is possible on an aeronautical radio frequency (Discrete
Emergency Frequency [DEF]), designated by Air Traffic Control (ATC) from
the operational frequencies assigned to that facility
● Emergency aircraft at airports without an ATCT, (or when the ATCT is closed),
may contact the ARFF IC (if ARFF service is provided), on the Common
Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF) published for the airport or the civil
emergency frequency 121.5 MHz
​
​ Radio Call Signs:
● Preferred radio call sign for the ARFF IC is "(location/facility) Command"
when communicating with the flight crew and the FAA ATCT
● Example: LAX Command
● Example: Washington Command
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​ ARFF Emergency Hand Signals:
● In the event that electronic communications cannot be maintained between
the ARFF IC and the flight crew, standard emergency hand signals as
depicted below should be used
● These hand signals should be known and understood by all cockpit and cabin
aircrew, and all ARFF firefighters
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Definitions:
● WARNING:
● An operating procedure, practice, or condition, etc., that may result in injury or
death if not carefully observed or followed
● CAUTION:
● An operating procedure, practice, or condition, etc., that may result in damage
to equipment if not carefully observed or followed
● NOTE:
● An operating procedure, practice, or condition, etc., that is essential to
emphasize
● Shall:
● Mandatory
● Should:
● Recommended
● May:
● Optional
● Will
● Indicates futurity, never indicates any degree of requirement for application of
a procedure
Formation Emergencies:
● The emergency aircraft has the lead unless they don't want it, "bleeder is the leader"
● In NORDO situations, any HEFOE from the emergency aircraft means lead brings
you back for a HALF flap, straight-in approach
● Be ready with the book to assist a wingman
Conclusion:
● Always Aviate, Navigate and Communicate
● Two things will kill you immediately: hitting the ground or another airplane
● Think first before you act, and avoid a startle response
● The pilot in command, has the final authority in the operation of the aircraft
● It is okay to say "unable" to ATC if in your mind it will put the aircraft into a
dangerous state
● Still, ATC can declare an emergency on your behalf, which does not gie them
authority over you, but does raise your priority/level of service
● Pay attention to those procedures that require immediate attention and have then
memorized
● If a step ties directly to an immediate safety concern, the step should be
memorized
● If equipped with an autopilot, consider flying the aircraft by hand in any emergency
● While the use of an autopilot to reduce task saturation is tempting, flying by
hand maintains tactile feedback on aircraft performance
● In the event of a pilot incapacitation, an Emergency Autoland system or an
emergency descent system may assume operation of the aircraft and deviate to meet
that emergency
● In several cases, an inflight malfunction requires immediate notification to the NTSB
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