Solo forced Landings

[Mike M]

Hi All

Today I took Waikato Aero Club's Alpha R2160 (ZK-WKF) for some solo forced landing training. Here are some pictures I took of the flight.

[Alex]

Thanks for posting Mike, looks great.

Alex

[ZK-Brock]

Cool pictures Mike, looks like a fancy aircraft (esp. the avionics!). Is the Robin Waikato's primary trainer?

When practicing forced landings, I'm guessing you don't actually land? (I'm only up to Steep turns in my PPL). Do you fly to 300ft or so on the approach to it, then fly off? It'd be a bit dangerous for you and the aircraft to land in random paddocks for practise!

I also couldn't work out which paddock you were going to land in:

I've highlighted 3 probables, could you tell me if I'm right?

[Mike M]

Is the Robin Waikato's primary trainer?

The Alpha is waikato's new trainer. We had Cessna 152's but they were recently sold.

Do you fly to 300ft or so on the approach to it, then fly off?

As a student I'm only allowed down 500ft AGL, but with an instructor I'm allowed down to what ever the instructor thinks is necessary.

I've highlighted 3 probables, could you tell me if I'm right?

I was aiming for the paddock that was highlighted orange.

[squirrel350]

That is one hard bird to spot Mike Im pretty sure its the same traffic I had to keep and eye out for on wednesday they were in the west sector about 200ft below us and it took forever to spot it.

Nice little birds though what are they like to fly????

[Mike M]

Nice little birds though what are they like to fly????

A hell of alot different than the 152's, but in a good way.

[mailman]

Nice photos BUT (and Im not wanting to be a kill joy) you really should be concentrating on flying your aircraft instead of taking pictures...especially during forced landing practices.

There will be plenty of time for taking pictures once you have your licence.

BTW, ask your instructor if you can do a forced landing with the engine off because even with the prop spinning a min power that is still generating forward momentum. Once the engine is off you will notice that you will be flying like a stone, altitude loss will be greater than with the prop spinning AND your workload and stress levels will go up quite a bit.

In fact, when I was doing my training and we had completed forced landings we were heading back when suddenly the engine started to die. I looked at the instructor and he looked at me with a puzzled look on his face, then the engine stopped and the old pucker factor really went through the roof!

As I went through the checks I found the fuel valve had been turned off (by the instructor) and low and behold when I attempted engine restart she fired up all ok. BUT the thing that really came home to roost was just how quickly altitude was lost with the engine off.

Mailman

ps. Sorry if I sound like a w2nker but the safety of your self, your plane and those on the ground should come before taking photos.

[FlyingKiwi]

Hey, just noticed you're the Michael Malone from Jetphotos.net. (yeah I'm a bit slow! ) I've got quite a few photos on there as well, and also on Airliners.net; photographer Leo Pardon.