1
General Discussion Area / Re: might be of interest
« on: Yesterday at 18:04:14 »
Whilst, as a glider pilot, launch failures and running out of height followed often by a field landing (and sometimes not a survivable one for the aircraft) are something we train for, I hadn't considered the prospect of an engine that's playing up but not 100% failed and the mental tricks that clearly plays on you. Generally, once the rope has broken, it isn't going to knot itself together again! 
I can see how that scenario can well entice you into leaving the relative safety of a good field you've selected with plenty of time into "get-home-itis", and then stab you in the back. I'm not sure if he had already selected that field as a possibility were he not able to make the airfield, and whether he'd have ventured back to the airfield if it was surrounded by forest, but it looked to me like he chose it pretty late, only just made it across the boundary to the field and, had he been at Blackbush, he might have been in the same place Charles Church found himself.
On the other hand, ditching a historic aircraft when there's maybe even the slightest prospect of saving it given enough power would have played on the mind too.
The fact that a 27 litre V12 carried on windmilling on the prop was an eye opener to me. That in itself was losing him a lot of energy!
I guess nobody walks away from a situation like that thinking they did everything right. The important thing is walking away at all - that you didn't do anything catastrophically wrong.
I can see how that scenario can well entice you into leaving the relative safety of a good field you've selected with plenty of time into "get-home-itis", and then stab you in the back. I'm not sure if he had already selected that field as a possibility were he not able to make the airfield, and whether he'd have ventured back to the airfield if it was surrounded by forest, but it looked to me like he chose it pretty late, only just made it across the boundary to the field and, had he been at Blackbush, he might have been in the same place Charles Church found himself.
On the other hand, ditching a historic aircraft when there's maybe even the slightest prospect of saving it given enough power would have played on the mind too.
The fact that a 27 litre V12 carried on windmilling on the prop was an eye opener to me. That in itself was losing him a lot of energy!
I guess nobody walks away from a situation like that thinking they did everything right. The important thing is walking away at all - that you didn't do anything catastrophically wrong.
Returning from the bar late one night with the munchies, we chopped it up and fried it! 
