I recently passed my check ride and have been flying out of Sarasota/Bradenton Airport. My interest in flying has been life long but there were issues with the medical. I was taking prescription medicine that did not allow me to attain a license or to solo. The years passed and although I no longer needed the medication I just never got around to committing to the training. I felt that I was too far along in years and would not be able to complete the training.
Sport Pilot license was just the ''ticket'' for me. I found a FBO with a couple of Remos aircraft and finally made the commitment. My instructor had been around a few years and took his time to make sure we accomplished all that was required. It took a little longer but with what was about to happen to me I am glad we spent the few extra hours.
I was so proud of my new ability and wanted to share it with my wife. Karen took about ten hours of ''pinch-hitter'' training so she would be somewhat familiar with flying the Remos. We decided to go over to Sebring for a hundred dollar hamburger on the 3rd of September. We enjoyed the flight out and it was a beautiful day. While at Sebring we watched the racing taking place for a few minutes before we decided to head to Venice for a few practice landings.
The field was quiet and we taxied out and made an uneventful departure. I contacted Miami and asked for flight following and we began working our way to Venice Municipal. Just when I was handed off to Tampa I noticed a slight vibration. This airplane sometimes did that at a certain throttle setting so I reduced the RPMs a bit and there was no difference. As a matter of fact I was sure it was getting worse. Karen asked me if everything was alright......I was not about to try to ignore the vibration and indicated to her we had something going on that was not normal but I was not sure if it was a problem. That was decided for me in the next few minutes. The RPMs began to drop and the oil temperature began to increase.
I decided immediately to notify Tampa. I was only at 2,300 feet and as soon as I declared the emergency and they replied they had my location I lost radio contact with them. Either due to loss of altitude or decrease in revs. This aircraft needed about 2000RPM to operate the radios properly.
I told Karen to tighten her harness and to help me look for a field. She, to her credit, showed no upset and asked if she should get on the radio. I asked her to switch me to Sarasota Tower and I got off a quick advisory to them as I was descending and looking for a good are to land.
We were still out side of the city of Sarasota and it was rural area mostly. About a mile ahead was a golf course the Karen pointed out and off to the right was an obvious plowed field with some crop still on it. I was down to a thousand and decided it was better not to stretch it now as there were buildings and roads to the front of us and I was sure I wanted open area.
Looking down on the port side I could see a green field with no obvious structures or fences. I took as much time as I could to filter through the choices. Golf course. No. Too many trees and nothing that looked like it was laid out straight. Plowed field no. Too many furrows and I was actually thinking about not damaging the aircraft. I knew the wind was good for the field below us and so I considered this my downwind.
No time to grab the check list so I just did the things I could think of. I wanted what ever power I could get from the engine before it gave up so I left the fuel on and tried to make a mental note to cut it off when I had the field. I added flaps and turned on base leg. I said to Karen that everything was going well and this will be easy. And would she please open her door. I turned final and could see a line of shrubbery across the end of the field. We were sinking pretty fast and I did not want to get into those little trees. I pushed the throttle all the way and got about a hundred RPMs out of the Rotax before it quit.
That was just enough to get us over the bushes and the last bit of flaps sort of boosted us a little. I brought the nose up much farther than I would have in any landing I made in training. The stick was back as far as it would go. We hung for a second and then settled onto the field.
It was noisy but the plane behaved well. As soon as the nose wheel touched I got on the brakes, a bit too hard, but I wanted to get it stopped before any surprises in the tall grass.
I had forgotten about the fuel cut off so I did that and shut down everything else. We just sat there........
Not a scratch on either of us, or on the plane. It was amazing how quiet it was just then. I climbed out and checked the plane. No damage including the landing gear and nose wheel. My hands began to shake and I had trouble using my cell phone. When I called the FBO the owner was not upset just concerned and he said he would get things rolling right away. I remembered to assure him there was no emergency and to please advise the tower we were OK.
There was a lot more to this incident with the NTSB and with ATC, but it all went well. I am certain that taking the training seriously was a large factor in making this a successful day and a story with a good ending. I am careful by nature and that caused me to pay attention to the possibility of an emergency while flying. Having been in this situation and doing what was best and having a lot of luck got us on the ground undamaged. I cannot imagine being in that situation and not having any idea of what to do, or denying that there was actually an emergency until the airplane was done flying.
It seems odd that an emergency took place with so few hours of time. The best case would be high time with lots of flying experience and a hours of contemplating the event in order to prepare for it. Not after a short flight in a new airplane with two pages in the log book and a loved one in the right seat.
John King Jr. Sarasota Fl.
(There were metal filings in the oil and a cracked piston caused the engine to finally seize up just as we landed.)
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