Microlight Forced Landing
Discussion
I've just seen this in the youtube thread but i'm posting it in here to get other people's opinion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgpddw6AVYY
To begin with he seems to do a brilliant job by finding a road but it seems that he starts to panic once he was lined and came in far too steep, bounced and then crashed because he was coming down far too fast.
Or is that microlights have an appalling glideslope meaning without engine power he couldn't descend slower and his failure to flare before he impacted terrain a small addition to the impending disaster?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kgpddw6AVYY
To begin with he seems to do a brilliant job by finding a road but it seems that he starts to panic once he was lined and came in far too steep, bounced and then crashed because he was coming down far too fast.
Or is that microlights have an appalling glideslope meaning without engine power he couldn't descend slower and his failure to flare before he impacted terrain a small addition to the impending disaster?
Considering where he was flying, he did a good job of that. I assume they both walked away.
He was already low and over lots of trees, to descend through trees onto a road would be nobody's first choice, and glide performance with a poorly engine would have been quite terrible.
I think just before he landed he tried to move away from the trees on his left and this upset his approach.
IMO the pilot should be proud of that landing.
He was already low and over lots of trees, to descend through trees onto a road would be nobody's first choice, and glide performance with a poorly engine would have been quite terrible.
I think just before he landed he tried to move away from the trees on his left and this upset his approach.
IMO the pilot should be proud of that landing.
Not a pilot, but looks like a pretty good call to me.
On a vaguely related note, my dad used to do a bit of gliding and he had an interesting experiencing when he was out with the instructor. The tow cable snapped at the worst possible moment; too far up to but it back down on the remaining runway and too low to find somewhere beyond. The instructor kicked the rudder over and rotated through 180 degrees in a sort of stall turn and put it down facing the other way on the strip. Must have been exciting.
On a vaguely related note, my dad used to do a bit of gliding and he had an interesting experiencing when he was out with the instructor. The tow cable snapped at the worst possible moment; too far up to but it back down on the remaining runway and too low to find somewhere beyond. The instructor kicked the rudder over and rotated through 180 degrees in a sort of stall turn and put it down facing the other way on the strip. Must have been exciting.
You bring microlights down pretty hard, if you glide them in on a shallow approach there's a risk of the wings tipping and hitting the deck... I've seen it happen, gust of wind and in she dug in and cartwheeled. I learned that day that you know you can roll a microlight end over end and walk away! 
Like they say, any landing you can walk away from is a good one... I reckon a couple of feet to the left and he'd have got away with that
Like they say, any landing you can walk away from is a good one... I reckon a couple of feet to the left and he'd have got away with that
king drama queen about it.tr7v8 said:
Looks pretty good to me, Microlights glide like bricks so stretching the glide wasn't an option. I suspect they didn't do much damage either.
On this point, microlights certainly do not glide like bricks, not at all in fact. Flex wing aircraft are quite draggy but they still glide pretty well. Fixed wing microlights have a tremendous gliding capability.Re this video, I think the guy did well all things considered; he had to stuff it in because the road ahead wasn't straight. What I think should be taken from this is that if you're going to fly that low you should have decent options should the worst happen.
One of the bonuses with UK microlights is that if you have to conduct a force landing, the impact should be fairly low as the aircraft should not stall above 36kts (even without flaps).
NSXKeith said:
tr7v8 said:
Looks pretty good to me, Microlights glide like bricks so stretching the glide wasn't an option. I suspect they didn't do much damage either.
On this point, microlights certainly do not glide like bricks, not at all in fact. Flex wing aircraft are quite draggy but they still glide pretty well. Fixed wing microlights have a tremendous gliding capability.Re this video, I think the guy did well all things considered; he had to stuff it in because the road ahead wasn't straight. What I think should be taken from this is that if you're going to fly that low you should have decent options should the worst happen.
One of the bonuses with UK microlights is that if you have to conduct a force landing, the impact should be fairly low as the aircraft should not stall above 36kts (even without flaps).
8:1 is what P&M quote for a Quantum so that is 1.5 miles per 1000ft @ 40mph giving you 2m 16 secs or 1m 58ecs @ 46mph per 1000ft
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