If you thought a stuck gas pedal in a Toyota was bad, check out this story about a pilot’s first taxi in a homebuilt airplane.
In another driver versus pilot comparison, check this story on a Cessna 152 landing on the New Jersey Turnpike. My favorite part is the quote from the NJTP spokesman: “The plane landed, he taxied it over to the shoulder. We can’t even get motorists to do that when they break down.”
[Separately, I’m wondering whether the Toyota accidents would have been avoided if the driver had switched the transmission into neutral (airplanes don’t generally have a transmission so this is not an option for the pilot (some airplanes have a gearbox, but it can’t be disengaged)).]
Update: I found an interesting Car and Driver test of stopping distances when the brakes are fighting the engine.]
Fuel mixture? Was my first thought, before finishing the story. (Of course this would not work if airplanes were not so primitive. Seriously. The pilot controls fuel mixture?!)
Then again, in an adrenaline-soaked moment, can we expect either drivers or pilots to use a never-used alternative strategy, with any degree of certainty?
@ Preston – Yep, the pilot has to control the fuel mixture – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg…
When I started flight training in 2007, I was continuously astonished at the enormously backward state of aviation. Steam gauges, radio homing for navigation, and -honest to god- was forced to buy a slide rule (called a “flight computer” by the instructor without even a hint of irony) so that I could compute critical things like fuel burn, wind correction, and time en route. Almost every part of aviation from ATC to radios to engines are circa 1950-60.
It’s truly amazing how engineers, government, and lawyers can choke what was -and should be- a revolutionary, cutting edge industry into the stone age.
Phil, I had the same thought upon hearing of the Toyota issue. Actually, my *very* first thought was that the brakes ought to overpower a stuck accelerator (a la the 1980s Audi “unintended acceleration” fracas), and that if not I’d consider shutting off the ignition. But in many cars that also locks the steering wheel, and the loss of control would be a consideration, so shifting into neutral seems like the obvious choice.
But maybe thinking that way comes from years of debugging computer code, or from how my CFI always asked questions in mid-flight like “How many different ways could you disengage the autopilot?” It is a bit of a reminder that the knowledge bar for a driver’s license is not especially high…
I’m sure putting it in neutral would have helped phenomenally, but every time I tell someone this tip, it’s one they had never heard or thought of. Spread it round!
“if the driver had switched the transmission into neutral”
I had also wondered this, but it appears that it comes down to a combination of things…
The Lexus was a loaner/rental, so the driver was most likely not “comfortable” with the operation of the vehicle. I say this because, the model (ES 305) has a keyless push button start, and an automatic shifter which has manumatic operation.
To turn off the engine, the driver has to hold the ‘on’ button for 3 seconds, which probably never occurred to the driver, considering his naiveté with the car. Then to shift to neutral, the shifter ( picture: http://tinyurl.com/yb2pyav ) would have to not be in the manumatic area. In the moment of panic, the driver may have not correctly executed an attempt to put the car into neutral, but only shifted the gearbox higher.
Audio of the accident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03m7fmnhO0I
In the phone call they claim that the brakes are not working, which could probably be true if the driver had not begun braking until they had accelerated to very high speeds (they said they were ~120mph). Brake fade would make stopping impossible.
I agree, I should practice putting my car in neutral while driving.
I remember reading about one of the earlier disasters: the Lexus was a loner car with a “play with once and never use again” automatic transmission that you can up/down shift manually. With the annoying shifter “gating” where you can’t just move the stick back and forth, but have to go side ways along the way.
It also mentioned turning off the ignition. But the Lexus had a push button start! To turn it off while barreling down the road you have to hold the button down for some number of seconds.
It’s horrifying to imaging knowing what to do to save yourself but being defeated by your cars UI.
I took some flight lessons in the late ’90s at the “Greater Rochester International Airport” in Western New York. One day my instructor was practicing landings with another student and the student pulled the throttle out of the dashboard. As in, the throttle shaft is now in his hand, and is no longer in the dashboard. This leaves the engine at maximum power, incase anyone’s unfamiliar with the Cessna.
Obviously it’s challenging to land an airplane that’s stuck running at maximum power. He could touch down and then kill the engine, and indeed that’s the only option, but that might leave him stranded in a disabled plane in the middle of the runway. If I remember correctly, having a disabled plane on the runway was kind of a Big Deal.
As he tells it, they spent some time trying to reattach the throttle without luck. He then radioed the tower and explained the situation while emphasizing that he did _not_ want to declare an emergency. The tower asked him if he’d be able to land and taxi clear of the runway. He replied that he could, and he radioed the flight school to request a few hands be ready to push the plane as soon as he was off the runway. The tower asked again if he was sure he could clear the runway, and he replied that he was.
He touches down, kills the engine, coasts just-maybe-clear of the runway, and gets pushed back to the flight school. As far as I know nothing else ever came from the incident, and he was hired as commercial pilot a few months later.
Thanks for the story, Jon. Things that go wrong with piston engines aren’t even reported to the FAA unless an airplane is wrecked, so anecdotes are the only way that we can learn. From what you’ve said, the instructor should have declared an emergency and then told the tower what he was going to do, e.g., land on the longest runway available. If the tower asked if he’d be able to clear the runway, he could have answered if time permitted, but getting the airplane off the runway should have been the airport’s problem (having an FBO drive out with a tug and tow bar would not have taken long). Sully and Skiles gave a good example of not having a long conversation with ATC during their Hudson River landing (http://philip.greenspun.com/book-reviews/fly-by-wire has more of my thoughts). ATC can’t fly the airplane, so there is no reason to talk to them more than necessary.
Are wheel chocks extinct now?
Keith: Wheel chocks are not extinct, but I think that an airplane engine at full power would be strong enough to jump out of the chocks. In any case, it is not conventional to have a plane chocked for start.
I am not exactly sure how you would land any aircraft with full power and live to tell about it!
My choice surely would have been killing the engine in flight and dead-sticking it in. Like we practise all the time in training.
Bas: I think it is possible to control power to a substantial extent by adjusting mixture. If the throttle is full open but the mixture is very lean, the engine might be producing, say, 30 percent power. This is essentially how a lot of Continental engines are run lean of peak in cruise. The throttle setting isn’t very important and is more or less full open. The pilot pulls back the mixture to an appropriate fuel flow (or exhaust gas temperature). Note that this is not an argument for manual mixture control! (Why ARE we still partying like it is 1950?) But in an emergency it could be a useful technique.
That’s good to know it could be used that way. I certainly hope they did that on this approach!
The only time I have flown an aircraft with mixture control was in the pattern and training area, so either full rich or lean cut-off. My own aircraft has a Rotax 912S without mixture control. Supposedly the carburettors compensate for altitude.
I think one of the reasons we are stuck with steam guages and mixture control is the flawed certification process. Equiping an aircraft with non-certified Dynon glass is cheaper than the equivalent steam guages. But it’s not certified. Certified glass is an order of magnitude as expensive as steam guages.
Now I have never heard of any malfunctions of the cheap(ish) Dynon stuff.
Is it just too expensive to prove to the FAA that it is realiable and too expensive to insure against potential claims of your certified malfunctioning and killing someone?
A big part of the reason that certification takes so long is that FAA employees have no incentive to do anything. There is no specified maximum amount of time that the FAA can consume before responding. An FAA cannot be disciplined if an airplane or avionics company goes bankrupt awaiting certification. On the other hand, suppose the FAA employee takes action and approves Product X. Despite everyone’s best efforts, Product X contains a hidden flaw. Now the employee and the agency can be disciplined for approving Product X. They would have been better off doing nothing.
Moving into neutral would do the trick to combat a stuck gas pedal. Most people don’t think when under stress though. They just act on impulse (and that can be dangerous – sometimes).
As for the part of the story you mentioned about the pilot actually parking up on the shoulder (unlike certain car drivers), all this draws my attention to is the fact that it is a lot harder to fly a plane than drive a car (which I’m sure you’ll agree with me on).
The harder it is to do, the more likely it is that those actually doing it will be fully aware of the danger that not parking up safely could cause, (even when experiencing problems as mentioned in the story).
More though is involved in actually learning to fly, hence more thought goes into everything the pilot does when in the cockpit.
I found some real numbers on stopping distances when the brakes are fighting the engine… http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q4/how_to_deal_with_unintended_acceleration-tech_dept (am going to add this up top too).