I LEARNED ABOUT FLYING

The day I learned about flying…

A moment’s inattention could easily have led to Peter Yarrow becoming a statistic, as he reports…

Iused to be the proud owner of a beautiful RV-8, G-GRVY, originally built by my friend Peter Lawton, before he sold it to me. She was his second -8 build and had a 200hp engine and constant speed prop, linked controls and throttles front and back. She was flawless… it was the pilot who wasn’t.

This article is to help others learn from my potentially very dangerous situation, brought about entirely as a result of my poor airmanship. If pilots and crew learn from this and take a little extra care, then I will be pleased to have passed this on. I blush with embarrassment at my lack of judgement.

At the time of the incident, I was a relatively experienced PPL with about 1,500 flying hours, including a US IR, and a single-engined trans-Atlantic crossing under my belt. I also had around 800 hours in a Grob 109B motor glider. You will see that many intentional engine-off landings in the Grob was to prove useful experience once you read the explanation of the following incident.

My trip was to include a visit to the Orkneys, and then a return trip via Stornoway, Sollas Beach and Barra before returning to a farm strip in Hertfordshire. Having flown up to Kirkwall, and then to some of the lovely islands in the Orkneys, including Papa Westray,

Sanday, Eday and Stronsay, I set course in beautiful weather to Barra, via Sollas Beach in the Outer Hebrides.

Having dropped into these beautiful islands with ease, Above The RV-8 parked on Sollas Beach, up to which point a tour of the Orkneys and Outer Hebrides had been wonderfully uneventful. perhaps I became a little overconfident and over relaxed, and I had also landed at Barra and Sollas previously.

At Barra I met up with friends, who were there on holiday, and we had one of the special ‘cockles off the beach’ lunches, which can be had at the airport restaurant. I then offered to take one of the youngsters for a tour around the island before heading south to Hertfordshire.

This involved me removing the life raft and other safety equipment from the rear of the aircraft and setting them to one side by the airport fence. Having toured the island, I replaced the equipment in the rear seat, and prepared to head south.

The beach at Barra is quite rough and corrugated, and I had a bumpy departure to the south-east. As I climbed out, I tried reducing the power to a climb setting, and found that the power could not be reduced. In the climb, this was not a worry, but when I reached the cruise height at about 6,000ft I was flying fast, but again no issue other than a higher than normal fuel consumption. But with plenty of avgas on board, this was not an issue either.

I simply could not work out what was causing the throttle to be stuck at full power, so through the helpful services of Scottish ATC, I contacted Peter, the builder of the aircraft, by phone. He made some recommendations about how to land engine-off, which ATC helpfully relayed to me, but that was it.

Momentous decision

After being handed over to Carlisle ATC, I was cleared for an engine-off landing. Fortunately, the long runway was in use and about five miles out, at about 2,000ft, I made the momentous decision of turning the magnetos and master switch off. The engine slowed and the prop stopped. I approached at about 70kt for the 6,000ft of Runway 06, making S-turns on the approach to lose height for an appropriate glide approach for the runway. Flaps went down when I was sure I’d make the runway.

It all went according to plan and I landed about halfway along the runway. It felt like being in an engine-off Grob motor glider again, given the total silence on approach, and the sound of wheels meeting the runway! Certainly, it was alarming seeing the propeller at a standstill on final approach. The fire engine raced up to me and stopped beside the aeroplane. A woman driver jumped out and I said, “Where have you come from?” She was very jolly and added, “When there is an emergency we always hide behind the trees!”

Then she asked, “Have you checked the rear of the aeroplane?” It turned out that Peter had been contacted by Scottish ATC and they had spoken to Carlisle ATC, having determined that the issue with the throttle was likely caused by an obstruction in the rear cockpit, affecting the dual mechanically linked throttle control. I hopped out of the aircraft, and discovered to my horror that the life raft, which I had left unsecured on the rear seat, had jiggled forward on the bumpy strip at Barra, and had jammed the rear throttle, and therefore also the front cockpit’s throttle. Thirty seconds’ lack of airmanship in not securing the life raft when on the ground at Barra, could so easily have cost me my life – it was only by good fortune that it had not jammed the rear joystick forward, or I almost certainly would not be writing the article and would be an aviation statistic having dived into the ground.

The only interesting question outstanding is why the message from Peter Lawton about the rear throttle had not reached me in the air. This is not a criticism, as ATC could not have been more helpful, but given the layout of the cockpit, I doubt that I would in any case have been able to reach around and adjust the life raft and unjam the throttle.

Carlisle ATC kindly gave me a welcome cup of tea, I refuelled, and a perfectly airworthy RV-8 was then flown back to Hertfordshire, life raft securely fastened, with a chastened pilot on board.

My message is, one, physically secure objects in the aircraft, whatever the position. And two, continue to fly the aircraft, whether the engine is on or off! ■

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