What would you do? Engine Failure over Toronto City @ 2500 ft

[sillylion]

If you were doing a Toronto City tour at 2500 and God forbid an engine failure occurred, what would you do? Obviously the Toronto Island Airport is there but I think it's way too risky gliding there at such low altitude. Any ideas

[J31]

Complete the Engine Failure Non-Normal Checklist and plan for a one engine inop landing with the operating engine.

[gwagen]

Depends where you are when it happens. But you have the gardiner and lakeshore. When either side of ytz.

Ytz might be an option if close enough.

If not try and ditch in the lake.

Not a lot of choices.

Fun to ponder a husky or super cub and the skydome open....

[YYZSaabGuy]

At 2,500 AGL and best glide, you've got 3-4 NM of range and should be able to make YTZ if you're on the ball and overhead the downtown core. If you're west of Parkdale or east of the DVP, you're probably going for a swim - there's not a lot of open area around, and landing on the Gardiner or the Lakeshore just means you'll make an already-crappy day worse by getting yourself stuck in traffic.

[PilotDAR]

While flying past the CN Tower on a fine winter day in the early '80's, the engine of the 182 I was flying quit. I told YTZ I was gliding in, and they cleared everyone out of my way. I was able to roll off onto a taxiway, out of the way, to find that the engine was stumbling, and trying to run, but would not respond to the throttle at all. The failure was caused by ice crystals in the fuel, one becoming an obstruction in the main jet of the carb. After a warm up of an hour, and a lot of careful ground running, it ran fine, and I flew it home with never a problem, and a lesson about adding alcohol to the gas in the winter.

Since then, it's up and down the Parkway, or lakeshore only for me.

[cap41]

couple golf courses and cemeteries east of the parkway.

[jet a1]

Cytz or Into the water you go. The risk of injuring someone in a car/sidewalk is way too high given the volume of traffic on all GTA roads. not the nicest thought but it is your responsibility, and you might have to put yourself in a tough situation to avoid causing injury/death.

[TG]

Aircraft carrier landing on a flat rooftop

[pelmet]

Pull early, pull often....

Because you are in a Cirrus.

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all ... pull-often

[PilotDAR]

Pull early, pull often....

I've always felt much more comfortable planning a suitable route, and maintaining control of my destiny, so I could prevent injury and damage on the ground.

[CpnCrunch]

The failure was caused by ice crystals in the fuel, one becoming an obstruction in the main jet of the carb. After a warm up of an hour, and a lot of careful ground running, it ran fine, and I flew it home with never a problem, and a lesson about adding alcohol to the gas in the winter.

Since then, it's up and down the Parkway, or lakeshore only for me.

How come the carb heat didn't melt the crystals?

[cgzro]

My motto is just because an airplane can go from A to B in a straight line does not mean you always should :)

[co-joe]

... and a lesson about adding alcohol to the gas in the winter.

Since then, it's up and down the Parkway, or lakeshore only for me.

Adding alcohol can help all sorts of situations.

[gwagen]

I think the odds are in ones favour. Considering that the amount of time you actually spend over the city even at C150 speeds is only a few minutes. The rest of the time you are following the lake shore and can easily ditch or hope to find a suitable green patch.

[pelmet]

Pull early, pull often....

I've always felt much more comfortable planning a suitable route, and maintaining control of my destiny, so I could prevent injury and damage on the ground.

There is definitely something to be said about reducing the odds of the seriousness of an incident by careful planning of stuff such as this, but the bottom line is that you are not controlling your destiny, just improving the odds.

Obviously, you have decided on a likely safer course of action(although if it ends up in a fatal midair, it doesn't help much). But you have also limited yourself in what you are willing to do. While I have done a long re-route for a cross-coutry with an historic aircraft, I admit that I have flown over a lot of terrain that didn't offer very good odds for survival when I could have followed a roador stayed near an airport.

I have decided to fly up north, over mountains and over an ocean. It is really just a calculated risk.

[rxl]

Pull early, pull often....

I've always felt much more comfortable planning a suitable route, and maintaining control of my destiny, so I could prevent injury and damage on the ground.

There is definitely something to be said about reducing the odds of the seriousness of an incident by careful planning of stuff such as this, but the bottom line is that you are not controlling your destiny, just improving the odds.

Obviously, you have decided on a likely safer course of action(although if it ends up in a fatal midair, it doesn't help much). But you have also limited yourself in what you are willing to do. While I have done a long re-route for a cross-coutry with an historic aircraft, I admit that I have flown over a lot of terrain that didn't offer very good odds for survival when I could have followed a roador stayed near an airport.

I have decided to fly up north, over mountains and over an ocean. It is really just a calculated risk.

If your only engine quits at 2,500' over the Barren Lands, the Rockies or the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the risk to people and their things on the surface is pretty much zero ... over Yonge and St. Clair things are a little different. The folks standing on Yonge St. watching as you glide silently overhead with the prop stopped are expecting that you would have made at least some sort of a plan.

[Back2Final]

Think it happened to one of the traffic reporters a few years ago. He put it down in a park or soccer field. The way Toronto drivers operate I'd stay away from the roads

[rxl]

It would be interesting to know what Darryl Dahmer's contingencies are. He's been flying over that city in a 172 for a long, long time.

[Canoehead]

It would be interesting to know what Darryl Dahmer's contingencies are. He's been flying over that city in a 172 for a long, long time.

I agree rxl. For the young'uns here, or those who are out of range of 680 AM in the GTA, here's "Skymaster One".
https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/t ... e_sky.html

[niss]

Pull early, pull often....

I became a pilot to get the ladies so I specifically wouldn't have to do this.....