01/09/08    Catastrophic engine failures in flight have been happening for almost as long as aircraft have been flown. The following story is not the first of its type ever told, nor will it be the last. It's a good story told by a pilot who had just taken-off, when....

     Ed. note: Doug is a board member of FFCAP and a member of EAA Chapter 1279. FFCAP's homepage has a photo of the runway and surrounding area at the top.

      "The last Sunday of the year was an interesting flight. It was going to be a 15 minute flight around the area to warm the oil for the 25 hour change. 

      I think I was about 800 msl or about 100 feet above runway 18 on takeoff from L18. I had just moved my hand to the gear handle and noticed the 2100 foot runway coming to an end; I was still at half flaps. The first thing I heard was the sound of a big ball peen hammer hitting an anvil. It was loud and got my attention. There was an immediate and serious lack of power. It wouldn't climb, but it wasn't losing much either, it was shaking like hell and making a horrendous racket.  The airspeed dropped quickly, but settled at about 65/70 mph. I made a very short radio call to warn everyone at the airport that I “had a problem”. I remember thinking I didn't want to get anyone else involved in my problem so I turned away from the approaching buildings and headed toward the open land at Camp Pendleton. I had often thought about this scenario and had decided that if I was high enough to clear the power lines on the west side of the field that would be where I would go. Once we were across the fence and the power lines I looked back at the runway and realized we were too close to make a tear drop to 36. The airplane seemed to only be losing a little altitude, so I thought maybe I would maintain the shallow turn to the north and see what kind of airplane I was flying. It seemed I had lost maybe twenty feet or so by the time I was thinking I should start east and see how far I could get. There is an open field at the north end of the field that would be as good as any to land off the runway, if it came to that. I figured at the low altitude, I didn't need to stretch the right down wind leg very far or need much of a final for 18, so that's what we did.

      If you’re not familiar with L18, the runway is on the top of a hill with drop-offs on three sides, the side I was on. By now a small crowd had assembled at the airport, which I thought was a strange thing to notice. I think we got everyone's attention when the popping and smoking Mooney started the base to final combination at just over 100 feet agl and about 100 yards to the west, I know it got my attention. The controls were mushy and the continuous turn to final was the worst part of the whole deal. We had to give up altitude to keep the airspeed up. It was going to be close and the side of the hill was hard not to fixate on. We crossed the runway with about 10 feet of air and at about a twenty degree angle, right wing low, about a third of the runway down. I was catching a flickering stall light in my perriferal. I put in the rest of the flaps. I thought to myself, at least we were going to crash on the runway. That was another dumb thing to think about. Actually it was pretty basic from there on. The airplane leveled off and aligned with the runway and made a perfect landing all by itself. I pulled out the fire extinguisher and got out of the airplane, a little smoke but no fire. I put the extinguisher on the wing and started to turn back to the approaching crowd. When I took my hand of the bottle my hand started to shake so I picked up the bottle and held it with both hands to stop the trembling. I heard some one later say that I appeared remarkably calm…Right.

      When Jack Block opened the cowling, push rods and lifters were spewed everywhere and the cowling was dented from the impact of the valve cover.  The cylinder head tried to get out of the cowling. It turns out the #3 cylinder split 360 degrees circumferentially just above the TDC line, right at the base of the cylinder head.  There is no obvious indication of previous damage or cracking. The cylinder was still attached; the piston and cylinder walls look perfect.  The only thing holding the cylinder head in place was the exhaust tube. The intake rubber became partially disconnected and, I believe, accounted for the lack of power. The valves and rocker arms are all like new. It pumped out over 6 quarts of oil through the lifter bores during the short event. The cylinder in question has 507 hours since rebuild.

      In critiquing the event, I probably should have considered raising the gear, but we seemed to be holding enough altitude and I probably would have left the gear alone, as I did. Frankly, it did not occur to me. It might have been a bad decision to attempt a return to the runway based on what I knew right after takeoff, if that’s what had happened. What actually transpired was a serious of decisions based on a progression of positive results. I just kept thinking, "Fly the Airplane" and "don't take anyone with you if it comes to a bad ending".

      I have been flying in small airplanes since before I was born, more than sixty years. This is the first catastrophic engine failure I have ever experienced. I always thought about “what it would be like” and wondered “how I would handle the situation.

      Like I said, it was an interesting flight.

      Doug Dwyer"