PPL lesson 28: PFL’s (Practice Forced Landings)

I was back up at Cranfield Airport again today for PPL lesson 28: PFL’s (Practice Forced Landings).

After yesterday’s lesson my instructor told me to study the restart procedure for PFL’S. He gave me a great bit of advice though, he told me to visualize the issue and what you are trying to do, rather than try to remember the list.
This worked for me very well as on a forced landing you are trying to do one of two things. You are either trying to restart the plane or shut it down.
When you think of it like this you know what you have to do.

1. Restart – Fuel on, mixture rich, throttle 1 inch, carb heat out, magnetos on both, primer locked. At this point you then try to restart the plane and get the engine started again.
2. Shut down – Field chosen, Fuel off, mixture ICO, throttle out, doors unlatched, passengers (if any) briefed, mayday call, altimeter set, flaps set, master switch off, key out.

As you can see, there is quite a lot to think about and chances are you have to run through both sets of lists.
We did not do the PFL’s near Cranfield, instead we went to a nearby airfield called Little Staunton. I did the navigation to and from the airport and it was only a 10 minute flight each way.
When we was practicing we did two PFL’s from three thousand feet and two lower at around 1000ft.
It was just us and one other instructor from our school using the airfield. I also realised the difference between an unused airfield and a ATC controlled one.
To say the runway was rough would be an understatement! I guess I have been spoiled using the runway at Cranfield.
I also learned that you need to use orbits, slide slipping (opposite aileron and rudder), s turns and flaps to make sure you get the plane down.
When you know you are making the runway you also bring your aim point forward to give you as much landing distance as possible.
After the lesson we headed back to Cranfield and I did the join of the circuit and landed on runway 03.
We were in G-BLAC and on landing I heard another aircraft using the abbreviation G-AC so I made sure that I gave my full call sign to avoid any confusion.
I have a lot of flying booked over the easter bank holiday and my next lesson is with the chief flying instructor which should be interesting to say the least.

Thinking of training via the modular route? Or started and still have questions? Then read The Essential Modular Flight Training Guide.