alexnor
New member
Kissimmee, FL
- Aircraft Year
- 1978
- Aircraft Type
- 112TCA
- Reg Number
- N4676W
- Serial Number
- 13252
I share yesterday’s declared emergency in the hopes that it can help anyone encountering anything similar in the future.
I fly a 1978 112TCA.
At 10:53am my wife and I departed Kissimmee, FL on an IFR flight to Gulfport, MS with an intended fuel stop at Atmore, AL. Cruise altitude was 8,000.
I recently had a GDC 31 GPSS installed but it was acting up so could not use it. Since it depends on the heading bug, I could not use that either with the autopilot.
Although we were supposed to fly over Cross City, we had to go further east as XM showed bad weather from Cedar Key inland all the way up to South GA. This was clearly visible when we got to the area. The majority of cumulous clouds where topping 8,000 to 11,000 and there was some heavy precip.
Once we curved around it, we took our turn to the west. To make things a little more comfortable I requested clearance to 12,000 so we could be over the clouds. We adjusted our oxygen flow and were doing a nice cruise at 65% 147 TAS.
We were north of Quincy Municipal on the GA side when it suddenly happened. Manifold pressure dropped from 31.4 to 20 with a very clear sound of the engine slowing. Fuel flow went from 11 GPH down to 7. After the 2 seconds of Oh Sh..t past, I immediately turned on the electric fuel pump but no change. Pushed the throttle forward and it got worse. Pulled the alternate air and the engine didn’t like that either. Mixture forward no good either. Mixture back to where it was, stable. Checked fuel and it was ok. Of course, this could be caused by several different problems and I was not going to be able to figure it out in flight.
I advised my wife we had a real problem and immediately declared an emergency to approach control. They offered several airport options. I looked at ForeFlight on my iPad, which is attached to the yoke, and saw pink airports within gliding distance and Tallahassee which was blue. Although Tallahassee was not within my gliding radius I knew with the left over power I had I was close enough to at least get into gliding distance within a couple of minutes. This was important because I wanted an airport with emergency services and I did not know for how long the engine would stay on.
Tallahassee was reporting 3,000 foot ceilings. The broken clouds where tight packed with tops at 11,000 and there was no choice but to go in them. That was the longest 30 mins or so of decent having to hand fly, in the soup, approach vectors inside 8,000 feet of clouds while trying to keep 100 kts for Va for our weight. With the stress of it all it took every ounce of instrument flying focus I had. My wife stayed remarkably calm dropping some tears, praying to herself and texting instructions to her uncle in case of the worst happened.
Tallahassee offered an ASR approach and I advised him I did not want to descend to approach minimums until I was close enough to ensure ample glide distance. At about 4,000 feet I saw a hole in the clouds, I could go through, and there was the airport. I was high so I flew parallel to runway 27 bringing the throttle back a little bit at a time focusing on a glide landing. I asked the controller for the length and elevation of runway 18. It was 7,000 feet long and 18 feet elevation. By the time I turned the downwind of 18 I was flying 3,000 ft. I then turned base at 2000 and final at about 1700. Once I knew I had it, I went full flaps and did a steep descent for what was left. Fire trucks and emergency crews where right there waiting.
My wife said my right hand was shaking and I can tell you my wrist pulse oximeter, which vibrates when I am at or under 93, was vibrating all the way down.
Once the local mechanic inspected the plane we found the turbo waste gate cable had snapped and that was the cause.
I can’t begin to express our gratitude to the Tallahassee approach controller who maintained a steady calm voice while being beyond helpful with every request. Sometimes it is easy to take these guys for granted but they are amazing people that can help save your life.
I realized that one of the best decisions I ever made was getting my instrument rating.
Setting up the glide advisor in ForeFlight also gives you one less thing to think about. Here are the settings for the 112TCA,
Best Glide = 75
Glide Ratio 10.9:1
Please confirm with your own POH.
Hope this helps and safe flying to everyone!
Here is the flight on FlightAware if you want to see it.
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N4676W/history/20180815/1445Z/KISM/KTLH
I fly a 1978 112TCA.
At 10:53am my wife and I departed Kissimmee, FL on an IFR flight to Gulfport, MS with an intended fuel stop at Atmore, AL. Cruise altitude was 8,000.
I recently had a GDC 31 GPSS installed but it was acting up so could not use it. Since it depends on the heading bug, I could not use that either with the autopilot.
Although we were supposed to fly over Cross City, we had to go further east as XM showed bad weather from Cedar Key inland all the way up to South GA. This was clearly visible when we got to the area. The majority of cumulous clouds where topping 8,000 to 11,000 and there was some heavy precip.
Once we curved around it, we took our turn to the west. To make things a little more comfortable I requested clearance to 12,000 so we could be over the clouds. We adjusted our oxygen flow and were doing a nice cruise at 65% 147 TAS.
We were north of Quincy Municipal on the GA side when it suddenly happened. Manifold pressure dropped from 31.4 to 20 with a very clear sound of the engine slowing. Fuel flow went from 11 GPH down to 7. After the 2 seconds of Oh Sh..t past, I immediately turned on the electric fuel pump but no change. Pushed the throttle forward and it got worse. Pulled the alternate air and the engine didn’t like that either. Mixture forward no good either. Mixture back to where it was, stable. Checked fuel and it was ok. Of course, this could be caused by several different problems and I was not going to be able to figure it out in flight.
I advised my wife we had a real problem and immediately declared an emergency to approach control. They offered several airport options. I looked at ForeFlight on my iPad, which is attached to the yoke, and saw pink airports within gliding distance and Tallahassee which was blue. Although Tallahassee was not within my gliding radius I knew with the left over power I had I was close enough to at least get into gliding distance within a couple of minutes. This was important because I wanted an airport with emergency services and I did not know for how long the engine would stay on.
Tallahassee was reporting 3,000 foot ceilings. The broken clouds where tight packed with tops at 11,000 and there was no choice but to go in them. That was the longest 30 mins or so of decent having to hand fly, in the soup, approach vectors inside 8,000 feet of clouds while trying to keep 100 kts for Va for our weight. With the stress of it all it took every ounce of instrument flying focus I had. My wife stayed remarkably calm dropping some tears, praying to herself and texting instructions to her uncle in case of the worst happened.
Tallahassee offered an ASR approach and I advised him I did not want to descend to approach minimums until I was close enough to ensure ample glide distance. At about 4,000 feet I saw a hole in the clouds, I could go through, and there was the airport. I was high so I flew parallel to runway 27 bringing the throttle back a little bit at a time focusing on a glide landing. I asked the controller for the length and elevation of runway 18. It was 7,000 feet long and 18 feet elevation. By the time I turned the downwind of 18 I was flying 3,000 ft. I then turned base at 2000 and final at about 1700. Once I knew I had it, I went full flaps and did a steep descent for what was left. Fire trucks and emergency crews where right there waiting.
My wife said my right hand was shaking and I can tell you my wrist pulse oximeter, which vibrates when I am at or under 93, was vibrating all the way down.
Once the local mechanic inspected the plane we found the turbo waste gate cable had snapped and that was the cause.
I can’t begin to express our gratitude to the Tallahassee approach controller who maintained a steady calm voice while being beyond helpful with every request. Sometimes it is easy to take these guys for granted but they are amazing people that can help save your life.
I realized that one of the best decisions I ever made was getting my instrument rating.
Setting up the glide advisor in ForeFlight also gives you one less thing to think about. Here are the settings for the 112TCA,
Best Glide = 75
Glide Ratio 10.9:1
Please confirm with your own POH.
Hope this helps and safe flying to everyone!
Here is the flight on FlightAware if you want to see it.
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N4676W/history/20180815/1445Z/KISM/KTLH
