Forced Landings — In-flight Notes

CASA Recreational Pilot License (Aeroplane) — CASA Sample Syllabus Lesson 17

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Language choices

"trim for the glide" — reinforces the action, not just the resulting state.

"aviate, navigate, communicate" — the standing priority order, repeated every exercise.

"MAYDAY early" — say it before you need convincing you should have.

"small turn, straight, reassess" — the 50c pattern, called the same way every time.

Demonstration-Performance

For the sequence of each activity, choose whether you use:

  • Demonstration-Performance: Explain, Demonstrate, Performance and Monitor, Evaluation
  • DDM: Demonstrate, Direct, Monitor

or some other preference. Each in-flight activity just describes the sequence to be demonstrated and performed, regardless of the method you use.

Before starting the plane

  • Confirm the student's weight & balance and fuel requirement calculations for today's flight are complete and correct — assessed this lesson (C2.1, C4.1)
  • Confirm approved practice areas/fields for today, and the operator's minimum height for a go-around from a simulated forced landing — brief this explicitly, it is never flown to an actual touchdown outside an approved area or aerodrome
  • This lesson also assesses engine start and shutdown malfunctions and emergencies (e.g. flooded start, engine fire on start-up or shutdown) — confirm the student can talk through the correct actions before or during today's start-up
Record Start End
Tacho
Maintenance
Time

After departing / established in the climb

  • Assess the climb (cruise climb, then best rate climb) on transit — a revision/ assessment item this lesson (A3.1), folded into the transit rather than treated as a separate exercise
  • Confirm local area airspace and today's approved practice fields/areas for the forced-landing exercises
  • Brief the first simulated failure: "I'll demonstrate the first one — you watch the sequence, then it's yours."

Simulated complete engine failure — instructor demonstration

Sequence

  • From cruise, in the training area or over an approved practice field: throttle to idle without warning — "Simulated engine failure"
  • Aviate — trim for the glide at best glide speed, wings level, balance ball centred
  • Checks — the quick, fixable causes: carburettor heat on, fuel, mixture
  • Field — select and point out the chosen field, narrating the WOSSSSET criteria out loud
  • Communicate — simulate the MAYDAY call (do not transmit unless genuinely required); point out the transponder emergency code (7700) without necessarily selecting it
  • Prepare — narrate the passenger brief, the detailed trouble check (CFMOST) and the BUSH FMMM shutdown as height allows
  • Fly the descent profile to the field using the 50c technique — small turn, straight, reassess, all the way onto final — correcting for high/low as needed
  • Go around no lower than the briefed minimum height — apply full power, established climb, retract to clean configuration as appropriate

Simulated complete engine failure — student flown

Sequence

  • Repeat from varying heights and positions relative to the training area/approved fields
  • Student flies the full immediate/vital actions sequence from memory: Aviate, Navigate, Communicate
  • Prompt only if a step is missed or out of order — let the sequence run uninterrupted otherwise
  • Debrief briefly after each repetition: what worked, what would you do differently?

Simulated partial engine failure

Sequence

  • Reduce power to simulate rough running / partial power loss — "Simulated partial engine failure"
  • Student identifies the partial power condition (distinct from a complete failure)
  • Adjust flight controls to maximise performance for the remaining power, maintaining a safe margin above stall speed
  • Formulate a plan: continue to the aerodrome, or treat it as a forced landing — bearing in mind the partial failure could become complete at any time
  • Establish radio communications where possible

Simulated engine fire in flight

Sequence

  • Brief this as fully simulated — "Simulated engine fire in flight", no actual actions on the mixture/fuel/master controls
  • Student talks through the actions in order: mixture — idle cut-off; fuel selector — OFF; cabin heat/vents — OFF (avoids drawing smoke into the cabin); increase airspeed or sideslip away from any smoke
  • With the engine now deliberately stopped, this becomes a forced landing — the student flies the same immediate/vital actions sequence practised above: field, MAYDAY/7700, passenger brief, shutdown
  • Debrief: what's different about this scenario, compared to the earlier practice failures?

Return to aerodrome

  • Establish cruise on descent back toward the aerodrome — a revision/assessment item this lesson (A3.3: cruise descent)
  • Listen to AWIS/ATIS — runway in use, circuit direction, QNH
  • Fly a normal circuit and landing
  • Complete the post-flight actions and administration (C2.3) at shutdown

CASA HF/NTS: effective communication under normal and non-normal circumstances [NTS1 4(a), NTS2 4(a)]; task prioritisation [NTS1.4]. Consistent phrasing here maps directly onto the recovery drills rehearsed in the pre-flight brief.

CASA A1.1(c), C2.1(f), C4.1(b). The weight & balance / fuel-requirement calculations are assessed as pre-flight actions this lesson, not taught fresh — they build on earlier lessons' underpinning knowledge.

Climbing is assessed (A3.1: cruise climb, best rate climb — level **2**). Descending (A3.3: powered descent — level **2**) is assessed similarly on the transit back or between exercises.

CASA A6.3(a,f-m). Narrate every step out loud — this demonstration is the model the student repeats next. WOSSSSET, the 50c technique, CFMOST and BUSH FMMM were all covered in the theory brief; use the same words here so the student hears one vocabulary, not four. Note the order: the three-item reflex (carburettor heat, fuel, mixture) comes *before* field selection — it takes seconds and it's the only chance of getting the engine back. CFMOST is the unhurried version, later in the glide. Narrate the difference as you fly it. Roll out on final from the same small turns, not one large low turn — the student copies what you demonstrate here more than what the slide said.

CASA A6.3: identify the failure, control the aeroplane, perform immediate actions, formulate and describe a recovery plan including field selection, establish the optimal glide, advise ATS, re-brief passengers, and land ensuring the safest outcome if a real engine restart is not achieved (assessed to the standard required, not to touchdown).

CASA A6.3(n-x): identify partial power failure, perform recall actions, adjust flight controls, establish comms, formulate a recovery plan that accounts for the possibility of a full failure, and manoeuvre to a selected landing area or aerodrome using the remaining power. This is deliberately framed as a *judgement call*, not a fixed procedure — a partial failure rarely has one right answer.

CASA A6.5(a): correctly identify the situation and maintain safe control of the aeroplane at all times; manage the abnormal/emergency situation in accordance with relevant procedures. This exercise deliberately reuses the field-selection and immediate-actions sequence rather than teaching a separate one — the fire-specific actions (mixture idle cut-off, fuel off, heat/vents off) are what's new, everything after that is the same forced-landing sequence already flown twice today.

Descending (cruise descent) is assessed here (A3.3, level **2**) if not already covered earlier in the flight.