Emergency Procedures: Engine Failure, Best Glide And The Forced Landing

Updated October 2026

A dead stick landing is a landing made with the engine stopped, and in a light trainer it follows the same order every time. Pitch for best glide speed, which is 73 KIAS in our Piper Warrior. Pick a field within reach, run the restart checklist and tell someone. Then land into the wind as slowly as the airplane will safely fly. The airplane becomes a glider, not a brick.

An engine failure by itself is survivable in a light airplane. What turns one into an accident is usually the next thirty seconds: a stall while stretching the glide, a turn back to the runway from too low, a field chosen too late. You practice every part of it with an instructor long before you fly alone, because 14 CFR 61.87(d) lists emergency procedures and approaches with simulated engine malfunctions among the training required before a first solo.

What follows is the generic version from the FAA's Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C, chapter 18), with the Van Nuys detail added. For any speed or checklist item, the POH for your airplane is the authority.

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The Memory Items: Pitch For Best Glide, Pick A Field, Restart, Communicate

Most instructors teach the engine-out flow as a mnemonic. Ours is ABCDE, and the order matters more than the letters.

1. Airspeed. Pitch for best glide and trim for it. Every knot away from the book number costs distance.
2. Best field. Choose a landing site within gliding distance, ideally one you can reach without a long turn.
3. Checklist. Run the restart items in the POH for your airplane: typically fuel, mixture, carburetor heat if the engine has a carburetor, and the magnetos.
4. Declare. Tell ATC, or anyone listening, and squawk 7700 if you are not already talking to a controller.
5. Execute. Fly the approach to the field and land, whether or not the engine came back.

Airspeed comes first because it is the one item you cannot buy back. Stretching the glide by raising the nose slows the airplane below best glide, so it comes down faster and edges toward a stall at the lowest point of the flight. The handbook puts it bluntly: positive control during the final part of the approach has priority over all other considerations. If you are low, skip the restart and fly the landing.

Best Glide Speed And Glide Distance For The Warrior, DA20 And Cessna 162

Best glide is the airspeed that gives the most distance for each foot of height lost, engine out and airplane clean. It is published in the POH and usually not marked on the airspeed indicator, so you carry it in your head.

The glide chart in the POH turns height into distance. Read it on the ground, then work out what it means from your usual practice altitude over Simi Valley. A headwind shortens the distance over the ground and a tailwind stretches it. A lighter airplane glides best at a slightly lower speed, which is why some handbooks publish more than one figure.

Then test it. Over the practice area your instructor pulls the power to idle, and you compare where the airplane really reaches with what the chart promised. Students are usually surprised.

Engine Failure On Takeoff And The Impossible Turn

The worst place for an engine to quit is right after takeoff: low, slow and with the runway behind you. Lower the nose at once to hold a safe glide speed, because the climb attitude becomes a stall within seconds once the propeller stops pulling. The handbook calls continuing straight ahead, or making only a slight turn, generally the lowest-risk option after a takeoff into the wind.

Turning back is what the handbook calls the impossible turn. Its worked example starts at 300 feet above the ground with a 4-second reaction time, a 65-knot glide and a 1,000-foot-per-minute descent in a standard-rate turn. By the time the airplane has turned the 225 degrees needed to line up with the runway, it is about 1,016 feet below it. A steeper bank shortens the turn but raises the stall speed.

The handbook says the turn back should be tried only by pilots who are certain of success and have practiced it, and that it is an unacceptable risk for students and low-time pilots. Our rule for students is shorter. You land ahead. If a field is plainly within reach off to one side, you turn gently toward it.

At Van Nuys the geography helps on one runway more than the other. Departing south on 16R or 16L, the noise procedure keeps you straight out over the Sepulveda Basin. It is a flood basin of golf courses and playing fields, and the biggest piece of open ground near the field. Departing north on 34L or 34R, the housing is closer in and the terrain rises toward the foothills. We brief the plan for the runway in use before every takeoff.

Choosing A Forced-Landing Site Over The San Fernando Valley

The San Fernando Valley is mostly roofs, which is why altitude matters so much here. 14 CFR 91.119(a) requires, everywhere, an altitude that would allow an emergency landing without undue hazard to people or property below if the engine fails. Over the Valley that is a working constraint.

The handbook's advice on choosing a site is practical. Wind, size, slope and obstacles on the approach all count, and you will compromise on some of them. A clear area with a crosswind can beat a wind-aligned field with wires across the end. Dense crops and brush absorb energy, so they are better than they look. Roads are tempting and full of traps: power and telephone lines usually run beside them, and obstacles at the edges may only appear late in the approach.

Speed at touchdown decides the outcome more than anything else. The handbook notes that doubling the groundspeed quadruples the destructive energy, so land into the wind, at the lowest controllable airspeed, with whatever flap the POH and the situation allow.

Locally, you choose the options before you need them. The Sepulveda Basin sits off the south end of Van Nuys. Whiteman Airport is 6 miles northeast and Burbank 11 miles east, and in an emergency any runway is the right one. Beyond the Santa Susana Mountains, over the Simi Valley practice area, the ground opens out, one reason we train there. Your instructor shows you the fields they would use, and on the next flight you point them out.

Mayday, 7700 And Talking To Van Nuys Tower

Say it early. The AIM's distress call is MAYDAY, preferably repeated three times, and the urgency call is PAN-PAN said the same way. A distress call has absolute priority and silences the frequency. Stay on the frequency you are already using; AIM 6-3-1 prefers the frequency in use or one ATC assigned, with 121.5 MHz as the fallback.

AIM 6-3-2 lists what to say, preferably in this order. In a glide, say as much as fits:

1. MAYDAY, repeated.
2. The station you are calling.
3. Your aircraft identification and type.
4. The nature of the emergency.
5. Weather.
6. Your intentions and request.
7. Position and heading.
8. Altitude.
9. Fuel remaining, in minutes.
10. Number of people aboard.

Squawk 7700 if you cannot reach ATC straight away. If you are already talking to Van Nuys Tower or approach control on an assigned code, the AIM says to keep it.

Declaring buys authority as well as help. Under 14 CFR 91.3(b), in an in-flight emergency requiring immediate action, the pilot in command may deviate from any rule in Part 91 to the extent needed. Under 91.3(c), the FAA may ask for a written report afterward. That is the whole price.

Every flight we sell happens while the Van Nuys tower is open, 6:00 AM to 10:45 PM daily. Frequencies are in the current Chart Supplement, not on this page.

Engine Fire, Electrical Failure And Door-Open Emergencies

Engine fire in flight. The handbook's generic steps start by cutting off the fuel: mixture to idle cutoff, fuel selector or shutoff valve off. The rest of the POH items and a forced landing follow. If the fire goes out, do not restart the engine; a fire that seems to be out can flare again as the airspeed changes.

Electrical fire and electrical failure. The first sign of an electrical fire is usually the smell of hot insulation. If you cannot isolate the circuit and conditions allow, switch off the battery master and the alternator, and land as soon as possible. A plain electrical failure gives you longer: the handbook's example is a 25 amp-hour battery lasting about 2 hours at a 10-amp load. Shed every load you can, head for the nearest suitable airport, and in the Cessna 162 plan a no-flap landing.

With no radio at a towered field, squawk 7600. AIM 6-4-1 and 14 CFR 91.185(b) tell a VFR pilot to continue VFR and land as soon as practicable, which is not the same as as soon as possible. Watch the tower for light signals. Under AIM 4-3-13, steady green means cleared to land, flashing green means return for landing, steady red means give way and keep circling, and flashing red means the airport is unsafe.

Door open in flight. The Warrior has one door, on the right, and a door that pops open after takeoff is loud and rarely dangerous on its own. The handbook says to keep flying the airplane, climb to pattern altitude, fly a normal pattern and land. Do not reach across for it. Accidents from open doors come from distraction, not from the door.

Ditching Vs Water Landing

News reports use the two phrases interchangeably. Pilots tend not to. A water landing is what a seaplane does every day, on purpose. Ditching, in the Airplane Flying Handbook's words, is a forced or precautionary landing on water, usually by a landplane with no better option.

AIM 6-3-3 puts sea and wind first. Avoid the face of a swell: land parallel to it, on the top or back side, and among those headings take the one with the most headwind. Wind direction shows in the streaks on the water. Touch down at the lowest safe speed and sink rate, nose up. Height is hard to judge over glassy water or at night, so the AIM suggests holding about 9 to 12 degrees nose up at 10 to 20 percent above stall speed until the airplane touches.

The handbook adds two points that apply to our trainers. On a low-wing airplane such as the Warrior or the DA20, use no more than intermediate flap, because fully extended flaps can fail unevenly on contact. And intact wings and fuel tanks give flotation for several minutes, so the job after touchdown is getting everyone out.

The best-known ditching of the jet era began with a bird strike. On 15 January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549, an Airbus A320, lost thrust in both engines after hitting Canada geese on the climb out of LaGuardia and was ditched in the Hudson River. All 155 people aboard survived. The decision tree in a light single is the same: fly the airplane, pick the surface, land on it under control.

How Emergencies Are Practiced, In The Airplane And The Redbird MCX

Engine failures start before solo. 14 CFR 61.87(d) puts emergency procedures and equipment malfunctions, and approaches to a landing area with simulated engine malfunctions, among the 15 items you train in before flying alone. They return on the checkride as Area IX of the Private Pilot ACS, including Task B, emergency approach and landing (simulated). Our guide to private pilot maneuvers shows where they sit among the rest.

In the airplane, your instructor pulls the throttle to idle without warning over the practice area, and you fly the whole flow out loud. You descend toward the field far enough to see whether you would have made it, then go around with plenty of height to spare.

The Redbird MCX full-motion simulator covers what the airplane cannot. An engine failure at 200 feet after takeoff, the turn back you would never try for real, a fire, an electrical failure at night. It can be frozen halfway through so you can talk about the decision you just made. An hour in it is $189 on its own, or $120 an hour inside a package.

We have flown from Van Nuys with zero accidents since 2008, in airplanes we own and maintain in our own shop. Our page on flight school safety explains how inspections and squawks work, and are small planes safe has the national accident data.

Related Reading

• Safety at You Fly LA — maintenance, inspections, weather decisions and canceling at no cost.
• Are small planes safe — the FAA and NTSB numbers, with sources.
• Full-motion flight simulator — what an hour in the Redbird MCX is like.
• Private pilot maneuvers — every checkride task, emergency operations included.
• Piper Warrior PA-28-161 — the V-speeds, best glide and handbook sections for our main trainer.
• The Simi Valley practice area — where the airwork and the simulated failures happen.

Emergency Procedures FAQ

What Is A Dead Stick Landing?

A landing with no engine power. You glide to a chosen field at best glide speed and fly a shortened pattern to it, landing into the wind as slowly as the airplane safely allows. It is also written as one word, deadstick.

What Is The Best Glide Speed Of A Piper Warrior?

Our Warrior fleet page lists 73 KIAS as the typical published figure. Confirm it in the POH aboard the specific airplane, because Warrior handbooks differ by model year and serial number range.

What Is The Best Glide Speed Of A Cessna 172?

It is published in the POH for each 172 model and year, and it changes with weight. We train in the Warrior, the Cessna 162 and the DA20 rather than the 172, so we leave that number to the handbook aboard the airplane you fly.

Should You Turn Back To The Runway After An Engine Failure On Takeoff?

Usually not. The Airplane Flying Handbook calls the turn back an unacceptable risk for students and low-time pilots, and its worked example from 300 feet ends about 1,016 feet below the runway. Land ahead, or within a gentle turn of the nose.

What Transponder Code Do You Use In An Emergency?

7700, if you are not already talking to ATC. AIM 6-3-2 says to keep your assigned code while you are in contact with a controller. 7600 is the code for a radio failure.

What Is The Difference Between Ditching And A Water Landing?

Ditching is a forced or precautionary landing on water, as the Airplane Flying Handbook defines it, usually in a landplane. A water landing, in pilot usage, is the normal arrival of a seaplane. News reports often treat the two as the same thing.

Practice The Engine Failure Before You Need It

The first engine failure you fly should be a simulated one, with an instructor beside you and a field already picked. A 60-minute discovery flight from Van Nuys is $229 and you fly it from the left seat of the Warrior; it is credited in full toward training if you enroll within 24 hours. Our private pilot course in Los Angeles starts at $10,400, with a payment plan from $2,500 down. To talk it through first, book a free consultation or call (818) 330-1318, 9 AM to 9 PM, seven days.

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