By Robert N. Rossier, EAA 472091
This piece originally ran in Robert’s Stick and Rudder column in the June 2025 issue of EAA Sport Aviation magazine.
The pilot of a light twin taxied up to the crowded run-up pad at the end of the runway, well behind but facing a Cessna 172 at a roughly 45-degree angle. He positioned his feet firmly on the brakes and started his run-up. He hadn’t gotten too far when things suddenly went awry.
With the engines at 2100 rpm and hands poised overhead on the magneto switches, his seat suddenly disengaged and slid backward, causing his feet to release the brakes. In an instant, the airplane lurched forward, its right engine threatening to slice into the cockpit of the unsuspecting Cessna. Without a doubt, safety was quickly slip-sliding away.
In an instant, the pilot of the twin reached forward with his right hand for the throttles while his left hand instinctively and simultaneously grabbed the window post to pull his seat back forward. Fortunately, this move averted almost certain disaster.
In retrospect, the pilot might have avoided this untoward event if he had set the parking brake, rechecked the security of his seat latches, or pointed his airplane in a different position. It was a close call, and certainly an important lesson learned.
As part of our pilot training, we learn how to cope with any number of emergency scenarios, from engine failures on takeoff to stalls, fires, landing gear failures, and unusual attitudes. But beyond the standard emergency procedures are a breadth of seemingly innocuous little events, circumstances, and distractions that can ruin an otherwise perfectly good day of flying.
At least for the airplanes I regularly fly, there’s no mention in the emergency procedures about how to deal with slip-sliding seat scenarios, but I’ve heard of such scenarios before. In one such accident, the chaos erupted shortly after rotation. As the aircraft pitched up, the seat slid back. The pilot was holding the throttle with one hand and the yoke with the other. As the seat slid back, the pilot reflexively held tight, unwittingly pulling the throttle to idle and pitching the nose up, resulting in a power-off stall at low altitude. The result was ugly.
That’s the Brakes
Recently a friend of mine was landing an airplane when he was surprised by an unanticipated brake failure. On final, he had pressed on the brakes to ensure they felt firm — a common check to ensure the brakes are operational for landing. But after touchdown, he applied the brakes and one pedal went straight to the floor. Fortunately, he had touched down on the centerline and had a little room to work with. He gingerly applied pressure to the one working brake, while applying serious rudder pressure in the opposite direction. Fortunately, he managed to slow the airplane before running out of runway. After shutdown, he found the brake rotor had fractured and separated from the wheel, and the caliper had been ripped from the assembly, severing the brake line.
Brake issues are not uncommon. Another friend of mine had a brake failure while taxiing for takeoff, causing him to depart the taxiway as it turned to meet the end of the runway. The lesson here is to always test the brakes before you need them, in case you need to make other plans.
Losing Control
I recently read an accident report about a pilot performing glider tows in a Piper Pawnee. While airborne on his seventh flight of the day as a glider tow pilot, the control stick suddenly came off in his hand, leaving him without any control of the elevator or the ailerons. Once again, this is not a scenario we find in our emergency procedures section of the pilot’s operating handbook (POH), and it puts a pilot in a particularly precarious position.
In this case, the pilot was able to use power to control pitch and rudder to control turns, and eventually he made a reasonably successful crash-landing in the grass. Although such a scenario is not common, it might be worthwhile to practice such a scenario — at altitude and with an instructor in the right seat.
Along these lines, one instructor I had decades ago had me practice steering a Cessna 150 by opening the cabin door and pushing outward. It wasn’t overly effective, but in a pinch, it might give just enough control to save the day.
Years ago, a couple friends of mine were practicing stalls at altitude in a Cessna 310 when they suddenly had a serious control issue. The bracket that holds the battery in place in the nose of the airplane had failed, allowing the battery to slide back and jam the elevator control while in a severe nose-high attitude. As you might imagine, a combined rodeo ride/wrestling match took place after that as they tried to get the airplane pointed back toward the airport and under some semblance of control. The airplane would pitch up, stall, and then go back into its nose-high attitude only to enter another stall. Rudder control was essential to prevent a wing from dropping, but the situation didn’t leave them with much hope of a successful landing.
Eventually, with both feet up on the control yoke, one pilot was able to force the yoke back down against the now free-floating battery. I’m sure they needed to change more than the battery bracket when they finally made it safely back on the ground.
Even as we sweat it out in the summer heat, it’s a good idea to think about what control issues can develop in the winter. One report I read years ago involved a Lake Buccaneer cruising at high altitude. Water had melted in the tail while on the ground and then refroze at altitude, binding the elevator control cables in place. I don’t think this one had a good outcome either.
In a similar situation, water had entered and accumulated in an aileron of an airplane that was tied down, and then froze overnight when the temperatures dropped below freezing. On an early morning flight, the pilot experienced flutter of the aileron that nearly ripped it from the wing. Fortunately, he slowed down (a key ingredient in his success), headed back to the airport, and successfully maneuvered for a safe landing.
I’ve also seen prop controls freeze up at altitude due to moisture in the cables. Who knows what else could freeze up in extreme conditions? These are good scenarios to think about the next time we’re preflighting our airplane in cold conditions — and certainly not ones to be found in the POH.
Getting a Handle on Things
Just the other day, after landing and shutdown, a passenger tried to open the door to exit and ended up holding a detached door handle in his hand. The set screw that holds the handle securely on the mechanism had backed out, thus liberating the door handle from its intended function. This was embarrassing, but even more disconcerting is the thought of such a situation occurring when attempting an emergency evacuation, such as a fire. Again, this is not something we train for, and it isn’t on our aircraft preflight inspection checklist. But it points out the potential value of paying attention to even minor details.
Flying can be full of surprises, but the more we hear and learn, the better our chances of successfully identifying problems, avoiding them, or dealing with them successfully. Let’s be careful out there!
Robert N. Rossier, EAA 472091, has been flying for more than 40 years and has worked as a flight instructor, commercial pilot, chief pilot, and FAA flight check airman.