Re: Cessna Pilot Makes Emergency Landing In Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park (CA)
Cessna Pilot Makes Emergency Landing In Park

The pilot of a single-engine Cessna 182 made an emergency landing on the Pinto Basin Road on Wednesday afternoon. The aircraft, piloted by Richard Piccirilli of Sun City, Arizona, was on a flight from Pleasant Valley, Arizona, to Hemet, California, when a lack of fuel forced the pilot to land on the park road. Neither the pilot nor his passenger was injured during the emergency landing. The emergency landing was reported to park rangers about 3:50 p.m., and they responded along with personnel from the California Highway Patrol, Riverside County Sheriff's Department, and Indio Fire Department. The pilot said that strong head winds led to higher than normal fuel consumption causing the plane to run low on fuel. The plane suffered minor damage to the wings from impacts to vegetation and it was removed to the side of the road to clear the roadway for vehicle traffic. Federal Aviation Administration officials ordered that the plane not be flown out of the park. After further consultation between park officials and the pilot, it was agreed to remove the plane by tow truck. The plane was taken to Chiriaco Summit on Wednesday evening.

Any landing you can walk away from is a good one.

The 3 Most Useless Things in Aviation:

1. The runway behind you.
2. The altitude above you.
3. The fuel you didn't put in the tank.

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tomdisco
3. The fuel you didn't put in the tank.

Sometimes it is useful not to fill the tanks all the way due to weight restrictions.

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eeek

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tomdisco
3. The fuel you didn't put in the tank.

Sometimes it is useful not to fill the tanks all the way due to weight restrictions.

I know. I've done that myself. After rereading the original post I caught that he ran into unexpected head winds.

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eeek

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tomdisco
3. The fuel you didn't put in the tank.

Sometimes it is useful not to fill the tanks all the way due to weight restrictions.

I've heard of a lot of short flights where it makes far more sense to take off with minimal fuel because it costs fuel to take off with that much more fuel than absolutely needed. I remember when American tried a San Jose to Osaka route. Back then San Jose hadn't lengthened to more than the typical 10,000+ ft for such a takeoff. They took off with a minimal fuel load and refueled in San Francisco and took off from there to Osaka.

In an emergency landing, a plane will often dump its fuel to make it easier to land.

I remember the TV show Pan Am, where they landed on a bombed runway in Haiti and had to figure out how to lighten the load enough to take off on a shortened runway. The answer to was to dump a bunch of luggage and then burn off a lot of fuel so they had just enough to get to Miami.

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y_p_w
In an emergency landing, a plane will often dump its fuel to make it easier to land.

More often they just fly a pattern until enough fuel is burned. Dumping fuel is an environmental problem.

ypw,

Going lighter on fuel will not save much fuel on take-off for small lightweigh aircraft. Any savings is so small to be negligible. For a commercial jet aircraft it means big bucks. Every commercial jet's needs are very carefully determined in advance so they have just the amount they actually require plus a reserve amount for emergencies.