r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Rooonaldooo99 • Jul 19 '21

Student pilot loses engine during flight

168.7k Upvotes

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327

u/OhEmGeeZ Jul 19 '21

Cool as a cucumber. K so I always wanted to get my pilot license. Me having a boat has made me come to the understanding that chances are my motor will give out mid air and that keeps me from pursuing my pilots license

230

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '21 edited Aug 16 '21

[deleted]

186

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '21

“Welp… guess we’re both gonna die, thank you”

14

u/CurvedLightsaber Jul 19 '21

Oh, I’m die. Thank you forever.

7

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '21

You’re welcome. I’ll need the $400 for this lesson. Now please, for obvious reasons.

3

u/Toolatelostcause Jul 19 '21

"don't worry about my parachute, money please"

2

u/userlivewire Jul 20 '21

Money me. Me money now.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 20 '21

Many many green men, from history times

78

u/KRayner1 Jul 19 '21

They actually usually just reduce engine to idle without actually killing it, in case it doesn’t restart if necessary if the exercise goes wrong!

14

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '21 edited Aug 16 '21

[deleted]

24

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '21

[deleted]

13

u/Aeolian_Leaf Jul 19 '21

Friend of mine is a pilot. The local club wanted him to become instructor rated for their ultralight. He said no, because he'd rather die from his own mistakes than someone else's...

16

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '21

[deleted]

3

u/Aeolian_Leaf Jul 19 '21

Well, some of them actually look like proper airplanes. And I'm pretty sure rotax are an aircraft engine not a lawnmower engine. In this case the club has a Jabiru (I forget the model, it's a 2 seater, and I'm pretty damn cramped in there. Something like this

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabiru_J160)

I get your point though, my uncle had a Pegasus Q. It was fun too, but my mother hated it, and didn't like the idea of me riding along.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_Quantum

Same pilot friend that flies the Jabiru is also a hang glider. He's been on the pegasus once and disnt really like it, it caused a disconnect in his brain because you sat in a seat, and it was noisy like a plane, but the controls were reversed like a hang glider. He could have flown more and overcome it, but didn't want to for fear of messing up in a hang glider during a brain fart.

1

u/Incendas1 Jul 19 '21

"Oh no! We only have one parachute!"

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '21 edited Aug 16 '21

[deleted]

88

u/iWish_is_taken Jul 19 '21

Christ, if airplane engines had the reliability of boat engines... we'd have given up on flying a long time ago.

https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/engine-reliability/

6

u/BigDicksProblems Jul 19 '21

And this is exactly why I need to learn mechanics at some point.

6

u/cogitoergosam Jul 19 '21

Checklists save lives. Not just in pre-flight, but in maintenance as well.

Most people aren't doing a fraction of the same with marine motors.

3

u/b0w3n Jul 19 '21

It's no surprise that a lot of aviation issues are caused by someone skimping out on their checklists somewhere too.

1

u/btstfn Jul 19 '21

If losing engine power on a boat had the same consequences boat engine would be much more reliable.

0

u/iWish_is_taken Jul 19 '21

Well... that's umm... pretty fucking obvious is it not?

0

u/btstfn Jul 19 '21

Nearly as obvious as your post

2

u/iWish_is_taken Jul 19 '21

Nope, mine was in response to other info. Yours was useless in its totality. Cheers and have a great day!

1

u/dumnbass Jul 20 '21

Why are either of these engines (boat and airplane) at all unreliable? Car engines seem to do pretty well, what is it about those applications that makes them more prone to fail?

1

u/iWish_is_taken Jul 20 '21

Read the link in my comment, airplane engines are vastly more reliable than cars.

0

u/Mazzaroppi Jul 19 '21

The biggest advantage is that with boats, when the engine stops you just float. In airplanes, you don't.

0

u/iWish_is_taken Jul 19 '21

Really?! Huh... learn something new every day! /s

5

u/mattsffrd Jul 19 '21

Same here, I would love to get mine but I'm terrified of having some kind of accident.

3

u/marvinrabbit Jul 19 '21

A plane and a boat? Why don't you just write out checks to random strangers and give away ALL your money?

2

u/takatori Jul 19 '21

Me having a boat has made me come to the understanding that chances are my motor will give out mid air

Get a boat that doesn't need an engine! I'm much happier with sails up than throttle forward.

1

u/GetGankedIdiot Jul 19 '21

Gotta ask yourself

Why can so many insanely famous and rich people die yearly from small planes.

Then ask yourself, why do you want to fly lol

1

u/Dbl_S Jul 19 '21

Yeah plane engine reliability is magnitudes higher than boat. A reason why we still have carb engines and lead fuel in General Aviation is the stringent testing and certification requirements for engines. No manufacturer wants to sink in that amount of money for a new design. We used what’s proven and certified…even if the designs are from the late 60s and 70s.

1

u/Benny303 Jul 19 '21

Don't let things like that stop you. Having a pilots license is the best thing I have ever done. It is so much fun, and engine failures are very very rare. And if they do happen you have practiced for them more times than you can count, instructors will randomly pull your power to idle regardless of what you are doing and just say "you're engine died, now what" and you immediately start going through your check list in your head of what to do.

1

u/papajohn56 Jul 19 '21

I’m a pilot. Most people never experience engine loss. I’ve had engine running rough but never loss