Alltrikes

Topic 3) Leaving the pattern to early

The beginning of every flight is a mini-test flight.  You may think everything is perfect but did you really get through the preflight checklist?  I continue to annoy myself by occasionally forgetting to fasten my chinstrap, even though it is clearly on the checklist. This failure is almost always due to some last minute task gets me out of the trike like getting a battery or camera, before I start up the engine and taxiing away. I intend to run through the checklist one last time at the hold sort line before departing, but that doesn't always happen either.

Don't be in too much of a hurry to leave the pattern.  If you missed something, better to find out in the pattern than 5 minutes away from the pattern.

I always do one touch and go before leaving the pattern.  ALWAYS.  If your engine is going to
give you problems, the majority of the time it will be in the first few minutes.  A touch and
go puts two full power run ups and one landing jostle on your trike to shake any hidden problems that are best found in the pattern.  

What can go wrong?  I know a guy who had ethanol gas related problems that clogged his fuel filter.
Take off was fine and he headed straight out after takeoff only to have his engine die two minutes
later, a couple miles from the airport.  He made a great emergency landing in the desert, then
had to hike hours in 100 degree heat to get back to the airport, and round up a trailer and go
to rescue his trike.  It could have been alot worse. But if he had stayed in the pattern for
just one touch and go, his engine would have died in the pattern and he would landed on the runway.

Another guy took off on a warm 95 deg moring after 110 temps the previous day.  He took off
with no warmup and headed straight out.  He had just enough fuel in his carb bowls climb to
about 500 ft before the bubble of vapour in the empty fuel lines, evaporated by the previous days
high temperatures,  stopped his engine. I was still on the ground warming up when I heard him call "engine out" one the radio.  He had headed out just a little bit too far and almost made it back to the runway.  He make a rough landing on a plowed field instead.

Another incident, a pilot sent his seat belt through his prop sortly after takeoff.  Another sent the 912 oil tank cap through the prop a mile past the end of the runway.  Another had his engine seize up after his oil injector line was pinched closed and went down right after leaving the pattern.  After a while, you notice a pattern. A great deal of engine problems happen early in the flight.

So don't be in a rush to head out.  Go around the pattern once and do a touch and go to give your engine a chance to fail where you will be in easy reach of the runway. If you don't want to touch down again, then make an approach, and then and climb out again at full throttle to cycle everything hard before heading out.

You should be prepared for an engine out at any moment your flight, but even more so on takeoff.  
As soon as your wheels leave the ground, pull in to increase your airspeed before climbing out.  
If you lose your engine in a low level turn, you will not make it around.  Climb up to pattern altitude before turning.  If you have any difficulties climbing in the pattern, some thing is very wrong. Density altitude, too much payload, a binding throttle cable, clogged fuel filter, bad fuel pump or something else.  Whatever the reason, land and figure it out.  Watch this video of density altitude problems following a straight out depature.  It is not pretty.

 

If you have an engine out shortly after takeoff, know that it difficult or nearly impossible to turn around and safely land back on the runway with a tailwind with less than 400 to 500 ft of altitude above the runway.  Leave the pattern and experiment with plenty of altitude above the ground (+2000ft) to find how much you altitude you will loose after a sudden loss of  power followed by a 180 degree turn, add some pad then burn that number (turn around altitude) into your memory. Figure out this altitude for yourself, many factors including pilot skill, wing performance, altitude and weather affect it.  Below your turn around altitude, landing straight on the runway following an engine out is probably your best option.