Engine Failure After Takeoff!!

CFI Corner – May 2025

Engine failure after takeoff!!

It’s been a long time, many months, since last year, August 2024, that I last posted anything here. My excuse? I’ve just been busy with lots of stuff! Life gets in the way. Now, I want to get back to it. And, hopefully, on a regular basis!

It’s been a bad year so far for aviation! We’ve been in the news since nearly the first of the year with several aircraft accidents, all unrelated!  What is going on?? It’s many different things. My goal in writing this blog is to try to contribute and make a difference, however small it may be, towards safer pilots, and safer skies.

I feel a strong sense of obligation to pass onto other pilots some of what I have learned, to help them improve their aviation knowledge and piloting skills, and become better, safer pilots. This is the reason that I am a flight instructor, or CFI, and provide training to pilots.

And if I can help just one pilot to learn something from my writing, then it is worthwhile! I cannot sit quietly on the sidelines, as things happen. Nope. But I haven’t been. I’ve been actively involved with many things. I just have not found the time to comment. But that has to change. Thus, I am restarting this blog, writing about my various flying adventures and lessons learned along the way, along with commenting on the aviation industry and safety trends when appropriate, in hopes that it can and will benefit some aviators, somewhere. 

And on Saturday. May 24, 2025, something quite unexpected happened as I was departing Riverside, California, intending to fly back to Long Beach, in my Cessna 150.

But a brief backstory is in order, first. The airplane had been ‘down’, not flyable, for 3 weeks starting in late April, during the required yearly, hence the term, ‘annual’, maintenance inspection. Yep, it’s an FAA requirement for ALL aircraft, whether jets, props, gliders or whatever, that they be inspected by an FAA certified mechanic (A&P) aka Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic, who does the work, and an I/A (inspector) who inspects and ‘signs off’ the work if done properly, and attests that it is airworthy. This is to make sure they are ‘safe to fly. Makes sense. As far as I know, aircraft mechanics are the only ‘government certified’ mechanics’.

My mechanic had discovered a few things that needed to be fixed or replaced. And that took some time. Finally, after 3 weeks, it was airworthy again! Yeah!

So, on Friday, May 23, I drove to the airport where N747KY is tied down and did a preflight inspection to get it ready for a short maintenance test flight. And I had it fueled, so I was starting out with full tanks. It would only be a short flight, ‘once around the pattern’ as we say. Just to make sure everything is working. The test flight was uneventful, as expected.

The next day, I planned to fly it about 40 miles east to Riverside Airport, for what is called ‘display day’. The state of California tax assessor has declared that aircraft and marine vessels, more than 35 years old, are considered ‘vintage’. If they are properly ‘displayed’ for public viewing, 12 times a year, at designated locations and get a ‘signoff’ attesting to that; then the owners are exempted from paying the property tax on the aircraft or vessel. The property tax is equal to 1% of the value of the aircraft or vessel. It can add up!

So, I flew uneventfully to Riverside Airport, identifier KRAL, and landed, and got my paperwork signed off. There was actually a good turnout on the ramp, with many airplanes being displayed, and I chatted with some of the pilots. It was fun to see the various vintage aircraft from days gone by.

Then I got ready to leave, and started up and taxied to the run-up area, and did the run-up and pre-takeoff checks. So far, so good. Then I taxied to runway 27 (magnetic heading 270°, aka west) and waited for my takeoff clearance. Once cleared for takeoff, I taxied onto the runway centerline and smoothly applied full power. Everything was normal, accelerating down the runway. Reaching rotation speed, I applied back pressure and took off, starting to climb. It was accelerating and climbing out normally. And then suddenly, at about 200’ above the ground, the engine suddenly sputtered and a glance at the RPM (tach) showed it was fluctuating wildly, varying 500 – 700 RPM!!, and then just as suddenly, the engine stopped, and the RPM dropped down to 0! Zero!?! OMG. This was a first! I’ve never had this happen, for real, in 40+ years of flying! But I’ve practiced simulated engine failures many, many times over the years, in a variety of aircraft, during countless training flights and simulator training sessions. So, I know the drill, though it varies, depending on the aircraft.

Ok, I could see runway ahead (I had taken off on the long runway), so this had happened in an ideal place! I was not somewhere over inhospitable terrain or a congested urban area. That would be bad. I could make a safe uneventful landing on a runway! God is my co-pilot!  The obvious thing to do was to land straight ahead on the remaining runway! Fortunately, this had not happened 30 seconds or 1 minute later! Then I would have flown beyond the airport boundary. That could have changed the outcome.

I immediately lowered the nose and as the engine had stopped producing power at this point, to maintain airspeed, and I silently glided/descended towards the runway. Oh, and I had the presence of mind to make a radio call to the Riverside (ATC) Control Tower, telling them, as I recall; ‘7KY engine failure landing straight ahead’ and then I focused on landing. I don’t even recall if they responded. A few seconds later I flared, landed and was on the ground, rolling out at a high rate of speed but slowing since there was no power now and the propeller had stopped rotating.

I was approaching the intersection of a crossing runway that was not in use, runway 16/34 and turned left onto it, and continued left onto a taxi way, then turned right, and stopped on the ramp.

By now the tower had called me and asked if I needed any assistance. I told the tower to stand by (in ATC lingo, that means the pilot is busy and unable to reply; the priority is to FLY THE AIRPLANE), and I’d get back to them.

I had not declared an emergency. I just sat there for a minute and tried to figure out what had happened. Why had the engine suddenly failed, after running normally and getting me to Riverside? Hmm.

I attempted to restart the engine 2 or 3 times. It ran briefly then stopped, each time. Perhaps a problem with the fuel? Hmm. What could it be? I tried starting again and this time it started, and continued running, so I called Riverside Ground Control and requested taxi back to the transient ramp, where I wanted to park the airplane.

Once parked, I texted a pilot friend at another airport to see if he might be able to fly to KRAL to pick me up, if needed, to fly me back to Long Beach. And then I called my mechanic who had just done the ‘annual’ inspection. I had expected to leave a voicemail, but he answered! I explained what had happened. Frank listened and was equally surprised. He decided to drop what he was doing and drive to Riverside Airport to find out what had happened. I decided to have lunch at the airport café and wait for him.

90 minutes later he arrived. LA freeway traffic can be bad, even on a weekend. We went out to the airplane. I had ‘sumped’ the fuel again, taking a small sample and checking for water in the fuel. It happens. Water can sometimes get into the tanks, the result of condensation, leaks and sometimes during refueling. And water is heavier (8#/gal.) than avgas (6#/gal), so water is on the bottom in a fuel strainer, easier to see. And avgas, as aviation gasoline is called, is dyed light blue so it is not confused with other fuels. Jet fuel, aka Jet-A, is clear by comparison. The wings tanks showed no sign of water. But the engine sump was different. Being the low point in the system. I had checked it but did not see any water. Turns out I did not check it enough.

When Frank got there, we opened the cowl and I pulled the spring-loaded fuel drain ‘tab’ on the top of the engine, and Frank had a clear plastic cup down below. The fuel from the low point in the system drained into that. And now we could see water in the fuel. At least ½ cup of water, or more!! The culprit! For some reason, water particles had gotten into the fuel and had been suspended in the fuel. But now we could see them. And we continued to drain fuel into the cup. We could see more water. For any number of reasons, this had happened.

We continued to drain fuel until there was no more water showing. Then Frank suggested I start the engine and just sit there and run it for a few minutes, to see how it ran. So, I did that, adding and reducing power a few times, and it ran fine. No more water in the fuel. Then I shut it down and we checked one more time for water in the fuel. None showing. So, then I started up and taxied out and then took off and flew once around the airport, landed, then taxied in. Frank was there waiting. I gave him a thumbs up and taxied back and took off and flew uneventfully back to Long Beach. Finally!

We suspect that the fuel truck had not been properly checked for water in the tank, and when I had the airplane fueled on Friday morning before the test flight, it was actually fueled with some contaminated fuel. But it took 2 flights in my airplane before it showed up. And even though I did sump the tanks, checking for water contamination, but it had not shown up, yet. So, more lessons learned. Always something. 

Fly safely!

John