The Daytona 99’s hope that everybody is doing well and staying safe throughout this global pandemic. The pandemic has put a holt on a lot in our lives, but that does not mean that us pilots have to stop learning, and as Jason Schappert of MzeroA says “a good pilot is always learning.”
The Daytona 99’s Cathy MacArthur and Jason Schappert of MzeroA.com decided that it was important to continue educating pilots even through the Pandemic so they decided to set up a presentation on Facebook Live to allow pilots all across the United States to learn about the statistics of emergency landings and how important it is that pilots continue to practice and educate themselves on emergency landings. Afterall, we never know when an emergency is going to take place and we will have to make a forced landing.
Throughout the presentation, Jason discussed how important it is to be prepared for any situation that might arise while flying including an emergency that leads to a forced landing. He discussed that you need to consider where in the US you are flying and what season it is to prepare yourself for the environment conditions that you may experience in a forced landing and survival afterwards.
Jason discussed that when landing on land, there is a better chance of survival and if you happen to land in a plowed field, make sure you land parallel to the ridges. If you decide to conduct a forced landing on a road, it has been determined that you reduce you chance of injury and increase your chance of survival if you land with the traffic. This is because if you are landing against traffic it is harder to avoid the traffic on the road rather than if you are landing with the traffic, there is a smaller chance that you will hit other people on the road.
Mr. Schappert also discussed water landings and that in a case study, there was over a 90% rate of survival and 92% of the accidents, the people had no problem getting out of a sinking aircraft. He discussed that if you had to make a forced landing in water; take off your shoes as it will allow you to swim better. It can also act as a wedge in the door to ensure the door will stay open upon landing impact and it will allow you to get out quicker. Jason also mentioned that if you have a low wing aircraft it reduces your risk of flipping when you hit the water. When landing in water, keep your flaps up to prevent the flaps from catching the water and flipping you and to get your propeller to be in a East/West position, to prevent the propeller from catching the water and causing a flip.
If you find yourself in a position where there is nowhere else to land other than in tress, Jason mentioned that you should aim towards a spacing between the trees to get the fuselage through and aim for trees with a lot of leaves to try to act as a cushion and reduce your kinetic energy. When landing in trees, slow to your slowest airspeed because you want to have the least kinetic energy on impact.
Thank you to Jason Shappert of MzeroA and Cathy Macarthur for making this educational presentation happen.
Daytona 99s 
