Engine Failure on Takeoff! P-51D 26 March 2023

it's Wednesday the 5th of April my name is Juan Brown you're watching the Blanc olirio Channel just back from another uneventful flight from Sydney to Los Angeles got back yesterday morning about 6 a.m and in my inbox found this video of an expertly handled engine failure which occurred back on March 26th at the Mid-America Flight Museum of this P-51D this engine failure occurred on the runway at the Museum which is only 6 000 feet long this windsock is at the 3000 foot marker let's check it out and then we'll break it down don't forget to turn up your speakers [Music] [Applause] [Music] holy that motor is done just expertly expertly handled even that drifting at the end of the runway he was lucky he didn't fold up that right main gear putting that extreme side load on it as he was making that left-hand turn but he's only got six thousand feet of Runway to work with according to Pilot it was a failure of the pressure carburetor that caused the engine to fail on this takeoff let's check that out the Merlin V12 engine this illustration is for training purposes only may not be the actual application to this aircraft generally features a two-stage pressure carburetor located right down here prior to this two-stage blower the pressure carburetor allows the p51d to have positive fuel pressure regardless of the attitude of the aircraft so no longer is the engine cutting out while you roll inverted and you obtain negative G's as was common to the Spitfire this is done via a fuel pump located right here and a series of Chambers separated by Rubber diaphragms separating two air Chambers and two fuel Chambers so you're no longer using a a float Bowl type system to manage the fuel and then you've got an automatic enrichment mixture control over here and the whole system injects the fuel right here just prior to the air moving into the two-stage blower but this is a complicated system and these rubber diaphragms can fail and or the fuel pump over here can fail leading to a sudden loss of engine power so according to the pilot it was this pressure carburetor that packed up on him on departure and this is why we brief and think about how we're going to handle an emergency on each takeoff right there there's the Midway point pitch to maintain air speed gears down maintain a three-point attitude touchdown with a bounce running out of Runway heavy braking without going up on your nose and then drifting or what pilots often do with these Mustangs at the Reno Air Races is that they end up having to ground loop as they approach the end of the runway because at Reno there's a bit of a cliff off of the end of the runway so intentional ground looping of the aircraft at the end of the runway is a is an option now let's talk about startle factor in reaction time even though you're planning on this you can't believe it when it actually happens it's actually happening to you looking at the timer counter right there nine seconds three seconds three seconds to react less than three seconds he's got that geared down and he's pitched the nose for the proper air speed and the most important thing here is pitching that nose over to the correct attitude to obtain the correct air speed to maintain air speed so check out the difference in nose attitude between this Frame here at 14 seconds and this Frame here at 16 seconds right there 14 seconds to 15 seconds one second difference in time notable pitch change maintaining air speed so many Pilots spend too much time with this startle Factor before they think to lower the nose and they lose that air speed especially in light general aviation aircraft where you have less energy than this airplane you'll reach that stall speed very quickly if you don't react though this pilot at this altitude had little option other than going straight ahead I strongly recommend taking the Straight Ahead option and not messing about with the impossible turn in light aircraft which I so often have to report an unsuccessful outcome with take the aircraft straight ahead and accept what's in front of you you got to come to terms with at some point it's a matter of saving yourself and not the airplane thanks so much for your support of this channel especially the folks over on patreon that make this content possible see you here I'm so happy to report on a good outcome for a change thank you for your support [Music] [Applause] holy that motor is done

Channel: blancolirio

Views: 919,030

Keywords:

Id: gTtv4uODWXE

Length: 6min 52sec (412 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 05 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Pale-Ad-8383]

Textbook landing! Beautiful save

[u/Special_Dimension_15]

Yikes, I've worked with this aircraft a few years ago. My business partner photographs warbirds. It was sold off after the owner passed away. Anyway, glad that the pilot is ok!