I didn’t crash that day but it was close. ∼Vesa
Flight Experience: Liberty XL2
It was a beautiful day in Ormond Beach, Florida, and a regular day in a life of a flight instructor. I showed up at the school early in the morning. The sun was just about to rise and the air was moist with dew. I parked my car at the parking lot outside the airport fence, got out and used my key code to enter the airside of the airport. It was a short walk to the flight school entrance. It was dark inside; I was the first one arriving to work as was usual those days. My goal was to fly as much as possible so I volunteered to do all the available flights, even the early ones. I was about to leave USA for China few weeks later, so my future was unknown and I didn’t exactly know when I got to fly for the next time.
First Flight of the Day
I had a key to the school so I helped myself in. As the first one at the school I turned on the lights and computers, and started checking weather reports and forecasts. It was going to be nice day; no afternoon thunderstorms, which is unusual for most of the year in Florida but not for January.
My first student showed up few minutes later. We had briefed for the flight day before, so I told him to go out and preflight the aircraft; meaning inspect it from inside and outside, and make sure everything was normal.
From the flight school window I could see the whole ramp, and I watched my student complete the preflight. He did everything correctly and walked to meet him at the airplane.
“Hmm” I thought to myself. ” Nobody else still hasn’t showed up?? Oh, it’s Sunday. Going to be a quiet day, no office people working today.”
We went out for a successful and uneventful training flight. The aircraft we flew was a Liberty XL2, one of the most interesting aircraft I have flown.
Liberty XL2
I flew several different types of aircraft in that school. The Cessna 150 & 152, Piper Warrior, Piper Arrow, and the pride of the school; Liberty XL2. The Liberty was a new type of aircraft that was manufactured nearby in Florida. Our school was one of the first operators of the aircraft. It was an interesting plane with nice avionics and low fuel consumption. It was efficient to operate and the more aerodynamic design made it faster than most two seat training aircraft. Perhaps the most interesting thing about it was the brakes. Instead of operating the breaks with your feet and toes like every other aircraft the Liberty had “finger breaks”. There was a handbrake lever positioned next to the throttle in the middle console. You would use your forefinger and middle finger to separately control the left and right break. It was very weird setup and took some time to get used to.
Where is the Fuel Truck?
After two uneventful flights in the same aircraft we needed gas. There was no fuel truck service in Ormond Beach Airport; instead there was a self service gas station. We parked the plane next to the gigantic gas container, swiped a company credit card on the reader, pulled out the hose, and filled up the single tank located in the fuselage. After filling up we started up again and taxied the plane back to the school.
We parked it next to our maintenance facility instead of parking on our typical parking area. I wanted a quick turn around; the maintenance facility was closer to the school and it was a quiet day, no other airplanes taxiing around. My student could do the preflight faster here because the fuel dump canister, where all the sample fuel taken during each preflight, went was at the maintenance facility. I was going to do another flight with the same student after a short break.
The Flight
I was chatting with our maintenance worker about the aircraft while watching my student, Mark, do the preflight. He did everything by the book and we started the engine for my third flight of the day. We were cleared to taxy and hold short off the active runway by the airport ground control. The active runway that was runway 26 heading west. Tower control gave us clearance to line up on the runway and takeoff. Everything was going as smooth as possible.
We had a direct headwind from the west during takeoff, which is ideal for takeoffs and landings as it increases your airspeed faster during takeoffs and lowers your groundspeed during landings. Mark rotated the aircraft nicely and started climbing at normal rate. Everything was perfect; we were in the air, no other aircraft flying around that Sunday afternoon, so peaceful and quiet.
I saw the airport tower passing on our right wondering about the controller. Although I had never met the guy in the tower I knew him by his voice. Month earlier he had “welcomed me back” after my long absence from the school, so I knew he recognized my voice also.
Liberty XL2 Aircraft Taxiing in Ormond Beach Airport in Florida.
Passing 300 feet the engine started coughing:
prot-tot-tot-tot-totprot-tot-prot-pop-ggrrlll…
The engine was coughing for few seconds and then there was silence. The engine had stopped! We were sinking and so was sinking the feeling in my gut. “MY CONTROLS!” I said. And grabbed the control stick while looking out for a place to land. We were just past the end of the runway, too low to turn back, and too low to land anywhere other than the trees at the end of the runway. “Ooh.. shit! This is it.” I thought.
There was Hope
A second or two later the engine started coughing again; prot-tot-tot-prot-tot-prot-tot. Thank god! We were maintaining altitude again at around 300 feet. Maintaining altitude but not climbing. Still only trees below us, trees in front of us, I could see some small fields but no proper landing fields even for a small aircraft. Past the trees things looked better. There was a road, a big road, highway in fact; Interstate I95, nearly 2000 miles of highway heading all the way to New York just ahead of us. I started turning right towards north and was looking at the highway. Traffic seemed moderate since it was Sunday. If it was Monday it would have been much busier. Still didn’t look good, but we would land there if we had to.
Time for a Decision
We could barely maintain altitude or safe airspeed. In fact I had to slowly reduce our airspeed in exchange to keep the altitude. “No way we are going to stall this thing! That would be the end of it.” I thought, and prepared to land on the highway.
Just when I had made my decision the engine started to gain speed. WROOM PROT TOT TOT WROOM WROOM. Sounded much better. I saw the airspeed increase and we slowly started climbing. Not going to land on I95 today, I thought, as I changed my mind about the highway. We were slowly climbing facing north and paralleling the crossing runway 17/35. I was thinking just to follow the highway for safe altitude; if the engine quits we can always land on the highway or we might be able to glide to runway 17 if we got high enough. The engine was still running rough and only producing partial power so I was planning on landing on runway 17 anyway. No other airplanes around. At this point if the tower had said something to us I had just ignored it.
I got on the radio saying: “Tower, Liberty 567XL having engine problems, request landing on runway 17.” I got an immediate response, he must have been watching: “Cleared to land Runway 17, Liberty 567XL” the tower said, calm and professional.
Landing back at the airport started to seem better and better; wouldn’t want to get hit by a car after all this. Instead of doing a normal traffic pattern at 1000 feet I started turning modified early base leg for RWY17 while we were still only at around 600 feet. I was thinking about landing somewhere in the midfield on the runway; such a small plane doesn’t need much runway. Just had to get it down safely.
Things Change Quickly – Be ready to Adapt to the Situation
As we were turning the engine suddenly sped up to full speed: WROOOOOOOMMMMMM! We were back in business. After considering on landing on top of the trees, on the interstate 95, and runway 17, I changed my mind again. With the full engine power we quickly climbed to 1000 feet, which is the normal traffic pattern altitude. This presented an opportunity for a normal landing on runway 27, which was preferential due to the relatively strong wind that day.
I said: “Tower, Liberty 567XL engine back online request landing on runway 27”
Tower: “Cleared to land on runway 27. You can land which ever runway you want, no other traffic.”
I: “Roger, cleared to land 27. Thanks”
We leveled off at 1000 feet and turned downwind leg for an approach to runway 27. Up there we had a tailwind of about 20 knots which made us fly fast. The engine seemed to be running normally again, but I made my base and final leg shorter than usual; wanted to make sure we can glide back to the runway even if we lost the engine again. Final approach was just like any normal approach to landing. Just about a wingspan over the runway I brought the throttle to idle and started a flare (glide over the runway without power) that would slow us down and gently bring us to the ground. Once I brought the throttle to idle the engine started making the now familiar sounds: prot-tot-tot-tot-totprot-tot-prot-pop-ggrrlll…
Liberty XL2 instrument panel on an approach to St. Augustine, Florida.
Landing a Glider
A moment later there was silence once again. We touched down on to the ground with the propeller slowing down to a full stop in front of my eyes. The plane kept rolling to the middle intersection where I had to pull little bit left finger break to turn the aircraft off the runway.
“Liberty 567XL everything ok?” The tower said.
“Yes, just a moment to see if we can taxy”.
“Try to start it again Mark”.
WROOOOOOOMMMMMM! The propeller started spinning so fast that I couldn’t see it anymore.
“Tower, Liberty 567XL request taxy back to the ramp”
“Taxy back, remain on this frequency, have a good day.”
We taxied back to the maintenance facility, shut down the aircraft again, and told our maintenance guy what had happened.
“Ok, I’ll take a look what’s wrong with it.”
We walked back to the school and I filled an aircraft logbook explaining what had happened. The chief pilot would see it next day, no need to bother him on Sunday. We had plenty of airplanes but not so many students at the time.
“So.. Mark. We only logged 0.4 hours on the flight. Didn’t have time to finish your lesson. Ready to try again in a different airplane?” I said.
Although shaken up, he said: “Sure, let’s do it.”
Back in Business
Twenty minutes later we were back in the air with another Liberty XL2. I ended up doing two more flights with the Liberty that day. Didn’t have time to worry about things already in the past. Had to keep flying and get my students graduated before I would be off to China.
Only later that evening sitting on my couch I started shaking. Holy crap, did that really happen?! I was thinking.
Our, somewhat, flight track on that flight.
The Day After
Yes, I did happen. The chief pilot told me they found about a gallon of water in the fuel tank. “Impossible.” I said. “I saw Mark drain a fuel sample in front of my eyes, and there was no water in the fuel, I saw it myself!” “And how could there be that much water anyway??”
Chief: “Well, I don’t know, but that’s what the maintenance is saying. Don’t worry, nobody is blaming you.”
I: “Ok, so how is the aircraft otherwise?”
Chief: “The engine is totaled. Going to have to get a brand new engine.”
WATER. Water, the source of life, had almost killed us by entering the engine!
This is the maintenance hangar where we left the aircraft after the flight.
What Had Happened?
Between our flights the previous day I did see Mark check the fuel sample, even the maintenance guy next to me saw it. It was light blue in color like aviation fuel is supposed be instead of clear like water. The fuel sample is taken from the lowest point of the fuel tank, using a device called fuel drainer, because water is heavier than fuel and it ends up in the bottom of the tank. Water sometimes condenses from moist air if the tanks are not kept full over night, so normally we find some water before the first flight of the day. Finding a gallon of water in the tank after the third flight of the day made no sense.
What had happened is that the big fuel container that we used as a gas station was only filled once a week, on Mondays. That Sunday the tank was getting low on fuel and when we filled our tank we ended up getting lot of the water that had condensed or otherwise had ended up in the bottom of that big tank.
How come it didn’t show up in the fuel sample? Well, first I would think we didn’t allow enough time for the fuel to settle down after filling it up, then taxiing, and taking the sample. We admittedly made a quick turnaround, probably around 15 minutes between shutting down and taking the sample, but it still should have been long enough for most of the water to settle down in the bottom of the tank. What I found out later was quite alarming. Apparently the Liberty XL2 aircraft actually had a design flaw. I don’t know the details but something was stopping the water from flowing down to the point where we took the sample. Or perhaps the drain hole was not at a correct place. Not totally sure, and couldn’t find information about it online.
Afterword
I was long gone to China when I heard that it ended up being an expensive finding for Liberty Aerospace. Apparently had to fix the flaw in all the airplanes, and probably had to pay for the engine replacement for N567XL. I also red that they have now changed the finger brake system with a more traditional toe brake system.
I still think that was probably the most dramatic moment in my flight career although it didn’t really sink in until later. Still a great flight experience!
For more technical details about the Liberty XL2 and other airplanes that I have flown please check out my Aircraft Page.
Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment below!
-Vesa
For more similar posts you might want check out my Flight Experience Page! Or for all aviation posts you should go to my Aviation Page.
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Wow! What an exciting experience. Well done!