CALL911
Well-Known Member
So after chasing down a fuel leak in my new Falcon XP, we found that I needed a new fuel pump (becuase the leak was coming from the fuel pump). A new one was installed and I took it up and flew around the pattern and landed with no leak on the new fuel pump. I paid my bill to the A&P at the airport, fired the Falcon back up, taxied back to the runway, gave it a good run-up at the hold short line, then rolled onto the runway. I brought the power up to full throttle and everything still seemed great. I pulled back on the stick around 50 MPH (like always) and it leapt into the air as usual. Shortly after takeoff I noticed instantly the RPM's started dropping quickly. I firewalled the throttle but it just kept dropping until it died! 
I was only about 50 ft in the air, and fortunately I had only used up a couple thousand feet of the 5000 ft runway. I had a slight crosswind which really sucked holding centerline with no power in a slight crab. That low I knew I would never be able to attempt a re-start of the engine. I was able to successfully land her right back down and stop within the available runway.
Once on the ground I tried twice to re-start the engine (un-successfully). I then primed the engine about 3 times and it fired right up, and I was able to taxi back to my parking spot. The A&P came back out and I explained what happened. The Falcon fired back up and was able to run what seemed to be fine again on the ground. But that was enough for me today. I left it back with the A&P and was happy I was alive and was successfull at my first dead stick landing.
Had this happened past the end of the runway, or God help me over trees, powerlines or the major interstate off the departure end, and I could have been in some real trouble.
I am hoping the A&P can successfully find what was going on. I guess its possible that it could have been a faulty new fuel pump, but that seems like a rare possibility.
I was only about 50 ft in the air, and fortunately I had only used up a couple thousand feet of the 5000 ft runway. I had a slight crosswind which really sucked holding centerline with no power in a slight crab. That low I knew I would never be able to attempt a re-start of the engine. I was able to successfully land her right back down and stop within the available runway.
Once on the ground I tried twice to re-start the engine (un-successfully). I then primed the engine about 3 times and it fired right up, and I was able to taxi back to my parking spot. The A&P came back out and I explained what happened. The Falcon fired back up and was able to run what seemed to be fine again on the ground. But that was enough for me today. I left it back with the A&P and was happy I was alive and was successfull at my first dead stick landing.
Had this happened past the end of the runway, or God help me over trees, powerlines or the major interstate off the departure end, and I could have been in some real trouble.
I am hoping the A&P can successfully find what was going on. I guess its possible that it could have been a faulty new fuel pump, but that seems like a rare possibility.
