FAA Detroit sectional, 29 OCT 2026 edition. For briefing, not for navigation: fly from the current chart. Tap the chart to open it full size.
Today's flight
You are at practice altitude over the Chelsea Proving Grounds when the engine starts to run rough. Rossettie (75G) is right there. KARB is back east, with a long runway and help on the ground. And there are fields everywhere. Which one, and how do you decide in the few seconds you have?
Every failure today is briefed before the flight, and the instructor makes it happen with the throttle. The first flight is out west: simulated engine failures to fields and to Rossettie, and an emergency descent. The second is at home: power-off approaches to KARB's runway, the same skill with a runway at the end, and one of the other things that can break. From here on, every flight has one simulated failure in it.
Every flight
Before every flight
P
Pilot.Am I fit to fly today? IMSAFE:
Illness
Medication
Stress
Alcohol
Fatigue
Emotion, and eating
A
Aircraft.Is this airplane ready, and right for today? Documents, inspections and open squawks; fuel and oil on board; weight, balance and performance for today's load.
V
Environment.What will today's flight meet? NWKRAFT, what 14 CFR 91.103 asks you to know before every flight, then the airspace and the route:
NOTAMs and TFRs
Weather, against your minimums
Known ATC delays
Runway lengths
Alternates
Fuel required, with reserve
Takeoff and landing distances
Airspace: the Class B limits from the current chart
The trip: heading, time, landmarks, wind and runway
E
External pressures.What is pushing me to go today: a passenger, a schedule, a plan I don't want to cancel? Would I go without it?
If it goes wrong.The takeoff emergency brief, out loud: an engine problem on the runway, after liftoff with runway left, and after liftoff without.
Who flies.Who does what today, and how we hand the controls back and forth.
Who runs it today:You, with the instructor's prompts.
Deeper today:If it goes wrong. The takeoff brief grows to cover the whole flight: for each part of today's trip, say where you would land if the engine quit (the runway, Rossettie, the open fields you know). And in Aircraft, find the emergency equipment on board during the preflight: the fire extinguisher, the ELT and its switch, and what you would want with you if you had to walk out.
Recall
From earlier lessons
You are on downwind and the tower shows you a steady red light. What does it mean?
Reveal answer
Give way to other aircraft and continue circling (14 CFR 91.125).
When do you decide to go around, and what comes first?
Reveal answer
Early, as soon as the approach isn't on speed, on path and lined up by your gate, or the runway isn't clear. Power first, then pitch for the climb, then flaps in steps, then tell the tower.
Can a wing stall at a high airspeed?
Reveal answer
Yes. It stalls whenever it passes its critical angle of attack, at any airspeed and in any attitude. Pulling back hard, or banking steeply, gets you there faster: an accelerated stall.
Your radio goes silent on the way back to KARB. What do you do?
Reveal answer
Check the plugs, volume, frequency and for a stuck mic. Then squawk 7600, stay outside or above the Class D until you see the traffic flow, join the pattern and watch the tower for light signals.
WhyAn engine failure on its own is rarely what kills pilots. Losing control while dealing with it is.
Fly the airplane first
Best glide, now: pitch for it and trim within seconds. The speed is in your handbook.
Best glide covers the most ground for each foot you lose.
Minimum sink is a little slower: it stays up longest but goes less far.
Never stretch it: pulling the nose up to reach a field steepens the glide.
Into the wind you glide less far; downwind, farther.
WhyThe landing spot is a decision you make once, early, and then fly to.
Pick a place to land
First choice: a runway within easy reach. Then a long, smooth, open field, into the wind.
Rossettie is turf. Know its runway from the Chart Supplement and find it before you need it.
Fields: length, a smooth surface, no wires, a clear approach.
Assume wires along every road and between buildings.
Commit. Switch only to something clearly better and clearly within reach.
WhyMany engine problems have a cause you can fix in the air, and the checklist goes in the order that finds it fastest.
The checklist
From memory: airspeed, then the items that bring power back, in your checklist's order.
Won't restart: the forced landing items, confirmed with the card if there's time.
Talk: "Mayday" on your frequency or 121.5, and squawk 7700.
Fly first. The call never comes before the airplane.
WhyMichigan's damp air makes carburetor ice one of the most likely reasons an engine runs rough, and it is fixable.
Carburetor ice
Common below about 70 degrees F with high humidity, and worst at low power.
First sign: the rpm drops slowly. Then it may run rough.
Full carburetor heat, and leave it on.
It runs rougher at first as the ice melts through. Don't push it back in.
WhyRunning out and not getting fuel to the engine look the same in the air, but only one can be fixed there.
Out of fuel, or not getting it
Fuel exhaustion: no usable fuel left on board. Prevented on the ground.
Fuel starvation: fuel on board that isn't reaching the engine.
Starvation causes: the selector, a tank run dry while the other is full, a blocked vent.
That's why the checklist goes to the fuel selector and mixture early.
WhySmoke, fire or a sick passenger can make getting down quickly the most important thing.
Emergency descent and fire
Emergency descent: idle, a steep bank, and your handbook's speed and configuration.
Clear the area below first.
Engine fire and electrical fire each have their own checklist items. Learn which is which.
WhyMost failures aren't the engine, and the danger is losing control while you stare at the problem.
Other things that break
Low voltage: its own checklist items. The engine keeps running on its magnetos.
A door pops open: fly the airplane, leave the door alone, land normally.
Flaps won't come out: a longer landing. Only one side: a roll you hold level.
Trim stuck: hold the pressure by hand, and land.
An electronic display fails: its handbook supplement, and fly the backup instruments.
WhyAfter a forced landing, help may take hours, and Michigan weather doesn't wait.
After you're down
Fire extinguisher: where it is and how to use it.
ELT: know how to switch it on yourself, and listen on 121.5 to check it's sending.
Dress for walking home: in winter, a coat, hat and gloves in the airplane.
A charged phone, water and a flashlight.
WhyGliding to a chosen point is the same skill over a field near Chelsea or over the numbers at KARB.
Power-off approaches
Ask the tower first, so they can fit it in.
Idle abeam your touchdown point on downwind, best glide, and judge the turn by the angle.
Too high: flaps, or wider turns. Lesson 9 adds the slip.
Too low: turn toward the runway sooner. Never stretch the glide.
Short of the runway is a go-around today. In a real one, it's the field you picked first.
A real accident
On April 8, 2005, a student pilot and a flight instructor in a Cessna 172P were landing on runway 06 at Ann Arbor, our home runway. The approach was too fast, so they went around, and when the throttle went forward the engine lost power. They made a forced landing that damaged the airplane substantially; neither was hurt. Investigators found a part missing from the carburetor (the accelerator pump nozzle tube), and with another carburetor fitted the engine ran normally. The NTSB's probable cause was the carburetor failure and the unsuitable terrain met in the forced landing, with the low altitude as a factor. At that height there is no time to think, only to do what was decided before: that is why the takeoff brief covers every go-around too, and why from today you always know where you would land. NTSB report CHI05CA095
Your calls
Decision points
The engine runs rough over the proving grounds: Rossettie, back to KARB, or a field. Say which and why, out loud, within seconds.
When to stop troubleshooting and fly the landing.
On each simulated forced landing, whether the spot you chose would really have worked. The instructor sets the altitude where you add power and climb away.
On a power-off approach at KARB, too high or too low: what you change, or whether you go around.
The whole flight
Also on this flight
Part of the flight
Who
Every-flight routine, with the whole-flight emergency brief
You, with the instructor's prompts
Preflight, including the emergency equipment
You; the instructor checks
Radio calls, taxi, takeoff
You
Limits block for the route, from the current chart
You
First flight: simulated engine failures, at least four, at different altitudes and with the wind from different sides
You fly; the instructor sets them up and calls the climb-away altitude
First flight: emergency descent, at least one
You
Second flight: power-off approaches to KARB, at least three, until two in a row reach the runway without stretching
You, with the instructor's help
Second flight: one other malfunction from the menu, briefed
You fly; the instructor sets it up
Back to KARB, pattern and landing
You
Shutdown and securing
You
Debrief
Both, you first
The standard
Ready to move on when
You pitch for best glide and trim within seconds, every time, without looking up the speed, and can say how best glide and minimum sink differ.
You pick a landing spot within reach, say why, and fly a pattern to it that would have worked.
You run the engine failure items from memory, then confirm them with the checklist, and can tell carburetor ice, fuel starvation and fuel exhaustion apart.
Your power-off approaches reach the runway without stretching the glide, in the spirit of ACS IX.B, and your emergency descent stays in control and levels off where you planned, as IX.A asks.
You can say what you would do for a low-voltage warning, a door opening, a flap or trim failure, and a fire, and what each checklist is for (IX.C).
You can say where the emergency equipment is, how it works, and what survival gear you would carry for a Michigan winter (IX.D).
ELT activation is in AIM 6-2-4. The rules behind today: always have somewhere to land (14 CFR 91.119(a)), and the distress call and 7700 (AIM 6-3).
At home, before the next flight
Chair fly it
Get the KARB METAR and the forecasts on aviationweather.gov and decode them. Find the nearest airports that have a TAF.
In chapter 7 of the Airplane Flying Handbook, ground reference maneuvers, read Drift and Ground Track Control, Rectangular Course, Turns Around a Point and S-Turns.
In Weather Theory (Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge), read Atmospheric Stability, Fronts (warm and cold), and Low-Level Wind Shear. Start it; due before lesson 8's second flight.
In the Aircraft Performance chapter, read about density altitude, then work it out for today's temperature and altimeter setting at KARB.
Draw the route of your own trip from lesson 2 on the chart, and mark a field or airport you could glide to every ten miles or so.
Keep chair flying the engine failure items. From now on, every flight has one failure in it.
After the flight
Debrief
You go first, then the instructor. Three points at most, and you write down one thing to work on next time.
Your first glide to a runway with the engine at idle: what told you whether you would make it?
When the engine went rough out west, what did you do first, and how long did it take?
Which landing spot did you pick, and would it really have worked?
Notes for teaching this lesson
Before the flight
First flight: brief the slides through Emergency descent and fire. Second flight: Other things that break, After you're down, and Power-off approaches.
Brief every failure before engine start: before solo, nothing is a surprise. Agree on the words ("simulated engine failure") and that you will only ever use the throttle, never the mixture or the magnetos.
Set the climb-away altitude before the flight, high enough to stay clear of people, vehicles and buildings by the distances in 14 CFR 91.119, and within any club rules for simulated failures.
Simulated approaches toward Rossettie end in a climb-away. Landing on turf waits for the soft-field lesson. Announce on its CTAF.
Ask the tower about power-off approaches before you start them.
Background: best glide versus minimum sink is in the Airplane Flying Handbook, chapter 3 (Glides): minimum sink is a few knots slower, keeps the airplane up longest, and is seldom published. Door opening, flap failures, elevator control failure and electronic display failures are in chapter 18. A no-flap landing can need as much as 50 percent more runway; a split flap rolls the airplane toward the wing with less flap. Carburetor ice (likely below about 70 degrees F with humidity above 80 percent; first sign a slow rpm drop in a fixed-pitch airplane; full heat may run rough for 30 seconds to several minutes) is in the PHAK's Aircraft Systems chapter.
In the air
Give the first failure where the choice is easy, then make it harder: lower, downwind of the good fields, or with Rossettie just behind you.
Clear the engine during long glides, as your handbook suggests, so it is warm when you need it.
Common errors: slow to pitch for glide, turning back for KARB when a good field is below, choosing a field too far or behind, flying downwind to it, stretching the glide, and fixating on the restart while the airspeed wanders.
Watch the emergency descent for airspeed creeping past the limit and a late recovery.
If it isn't working (the student freezes or picks fields behind them), give the next failure high, upwind of a big field, and talk through the first one together.
Curveballs
All briefed before the flight, with the words you'll use.
A rough engine you make with a slow throttle reduction, as carburetor ice would: the student says "carb heat" first.
A failure with Rossettie just behind the wing, or downwind of the best fields.
A low-voltage warning, simulated by naming it: the student runs the checklist items aloud.
An open door (only on the ground first, then talked through in the air): the student says what they would do.
A no-flap approach on the second flight at KARB, so they feel the float and the longer landing.
After the flight
Ask what the student would have done in a real one, field by field.
Plan the failure for each of the next few flights, and make each one different: rough engine, low voltage, an open door, a radio failure.
Note which failures the student has met, so before the pre-solo check they have seen the main ones.