PilotEdge Forums

So there I am just piddling around in the pattern for 31R at Palm Springs in my Remos... request a switch over to left traffic for 31L... turn crosswind, and bam, rudder pedals stop responding. Moreover the rudder's stuck over full left... this keeps getting better and better.

Declare an emergency and make one ugly looking lefthand pattern while in the mother of all slips... turn final, get it down nice and slow since I figure I'm not going to have any nose wheel control or brakes either. Touch down left wheel first and manage to get the outside wheel down while she starts skittering left for the dirt. Three hundred degrees later, I come to a slightly less than graceful stop in the grass, but hey, still upright and the prop never scraped. Not. Too. Shabby.

Let the tower know I'm "down" and that I'm disconnecting in place. Figure I'll replace the broken rubber bands (it *is* an LSA after all), and be good to go tomorrow~


So my question, since I had a declared emergency and a nice "cross-country excursion", do I need to fill out any incident paperwork? I don't think I took out any runway lighting~

As with the real world, there is no paper work involved unless the FAA contacts you and requests more information. I've had 3 emergencies in r/w thus far, have never been asked to send a written report.

After certain pilot deviations, we do contact pilots (via email, not on frequency) to obtain information, set expectations, etc.