I was providing flight instruction toward a commercial rating with a student whom I had recently helped obtain her instrument rating. We were flying my own Cessna Cardinal RG, and we had already flown together a great deal. In fact, she actually handled the airplane better than I did in most cases, especially landings. Because she was getting close to the check ride, every takeoff and landing was either a simulated soft field or maximum performance one, since those would be check ride items.
Loss of Power on Takeoff
Key Takeaways:
- While practicing a unique high-deck-angle, low-airspeed maximum-performance takeoff in a Cessna Cardinal RG, an instructor and student experienced a perceived engine failure at 75-100 feet.
- Crucially, the student immediately pushed the yoke hard forward, a direct application of a recent pre-flight briefing about preventing stalls from thrust-vector loss during initial climb.
- The instructor took over, performed a successful full-slip emergency landing back on the runway, only to find the engine was still idling, with the exact cause of the issue remaining unknown.
- This incident profoundly taught the instructor to never relax during takeoffs and landings, always maintaining readiness to intervene, and underscored the critical value of detailed pre-flight emergency procedure discussions.
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