Emergency Management; Go No-Go Decision; Abnormal Operations - Eclipse Aviation Eclipse 500 Flight Manual

4. ABNORMAL OPERATIONS

Emergency management

It is critical to have a coherent philosophy in how to deal with an abnormal situation or
emergency. There are 3 principal steps you must follow in any and all abnormal
situations:
1. Maintain aircraft control
2. Analyze the situation
3. Take the proper action
The above steps are also priorities. The number 1 step, maintain aircraft control, is
absolutely the number one priority. If you do not continue to fly the airplane, all else is
moot. The autopilot should be considered one of the primary resources to assist in
maintaining aircraft control.
Step number 2 involves a thorough knowledge of your aircraft and its systems. To
analyze a situation, you must first assimilate the information given to you by the aircraft
via CAS messages, warning and caution lights, flight and engine instruments, aircraft
handling, etc. Acknowledge all CAS messages by depressing the master
warning/caution light so that any new messages will illuminate it again.
Step 3 will be determined by step 2. The proper action in some cases may be memory
item execution, while in others, execution of an emergency checklist. It is critical that
the analysis in step 2 be careful and deliberate, so that the action taken in step 3 does
not make the abnormal situation worse (e.g., shutting down the wrong engine).
In most abnormal situations, there will be two possible conclusions—land as soon as
possible or land as soon as practical.
Land As Soon As Possible: Land without delay at the nearest airport where a
safe approach and landing can be accomplished.
Land As Soon As Practical: Landing airport and duration of flight are at the
discretion of the pilot. Extended flight beyond the nearest suitable airport is not
recommended.

Go No-Go Decision

More often than not, the decision to fly or not fly will be determined by the pilot in
command prior to engine start. This decision process is described earlier in this manual
under Risk Assessment/Risk Management.
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