Aircraft

The engine lost power entirely for five to six seconds. We quickly cycled the throttle, engaged the fuel pump, and switched fuel tanks. When the engine started back up, it felt unreliable.

While I was tying down my airplane, the lead pilot from the flight of two aerobatic airplanes drove up and introduced himself. He informed me that I had been party to a near miss on the downwind leg. I apparently cut off another airplane and that airplane descended below my flight path. I never saw another airplane in the pattern.

As the student began the turn, they spotted nearby traffic to the southeast and the SkyWatch system alerted us to the presence of the same altitude traffic.

With forceful takeover of the controls, immediate full power was commanded and we began to maneuver to avoid contacting the ground and the B737 holding between the runways. Aircraft was on a collision course with the B737’s left wing, which was narrowly avoided after regaining controlled flight by a margin of 20-50 feet from the B737 and 15-30 feet from the ground.

I couldn’t takeoff and have enough vertical clearance over the helicopter, so I applied maximum braking to avoid a head-on collision with the helicopter. Both main tires blew out and I shut down the engine on the runway.

As acting PIC I regret to say it was pilot error that caused the engine failure.

He mentioned that this occurrence had been beneficial to all in the tower because they were training new controllers.