User Guide

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IT’S QUIET OUT THERE…TOO QUIET…
Okay, fun’s over (or, depending on your outlook, about to start):
Our first exercise will be a relatively innocuous engine fail-
ure, at altitude and in cruise configuration. Climb the airplane (or
slew the simulator) up to 5000 feet or so, set up a medium cruise
condition at around 30 in. Hg/2300 RPM, and get the airplane
trimmed up. Satisfied? Okay, pull the right mixture control all the
way back to idle cutoff.
The airplane will immediately yaw and roll to the right, so
get on the controls and get it leveled out again. You’ll find your-
self holding considerable left aileron and rudder pressure, and
that rudder pressure is the key way to determine which engine has
failed: “Dead Foot, Dead Engine.” In other words, at this point,
you could take your right foot off the rudders and the situation
wouldn’t get any worse - but relax your left foot, and the airplane
will yaw to the right.
This is the first item in the classic engine-failure check,
which in its entirety is “Identify; Verify; Feather; Configure;
Secure.” Actually, some pilots have come to grief by getting fixat-
ed on any of these steps; a more correct checklist would read,
“FLY THE AIRPLANE; Identify; FLY THE AIRPLANE; Verify; FLY
THE AIRPLANE; Feather; FLY THE AIRPLANE; Configure; FLY THE
AIRPLANE; Secure; and, last but far from least, FLY THE AIR-
PLANE.” All the skill in the world at figuring out which engine has
failed and getting it shut down will be of little avail if, in the mean-
time, you let the airplane get away from you.
Okay, you’ve identified the dead engine by noting which
foot you don’t have to use. Be aware that this check is only valid
if you have the airplane reasonably straight and level, so - at the
risk of repeating myself-–FLY THE AIRPLANE. The next step is to
verify that you have, indeed, chosen the right engine, since feath-
ering an engine is pretty irrevocable (at least in the short term).
Feathering the one good engine you have left is not conducive to
prolonged flight. How do we verify? By closing the throttle on
what we think is the dead engine. If, indeed, it’s dead, things
won’t get any worse. If it’s the good engine, you’ll know right
away! If this had happened “for real” near the ground, you’d also
want to verify that you had every available pony working for you,
so you’d move all the power levers all the way forward.
In many light airplanes, the quick way to do this is to put the
flat of your hand across the back of all six and just shove Up here
in cruise, we don’t have to do that - but it’s a good habit pattern
to have when the chips are down.
Now we can go ahead and feather the engine. Take a good
long look at the power levers to make sure you’ve grabbed the
correct one, and bring the prop lever briskly all the way back. The
engine will twirl to a halt, often with a bit of shuddering and shak-
ing - but the airplane will seem to come back to life with the elim-
ination of all that drag.
Next, we’ll configure the airplane for continued single-
engine flight. This means that we’ll get rid of all excess drag, first
of all by retracting the landing gear and flaps. “But they’re already
up,” I hear you cry. True enough, up here at cruise - but making
these “cleanup” items part of your automatic response to an
engine failure means they’ll be there when you need them (and
you will in just a few more minutes!). Configuring also means
dialing in enough rudder trim to relieve the load on your "live”
leg, which might be getting pretty tired by now. It also helps to
bank into the good engine - “raise the dead” - by about five
degrees; the skid ball should be about halfway out of its little cage
in the turn coordinator. Use all three trim wheels until the airplane
flies straight and level, hands off, on one engine.
Finally, we’ll secure the dead engine - i.e, set things up for
a prolonged shutdown. Close its cowl flaps all the way - after all,
it’s not putting out any heat! Turn off its emergency fuel pump,
then its magnetos. Set its fuel selector to the center OFF position.
Finally, check the CHT on the good engine, and adjust its cowl
flaps if necessary. Take your time through all of these steps - after
all, the airplane is flying okay by now - and be sure you’re doing
them to the correct engine.
Flight Instruction
Flight Instruction