Engine Failure in Flight

[eljefe]

You guys may appreciate the procedure an instructor I knew years ago used to teach for dealing with an engine failure in a single engine airplane at night:

Upon engine failure at night:

1) Set up for best rate of glide speed.

2) Head for an area that looks suitable for landing.

3) Check carb heat, fuel selector, ignition, etc.

4) When you get down close to the ground, turn on your landing light. If you don't like what you see...turn it back off!

:beer:

 

[Cutlass1287]

In that particular case, you created the engine failure by closing the throttle. Had you opened the throttle again and resupplied the engine with fuel and air, you may have experienced a restart. By applying carburetor heat with full power for ten or fifteen seconds prior to power reduction, you would have avoided the situation).

The most conducive condition to the formation of ice is when the airflow is highest and the temp drop the greatest; high power settings (for venturi icing). Icing with the throttle completely closed occurs adjacent and just downstream of the throttle plate as the gap between the plate and wall is blocked, and the idle jet is occluded.

Generally speaking, idle descents in a piston airplane are bad form.

Well, it happened abeam the numbers in a 152, and when I reduced the power to 1700 rpm (not idle) it started to cough, so I flew a tight pattern at idle power and landed, and then burned off the ice on the ground. I didn't see any point in trying to fix it in the air, as I had the runway made.

 

[BLing]

...I have always been taught to immeadiately pitch for Best Glide when the engine fails, and then start looking for a place to land and turning. After you have that under control, you start running your restart checklist, and then your shutdown checklist.

Now I am at a school where they want you to immeadiately run your checklist, and then if it wont restart pitch for best glide, and look for a place to land and turn.

How were you guys taught? How would you do it in an emergency as PIC?

Your school is retarded!

 

[Lead Sled]

How would you handle this scenario?

Here's the scenario: You're in cruise at 7,500'; you've been running "a little too long" on the left tank; you notice a fluctuation in fuel pressure and the engine surges and quits.

Really guys, how would you handle this scenario?

'Sled

 

[Lead Sled]

You guys may appreciate the procedure an instructor I knew years ago used to teach for dealing with an engine failure in a single engine airplane at night:

Upon engine failure at night:

1) Set up for best rate of glide speed.

2) Head for an area that looks suitable for landing.

3) Check carb heat, fuel selector, ignition, etc.

4) When you get down close to the ground, turn on your landing light. If you don't like what you see...turn it back off!

Your instructor left out the the most important step...

5) Bend over, put your head between your knees and kiss your sweet fanny goodbye.

'Sled

 

[acaTerry]

I have had 5 failures and a fire. My best advice to solve this question...don't wait until the failure to start looking for a place to land.

 

[USMCmech]

Here's the scenario: You're in cruise at 7,500'; you've been running "a little too long" on the left tank; you notice a fluctuation in fuel pressure and the engine surges and quits.

Really guys, how would you handle this scenario?

Switch to the right tank,

Yawn,

Watch the engine resume making power (per the certification requirements this must occur in less than 20 seconds),

Return to my crossword puzzle

 

[VNugget]

In that particular case, you created the engine failure by closing the throttle. Had you opened the throttle again and resupplied the engine with fuel and air, you may have experienced a restart.

In this situation, wouldn't it be wiser to just land? Let's just say the failure wasn't due to carb ice, but rather due to an unknown mechanical reason. Seems foolish to try to get a restart, and, upon getting a restart, fly out of glide range of the runway only to risk another failure, as opposed to landing on the runway that he already had made.

(Avbug? You've flown enough different aircraft; certainly far more than me. With my limited experience, I have never come across a single that didn't approximate best glide by simply putting it into a cruise level pitch attitude. Have you?)

Attitude doesn't necessarily correspond to speed or glide ratio, in call cases. It's true that if you start out at a cruise condition and cut the power, you can hold that attitude and the plane may slow down and settle into a good glide speed; but even in the same plane, if you start off way slow, you can put it in a cruise attitude and it can be sinking like a manhole cover. I wouldn't depend on just one sense to judge the situation, but look at the totality of the picture. If the plane's in level attitude, but I can't hear the wind and the stick's way back in my lap and soft as a sponge, something's wrong here.

 

[avbug]

In this situation, wouldn't it be wiser to just land? Let's just say the failure wasn't due to carb ice, but rather due to an unknown mechanical reason. Seems foolish to try to get a restart, and, upon getting a restart, fly out of glide range of the runway only to risk another failure, as opposed to landing on the runway that he already had made.

I said nothing of the sort. However, there's no need to land if you have carburetor ice and solve your icing problem, is there? If we executed a forced landing every time we experienced a bit of carburetor ice, the land would be littered with airplanes.

If you have a partially occluded carburetor or induction, and experience an engine failure by closing the throttle...opening it and finding that it still runs isn't a bad thing, and it's far better if one does intend to land to have the power and the option available.

What could possibly be the downside?

Well, it happened abeam the numbers in a 152, and when I reduced the power to 1700 rpm (not idle) it started to cough, so I flew a tight pattern at idle power and landed, and then burned off the ice on the ground. I didn't see any point in trying to fix it in the air, as I had the runway made.

Sounds reasonable to me.