Originally Posted by
43Inches
I flew a number of well maintained chiefs on mostly passenger charter and some RPT. They were always very reliable and safe. I know more than a few that are in pretty bad shape doing freight work and outback. That might be the ones you would feel 'at risk' in.
I did the endorsement back in the ole days where the instructor pulled the mixture and you actually feathered and landed 1 inop. It handled well on one engine…
Yes, my feelings were probably not related to the aircraft themselves. The ones I flew were in good condition and very well maintained (this was 20+ years ago).
I think it was because every takeoff was at max weight and we were flying out of very hot locations virtually every day, and I knew those engines were working to their absolute limit.
But apart from one return to the departure field 5 minutes after takeoff due to oil streaming out of the left engine they were pretty reliable aircraft, to be fair.
Every twin endorsement I did ended in the way you describe. The last one was more than fifteen years ago so maybe things are done differently now.