Engine Failure Drills

[Flyingspaniard]

Too much thinking not enough doing!

Disagree with some of the comments here, not in the technical reasoning behind the actions, but more in the faith in the abilities of a student or newbie to think logically in the face of a real emergency. I think too much emphasis is put on teaching a certain order of checks and on fault diagnosis whilst suffering engine failure.

I believe that when thinking capacity decreases i.e. in an emergency, pilots will revert back to the procedures they learnt when they first trained. It has been proven in many an AAIB report that this is the case. Therefore I think its better to drum into a student a drill that works well in all situations so that when he's 5hitting himself with an engine failure he has an automatic drill to fall back on.

For the restarts I like the US approach of teaching the sweep checks (the student moves his arm from bottom left (fuel starvation being the primary cause of engine failure - as opposed to rough running) up and around to the throttle quadrant and then down to between the front seats, performing the necessary actions as he works his way around) as these work well in many aircraft from Cessnas to Arrows and placing your hands on the controls will jog the memory too.

I have seen from both sides the differences in people (including myself) who think they are simulating a failure and those that think they are in a real situation. I myself never panicked when doing my training and usually got the PFLs about right finding my field and completing the checks. However when it happened for real on my second flight as a newly qualified PPL, the adrenalin was really pumping and I certainly didn't have spare capacity for asking questions about whether I should operate the starter or not; is the oil pressure too low causing the engine to stop windmilling; do I operate carb heat first, second, or third; is there smoke coming from the left or the right etc. All I could remember was my instructor saying trim for the glide, where's the wind, pick a field, do your restarts etc. Trying to do the restart checks, I recall how difficult I found it to remember what came where. My PPL instuctor always said to me the engine needs fuel, a spark and air. So when doing the checks I went to the mixture (normal), alternator? (it was on! don't ask why I checked this), throttle, finally carb heat which cured the problem. And I have also seen PPLs on a check ride trying to do restart checks during EFATO.

The point I'm trying to make is that yes all these options are open to us and its good to discuss the why's and think about them here on pprune in a calm state of mind. When you have time to think you'd expect most student pilots of average ability to come to the same conclusions.

In the air, unless you're experienced you'll not have the capacity to think about these things and discern from the symptoms what actions to perform first. You'll just have to perform them quickly and properly.

In my first incident according to how I was taught, I should have thought, fuel - ah well thats the fuel valve, fuel pump on, proper tank selected, primer in and locked, mixture rich. A spark - obviously meant magnetos, but I for some reason was thinking about the alternator, finally air - throttle and carb. I was supposed to think these through logically but I didn't - my mind farted and by trial and error I eventually got to the problem.

My instructor during checkflights did something that I now do from time to time which may be controversial but certainly gets the point accross. On the way back from the GH exercise at a good altitude I'll quietly turn the cessna's fuel valve to the half way position. Engine starts to run rough after about 10secs, and I will look just as surprised as the pilot being checked. Some people will go to their drills and execute the actions perfectly, others will have seen me close the valve and they too will not have any problems, however on four or five occasions I've seen them completely forgetting the picking of a field, leaving the speed at 90 knots, rush through random checks missing out a couple of vital ones before attempting to make a mayday at which point of course I stop them and turn the fuel back on.

I do agree about carb heat being necessary as it is one of the first causes of a rough running engine, however although the engine could stop in the very worst case I think it highly unlikely and so I'm not overly concerned with there being no exhaust heat if he leaves the carb till his second or third restart check. I teach that carb ice should be assumed anytime you have to alter the throttle settings, where MP or RPM have reduced from what it was set at. I harp on about carb heat on every flight with repeated nagging about doing Fredas every ten - fifteen minutes or after every waypoint whichevers sooner and they should include the full engine checks i.e. Carb ice, Ts and Ps, Alternator, Suction and fuel px (first 1 and last 3 often left out). I often criticise the check itself where a student will leave Carb H on for 3 sec and then turn it off again leaving nowhere near enough time to melt any ice.

In conclusion I say leave the logical fault diagnosis to those who have the experience and know how to come to the right decisions in an emergency. But for those that are students going first solo xcountry or inexperienced PPLs let them be "thinking" before an emergency (good checks and situational awareness can't be emphasised enough) or when they're safe on the ground after the event. I'll feel better knowing that in an emergency the student I've signed off to go xcountry will remember simple automatic drills that will work even if at the time they can't remember why they are doing them. The more capacity they have for flying and landing safely the better.