ChuckE
I would have to agree with Angel´s One Fife second paragraph. I would think it extremely foolish to purposely demonstrate something outside the flight manual limitations and more over how do you justify that to a student?
I should have added to my previous post that aircraft doing regular shutdowns should be new(ish) - I don’t know of any recent radial powered designs. I guess my point was, I would select the aircraft I did regular shutdowns in carefully.
On a light training twin that I regularly use to conduct shutdowns as part of ME conversions my thoughts on unfeathering are as follows (and no doubt I am putting myself to the slaughter); get the prop windmilling / engine turning, introduce some fuel and if nothing is wrong mechanically the engine will fire.
Problems could occur with the unfeathering mechanism (and in my opinion I would favor a hydraulic device over an electrical one because I think a malfunction with an electrical device is more likely) which should be covered by my mechanical condition of the aircraft requirement. Lets say the but the blades don’t fully unfeather (and therefore are not rotating) but are free to move); cranking the engine using the starter is sufficient to get the blades rotating and failing this (it would have to be an unlucky day) my 3000’ AGL requirement allows me to trade height for speed and the increased airflow through the blades begins rotation (typical height loss 300’ - 800’ and I make this a demonstration during training). Should something go wrong with the engine still operating then I back myself from 3000’ AGL to restart the one I have shutdown and return to base (feathering the one that is now causing real problems).
I conduct approx 3 shutdowns for every student and give them slightly different scenarios for each - reduced pwr setting prior to shutdown, engine on fire, failure during cruise etc. I also include actual fuel cross-feed with one engine shutdown during training.
Quote: “If we use the mindset that a student must experience the sensation and sight........”
It’s not the sensation and sight of stationary blades I consider most important. If I had to put it into a statement I would say it is the decisions/actions associated with and decision/actions that follow the shutdown. It surprised me (and still does) how many students fail to do something as basic as increase power or reduce drag or why they ‘fight’ the aircraft because they have not trimmed rudder/elevator/aileron when handling an actual shutdown for the first time. There are also many students who handle everything at a level well above their experience but it is the former that I am most satisfied with because you can bet the improvement displayed after making a dubious decision the first time, is ten fold when given another chance - something that is only possible during training.
I agree in part with your comment about personal safety limits. No instructor should contemplate doing something with a student that they don’t feel competent in themselves - the student has put their life in your hands.
For the ME shutdown case, in my opinion provided suitable precautions are taken, the benefits outweigh the exclusion during initial conversion training.
AML