PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Turning off the donkey in flight. Yes or No?
Old 15th September 1999 | 13:09
  #8 (permalink)  
Checkboard
25 Anniversary
 
Joined: Aug 1998
: ATPL
Posts: 6,623
Likes: 847
From: Ex-pat Aussie in the UK
Unhappy

It depends on your definitions: "turning off the engine" can mean simply pulling the mixture for a practice engine failure.

That is a required part of light aircraft training! Glide approaches from base - as the Practice Forced Landing is rarely completed to landing in a paddock, I would have done this with every student.

Turning off the mags (switching off the keys) is a little rarer - removing the keys is stupidity, as it serves no training purpose.

Stopping the prop? I was introduced to this in my aerobatic rating, and it happens as a matter of course in a power off spin in a Robin (at least the one I fly) so it has a positive training value to demonstrate restarts to students who intend to fly aerobatics - both with the starter motor and using a dive start technique.

I wouldn't stop the prop for a glide approach and landing, though, as I cannot see any training benefit over a glide approach with a windmilling prop - and a much larger risk increase, as in the "remove the key" case.
Checkboard is offline