Hello guys, seems like everyone wants to put their two bobs into this one...
I have read all the posts regarding this event and would like to make a few points that I believe need to be raised. I have got all of about 1hour in a PN68 which is not including the scenic I did across to the Avalon air show many years ago but I think the points are still valid.
How many of us have got several hundred or thousands of hours in one particular aircraft but have noticed that they all fly differently? Yes, even C150's! This is due to a number of reasons. Some of which include:
- wing angle of incidence
- condition of the wing
- engine considerations
- propeller type.
All these and many more factors cause every single aircraft to behave differently. If you don't believe me then you clearly haven't got enough hours in your logbook. So to sit here and argue about whether or not the Partenavia actually has performance on one engine, I believe is pointless. The margin between having performance at MTOW and not with these types of light piston twins is extremely small. Why don't we get some feedback from pilots that have actually flown IYK and other Partenavia's to compare the actual stats? I know for a fact that where I fly we have several of the same type of aircraft and every one of them performs extremely different.
This leads me to my next point... When we were first taught how to fly a twin our instructor hopefully emphasized the importance of "if not obtaining performance, I will close both throttles and land ahead" (hopefully at not too an early stage of the failure though). Has anyone considered that combined with my above statement that the aircraft simply didn't have performance? Or a possible flap failure on retraction? The pilot has recognized this, closed both throttles but ballsed up the landing. How many of you have actually landed on a dried up lake with a possible engine failure under god knows what conditions and not damaged the aircraft? I say a credit to the pilot at this stage
As for the person who ruled out a double engine failure. Although unlikely, it does happen. We typically run the outbaord tanks dry and quite frequent experience the drop in fuel pressure occurring within seconds of each engine.
So I guess my point is (finally) that we cannot say what actually happend we can only speculate.