Hi all
I have some 8000hrs of great flying in the PA31-350 and not once did the old girl give me a scare. There were 5 PA31,s in the fleet and were about the same with build dates from 74 through 82.
I admit that it has been a few years since i flew one but do remember most of the operational requirments of it.
TORUK
The prop governor is controlled by oil pressure and fly weights. If you had a complete loss of oil quantity, very quickly , the prop will feather without you doing anything due to the lack of oil pressure. The only way the prop locks will work to keep the prop fine is if the engine gets below 800 rpm. If that happens then the prop will not feather. I have seen this happen to one of the aircraft after a fuel fire and the Pilot put the aircraft into a dive to put it out after shutting of the fire wall shut off valve, he did not feather the prop. When he pulled out of the dive to gain some height back, he then tried to feather to prop but it was stuck in fine. The only way to get it to feather would be to restart the engine to get it above 800rpm.
The out come of this was that with a shut down engine, and a prop not feathered he could not hold height and the landing on a rough road took out the undercarrage.
717tech
As for the gear and hyd pump check you are correct and i did this on every flight.
There has been a lot of talk about the lack of performance on one engine.
I have had a number of shutdowns over that 8000 hrs and not once have i been not able to hold height on one, on hot days and heavy loads.One of the shutdowns was on climb when a seal and a vac pump let go and pumped all the oil out of the right engine, which started the prop into feather before i started to pull the prop lever. I was able to turn back some 70 nm out and climb to 7000ft as i had to cross 50nm water, and was was able to hold that alt all the way back.
43Inches
Your comments as i see it are correct.
As for assymetric flap, i cant remember having a problem, but the aircraft were well looked after