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Old 17th Aug 2010, 14:53
  #147 (permalink)  
Chuck Ellsworth
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Vancouver Island
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Statistics can be interesting when offered to support a belief system.

At least 80% of all engine failures are a direct result of the actions or inactions of the pilot.
Thinking back on my career I can recall having at least eight engine failures, non of which would fall into the above statistic.

Two were fuel controller failures on PT6's.

Three were catastrophic break up of the engine on P&W 1830's.

Three were fuel lines becoming blocked resulting in engines quitting........in one case I lost both engines on a Navajo IFR at night and lucked in by finding a hole in the cloud deck with an airport in sight, allowing me to land on a runway and wait to get towed to a hangar.

I have had to do several other precautionary engine shut downs due to problems such as failed cylinders etc. to prevent the engines from possibly failing due to metal contamination from the failed cylinders.

Try as I may I can not recall ever having an engine failure that resulted in an emergency landing due to my inaction's or lack thereof.

So would the above experiences be worthy of starting another statistics record to quote?

Or was I just lucky?
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