Originally Posted by
BackPacker
But a second consideration is that a windmilling engine *might* spontaneously restart itself. (For instance, just suppose there's a slug of water in the lines or maybe vapour lock. With the engine running it might eventually be sucked through.) But a stopped engine definitely will not.
That is why I teach that a forced approach has 2 parts. The first part is after the aircraft is trimmed for the glide and pointed towards a suitable spot the priority is get the engine going again. Once the cause checks have proven fruitless than the second part commences with the shut down check to secure the engine. This will prevent it from restarting at an awkward moment and minimise the posibilty of a post crash fire. At this point the pilot concentrates on flying the aircraft to a safe landing and doesn't touch any engine controlls.
As an aside I was thoughly rubbished in the instructor forum for getting my students to verbalize the EFATO actions while the aircaft is still on the runway, one of which is to retard the throttle to idle. I know of one aircraft that was destroyed after the pilot failed to do exactly that. The aircraft was taking off on a relatively short strip when the engine failed at about 40 knots. The pilot stomped on the brakes and just as the aircraft was starting to slow the engine roared back to life at full throttle, the pilot then released the brakes only to see the engine die again. By this time there was not enough room left to stop and the aircraft broke its back when it tumbled into a ditch at the end of the runway.