Pilot DAR
Every year in North America there are several smoking holes beside runways caused by light twins which have crashed after loss of an engine and then the subsequent low speed loss of control. I firmly believe that whether or not they would have had a actual VMC demonstration or one where VMC was demonstrated at a higher speed by limiting rudder travel, would have any bearing on the outcome.
These crashes were not caused by not using enough rudder they were invariably caused by failing to maintain airspeed and then when the aircraft started to roll and yaw by failing to reduce power on the operating engine and lowering the nose to maintain airspeed and thus control.
Instructing is not like flying a typical test card, where one facet of the aircrafts' performance is evaluated and care is taken to remove as many variables as possible. Instructional exercises only have value IMO if they are part of holistic continuum of consistent standardized flight profiles, SOP's, pilot decision making points, airmanship, and syllabus that guides the student towards the ability, at any stage of the flight, to understand what the aircraft should be doing and if it isn't; to have the skill and knowledge to recognize this and take appropriate corrective action.
Therefore IMO the primary purpose of the VMC demo should not be to prove that the VMC certification airspeed value is correct or have the student experience the range of rudder travel. Instead IMO the VMC demo should be to demonstrate what happens if a decreasing airspeed trend is not
recognized and arrested and the importance of reducing power and lowering the nose at the the first sign of loss of directional control. As I have said earlier this can be just as convincingly done at a higher safer airspeed by limiting rudder travel.
I have wound up monopolizing this thread, which was not my intent and is probably boring most readers of this thread, so how about we agree to disagree on this one
