take over, lower the nose, mixture rich and the engine fires back to life instantly.
What beautiful confidence. It was only a few years ago when a Seneca 3 crashed and caught fire at Tyabb. The instructor cut the mixture on one engine while joining the circuit with a student on her initial twin endorsement.
However, instead of restoring the mixture to rich after the student had correctly identified the engine "failure," the instructor purposely left the mixture at idle cut-off and told the student to fly the asymmetric circuit with the propeller windmilling with lots of drag. He told her to assume the prop would not feather.
On final, he told the student to conduct a touch and go on two engines, because after touch down he would place the mixture of the failed engine to rich so the student would have full power available on both engines for the touch and go.
After touch down the instructor placed the failed engine mixture to rich and the student advanced both throttles. The Seneca yawed strongly into the previously "failed" engine and left the strip. The instructor took over control from the student but was unable to control the yaw. The aircraft hit an obstacle in long grass near the strip and caught fire after coming to a stop. Apart from some minor burns to her skin the student was unhurt nor was the instructor. But the instructor felt a bit bloody stupid.
By allowing the propeller of the `failed` engine to windmill all the way around the circuit the injector lines were starved of fuel and when the instructor opened the mixture control to rich after touch-down for the touch and go, there was fuel starvation.
take over, lower the nose, mixture rich and the engine fires back to life instantly?
Well that may have been the plan but it didn't work that time
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