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Old 21st December 2013 | 15:25
  #49 (permalink)  
Shaggy Sheep Driver
 
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 3,325
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From: UK
You can't say there always has to be an 'out'.
I can.

In aviation, which is what we're talking about, you should always have an 'out' for foreseeable possible happenings. Obviously if a wing falls off without pilot provocation it just wasn't your day, and there wasn't anything you could have done about it except not fly.

But wings don't just 'fall off'. Perfectly well maintained engines can, and do, fail however. Which is why we train for it happening.

Setting off across the sea behind a single engine is a deliberate aviation decision for which there is no 'out' if the engine fails. Many pilots are happy with that. I used to be and often did it.

I'm not now as I can no longer rationalise betting my life on the engine not failing (every egg in one basket - game over if it doesn't pay off), even though the odds are very greatly that it will continue to run just fine.
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