Fantome (your #8780),
...So this booklet was illustrated by an artist with a pen name like WEG or WEP
There's a Mossie in flight coming head on with both props stopped . .the caption - NEVER FEATHER BOTH TOGETHER...
I suppose it must be a QFI's worst nightmare (never having been one): in a twin he pulls No.1 back just after takeoff, Bloggs in a panic, feathers No.2
Happened many times during the war, and in training since; so they were taught: "Dead leg- Dead engine" (for the benefit of our backseat friends and others, this can never fail, as in the case above the aircraft would yaw savagely to the left, Bloggs instinctively boots right rudder hard on to hold it straight, this leaves his left leg unemployed - ie "Dead": He must feather the left [No.1) engine [and a lot more besides later], but that is life or death in those first few vital seconds).
There are exceptional to the "NEVER TOGETHER" rule. An "Anson" had its u/c well and truly stuck up; pilot would have to land it like that (actually, Anson wheels protrude down slightly when in "up" position - same with DC-3 "Dakotas" - to avoid belly-landing damage as far as possible).
He set up final approach a bit high for a glide landing, shut down both, then cranked the (2-blade) props horizontal with the starter motors. Touched down on runway, no damage at all, they jacked it up, freed the u/c, bird was good as new !...............Smart Lad !
Can't happen today ? Don't you believe it ! Sad case that comes to mind is the Kegwoth disaster in 1989. Now it ill becomes me (or any other pilot) to criticise one of our fellows (for have we all (at times) not thought: "There but for the grace of God..." ? But in this case their actions do seem inexplicable. Reliant on my memory of the reports at the time (although Wiki has a full description), the sequence of events was something like this:
At cruising Flight Level en route to Belfast in a BMI B-737, they felt engine vibration. There were vibration meters on the panel, indicating that the left engine was at fault. But the meters were distrusted (later there was a suggestion that the wirings had been crossed, there had been prior instances of this very thing); rightly or wrongly (and, as it proved, wrongly), they concluded that the right engine was to blame, and shut it down.
But passengers on the left of the cabin had seen flames coming from the left engine. Alarmed, they had called the FAs to see. They saw - but did not tell the pilots (believe
that, if you can).
Meanwhile the crew had called an emergency, requesting immediate diversion and landing. By a happy coincidence, they were abeam East Midlands airport (the Company base). Of course, the left engine would have been pulled back to idle for the descent, so seemed normal. At the final stage of their approach to the airfield, they had to open it up; it failed; desperately they tried to restart the right engine - but ran out of time ! Wiki has a pic showing how close they got - and has the casualty list.
They were at 30,000+ ft, for pity's sake. They had all the time in the world. Why not leave the airway, throttle both back, vibration would stop, then open each in turn and see what happened ? But it's easy to be wise after the event, isn't it ?
Danny.