I notice in various syllabus of type rating and recurrent training in jet transport simulators, that loss of thrust on both engines is included. It is a QRH item. The checklist always assumes one engine comes good and its a happy ending. Box ticked.. Next sequence please.
But what if either engine cannot be restarted? It has happened. Then you have no choice but (force) land at the nearest airport/flat ground/ocean. That being so, how come airline pilot simulator training does not include a practice dead stick landing (say) from 25,000 feet? After all it has happened over the years. We spend endless simulator hours on LOFT exercises as well as probably 90 percent of simulator training being on automatics. Repeat ad nauseum each cyclic training.
In fact, unless you have experienced this event (dead stick forced landing) in a simulator several times (there is considerable judgement skill required) the chances of crashing are high. Indeed very high. Granted, simulator time is not a revenue generator. But what training is allotted needs to be prioritised. Automation practice is fine. But a pilot gets that in line flying for 95 percent of his career. The weak link in the chain is invariably the crew as we have seen countless times. No pilot can reasonably claim he can successfully force land a jet or turboprop airliner at first go. It requires manual flying at its most skilful. Yet no priority is allotted for crews to practice a dead stick approach and landing from altitude.
Last edited by sheppey; 17th Aug 2016 at 15:25.