Originally Posted by
Xeptu
well I'll say it, drpixie, how does one feather a piston engine prop in much less than 15 seconds
Note that you're expecting the "failure" (and you'll see your instructor's hand reaching for the mixture) so there should be no "surprise" time (unlike real life):
- you keep the aircraft straight with normal controls (primarily rudder) and notice the failure - 1 second
- mix, pitch, power UP - one hand, one second
- identify "dead leg" - one second
- confirm by closing throttle - one second
- identify and pull the pitch to feather - one second
- then check gear & flaps & blue line
with minor variations in order depending on the aircraft (check your POH & SOPs).
That makes it about five seconds - I wouldn't care if it takes a little longer as long as the aircraft is flown for good performance (blue line), no significant loss of altitude, and you don't take the wrong engine!
For average small & medium twins, you should be able to do that quite mechanically and without loosing any altitude. If you are loosing altitude, or getting below blue line, then I don't want my family in the aircraft with you - because real engine failures do happen.
And
Tarq57,
Lose an engine below about 500-1000... I absolutely agree - got to be familiar with your aircraft and should have a "committed" height nominated - below that, you're going to land somewhere.
Too all up-and-coming multi-engine pilots - you're moving into a more serious regime - bigger, faster, more powerful aircraft with more pax. You've got to learn from other people mistakes because sometimes you'll only get one chance. So be very familiar with some kind of take-off briefing, Vmc, sensible initial climb attitude & speed, after T/O decision point, before landing committed point, actions to perform on engine failure before & after decision point. There are a couple of quite good multi-engine books, available at more pilot shops. If your instructor doesn't know & stress these things, find another one.