Cessna 414 Down in Santa Ana, California
3:24:53. At this point, watch his flight track. Trouble. This looks like a loss of engine(s).
What time, precisely, was his Mayday?
What jumps to mind is a pair of piston engines at eleven thousand feet for two hours, temp stabilized, being “cooled” by relatively thin air. What follows is a descent into lower level, where air is thicker, cools better, and is in a marine environment.
Shock cooling. The bane of all piston pilots. These engines need close monitoring in descent. At low power, rapidly cooling, things can break. It wouldn’t be the first time an engine gave up completely. And losing both has happened.
What time, precisely, was his Mayday?
What jumps to mind is a pair of piston engines at eleven thousand feet for two hours, temp stabilized, being “cooled” by relatively thin air. What follows is a descent into lower level, where air is thicker, cools better, and is in a marine environment.
Shock cooling. The bane of all piston pilots. These engines need close monitoring in descent. At low power, rapidly cooling, things can break. It wouldn’t be the first time an engine gave up completely. And losing both has happened.
Last edited by Concours77; 14th Aug 2018 at 20:02.
I’m not very familiar with a 414 but some of these Cessna medium size twins have complex fuel systems.
Inboard/outboard tanks, some tip tanks and some with nacelle tanks. Fuel returning to a different tank then it came from and all different capacities.
STC’s can make one plane significantly different from another.
Transfer pumps that transfer at a rate which is less then the engine fuel consumption at a high power setting so yes it’s possible to starve both engines of fuel while you have plenty on board.
Inboard/outboard tanks, some tip tanks and some with nacelle tanks. Fuel returning to a different tank then it came from and all different capacities.
STC’s can make one plane significantly different from another.
Transfer pumps that transfer at a rate which is less then the engine fuel consumption at a high power setting so yes it’s possible to starve both engines of fuel while you have plenty on board.
Last edited by B2N2; 15th Aug 2018 at 02:29.
This particular 414 came standard with two tanks per wing, tip tank and an aux tank in the wing. To this could be added a locker tank. The later 414A had just an integral tank in each wing, simplifying management. The diagram is for a 310, which is a similar system to the 414. Had sufficient tip fuel not been burnt initially it was possible, if you switched to the aux, to lose fuel via the tip vent as the tank overfilled with engine return fuel, or when transferring to the tip from the locker tank. You wanted to transfer the locker tank early in the flight to ensure that the pumps worked and did transfer, bearing in mind the previous necessity to have room for it in the tip.
Last edited by megan; 15th Aug 2018 at 03:31.
