Flying tip #1 - Engine Failures

With the recent happenings at Heathrow and the Boeing 777 apparently losing all power on approach resulting in a forced landing short of the runway, I thought it might be useful to cover a quick tip I learned when practicing engine failure's for my PPL

There is nothing more terrifying than losing an engine in a plane - especially if that is the only one you have. Losing an engine close to the ground is especially terrifying (know as a 'fanstop' during practice), as one's instinctive reaction is to lift the nose to keep the plane from plummeting earthwards. This, however, is exactly the wrong thing to do. Lifting the nose will cause the speed to bleed off which, just after a take-off, will more than likely lead to a stall. At that altitude this can be fatal (look what an effective stall at about 40 feet did to that 777 - ripped the wheels off and shredded the engines and most of the left inboard wing)

The key thing is to find your ideal glide speed (usually around 71 knots in a Piper but check your operating handbook for precise figures) then focus on where you're going to land the aircraft.

At higher altitudes, an engine failure can be just as devastating, but you do have more time to concentrate and react. This can mean giving you time to find a better landing spot, attempting engine restarts and calling in a Mayday.

So when attempting engine failure practice from altitude, here is today's Flying Tip "Every 1000 feet or so, open the throttle fully to get fuel flowing through and keep the engine running" the last thing you want is to complete your practise engine failure, get to 500 feet and find you're engine has gummed up, or lack of carb heat has created ice in the intake. You are then in a real engine failure situation and now only 500 feet up.

Very scary!