In order to stay current, any flight simulator is more than useful to safely practice various type of catastrophic situations without spending any money. Today we will take a look at an in-flight engine failure scenario.
Always be prepared to quickly recognize and handle an in-flight engine failure. Every second lost could put you away from a safe landing particularly if the failure happens at a quite low altitude.
The following scenario and the vital actions described below should be part of your muscles memory that will trigger the appropriate actions to save your virtual life.
Assuming you are flying a Cessna 172SP at 3,000 ft AGL and a sudden engine failure occurs. How should you react?
1. Vital actions to ensure everything in the cockpit is set as it is supposed to be:
Fuel pump ON
Mixture FULL RICH
Fuel shut off valve IN
Fuel selector BOTH
Mags CYCLE
Then if engine does not recover, execute the ABCDE actions:
A Airspeed 68 KNOTS (glidespeed)
B Best field (locate appropriate field to land)
C Check systems
D Declare
E Exit (don't jump out of the plane at this stage 😆)
A and B are performed simultaneously.
C is the emergency checklist as follow:
Mixture FULL RICH
Fuel shut off valve IN
Fuel selector BOTH
Fuel Pump ON
Propeller turning MAGS BOTH
Propeller not turning MAGS START
Note: if you are low, you will most likely not have the time to pull your emergency checklist out, reason why the vital actions are memory based actions. In this case proceed directly to the step D below if no recovery of the engine.
If no recovery, then D as Declare: "Mayday, Mayday, Maday, ident and position, if possible souls on board and fuel left".
Then E as Exit to prepare exit the plane quickly and to limit risks of fire:
Mixture IDLE CUT OUT
Fuel shut off valve PULL
Mags OFF
Battery OFF when flaps are set. Remember that flaps need electricity to be deployed (landing with full flaps is always the best option to get the shortest landing roll).
Doors OPEN (if the cabin is damaged due to a hard touchdown, the doors may be difficult to open because of potential deformations of the cockpit cabin).
At last but not least, you should always aim for a high tight base and to manage your airspeed you always have 3 useful tools to bleed airspeed when needed:
1. Flaps
2. Approach geometry:
-Too low= turn to the field
-Too high= extend base leg
3. Forward slip
I summarized all those vital actions in a cheat sheet for the Cessna 172 SP that you can download if you wish.
Stay current and take advantage of the sim to practice those scenarios regularly. That's always fun (when simulated of course 😁) and a good habit as pilot either real or virtual to keep doing those.
Have safe flights Captains!
TIPAH
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