©2017 Mastery Flight Training, Inc. All rights reserved. 1

FLYING LESSONS for July 13, 2017

FLYING LESSONS uses recent mishap reports to consider what might have contributed to accidents, so you can make better decisions if you face similar circumstances. In almost all cases design characteristics of a specific airplane have little direct bearing on the possible causes of aircraft accidents—but knowing how your airplane’s systems respond can make the difference as a scenario unfolds. So apply these FLYING LESSONS to the specific airplane you fly. Verify all technical information before applying it to your aircraft or operation, with manufacturers’ data and recommendations taking precedence. You are pilot in command, and are ultimately responsible for the decisions you make.

FLYING LESSONS is an independent product of MASTERY FLIGHT TRAINING, INC. www.mastery-flight-training.com

Pursue Mastery of Flight™

This week’s LESSONS: The crash of a Cessna 310 onto a freeway in Los Angeles June 30th was caught on camera and broadcast widely in the days that followed. The pilot had reported failure of his right engine very shortly after takeoff, and immediately told tower controllers he was “trying to make it back to the airport.” In the video you can see the Cessna, landing gear down, descending steeply while at a fairly nose-high attitude.

The pilot did maintain enough airspeed to avoid a VMCA loss of control; he impacted wings level, under control at (it appears) the slowest safe speed. The Cessna impacted the freeway surface and exploded. Miraculously, no one on the ground was hurt and both occupants of the airplane survived, reportedly pulled from the burning wreckage by brave motorists. I wish them the very best on a speedy recovery. See http://abcnews.go.com/US/small-plane-crashes-california-freeway/story?id=48377385

Twins and the Impossible Turn The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) calls an early attempt at returning to the airport following an engine failure “the impossible turn”. Numerous published reports and bulletins warn of the danger of attempting an early return. Almost exclusively, talk of the impossible turn focuses on single-engine airplanes…pilots of multiengine aircraft are assumed to be able to climb out on one engine if the other one fails.

What most of us are not taught, however, that immediately turning back is not great advice, and often fatal—even in a twin-engine airplane.

Single-engine advice: Here's what we're generally taught about engine failures on takeoff, from the earliest days of the emergency procedures drill in single-engine airplanes.

1. Lower the nose

2. Aim for best glide speed (or close in to a landing spot, least-rate-of-descent speed), and

3. Make only small turns to aim for the best landing option

Except for very unusual circumstances, you simply won't have the altitude to make it all the way around to line up with the runway.

©2017 Mastery Flight Training, Inc. All rights reserved. 2

Twin-engine advice: Take away one engine immediately after takeoff and not only is performance dramatically reduced, but the engine that is working is doing its best to corkscrew the airplane into the ground. The pilot drill is to do these things:

1. Mixture, prop, throttle (all forward)

2. Gear up, flaps up,

3. Identify (the failed engine), verify (that identification), and feather (the "dead" propeller).

Twin-engine pilots practice, and practice, until the pilot can do it right, consistently. But if we no longer flying single-engine airplanes, maybe we forget the lesson of the impossible turn.

Most light twins will realistically get, at best, a 200- 300-foot-per-minute (fpm) climb rate on one engine, at sea level and near maximum takeoff weight. Think about what that means. At 300 fpm it'll take a little over three minutes to get to pattern altitude. At "blue line" airspeed (best airspeed for single-engine performance, a function of aerodynamic drag) you'll get, say, a mile-and-a-half a minute ground speed during this climb, given the typical 90 to 115 knot blue line speed of a light twin. This assumes a little takeoff headwind component.

However, to climb at all with one prop feathered you need to go straight ahead, or very close to it. In as little as a half-standard-rate turn (less than 15° of bank at these speeds) and flying on a single engine, most light twins will lose about 300 to 400 fpm climb rate from what they'll net climbing straight ahead. That means under the best of circumstances, the airplane will descend on one engine at blue line airspeed, with the gear and flaps up and the dead engine’s propeller feathered.

1.5 miles/minute (90 knots groundspeed) multiplied by three minutes (to climb to pattern altitude) = 4.5 miles covered during climb to what is really the minimum safe altitude at which to level off and begin a turn.

Lose one of your two engines on takeoff and do everything right, and you need to climb straight ahead nearly five miles before trying to turn back to the airport. If terrain, density altitude or imprecise pilot technique contribute, you’ll have to choose another spot to put it

down—not the airport you just departed. Try to turn back sooner and you'll find yourself descending into the ground ... with the temptation to pull back on the yoke as you sink, making engine-out loss of control more likely. Many have died after a propeller is feathered, while trying to return to the departure runway.

(left) Reportedly, the ADS-B track of the Cessna 310 accident airplane’s flight. The pilot began an immediate return to the airport and crashed during a tight turn that was overshooting final approach (from www.flightradar.com).

Single or twin, to survive the loss of an engine you need to PUSH the nose to the correct attitude (blue line, in the case of a twin), and HOLD heading primarily with rudder to keep the bank managed for maximum available performance. PUSH and HOLD, straight ahead or very

©2017 Mastery Flight Training, Inc. All rights reserved. 3

nearly so, until you are at least about traffic pattern height and can accept some altitude loss when you make very small-banked turns to a landing spot. See http://www.flightsafetyaustralia.com/2016/07/push-and-hold/

It’s even more important to remember PUSH and HOLD because of the “startle effect” of being surprised by an unexpected power loss.

We’re even more susceptible to the startle effect because, as I co-wrote with reader Dr. Lorne Sheren in the November 2011 AOPA Pilot, in training pilots are pessimists, looking for problems and ready for emergencies, but in day-to-day flying pilots are optimists, expecting everything to work out as expected. As we wrote (I think this was Dr. Sheren’s part):

The real trick to handling an emergency is realizing you have one in the first place. Then you can apply all your experience and training into handling the emergency. Until the emergency is recognized you are only along for the ride.

It’s our “confirmation bias,” the feeling that things are going to turn out as planned, that leads to momentary confusion and delay when faced with a real-world emergency. By the time we fly through the recognition phase, it takes an aggressive PUSH and an authoritative HOLD to maintain control with ever-weakening control authority as airspeed declines. See https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2011/november/01/technique-pilots-are-pessimists-and-optimists

Departure Alternate (an example) Taking off using Runway 18 at Wichita Colonel James Jabara Airport (KAAO) if I lose an engine just after takeoff, instead of trying to return to Jabara I will make a shallow left turn and land on Beech Field (KBEC). Then I’ll call the tower, declare an emergency and apologize for dropping in.

Another option is to continue straight ahead and make an emergency landing at McConnell Air Force Base. My Air Force experience tells me an unannounced landing at McConnell will result in an enthusiastic response from USAF Security Police rushing to my aid.

I’ll only be ready for either option if I make the decision calmly before takeoff, when I’m not under the pressure of an emergency, then review my decision just before taking off so I don’t have to think before I act.

C310 KSNA The Cessna 310 pilot did not have a departure alternate airport ahead of the airplane when departing KSNA to the southwest. He would have to have planned to climb out straight ahead until reaching a safe maeuvering altitude, probably even crossing the coastline, before turning back to the airport. This would be a long single-engine climbout, and a hard task psychologically to go briefly out to sea on one engine. The climb would be far easier to complete if the pilot decides on the strategy beforehand, and reminded him/herself of that decision just before takeoff.

Before every multiengine takeoff, brief yourself on the need to PUSH and HOLD in the event of an engine failure, and where you will go to make your single-engine landing. That departure alternate may be somewhere other than the airport you took off from, if there’s a better option out ahead.

Just like the so-called impossible turn back to the runway when faced with an engine failure on takeoff in a single, so too we have an impossible turn scenario with an engine failure on

©2017 Mastery Flight Training, Inc. All rights reserved. 4

takeoff in a twin. Train well for this most critical failure in a twin, and make sure you have the discipline to climb to a safe altitude, straight ahead, if you lose one of your engines on takeoff. Comments? Questions? Let us learn from you, at mastery.flight.training@cox.net

See www.pilotworkshop.com/blog/lost-comm?ad-tracking=lost-comm-turn

The End of the Area Forecast Rumors have swirled for years, but now it’s really happening: the text-based Area Forecast(FA) will officially disappear on October 10, 2017, to be replaced by the Graphical Forecast for Aviation (GFA). On the surface, this seems like an inevitable step in the transition from coded text products to graphical, interactive weather maps. But before we relegate the FA to the dustbin of history, we should consider a few important details….

If you don’t subscribe to Air Facts Journal, you should. Aviation legend Dick Collins, up-and-coming instructional giant John Zimmerman and others provide this free weekly e-zine. This week John looks at the transition from the decades-old Area Forecast format to the new, graphics-based briefing product. Read John’s latest and be ready for the new GFA. See: http://aviationweather.gov/areafcst http://aviationweather.gov/gfa www.airfactsjournal.com http://tinyurl.com/AirFactsFA

Please help me cover the costs of providing FLYING LESSONS through the secure PayPal donations button at www.mastery-flight-training.com.

See https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=jMcKFayMMh_ud6KQj8vXXTFJ53cp9ZrBHs8CfhHj24jzsqiF9aTOisrjgUi&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d333dc9aadeed3fe0b5b299d55fd35542

Or send a check to Mastery Flight Training, Inc. to 247 Tiffany Street, Rose Hill, Kansas USA 67133. Thank you, generous supporters.

See http://www.mastery-flight-training.com/be_a_master_pilot.html

Share safer skies. Forward FLYING LESSONS to a friend

Pursue Mastery of Flight

Thomas P. Turner, M.S. Aviation Safety Flight Instructor Hall of Fame 2015 Inductee 2010 National FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year 2008 FAA Central Region CFI of the Year Three-time Master CFI

FLYING LESSONS is ©2017 Mastery Flight Training, Inc. For more information see www.mastery-flight-training.com, or contact mastery.flight.training@cox.net.