This lesson was about what to do if the engine fails. We got airborne and for almost 2 hours simulated engine failures by pulling power randomly and seeing how I would respond.
There are 4 categories of engine failure:
1 : Before rotation (rotation means liftoff .. transitioning from ground to flight)
1 : Before rotation (rotation means liftoff .. transitioning from ground to flight)
Response: Pull power, full stop.
2 : Immediately after rotation with enough runway left to set back down
Response: Pull power, touch back down, full stop.
3 : Immediately after rotation without enough runway left to set back down
Response: Pull power, pick an open area ahead and land. This type of failure was recently in the news: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/01/15/usairways.landing/
4 : During higher altitude regular flight
Response: Pull power. Try to restart the engine. If engine won't start, secure the engine, meaning cut off all gas from the engine. In the DA-20 that means 6 things:
-Throttle idle.
-Lean mixture.
-Pull fuel cutoff valve.
-Fuel pump off.
-Mags turned to off.
-Fuel prime to off
-Fuel prime to off
Pitch for optimal glide ratio speed, which in the DA-20 is 73 kts. Find a suitable open area, or nearby airport, and land.
So basically Chris would pull power randomly, I would run through and then I would tell him where I would land. Then I would steer the unpowered (not off, just idle) plane toward that area just like if I intended to land. Obviously, we would not actually land on somebody's property, but we got close enough to tell if I would make it.
We returned to LZU at dusk. It was a crisp, cool beautiful evening for flying. Solo time is coming soon.
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