Altitude? Or Speed?

Last year, I flew maybe 40 hours in piston twins, building time and getting through a checkride. With a bunch of experience in the IFR system flying high-performance singles, keeping up with the twins I was flying-and planning ahead and managing their systems, even in the busiest airspace-was relatively easy. Performing the engine-failure drills, the VMC and drag demonstrations, and practicing various other systems failures also were relatively easy, thanks to my experience in complex airplanes.

Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Monday, January 09, 2017 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Multi-engine aircraft flying fundamentally differs from single-engine, prioritizing maintaining airspeed above a minimum (blueline) for safety and control following an engine failure, rather than relying on altitude for glide time.
Initial multi-engine pilot training, particularly exercises involving simulated engine failures, is identified as an inherently high-risk activity for both flight instructors and students.
A fatal 2015 Piper Apache crash during multi-engine training, which involved a simulated engine shutdown, exemplified the critical dangers of in-flight loss of control during these complex procedures.

See a mistake? Contact us.

Last year, I flew maybe 40 hours in piston twins, building time and getting through a checkride. With a bunch of experience in the IFR system flying high-performance singles, keeping up with the twins I was flying—and planning ahead and managing their systems, even in the busiest airspace—was relatively easy. Performing the engine-failure drills, the VMC and drag demonstrations, and practicing various other systems failures also were relatively easy, thanks to my experience in complex airplanes.

The hardest part of it all was thinking in terms of staying ahead of the eventual engine failure, real or simulated. It wasn’t that difficult to adopt the basic mantra of flying a piston twin: stay above the airspeed indicator’s blueline speed at all times, except when landing. If an engine fails while airborne at or near the redline, you’ll either lose control of the airplane or must reduce power on the good engine and accept a negligible or negative climb rate until drag is reduced, power is restored or both.