Engine-Out Energy Management

Moreover, the FAAs Airman Certification Standards (ACS) for private and commercial certificates specify that pilots are to have knowledge of EM concepts for many maneuvers. They include emergency approach and landing, soft-field/rough-field landing, normal approach and landing, short-field landing, various types of water landings, power-off 180-degree accuracy approach and landing and go-around/rejected landing. The word knowledge implies pilots should have, at least, a basic understanding of EM concepts and be able to apply these concepts to tasks in the FAAs ACS.

Michael J. Banner

Saturday, August 31, 2019 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Energy management (EM), controlling an aircraft's total energy (altitude as potential energy and airspeed as kinetic energy), is crucial for maintaining safe flight, preventing loss of control, and is a required knowledge area by FAA certification standards.
During a single-engine failure, pilots must efficiently convert potential energy (altitude) into kinetic energy (airspeed) by regulating angle of attack to maintain best glide speed (VG), which minimizes drag and maximizes glide time/distance.
Upon engine failure, immediate actions prioritize establishing VG, selecting a suitable landing site, and attempting a restart, followed by precise energy management using drag controls (e.g., flaps, slips) to execute a safe dead-stick landing, ideally into the wind at the lowest controllable speed.

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Altitude and airspeed, represented as potential energy (EPOT) and kinetic energy (EKIN), respectively, can be thought of as constituting an aircraft’s total energy. Why do we care? Appropriate energy management (EM), maintaining a safe total energy state for all phases of flight, can help avert in-flight loss of control (LOC-I), the unintended departure of an aircraft from controlled flight and the leading fatal-accident cause.

Moreover, the FAA’s Airman Certification Standards (ACS) for private and commercial certificates specify that pilots are to have knowledge of EM concepts for many maneuvers. They include emergency approach and landing, soft-field/rough-field landing, normal approach and landing, short-field landing, various types of water landings, power-off 180-degree accuracy approach and landing and go-around/rejected landing. The word “knowledge” implies pilots should have, at least, a basic understanding of EM concepts and be able to apply these concepts to tasks in the FAA’s ACS.