![Often pilots seem to misunderstand what is happening when the engine fails. [Credit: Meg Godlewski]](https://flyingmag1.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/FLY0126_1.3-In-Training-scaled.jpeg?width=2560&height=1370)
“My airplane.”
I was only five hours into my private pilot training when Dutch, my CFI, gave this command.
The Cessna 150 we were flying suddenly wasn’t producing much power. We were in the practice area south of the airport at an altitude of 3,500 feet and about to practice steep turns. I had just finished the clearing turns when the engine sounded funny. I thought Dutch was testing me, as I had just learned the loss-of-engine-power procedures. I had activated carburetor heat, made sure the mixture was full rich, and pushed the throttle all the way in—nothing changed. Then when I switched over to the left magneto only, the airplane shuddered.
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I knew this was not normal, and Dutch taking the controls confirmed it. We headed back to the airport, climbing about 100 fpm just to be safe. It was early in the morning, and we had the pattern at the nontowered airport to ourselves. Dutch made a radio call advising other pilots we had a sick engine and would spiral down over the approach end of the runway.
It was my first teachable moment as a student pilot. If only all power-loss events went so smoothly. You may know someone who experienced an uncommanded loss of engine power and wasn’t so lucky.
Training for Loss of Power
While uncommanded loss of engine power is relatively rare when you take a look at all the hours flown in the training environment, we do spend an awful lot of time training for it. And with good reason.
They can be unforgiving. There are so many variables when there is a loss of engine power—altitude, the pilot’s familiarity with the aircraft, the terrain, finding a place to land, and the pilot’s ability to accept the situation and take prompt and correct action. These all have to work in your favor for a positive outcome.
One way to prepare is to learn from the misfortune of others by studying the accident reports from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)—or watch another pilot’s study of them on social media, such as Pilot Debrief by Trevor “Hoover” Smith.
Smith is a retired fighter pilot turned aviation content creator. Since 2022, he’s applied the same disciplined debriefing methods used by fighter pilots to analyze real-world general aviation mishaps.
Through his Pilot Debrief series, he breaks down mishaps step by step to uncover the chain of decisions that led to each outcome. His goal is not to lay blame but to help other pilots who face similar situations recognize those critical “points of decision” before they become part of an accident chain.
“I don’t know the exact percentage, but my guess is that it’s probably 10 percent of the debriefs I have done on the channel [are loss of engine power],” Smith said.
Often the actions of the pilot seem to show that they don’t quite understand what is happening.
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Smith shared a video clip where the pilot “recognized a loss of engine power but didn’t talk about taking any steps to troubleshoot the issue. Instead, he fixated on the terrain, and instead of pitching for best glide, he made repeated attempts to pull the nose up until he heard the stall warning horn and then would lower the nose again, until eventually he stalled the aircraft. The engine wasn’t responding, but it seemed like he never treated it as a true engine-out scenario.”
A review of NTSB reports indicates the most common cause of engine failure is fuel mismanagement. You read about pilots crashing perfectly good airplanes because they didn’t follow the checklist that indicates the fuel selector should be placed on both in the high-wing airplane, or because they forgot to switch tanks every 20 minutes or so in a low-wing.
Or perhaps the pilot was unfamiliar with the aircraft’s fuel system, and they relied on the visual indications of the fuel gauges instead of ground speed, time, and distance calculations to determine how much fuel they had. We teach not to trust the gauges, but you have to be smart about this—the engine of your Cessna 172 is sputtering, you’re at best glide trying to make it to a field, and you notice one fuel tank reads full but the other one is empty—and that’s the one the fuel selector is on. Quickly reposition the fuel selector to the full tank—seriously, at that point what do you have to lose?
Sometimes fuel mismanagement is negative transference. The renter pilot is used to flying an airplane with extended-range tanks with 43 gallons usable, but on this particular flight the aircraft they are in has 38 gallons. Always double-check the published and placarded usable fuel of the aircraft, and don’t flirt with that number.
Do the Math
Many times when an aircraft runs out of fuel, it can be traced to the pilot’s failure to ascertain how much is in the tanks with a fuel pipette and failure to do the performance calculations using the aircraft’s predicted ground speed, time, distance, and fuel burn information from the appropriate POH.
Be conservative with your calculations. It is good practice to factor in at least 30 minutes of fuel burn at cruise for the engine start, taxi, and takeoff. Calculate the time to climb to the top of your first cruise altitude and then each leg of cruise flight and, of course, the approach. Always round up. If the POH says you will burn 6.6 gallons from taxi to top of climb, round it up to 7 gallons. Likewise, when you determine the ground speed and the time en route for each leg of the flight, round up there as well.
Is it overkill? Likely. But the only time you have too much fuel is when you are on fire.
Although the regulations for VFR flight require the pilot to land with a 30-minute fuel reserve, many pilots round that to an hour in daytime VFR just to give themselves some cushion. You probably know someone who ran out of fuel on final and didn’t quite make it to the runway. Don’t be this pilot.
Carburetor Icing
Another common cause of a loss of engine power is carburetor icing.
Carburetor ice forms when the air passing through the venturi mixes with vaporized fuel. This drops the temperature within the carburetor, and the moisture in the air can form ice, which essentially restricts the air and fuel flow to the engine, resulting in a partial or total loss of engine power. It doesn’t have to be cold outside for this to happen.
According to the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, “carburetor ice is most likely to occur when temperatures are below 70 degrees Fahrenheit or 21 degrees Celsius and the relative humidity is above 80 percent. Due to the sudden cooling that takes place in the carburetor, icing can occur even in outside air temperatures as high as 100 F (38 C) and humidity as low as 50 percent.”
Think about that if you fly in the Gulf Coast region or near a large body of water where the humidity is so high it feels like you are breathing through pound cake.
When the NTSB investigates a loss of engine power in a carburetor-equipped aircraft, one of the tools it uses is a review of the weather to see about the possibility of carburetor icing at the time of the event. But despite this information, the agency can’t come right out and say carburetor icing was the cause because by the time the investigation is happening, the ice, if it was there, has melted.
Teaching Loss of Power
Loss of engine power is usually taught by the CFI pulling the throttle to idle and the learner following the ABCDE procedures: Airspeed for best glide, Best place to land, Checklist to troubleshoot and try to restore power; if that doesn’t work, Declare an emergency, land, and Evacuate the aircraft. Training for this is usually done over or close to a suitable landing area. The best instructors will teach you how to always be looking for a place to land—just to be prepared.
Part of the reason pilots do not recognize a loss of engine power may be due to the way it is taught in the airplane. The CFI pulling the throttle back is a dead giveaway. Apparently, this has resulted in some pilots thinking the throttle knob or lever will automatically come back if there is a loss of engine power. News flash: It won’t. That throttle will be full forwarded as the engine sputters.
![Forget the throttle. Look at the tach and manifold to verify power loss. [Credit: Meg Godlewski]](https://flyingmag1.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/01/FLY0126_1.3-In-Training-1.jpeg?width=1024&height=666)
This misconception on the part of some pilots is demonstrated at the Pilot Proficiency Center on the Experimental Aircraft Association campus in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
The center has 15 Redbird SDX advanced aviation training devices (AATDs), where clients can train year-round under the watchful eye of a CFI who is skilled with scenario-based training. Several of the scenarios can involve an uncommanded and partial loss of engine power.
As these AATDs are static machines, you don’t feel the airplane in descent. You may hear the engine getting quieter, but unless you are paying attention to the airspeed indicator and altimeter, the fact you have lost your engine may escape you since the CFI can fail a magneto (or two) with a keystroke or preprogram it to happen a few minutes into the scenario. I have been that CFI.
One center guest who landed short of the runway in the scenario argued there was no way I could have failed his engine because the throttle knob was full forward. He had not noticed the altimeter winding down and the tachometer at idle, although his airline pilot father, who was sitting in the observer’s seat tried to give him a hint, asking, “What’s happening with your altitude?”
There was a discussion about always including the tachometer or manifold pressure gauge along with the altimeter in your panel scan. And, as Dutch taught me, always be looking for a place to put it down.
This column first appeared in the January Issue 966 of the FLYING print edition.
