Page 36 - April 2017 Twin & Turbine

34 • TWIN & TURBINE
April 2017
From the Flight Deck
by Kevin R. Dingman
Divine Lines
Pilot commandments & engine-out SIDs
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a GPS course for navigating smoothly around life’s obstacles? The database would contain all societal parameters, personal interaction norms and behavioral boundaries. The control panel would have an icon for our career, finances, health, relationships
and our family. A “Thou Shalt Not” limiter would monitor all the pesky rules that prevent us from saying and doing whatever we want.
More than 2.2 billion folks believe that there is just such a thing. The operating manual is a book-of-books that is the most read and studied text in the history of human communication. While the course it describes may be a divine guide to our destiny, it does not promise that the ride will be safe or smooth, that it will avoid obstacles, or that it will be direct. The manual can
be cryptic, vague, circuitous and harrowing. And even with prayer, its path doesn’t always lead to the destination we planned.
We don’t like cryptic, vague, circuitous or harrowing when flying our airplanes. And we certainly don’t want to end up somewhere other than where we planned. So, we’re less theological in our dead- reckoning and pilotage techniques; primarily focused on navigating to our destination rather than to our destiny. No biblical metaphors to interpret. We verify and re-verify that the points to which we are navigating are correct — a course that is safe and efficient. In the Part 121 world, we call it The Magenta Line.
However, the ability to fly a circuitous route using GPS systems can be useful. A circuitous course can be used to avoid special use airspace, undesirable winds and weather or to fly a track that is free of obstacles if we are performance limited; such as when an engine fails after V1. If a straight-ahead departure is not possible, we need a heavenly plan, a lifesaving path to follow. We need an EOSID (Engine Out SID).
A Procedural Rabbit
An engine failure during takeoff is an emergency and therefore takes precedence over noise abatement, other traffic, SIDs, ODPs (Obstacle Departure Plan), and other normal operating considerations. This implies that you are not required to maintain the SID or ODP profile, either laterally or vertically, thus waiving some of those pesky “Thou Shalt Not’s.”
In the event of a deviation from the cleared routing, however, the PIC should advise ATC as soon as possible by telling them that you have an emergency and are flying an engine-out procedure, an emergency turn or an escape routing. The terms are interchangeable so don’t
“It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.”
– Mark Twain