Page 44 - Twin and Turbine June 2017

There were several more scenarios affecting only the single- engine Beechcraft. It’s interesting to note the situations where a specific cause more frequently occurred in the twins, and in which there was more than one occurrence:
• Landing gear collapse on the runway
• Loss of directional control on the runway
• Landed long/runway overrun
• Landing gear mechanical failure
• Hard landing
• Attempted visual flight in IMC
• Loss of control/stall during go-around
• Damage due to thunderstorm/turbulence encounter
It is of course telling the types of mishaps that occurred more frequently in singles than in the twins, but that’s outside the scope of Twin and Turbine. Expectedly, the Bonanzas were involved in far more reported crashes due to engine failure than the Barons. But the otherwise virtually identical twin- engine fleet is not immune to loss of thrust during takeoff, and engine failures that begin in cruise flight only to end badly as the pilot maneuvers to land on one engine.
Multi-engine Recurrent Training
The combination of these two data-dives – NTSB reports and my more informal Bonanza/Baron comparison – suggests that for multi-engine recurrent training:
• A strong focus on engine failure procedures and techniques is indeed warranted. We’re not benefiting from
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the capability to fly on one engine in most cases like we should. The benign way we must present practice engine failures during takeoff and in flight (to keep from killing more pilots training than we save in real-world failures) does not accurately portray the rate of departure from controlled flight, “surprise factor” and natural fear resulting from all this happening so close to the ground. Ideally multi-engine pilots should use a combination of simulation and in-airplane training to keep their engine-out skills sharp and train to handle as many of the variable as possible.
• Basic airplane handling and maneuvering is vital to accident avoidance. We need to be fluent with the avionics and use autopilots to reduce workload. But eventually you must turn off the autopilot – or it turns itself off – and when that happens we need to be just as able to fly the airplane by hand in the conditions we’ve chosen to fly. This includes flight at low airspeed and high angle of attack, stall recognition and recovery.
• Basic attitude flying and maneuvering by reference to instruments. Hand-flying in addition to, not in place of, avionics and autopilot fluency; position and altitude awareness to avoid controlled flight into terrain.
• Takeoff and landing practice, including stabilized approaches, insistence on touching down in the runway’s landing zone, directional control during the takeoff and landing rolls, avoiding inputs during landing that may result in inadvertent gear retraction, and go-arounds from short final in the full landing configuration, are equally important to avoiding the most common accident scenarios.
• Flight planning and decision-making needs to be part of the ground instruction part of flight reviews and other recurrent training, including fuel management and weather strategies.
Very frequently pilots of multi-engine airplanes get regular Instrument Proficiency Checks (IPCs), and have their training provider endorse the IPC flight as a Flight Review as well. Although a multiengine IPC requires maneuvering and an instrument approach in simulated single-engine flight (on the Rating Task Table in the Instrument Practical Test Standards), an IPC does not include most of the tasks and skills that result in the historic causes of most multiengine crashes. It’s legal to count properly endorsed IPCs as Flight Reviews. But it does not help you retain and build upon the skills that are most likely to keep you out of the NTSB record.
Keep getting those regular IPCs. Don’t stop, the record shows. It’s working. But add an additional instructional session covering visual maneuvering, more simulated engine failures, accuracy takeoffs and la•ndings, go-arounds, and a flight planning and decision-making quality control check at least annually. If possible, make every other one of those a trip to a multi-engine simulator. When I help pilots design a personal multi-engine training regimen (and I do), that’s the recurrent reality check I recommend. T&T
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Thomas P. Turner is an ATP CFII/MEI, holds a master's Degree in Aviation Safety, and was the 2010 National FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year. Subscribe to Tom’s free FLYING LESSONS Weekly e-newsletter at www.mastery-flight-training.com.
42 • TWIN & TURBINE
June 2017