Page 34 - Volume 15 Number 10

Exception to the RuleSometimes the “Second Rule” must be interpreted loosely...and safety requires you briefly travel away from your eventual landing zone.Shortly after takeoff, and at less than 200 feet above ground level (AGL), the pilot of an F90 King Air reported an engine failure and requested a return to the airport. A tower controller saw the King Air in a right turn, descending, and ob- served the airplane level its wings just prior to impact with the tops of trees. The airplane collided with terrain approximately 2,000 feet east of the approach end of Runway 20L, which was the reciprocal of the departure runway. Four aboard the King Air died in the crash and subsequent fire.NTSB examination of the propellers found the left propeller blades showed more damage than blades from the right propeller. Both propellers were rotating with considerable rotations energy. However, examination showed the left propel- ler had more power than the right. The NTSB Probable Cause is the pilot’s failure to follow loss of engine power emergency procedures by to feathering the propel- ler following the loss of engine power, resulting in a descent and collision with trees and the ground.When the King Air’s pilot detected an engine failure, it appears the first thing that came into his head was to get the airplane on the ground. He turned right, away from the dead engine, and attempted to enter a downwind leg to return and land on runway 2R, his departure runway. In doing so, however, he ne- glected to take care of the reason he was beating a hasty path back toward the runway. The drag of a windmilling propeller and the loss of single-engine altitude performance that occurs in a turn conspired to pull the airplane to earth, with tragic results.The Second Rule of Emergencies is to point the airplane toward a landing area. But the First Rule is to maintain control of the airplane, and in an engine failure immediately after takeoff that includes identifying and verifying the failed engine, then feathering its propeller (in propeller-driven multiengine airplanes). This provides the potential for performance that permits you to climb to a safe altitude from which to return to the airport or aim for another runway nearby. To avoid altitude loss while turning at an already dangerously low altitude, this means climbing straight ahead until you reach pattern altitude—seemingly an exception to the Second Rule of Emergencies, but in reality aiming the airplane toward a landing zone by putting it in a position to be able to make it to the runway.do a good job of establishing and maintaining the necessary control inputs, we depend heavily on the feel of the controls to determine an engine has failed, and if needed to feather the correct propeller or shut down the proper engine. That’s why most Pilot’s Operating Handbooks call for disengaging the autopilot at the first sign of an engine anomaly. What POHs usually don’t tell you, however, is that once you have a propeller feathered or an engine shut down, it’s an extremely good idea to re-engage the automatic pilot, so you can better manage the full event of getting the airplane safely on the ground.It may be your abnormality is with a flight instrument. Most cabin-class and turbine autopilots reference attitude information, so if anything happens to your attitude instrument (or the system that drives it) the autopilot will not work. Often it will automatically disengage at the onset of an attitude indicator or attitude deviation indicator failure. For this reason, you need to be practiced in hand-flying at least the initial phases of any abnormal or emergency procedure, because you won’t know at the very beginning of a problem that the autopilot will fly the airplane, or if it will whether it will fly in the way that is optimal for maintaining airplane control while you aim for a runway or a landing area.Once you have the situation under control and are headed toward a landing, engage the autopilot if it’ll work and if it will reduce the workload for you. Whether by dividing cockpit chores with another pilot, enlisting passengers to help, or using your airplane’s autopilot, use every resource you have available to you, to fix the problem or to get the airplane on the ground.Surprised by an emergency or unusual situation in flight? Establish and maintain c•ontrol of the airplane, then remember the Second Rule of Emergencies. T&TOCTOBER 201132 • TWIN & TURBINE