Page 19 - Volume 18 Number 9

Pointsdelivered to service subscribers on demand by fax machine, was the latest in weather briefing technology (remember “Weather by Fax?”). As is the case with today’s online weather briefings, the pilot had a great deal of information and looked at only the information he chose to evaluate before the trip. We had covered engine indicating systems and the precautionary engine shutdown procedure in classroom sessions prior to this simulation, but not specifically during the simulator pre-briefing.Decision and consequencesSo, when the oil system anomaly arose, the pilot chose to continue to Kansas City Downtown Airport. The decision to continue to the planned destination is very common – it’s a reflection of the “mission” mindset of most pilots, the strong desire to successfully complete a flight when “success” is measured by reaching the planned destination at the scheduledtime. I saw this all the time when I presented this scenario in “the sim.” An argument might be made that this is not a decision at all, but the result of not evaluating options and choosing the best, but, instead, simply deciding not to decideand continuing blindly onward.As the pilot neared Kansas City and was handed off to Approach, another 15 or 20 minutes after the engine anomaly began, the oil temperature was nearing redline and pressure was at the bottom of the scale. Vectored for the ILS into Downtown, a fairly complex approach at the time with several step-downs, the engine failed just after the pilot intercepted the glideslope and extended the landing gear. Total loss of oil pressure drove the propeller into feather without pilot input, a very confusing situation for someone who has never experienced it.Now, the pilot had to deal with the engine failure and transition to single-engine flight while at the same time descending to a near-minimums breakout at a tight airport with rising terrain and downtown skyscrapers ahead in the murk along the missed- approach course. As did most of my simulator students, this pilot stayed on localizer and glideslope, albeit not precisely, and broke out for a single-engine landing. And, like most of my customers in this scenario, he was really sweating and worn out when the airplane rolled to a stop on the runway.DebriefDuring the simulator session debrief I asked the pilot what workedwell on this flight, and what could have gone better. He correctly noted that he detected the oil anomaly quickly, before the problem got very bad. He reduced power on the affected engine to delay failure, and he maintained control of the aircraft throughout the scenario, even when the engine quit. He successfully flew a single-engine approach to a landing in instrument meteorological conditions.The pilot said he was surprised when the propeller feathered itself, despite knowing (from systems training) that loss of oil pressure will cause this. He opined that, in retrospect, he might have shut the engine down himself, so it didn’t quit as he was intercepting the glideslope.After he had completed his self- debrief, I asked what options he considered for a place to land. The pilot appeared confused, but then said he’d thought about Kansas City, returning to Wichita, or landing at Emporia, Kansas, which was just ahead when he first noticed the oil issue. He chose continuing because the weather was better at Kansas City than it was at Wichita, and, because he had not briefed himself for the non-precision approach into Emporia, he would have had to descend rapidly to fly the nearby procedure, and he didn’t know whether the weather was at, above or below minimums when he had to choose.We discussed that the decision about Emporia was a good one, but that he also could have held at 7,000 feet until he collected weather information and, if it was aboveSEPTEMBER 2014TWIN & TURBINE • 17