Engine Out
Engine Failure in a Single Engine
Tip: Know your best glide speed. It varies by weight but at least get close.
Tip: First establish best glide speed and trim the airplane. Then head toward the nearest airport (or a good landing site).
Once you are trimmed and headed to a safe landing site, troubleshoot. Remember to keep flying the airplane.
Tip: Mixture rich, throttle in, master on, fuel pump on, switch tanks, check primer, pull carb heat. Restart. Declare an emergency.
You don’t even need a checklist to remember to do these things, the controls are laid out on the panel. For example, on my Cherokee, start with the mixture-full rich, right next to it is the throttle, then carb heat, don’t need to mess with lights, then comes the boost pump, and finally the primer. The layout was basically the same on my 182 except the fuel selector is under the throttle.
Fuel is delivered to the engine by an engine-driven fuel pump. Low-wing planes almost always have an auxiliary fuel boost pump. High-wing planes often do not.
On a constant speed prop, pull the prop out. It will extend your glide by giving less surface into the wind. On my Cessna 210 and other fuel injected airplanes, there is often an auxiliary fuel pump switch. If an engine out occurs during takeoff, it’s possible that vapor has filled the fuel lines or the engine-driven fuel pump has failed. Immediately, hold the left half of the auxiliary fuel pump switch in “MAX HI” position until aircraft is well clear of obstacles. The procedure for your aircraft may be different, so be sure to read the POH and know the procedure before takeoff.
Tip: If nothing works, pull out the checklist. You should already be familiar with it. Make sure you have done everything on the list.
Most of the time you won’t be near an airport, so you should have appropriate landing sites in mind. Also, be sure you know how to use the nearest button on you GPS. The next video talks about how to figure out your glide range, but for most GA aircraft it is somewhere around a 9:1 ratio. So if you are at 5,500′ you can glide about 9 statute miles (8 nm) in a no wind situation.
Engine Out! From Trouble to Touchdown
Tip: The last part of Aviate, Navigate, Communicate is communicate. Once you have done everything you can to restart the engine and are headed toward your chosen landing spot, communicate. If you are on an IFR flight plan or flight following, you probably can let them know what is going on while you are troubleshooting. If not, then switch to 121.5 and squawk 7700.
Don’t forget to fly the airplane all the way into the crash at the minimum possible speed.
Tip: Don’t switch tanks after you do your runup and use all the runway.
One of the guys on our airfield saw the fog rolling in at Catalina and rushed his takeoff. He didn’t have his fuel selector fully open on one engine. There was enough fuel to taxi and lift off, but when he went to full throttle one engine quit. He crashed and burned on a steep hill just off the runway.
You might also have noticed the guys in the communication videos asking for the full length runway, even when an intersection takeoff would give them more runway than their home field. Like the saying goes, there is nothing as useless as runway behind you.