Originally Posted by
Cubdriver
When that engine or two engines quit, you will need to almost instantly answer all these questions.
• Do I try for an airfield? What's nearby? What's the light control frequency there, and how high is the ground? Or else try for a highway then? Which one? Or a grass field? What about a small lake?
• How far can I glide from here? How do I estimate that?
• What configuration do I need to be in to get optimum range?
• How much time should I spend talking to ATC versus other things?
• Is a restart attempt worth it now?
That's a very good textbook, CFI answer. That wold get you past a CFI oral, no doubt. It's a very good survival mechanism for a private pilot who flies once every other month in an old 172. It's what we teach new private pilot because we don't want to go full on deer in the headlights if, God forbid, they have an issue on a solo flight.
For someone flying a complex aircraft every day for a living it's flat out wrong.
If your in a fuel injected piston engine aircraft and the engine stops making the noises you want it to make, the VERY FIRST THING that should come into your mind is one word:
FUEL!
Consider this thought exercise with me. In any piston aircraft there are four things that you must have for it to be operating:
1. Rotation: if the crankshaft isn't turning, there's nothing in the world you can do. If it stops in flight, either because the engine winds down and the crankshaft breaks, you're not getting it restarted. If it stops suddenly, pray the engine doesn't tear itself off the aircraft.
2. Spark: If a mag stops working, or is no longer turning, or a spark plug departs the aircraft (I've heard about tha first hand from other people,mill go right through the cowl), well, that's why we have two.
3. Air: In a normally aspirated, fuel injected aircraft, generally the only thing that will prevent air from getting in the engine is airframe ice, but if you have enough air on the airplane to stop the engine from inducting air you've got much bigger problems. On a turbo'd airplane, the turbo can stop working and the most you'll get out if is about 15". In a carbureted airplane, maybe you should think about carb heat first, the fuel.
4. Fuel: if you think about it, this is the only one we really have control over, unless we just run out completely. In the Navajo, or the cherokee, or a lot of other airplanes, switch tanks.
Loose any one of those 4 things, the engine stops. It's pretty simple. In a piston aircraft, 99% of the time, it's a fuel issue. If it's a fuel issue, and you have multiple tanks, switch tanks, boost pumps on.
If you're head is so far up a textbook that you can't do that FIRST, well, have fun on your forced landing. In the NTSB report I'm sure they'll note your adherence to the private pilot PTS right next to the part where it says the engine ran fine on the test stand and there was pretty of fuel left in the airplane.