Ok so here's a scenario question.

Your coming to land, you're on final and you lose one engine. Your approching the rwy and another aircraft taxi into the rwy. What do you do?


I have my commercial checkride tomorrow, so I'm a bit nervous lol.

 

Land on the parallel taxiway or in the grass beside the runway. No way i'm trying to go around in most light twins.

 

I think the answer an examiner would want to hear is that it depends. What is your single-engine climb performance like on this particular day. Are we talking Mexico City on a hot day or a winter day at sea level. If you can climb single engine, you would be a fool to land in the grass. If you can't, you would be a fool to go around.

 

I agree with the land in the grass option - landing in the grass is no big deal. If anyone tells you that you should go around in a light twin - tell them no, and they are stupid:

Regardless of what kind of day it is, go with the safest option. A single engine senario is an emergency (especially in a light twin). You have no way of knowing what caused the engine failure - it could mean imminent failure of the other engine. You also would need to go through the motions of trying to see which engine it is at such a critical moment of flight; people have feathered the wrong engine trying to go around.

Your throttles are already pulled back mostly, you aren't in danger of a Vmc issue on short final (if you're on speed,etc). Taxi-way/grass whatever just get it down.

This is especially true if you're going for you Commercial checkride and you don't have a lot of experience in multi-engine aircraft. Just go with the safest option.

 

Also depends on where you are on final. If you're still 500 feet AGL and have SE climb performance based on conditions, you might consider a Go-Around. That was a scenario I had on my MEI. I'm betting that you're talking about short-final something like 100 AGL and someone pulls out in front of you.

What your DPE wants to know is that you have a limit (at this point I'll continue the landing, and here's why). This question is designed to test judgement and higher-level learning. So think it through and use all the stuff you know to make the best decision you can.