jsfBoat

I'm having problems flying single engine approaches for my Multi certificate. I was wondering if someone could give some tips. I'm flying a BE-76 and this is a big struggle for me. It's hard getting everything stabilized, especially on precision approaches.

Grumble

Make sure you're feathered (zero thrust set), 1/2 ball deflection, 5 degrees into the good engine, and trim. Go full forward on the good prop you so always have full power available, lead all of your power corrections. If you need to take power off, only take off a little bit and put it right back up. See what that gives you. If you think you need to add power, then add a lot, and bring it back to about half of where you were before. i.e. if you're at 20" MP and need to add power, go to 24-25" until you see a response, then reset at 21-22". If you're at 20" and going high, reduce to 15" for just a second then go right back to 19-20" and see what that gives you.

Remember single engine you're 70-80% degraded... so you need to be 30 seconds ahead on what you think your power requirement is going to be. Come up on the power before dropping the gear, leave the flaps up if needed on the approach, and you can ALMOST never be over powered when single engine. Speed is your friend, it's much harder to get back once you let it go.

Cubdriver

Put a half a ball width on the slip skid indicator with up to 5 degrees bank toward the running engine for straight flight, and then trim it to hold that ball position using the rudder trim. This should be part of your engine out procedure every time.

Things get tricky in the turn. When you turn, resist the temptation to use the typical inside of turn rudder that we normally use to counter adverse yaw. Just turn the airplane with the ailerons almost exclusively. Scan the slip skid often and adjust rudder accordingly. You will get better at doing this as you learn the feel of it rather than having to use the slip-skid to know what to do.

Worst case is going to be a base to final turn with the good running engine on the inside of the turn, maybe in crosswinds and when you already overshot final due to crosswinds. This is a very dangerous situation! It typically occurs in IFR on a circle to land approach where the running engine is on the inside of the turn. You must keep the ball more or less coordinated through the turn. This means the only way to turn the airplane without reducing power on the running engine, something you should never do, is bank fairly steeply instead.

It is a bit hard breaking the old habit of kicking rudder in the inside of a turn when it wants to fly through final. Banking fairly aggressively with ailerons in this situation particularly if you have a strong crosswind on the running side causing you to overshoot final is the proper way to correct.

The issue with light twins is they cannot do go-arounds on one engine due to poor climb performance on one engine. Go-arounds on one engine are more or less a death sentence. Even if it climbs a little, the rate is so poor you will hit something before returning to the airport. You simply have no choice but to bank rather hard if you want to get on final.

The reason it is best not recommended to steer the airplane by reducing power on the running engine is how much it sends the airplane into an uncontrolled yaw. You generally want to make small power adjustments and steering with the throttle is too risky. Bring the power down in small increments as a rule of thumb.

[edit] Mr. Grumble typed faster then me by about two minutes.

Cubdriver

On precision approaches 20-21" will almost always give the right ground speed in this airplane on an ILS except in strong headwinds. In the latter case use full throttle on the running engine. In either situation I would discourage against making throttle adjustments more than 1 inch either way. More than that and you have trouble keeping the ball coordinated properly. There is no way to fly well without already knowing the settings you are using to a fairly narrow range in such a touchy condition.

clipperskipper

I wrote and published a training manual for this aircraft some years ago. This was simply due to the fact that Beech didn't have one available, and I had a mob of new multi engine students Thanks to the GI bill.

Trim the rudder for 1/2-2/3 ball then you won't need to muscle the aircraft so much. Once you begin your decent on the glide path you can make small corrections using the rudder in order to keep your localizer needle dead nuts. Don't forget as you begin reducing power on the operative engine, the airplane is going to want to straighten back out.

Cubdriver

That's a good point. When you get to the flare and reduce power on the running engine to land, you can easily fly off the side of the runway if you do it too quickly. You are forgetting how much rudder trim there was. But if you flew the ILS all the way down to the flare, which is what you should be doing for PTS purposes anyway, then you will have plenty of runway left to use to ease out the power gradually and make a smooth counter with opposite rudder.

bcaviator

I just want to tell you both, good luck. We're all counting on you

Cubdriver

I am confident we will all make it if we try as well. But you never know in this economy.

clipperskipper

It's a different kind of flying, altogether.

Cubdriver

Kind of like flying blind really. Are we still talking about airplanes?