The second and thrid lessons for my MEP rating were in an FNPT-II and focused on asymetrical flight. For non-pilots, this means that I trained in a simulator to learn how to fly twin engine aircraft when one engine fails. The basic drill is always the same:

• Identify which engine has failed
• Verify that the identification is correct
• Feather and secure the failed engine

This is what I repeated for four hours over two days, in various conditions: in flight, before take-off, after take-off, shortly after take-off, in climb, descent, turns. I also “flew” the simulator a lot in asymmetrical conditions to get used to it and gain a better feeling of the performances I can expect in such conditions.

When an engine fails, the plane yaws and banks towards it because of the difference in lift and thrust. The live engine pulls its wing further (yaw) and because the propwash generates a significant part of the lift, missing one engine means less lift on the dead-engine wing (bank). The first thing to do on engine failure is to apply full power on both engines and fly the aircraft: prevent yaw, prevent bank and maintain airspeed, retract flaps and gear if required. Sounds simple ? I don’t know if it was the simulator or me, but this was not as simple as it seems. Even good simulators always feel a bit “plastic-ish”, particularly in pitch. I had to fight against the simulator, even small changes on the rudder trim caused violent reactions from the simulator. A certain times, it was like a samba. Was I over controlling ? Possible…

Identifying the failed engine is easy. You probably heard the “dead foot – dead engine” saying. Keeping the plane in balance requires lot of pressure on the rudder pedal on the live engine. The foot with no pressure is the dead foot and it is on the side of the dead engine. The engine instruments can help to identify the failure, but not always. A windmilling propeller, failed sensors, broken engine pieces can lead to wrong indications and this is the very reason why the next step is to verify that the identification of the failed engine is correct.

Verifying is as easy as pulling the throttle of the identified engine back. If the identification is correct, nothing will happen. If it is the identification is wrong, the asymmetry will be reduced and the cockpit will become scarily silent… Once the identification is verified the failed engine can be stopped and its propeller feathered to reduce drag. On the DA42 TwinStar this is an easy operation: engine master off – fuel selector off – alternator off. The throttle is already retared the only trick is to make sure to switch off the correct engine.

One of the problems I had was to do all of that while still flying the simulator. As it is not moving, one must read the direction of slip and bank on the G1000. The force feedback system is not bad, but it is not as continuous or smooth as real flying… at least I hope. It is forbidden to use the autopilot in asymetric conditions so all the drills must be performed while flying manually. Add on that permanent, aggressive beeping of the gear warning which activates when one of the throttles is retared and gear is up.

The second simulator session also included combined failures: come back to land with one engine failed and find out on final that the landing gear does not extend properly… go around, troubleshoot the gear problem while still flying manually on one engine. Second attempt, gear down using the emergency system. And then the instructor announces that the runway is blocked ! Single-engine go-around is not possible with gear extended and the pump driving the gear is failed, so no way to get it back up. So what ? Land on the parallel grass runway, or any suitable taxiway.

I also flew in asymmetric conditions with failed AHRS, magnetometer and ADC, meaning that none of the PFD instrumetns were available: no attitude, no directional gyro, no altitude, no airspeed, no vertical rate. Coming back to land using only the standby instruments (airspeed, attitude, altitude) and the GPS and with only one engine is a lot of work for a single pilot.

The next lesson will be on the plane and I expect it to be easier for three reasons:

1. I will actually feel yaw and bank when simulating an engine failure
2. The only way to simulate and engine failure on the aircraft is to retard the throttle. The master switches are on pilot side, so no way the instructor can reach them unnoticeably and using the fuel valve would damage the high pressure pump
3. The sensations in stick and trim will be much more natural than in the simulator

There are also many things that are not trained in the aircraft for safety and practical reasons, like engine failure shortly after take-off or re-landing. After four hours building my drills and confidence in the simulator I’m really looking forward to fly the aircraft again. Simulator is good and saves a lot of time – we simulated more than 20 take-offs in four hours – but nothing is as good as flying the aircraft when it comes to basic stick and rudder flying.