After one lesson in the DA42 and two in the simulator, I was back in the plane today for some real-life asymmetrical flying. We flew out for some air-work, practice the engine failure drills and then came back for some approaches and go-arounds with one engine out. Weather was fine, blue skies with a few starto-cumulus clouds and light winds – a typical, warm spring afternoon. We had thermal turbulence below 800 feet AGL but not enough to blame them for my bad pilotage.

The first engine failure came shortly after the first level-off, while at 1′500 feet to remain below airspace Charlie of Frankfurt’s TMA. The drill came out easily but could not be applied “as-is” because my instructor simulated the failure by retaring the throttle. Identifying the failed engine with the “dead foot – dead engine” routine was easy. I confirmed with the engine instruments that the right-hand engine was failed. I could not retard the throttle for verification as it was already back for simulation. I switched the right-hand engine master off and the propeller stopped windmilling. Impressive. I continued with the drill and turned the right hand alternator and fuel valve to off, while trying to maintain altitude, heading and airspeed.

Identifying the dead engine was easy but keeping the plane in balance, with half-ball deflection and 5° of bank towards the live engine was as hard as in the simulator, if not harder. Rudder forces and rudder trim were feeling less artificial but I was fighting a lot without any good result. The G1000 “ball” is very reactive and I was probably over-reacting and over-controlling. After that my instructor had me flying turns, climbs, descents still with one engine switched off. Looking at the stopped propeller was really strange and it took me a couple of minutes to relax again and enjoy the ride.

Restarting the engine was as simple as expected: fuel valve to on, engine master on, and it fired up again. I balanced the load between both engines: 50% load on both, coming back to symmetrical condition and letting the newly started engine warm-up. The final point in the restart drill is to bring the alternator back online and I did not forget it. The four hours spent in the simulator repeating the drills again and again were paying off…

The workload during these exercises was so high that I struggled to follow simple commands from my instructor like turns to given headings. When he asked me to intercept radial 110 inbound to a nearby VOR, I understood the need for the setting the CDI on the opposite course but I could simply not calculate what this course was. The idea of pointing the needle’s tail on 110 was present in my mind but somehow unusable… Too much information, too much new things – I focused on flying the aircraft, took a deep breath, and restarted my brain.

For my first lesson, runway 27 was active and today 09 was active. Good thing for me because I must learn as more as possible about my new flying environment before the check-ride, but… Runway 09 is also equipped with a 4.5° APAPI. Steep. But the hardest thing is that there is almost no final leg. The airspace is limited by Frankfurt’s CTR and the base leg is only 1 mile away from the threshold. The base leg is indeed more direct turn from downind onto final, specially with an aircraft flying between 100 and 90 knots.

Even if the DA42 is not the fastest twin ever, manoeuvering it within this small airspace, trying to loose airspeed and altitude while still making it to the threshold was not easy. Doing it on an almost new to me aircraft, with one engine at IDLE power to simulate a failure and as much as one hour of asymmetrical training was more so demanding… I did not really pay a lot of attention to the very slow Cessna 152 in the pattern nor to all the helicopters coming in and out. Even so, I had a lot of axis overshoot on final, approximative pitch attitude on climb, and insufficient rudder work. Not as smooth as expected, but I’m learning… don’t I ?

What I’m not used to yet is to prevent yaw moment with rudder action when changing power in asymmetrical conditions. Typically when power is reduced on final and before the flare the asymmetry disappears and yaw towards the live engine must be prevented. The same things exist to a much lesser scale with single engine aircraft and it takes time during primary training to learn how to compensate. Right foot on take-off, reduce when reducing power… All the art of flying a twin with one engine out resides in correct rudder / throttle co-ordination and it must become natural or even better, automatic.

I’m feeling a bit like I initially expected, but I was well prepared and I also realise that I’m back on a learning curve, and this is also good. Learning and gaining experience is always demanding and good. The next lesson is the final progress check and will be the opportunity to practice and improve my “MEP rudder dance”. We covered the whole syllabus and I’ll may be need one more flight to reach the minimum training time required. I hope to get fit enough to get a good grade on the check flight… and that I will have no problem with all the authorities afterwards…