AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - August 2017 - T-28

T-28 | 

length will play into selecting a suitable
airport. A spare operating engine opens
up a lot of possibilities in the face of poor
weather conditions or sparsely populated
areas, so pick an airport with a reasonably
long runway and pretty good weather. Just
keep in mind that the FAA will probably
take a dim view of shutting down an engine
and tooling along at the driftdown altitude
while passing up a lot of perfectly suitable
airports simply to make it to the nearest
service center 200 nautical miles away.
Take care to avoid any action that could be
viewed as a careless or reckless under FAR
91.13(a), but more than that, make safety
the top priority.
At this point, there are a couple other
things to consider. First, remember to manage fuel balance. If the operating engine is
pulling fuel from only one of the wings,
you'll probably have to start transferring
fuel around to avoid a lateral load imbalance. The second consideration is whether
to try an engine restart. It is extremely rare
for a modern turbofan engine to simply
conk out for no good reason, so think hard
about this one. About the only time to try

a restart might be if the engine appeared
to have stopped with little indication of
cause and there are dire consequences
of descending to the drift-down altitude.
Just remember that you generally have to
descend quite a way before attempting an
air-start.
There are some circumstances in
which losing an engine at altitude can
turn more serious. Think about losing an
engine over the north Atlantic. Not only
will you be dragging along a dead engine,
but you'll be drifting down to a lower altitude where you might wind up in crummy
weather, sucking more fuel, with greatly
reduced range. This scenario should
always be a part of the preflight planning process for any oceanic crossing. A
good plan should include single-engine
turn-back points and the availability of
alternate airports, taking into account
the predicted weather conditions for any
unplanned single-engine operations.
It's easy to take for granted the capability of most light jets to sail over the top
of some pretty large storm systems. Keep
in mind that losing an engine above any

widespread thunderstorm activity may
drag you through the worst high-altitude
parts of the storm. If the weather is strong
and widespread, think hard about your
options if you lose an engine. Sometimes
a small deviation isn't such a bad strategy, even if you can clear the tops by safe
margins.
FAR 830.5 requires immediate notification of the NTSB for an in-flight fire or
the failure of the structural components of
a turbine engine excluding compressor and
turbine blades. So, if there's an engine fire
or an engine falls off the airplane, you're
going to have some paperwork to do, but
for most engine failures, there isn't any
requirement for an NTSB report.
Fortunately, modern turbofan engines
are remarkably reliable, so most of us will
fly for a lifetime without ever experiencing
an engine failure outside of the simulator. If
it ever happens, stay calm, remember your
training, and stay safe out there.
AOPA
JOHN HAYES is an optical engineer. He is an

ATP, CFI, and type rated in Cessna C500
and C510 Citations.

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AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - August 2017

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