The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) Air Safety Institute (ASI) has released a new video aimed at helping pilots prepare for engine failure.
Engine Out! From Trouble to Touchdown reviews how to tackle an engine failure in a single-engine aircraft.“Flying is a safe and rewarding activity and an engine failure is very rare, but pilots should be prepared nonetheless,” said ASI Senior Vice President George Perry. “A solid working knowledge of emergency procedures, preparation, and practice will go a long way towards ensuring a safe outcome.”
The video is made possible by the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) Flight Safety Foundation and Donner Canadian Foundation.
AOPA does us no favors by repeating the myth that “engine failure is very rare”. Even Susan Parson, editor of the FAA’s flagship safety publication, SAFETY BRIEF wrote “modern airplane engines are remarkably reliable”. Compared to what? If engine failure was really “very rare” why would the NTSB list year-after-year, the second most prevalent cause of accidents as “powerplant malfunction” – nearly always with piston engines? I know several pilots who have had, and dealt with one or more (piston) engine failures. The real message is that all engines are subject to failure. Even turbines. How many of us read about the turbine powered Kodiak that dead sticked in last year in Washington State? The real story is that most times pilots deal with the problem with a successful landing. No one really knows, not the FAA, not the NTSB, and certainly not AOPA, how many engine failures (either partial power loss or total failure) occur every year. All we have is NTSB data that records the number of fatal and non-fatal accidents… i.e. those events where pilot skills and luck ran out at the same time. A recent national survey of piston engine failures in SE aircraft suggests the NTSB numbers are literally just the tip of the iceberg. The message of proficiency is the real meat in this story. The national survey was reported at the Northwest Aviation Conference in February 2015. Data from 420 pilots of SE piston aircraft suggests that a high percentage of pilots make it through an engine failure, often without a scratch and with minimal damage. But!! of the 420 pilot respondents, 1/5 said they’d joined the club (of engine failure survivors). Far fewer, only about 4% of these pilots (1/5 of the 1/5) had their ‘problem’ recorded in the NTSB accident data base. On average of all pilots who responded to the survey, piston engine failures in SE aircraft were experienced about once every 1500 hours. Of course, some high time (6000 hour plus) pilots had never lost an engine. Again: The message is proficiency… not the myth of reliability.