scale dail

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Thats a question I always get when I bring a multi-engine plane to the field. how does it fly on one engine? well, Those occasions are ingrained in my memory. never to be forgotten. do you have any exciting stories to tell when one quits?!

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

Dail:

I had an exciting time when the bad guys shot out one engine of my B-57. Made a spectacular landing, the plane didn't survive. I ended up taking a walk in Indian country with my GIB. Thanks to some assistance from the Army Special Services guys we both made it out.

What? You were asking about RC twins? Oops. Sorry. All engine out experiences have been deliberate. Nothing special. So far, at least.

I will admit to having developed the "Twin Twitch." This is my left thumb always poised to pull the power off the second a plane shows any sign of performing a maneuver I have not commanded.

I have not yet crashed a model twin, I suspect it is in large part to being conservative to the point of being chicken. The last time I had the Tiggerkitty out the left engine was a little down on rpm. I put it back in the car and didn't even try to fly it.

Bill.

twinman

My Feedback: (2)

I would not live long enough to detail all the engine outs and scary endings, but on P-38's it is usually not good.
Ok for the more fun ones. Now, before I begin. DO NOT DO THIS!!
I always warn people to make the maximum take off run for max airspeed on take off. This assures maximum air over the control surfaces to aid control,,,,,,,,,,but I seldom do it on the high performance converted planes. I almost always do vertical takeoff, blasting straight up, spinning up, out inverted and roll to level position.
I am a fanatic about the vertical test because of this, but it can still bite you.
The plane was, and still is, called a Bobcat at 96" and two ST 90's that were converted for more power. ( Max, recommened engines were .60's.
Normal short take off, after the vertical test, going straight up, but,,,,at approx 50 feet, one engine quits, I assume due to G forces. The asymmetrical thrust, caused an immediate snap roll to a wing level position. What does this do, you ask? IMMEDIATELY stops all air speed......NOW!! The plane had no altitude, no airspeed, one engine at full power, and trying to roll over again. Mmmmm, not good.
Power back, point the plane at the ground, throttle up, and start pulling up.......NOW. Did I mention, that in this case, you seldom get the chance to pick the direction of the descent? Or that it was heading straight toward me and a ( Former ) friend? ( For some reason, he was moving away faster than I have ever seen someone run) ( Actually, I could not watch him, I heard this later from others, who were standing there with their mouths open, but nothing coming out)
The idea of pointing the plane straight down was to gain airspeed. Note, not to be tried, but the plane going straight down with one engine coming up, does not exhibit normal snap roll characteristics. I pulled out at 12", flew the landing pattern and landed. Rats, noone had any heart medicine, because I really wanted some!!!. Had to sit down for a bit.
Twinman
PS Keep telling myself, this is fun, this is fun.......arg!!!!

twinman

My Feedback: (2)

This is the Aerotech "Quick Build" kit from England. This plane was the application test of using two gyros for a P-38 to control engine out and it worked. There were several engine out situations during it's rather long life. The plane would yaw, but never snap rolled. The gyros gave the time to react to the problem. Due to it's high wing loading, it would not fly on one engine, but could be guided back to the field safely. One gyro on the rudders and another on the ailerons. Was, and I said was, 78" wing span, carbon fiber strips in the solid nonremovable wing, fixed landing gear, four working flaps, two Super Tigre .60 engines, and Master 12x6 three blade props. I used spring type gear on all three struts to absorb the landing stresses. Weighed approx 12 pounds. Used only two servos to operate the four flaps, using a wire type elevator formed connection for each servo to control the flaps. One micro servo in each boom for the flaps. The plane used 11 Hobbico micro servos with metal gears and six volt system for increased torque. I found the micro servos were plenty strong enough for high performance maneuvers and saved a lot of space. Sure wish I had not lost that engine on the straight down hill leg of a spit S in a mock combat chase..Needed 18" of height.!!
Took the plane to one of Houston's warbird flyin's. Now this is one of the events where the best of the best in Warbirds attend. Not on Bomber Field level, but similar types.
My buddy with a Mustang at 66" and I had flown all day, and decided that a combat event would be good. We attached 16' streamers to each plane and took off. Due to the fact that this P-38 was supposed to have .45's, I felt good about my chances to catch him. He was not even close to the speed of my P-38. With the gyros, I did tight turns, you would not dream of due to stalling concerns.
We passed each other head on and I quickly did a split s inverted turn to come back and come after him from below. Note, this turn points the nose straight down. I was accelerating to come up under him.........an lost one engine on the down leg. No way to pull out above concrete.
Scattered the plane for 50 yards in front of the best of the best. One engine broke off and tumbled down the runway screaming.
Became very quiet, to see if the pilot would go "postal". I did not give them the satisfaction of seeing someone cry. I turned around, held up the transmitter and yelled...All Right!!
Now, there are parts all over the runway. Five guys with trash bags are trying to clear the wreakage.....did I note that there were still two planes in the air,,,,,,,with no where to land??
Twinman
PS This is fun......This is fun!!!

Villa

My twin SPAD flies great on one engine. Trouble is, you have to catch the problem within a fraction of a second and throttle down. Otherwise there is a snap roll and if you are low the disorientation makes recovery uncertain. If you are going fast when you drop an engine and you recover, there is little problem maintaining altitude and doing normal laps around the field., even a roll if you have lots of altitude and nerve. If you are going slow when you drop an engine it will be much more interesting. Practice is the key. I did 4 one-engine take-offs to practice, but each time I crashed trying to make the first turn. Our field is like flying inside a box. I needed altitude at the same time I needed to turn into the running engine. It just would NOT do it. I turned the other way and spiralled in each time. Being a SPAD, I broke two props in 4 hard crashes, but there was no other damage. See my thread under twin SPAD for more.

Homebrewer

My Feedback: (8)

My twin spad flies incredibly well on one engine. In fact, at sea level, my 80 inch twin spad could easily maintain altitude and even climg on one engine. I recall doing 2 turns in the holding pattern while waiting for clearance to land when I had my first deadstick on the no. 2 engine. After landing, I decided and successfully attempted a single engine takeoff! Unfortunatly, I am now flying at 7,500 feet altitude and the 2 OS .40 FX's aren't enough here to fly on a single engine and I'm thinking 2 .46 size engines to help compensate for the 25% decrease in power.

Best advice I can give when facing a deadstick, go to idle and land it. You will want to practice single engine flight but in a controlled environement-one in which you pull an engine to idle, not an unexpected one. I slave my engines on separate channels and am able to pull one engine back to idle in flight to practice. This way, when I do face the rare deadstick, I know how to handle it...practice...practice makes perfectd.

Uncle Heinkel

I have a Stafford B-24 that flies great on three engines. I usually don't even notice anything until I see the prop not turning on a low flyby...I even accidentally took off on three once...#2 had quit and I didn't see it.

But when I lost two on one side, climbing out slowly after takeoff, it spun in like it was hit by flak. No time, no airspeed, no altitude...no chance. Looked just like vintage footage of a bomber going down on the History Channel! Luckily, it landed in some very tall and soft weeds and there was no damage.

H.

drifter

My Feedback: (53)

Flew an Ugly Twin (RCM) built as a tricycle gear instead of a taildragger. Powered by two K&B 40s. Lost an engine and nursed it back to the field on one engine. Kinda squirrely . I then discovered the rudder servo was reversed. Still it landed fine , and gets my reccommendation as a good twin trainer.

Fighterpilot

My Feedback: (2)

At Hodges Hobbies Warbirds Over Georgia fly-in this past week end I had an engine go out on an American Eagle B-25 weighing 45 pounds, powered by two G-38s. I was making a high speed pass over the runway at about 20 ft. altitude when the #2 (right) engine just quit. The aircraft pitched to the right and began to roll over. I chopped the power, stabilized the airplane, and began to add power back in gently. As I came up on the power, I added the amount of left rudder needed to hold the airplane straight. I was going upwind at the time of the engine failure and had to make 3 left hand turns in a standard approach pattern to get lined up with the runway for an upwind landing. All turns were made with a very shallow bank angle because each time I banked the airplane for a normal type of turn, it would lose altitude. So, in order to maintain altitude, all my turns were made with very little aileron application, keeping the aircraft as level as possible. Needless to say my hands were full, so as I decended on final, I asked my spotter (owner of the aircraft) to drop the landing gear for me. I was at full power on #1 engine until I crossed over the threshold of the runway at about 5 ft. of altitude I chopped the power and told my spotter to give me full flaps. The rest was relatively easy as I glided to a relatively nice touchdown and roll out. So guys, it is possible to fly one on one engine; but, you'd better do everything right or it's going to be history. I was very lucky to make all the right decisions and be blessed with ideal flying conditions. I'd hate to try to do it again.

tejician1

My Feedback: (2)

Krum...

Your 'engine-out' at the Georgia bash sounds exciting, bet you had goose bumps on top of goose bumps...I had a similar incident with my 1/6 scale Heinkel 219 Owl German night fighter a couple months ago. I had finally fixed the retract problems that seemed to plague some of my ships and wanted to fly the "Big Owl" to check for gear operation while under air loads....I had just completed a hot low level pass and requests were made for a photo pass by the camera hounds. While cruising at 3/4 throtts, far out on the downwind circuit I noticed the Owl to slow down a little, someone said I had lost an engine...I strained to see which engine it might be...No Dice...too far out....and I announced a strong desire to land ASAP... This was to be my first engine out with the Heinkel but I was not overly concerned as twin fin/rudders are the best item to have during an engine-out. I initiated a moderate bank angle to the left and started letting down and hit the gear switch...Ho Boy, did those retracts look beautiful swinging down and hanging out in the breeze..Then, a moderate left banking turn onto final approach and 1/3 flaps were selected ...and..Still no indication of which engine had quit on the Heinkel...I just knew it had to be #2 as the old girl was flying easily and stable onto the approach into a slight right crosswind..Hoots and several expletives were then heard as I and my spotter noticed that the #1 engine was the culprit..as most experienced pilots know is a death sentence for most twin engine aircraft. Throttling back further, the Heinkel settled into a beautiful flare and a light touchdown onto the mains with a 100 foot roll out...Not wanting to chance taxing under power on one engine..I shut the plane down and sent my retriever to bring her back in...

The #1 engine cowling had blown it's mounts and fell onto the shaft of the G-38 shattering the prop. Needless to say, I have revised the mount system on the Owl and it is much stronger and restistent to ballooning and blowing out at high speeds. The big Bomber Field Warbird Gathering this coming September in Houston will see me doing dull & boring majestic passes with the big Heinkel....What will you, Lenny, & Bob have to talk about now, since I've fixed my little problems..??.lol

jamesg33

On one of the early flights of my Duelist it was clipping along full throttle on the downwind leg when the engine noise changed noticably. Being new to twins, I panicked and figured an engine had failed, so I chopped the power and set up for a landing. As I turned onto final, I saw that both props were still turning. I had not bled the speed off fast enough and was way too hot to land so decided to power up and go around. BIG mistake!!! As I advanced the throttle the left engine wouldn’t come up to power and the plane yawed to the left. I was only able to hold it at about 1/3 throttle and the plane flew by me at about 20 ft above the runway. When it got to the end of the runway the left prop stopped turning and the plane made an immediate left turn, so I chopped the power again. Luckily, the plane was now pointing directly into the wind, but pretty much stalled out. I concentrated on keeping the wings level, and it pancaked hard into a plowed field.
Damage was limited to broken props, engines full of dirt, all three gear legs bent 90 degrees around the retract cam blocks (but no damage to the mechanism or to the attach points in the plane!) and a bunch of dents and scrapes on the bottom of the nacelles.
What caused the crash (besides pilot error)? The muffler had fallen off the left engine! What I learned from this one is that if the plane has plenty of altitude and speed and is under control don’t panic when an engine craps out. If I’d have made just one lap to take a breather and access the situation I could have set up for a successful landing and avoided damaging the plane. Once the plane gets low and slow you run out of options.

Jim

philcope

My Feedback: (34)

I was doing a test flight for Dan Baker's F-82 twin mustang by World Models. It was powered by two OS.52 engines. The flight took place at KCRC which is a 320'X60' aircraft carrier surrounded by forrest and a lake. The left engine died on the climb out from takeoff just a few feet above the trees and immediately lost all forward motion and began a spin. I pushed in full down elevator and the plane came out inverted coming back toward us. I went full throttle after I got the plane stable with the rudders and was able to climb inverted on the single engine. I positioned the plane high at the west end of the field and pulled the power off, rolled to upright and glided to the runway with no problems.