RE: Unfortunate crash video of a new DeHavilland Mosquito Twin
Wow, thats a great video. That is a pretty fast twin. I flew a twin back in the 1990's and was very lucky, flying it for 11 years. Even a dumby like me can learn a few things about twins in that much time. I did pass the point where the plane in the video starts down twice during my twin career. The plane can be recovered by cutting the other engine to an idle. You will hear people talk about Vmc or the minimum controllable airspeed as if it is the line of death. But actually, its just the minimum speed you can control the airplane provided one engine is running wide open. It turns out that you can control the airplane at a much lower speed than Vmc provide that good engine is not running wide open. Then there is the issue of having enough altitide to dive down, gain speed while reducing throttle and illiminating the asymmetrical thrust. You need some room do to this, but not hundreds and hundreds of feet. It actually takes less room than you might think. I can't really tell if he had that much room in the video because its difficult to tell how high he was when it tipped over.
As for the myth that you can't turn toward the dead engine, that simpley isn't true. My twin would only turn toward the dead engineif the good engine was runnng wide open. I would then need to reduce power to leveloff again and then re-apply fullpower. I could turn toward the good engine by reducing power first. Thenwhen its time to level off there is no need to reduce power. But either wayyou turn, you will need to manage the throttle.
In this crash, he did not turn toward the dead engine. Hewas trying to turn toward the good engine. The airplane didn't want todo it even though it was already banked toward the good engine. The result was that he climbed and climbed and slowed and slowed until he dropped below Vmc, then theasymmetrical thrust took over. At that point it tipped from a left back to a right bank and also stalled. The camera then lost the airplane.
I have had time to look at the video several times. In real life it all happens very quickly. Often its difficult to tell which engine has died. Your hands seem to just naturally compensate for the asymmetrical thrust and before you know what ishappening your sticks are in the corners and you still don't know which enginehas died. Its very confusing. And it takes a few times to get it right. I was just plain dumb lucky to have a forgiving airplane that let me have a few tries at it, (a few hundred tries at it).The first time generally is themost brutal and more often than not crashes the airplane. And it appears that this Mosquito was a hotter and less forgiving airplane than my airplane. So the outcome could have gone just as badly forme. Hot twins are very unforgiving things. The tiniest error snowballs rapidly.
What are the chances of recovery ? It depends how high it was when it snapped.My airplanerecovered from a one turn spin as low as100 feet. With the Mosquito being a hotter airplane, it could take twice that amount of room.