Villa

Hi Larry175
I was going to state the same thing. You stated it better. Have a well though out plan and follow it.

dalolyn

My Feedback: (7)

First ting I do on a engine out is maintain altitude, turn off the duel rates. and fly with very little stick movement. landing is easy cut power and glide. I did have to abort a landing once with a engine out. mentally i was prepared and pushed the throttle slowly came around again and landing. But I am sure my twin and the mosquito handle totally differently.

Destroyer of Airplanes

My Feedback: (25)

Larry,

I am about to fly my first twin, a 48" OV-10. I have spent a fair amount of time flying the G4.5 simulator and practicing engine out landings. I am using this bird to prepare me for my 73" Mosquito. I came to the same conclusion you did about practicing on a plane that if lost will not be too large a loss. Since I fly electric I will be installing a double pole tripple throw switch so I can fail or restart either engine. It should make a pretty fair procedures trainer.

Nathan King

The right engine failed, which is actually better than the left failing since the right hand engine will actually create a more severe yaw towards the dead engine (due to P-factor).

It is my opinion that the airplane could have been saved. After the engine failed, more left rudder was needed for the turn. He should have also made a descending turn. He hit what's called "Vmc." Basically, it's the minimum speed the airplane is still controllable with one engine firewalled (definition simplified for R/C flight). The more power on the one engine, the faster you must fly to retain enough control authority to override the assymetry in thrust. Straight flight can also be accomplished by raising the dead engine slightly and adding a little rudder toward the live engine. The idea of reduntancy with twins is seductive and deadly. The single working engine creates an illusion of an extended glide and the ability to continue level (or ascending) flight. Seldom are either the case. The most important thing to remember is not to stretch your flight and avoid sharp turns (since the increased load factor actually increases stall speed). If the aircraft is slowing down, ease off the elevator; do this even if it means hitting something since you can at least hit whatever it is in a controlled (and hopefully gentle) manner.

Montague

I have exactly that same airplane, CMP Mossie with a pair of OS .46AX engines, robart retracts, etc.

It's a heavy beast, with a nasty stall. When I was testing out mine in the first few flights, I scared the heck out of myself with just how badly and suddenly it stalled and flipped over. And how much altitude it took to recover.

Did he drop flaps? On mine, if the flaps are down and you add power, you get into serious trouble really fast. The nose comes up and airspeed DROPS as you add power, leading to a high power stall. If he had flaps down at all with one engine running, it would create a heck of a rolling tendancy. (the power and flaps thing makes missed approaches "fun", bring up power and flaps together, slowly, or bad things happen). This is because of the size and location of the flaps right behind and on both sides of the nacelles.

I did survive an engine out with my Mossie (ran out of fuel on the left side). I was going downwind fast, around 100ft up and a bit away from the field. I DID turn to the dead engine because like some of the other guys said, I knew an engine was out, but didn't know which one was out until right before touchdown when I could see the one stopped prop. But while I did turn to the dead engine, I had already pulled the other back to idle, I kept the gear and flaps up to stay fast and clean and set up a fast glide and a smooth shallow turn to the field. I was a bit short, so I used just a touch of power to streach the glide, but only when going straight, on base and on final, but not in the turns. Only after I was over the end of the runway (and rather low) did I pop down the gear, and I left the flaps up. Oh, and I'm fairly good with the rudder and always using it when turning and to keep the model going straight. YMMV.

Could the one in the video have been saved? Maybe, it's hard to tell how far out and how high he was when he first noticed the engine out. but once he started to turn away from the field instead of directly in, that was pretty much it. Even if he'd been short, if he'd kept the gear up and glided in short, it might have been less damage, or maybe not, the wing center section of that model doesn't cope well with sudden stops with that much weight out in the nacelles.

As for being tail heavy, that ARF is well known for having the CG in the instructions be way way wrong on the tail heavy side. Since it got off the ground and didn't go straight into an attempt at a hover, he must have corrected that. Mine is still a bit tail heavy, but not seriously so. It's just a bit touchy when the gear is up (since the gear goes up to the rear).

It is a fun plane to fly though, smooth in the air, on rails when coming in to land, but it comes in fast. And slow is not something I do with mine. Oh, a while back, mine was clocked at 101mph in still air, and that was with out a power dive.

Nathan King

In full scale aviation the saying is "dead foot, dead engine." In R/C terms, whichever side you move the rudder to is the running engine. You absolutely can turn into a dead engine, but care must be taken.

Montague

Oh, sure, if I'd thought about it, I'm sure I could have figured it out. But I was mostly thinking "keep it straight, keep the speed up and the nose down, can I reach the runway yet?" Thinking about which engine was out wasn't the priority, keeping the plane moving straight so it didn't stall was the priority . In my case, I had quite a bit of airspeed when the engine quit, and I pulled the throttle back to idle, so there wasn't a sudden yaw, not much thrust, and lots of air over the tail. My goal was to keep it that way .

edmoor

My Feedback: (1)

[:@]video would be decent.....had it not been for the stupid music......why people do this is beyond me.