Hi guys,this is my first post here,so here goes. I have been learning to fly my Hobbico Twinstar (OS .25's) for about a month now,and as no one else in my club flys twins, I have been going it alone and with the exellent hints,tips,and advice I have found on this forum site. So far I have had one engine out situation,(leaned one out too much),and did everything wrong. Luckily I killed the good engine just before landing?/crashing?/arriving?, and dead sticked her into a wheat field,(no damage to speak of). My question is------ I am flying away from myself and say the left engine quits, I will feed rudder towards the good engine to counter the yaw,and now have her flying straight. I need to turn right to return to the strip. Do I give more right rudder to bring her around or what?.That question asked,what if I can only turn to the left to return to the strip?.If I give left rudder won't that increase the yaw to an uncontrolable situation? Is it a situation where it's "sorry, you can only turn right",(or left if it's the right engine that has stopped)?
I hope this is not a silly question that is a no brainer,as I would like to know what the scenario will be.

Cheers,
Fearless Fly.

I have had 2 situations with an engine out on my Twinstar. All I can say is just fly it, give it full throttle and it will fly on 1 engine. When coming in for a landing, make your approach and then kill the running engine and settle in for a dead stick landing. I was shaking when it happened the first time, it was either crash or try to fly it. I was amazed at how well it flew on 1 motor. The 25FX's are perfect for the Twinstar. I use it to warm up with before I fly my A-26 Invader with twin 56 Saito's.

Good Luck

Thanks for the reply RC, reading other posts about the Twinstar I now know that she is a very forgiving airplane and if handled right will fly ok on one engine,but I have waiting in the wings,(no pun intended),a KMP B-25,a DH88 Comet,and a recently purchased Dual Ace which may not be as forgiving,so I need to know what to expect.

Cheers,
Fearless Fly.

I had a twin that would only turn towards the dead engine. (if it was the left) Often, I only needed to relax the rudder to turn towards the dead engine. When it came time to roll level again, I would sometimes have to reduce power for just a second. Not all the way. And when the wings were level I could gently roll the throttle wide open again.
You can find yourself in a bizzarre situation: the plane headed away from you.....you are unable to turn in the direction you want........There may be obstacles preventing you from turning the other direction. The answer often was to reduce power. It isn't natural. Often you are low and slow and the last thing in the world you want to do is reduce power. It just doesn't pop into your head to do so. But it has saved my bacon a few times and allowed me to turn in the direction that I needed to turn.

fearless fly,

Any multiengine plane will fly and turn in either direction regardless of which engines are out, but only if sufficient airspeed is maintained. As speed deteriorates, aerodynamic control and stability diminish, but the crooked pull of the asymmetric thrust remains. Maintaining control depends on maintaining airspeed. If control with an engine out is becoming difficult, lower the nose to increase airspeed until control becomes easy again. It’s just that simple.

After enough airspeed for good control is achieved by sufficiently pitching forward, the next issue is whether or not the plane will still climb, just hold altitude, or continuously descend, while flying at sufficient airspeed. The resulting vertical performance is determined by power, stability, control, weight, etc...

Regarding appropriate control inputs. Elevator is the most important input for maintaining directional control as explained above. Rudder counters asymmetric thrust directly, but unless the design has strong positive roll coupling with rudder, at least some aileron input must be included to control bank angle. Ailerons alone could be used control heading. Banking wings causes side slip, and side slip works against the vertical fin to yaw the nose. However, bank angle is large and drag is excessive when using aileron alone to fly straight with an engine out. A combination of rudder and aileron minimizes drag and gives the best vertical performance.

Stories about only being able to turn one way with an engine out are not correct. Many twins are not capable of turning towards the good engine AND maintaining altitude at the same time. This experience is what perpetuates that misconception. Flying with an engine out is not difficult but must be learned like any other new skill. To practice engine out flying, setup the throttles on separate channels so engines can be throttled individually during flight. Use the programmable mixing of a computer radio to arrange the throttle management as desired. Check out my posts and others on these additional threads:

Lost an Engine (and Lived to Tell About It)

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3608113/tm.htm

Dual throttle setup with JR 10X

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3675964/tm.htm

When are you good enough for a twin

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3200543/tm.htm

Programming two throttles with a 9ZAP...help!

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3380106/tm.htm

The Twinstar is a great multiengine trainer. Enjoy the challenge. Hope this helps.

Multiflyer

I had a worst nightmare scenario happen after I hot-rodded my 1 year old twinstar. Installed duel ail. servos, glassed wing center section out to the nacells top and bottom, bigger ail, and TT .36's. On its second maiden flight the right engine died. When I throttled back, the left linkage didnt work and the engine was stuck wide open. I just ran it out of fuel and dead sticked in. That says more about the airplane than my flying skills. I try to turn into the running engine if I can. But like has been said, if the speed it up its not too hard to keep it airborn. I wore those engines out on the twinstar, great combo with unlimited vertical. For a short time was the fastest plane at the field.
Edwin

I've heard setting some out trust in the engines helps to pull against the forces pulling it to turn toward the out engine. I'm looking at making a 049 twin pusher, and have 3deg out thrustlines to help keep it going straight on one eng. Think 3 is enough for these narrow engines to push it straight?

---edit: oops, IN thrust for pusher, not out... good catch pnueman---

The twinstar with .25s is SOO docile I once did a touch and go and didn't notice I had flamed out one of them untill I was on the climb out!

When I measured my twinstar I got 3deg of out thrust and 3deg down.
Edwin

Am I seeing this right?

With a twin pusher, shouldn't you set INthrust with this setup?

or is there a rule about setting the thrust line in direct line to the planes' CG?

sorry if these are dumb questions.....

oops, In Thrust, for the pusher, misspoke before. Tractors(standard eng) use Out, pushers In.

If, and only if, you have enough power, and you keep the airspeed up, you can fly the twinstar on one engine with no problems...however, if it has smaller engines (and I have one like that..) an engine failure causes an immediate loss of airspeed -to the point where ailerons and rudder are all but useless. Mine will not turn into the good engine.. The only cure is to put the nose down and build up the airspeed again..sometimes that also means throttling back on the good engine to regain control first (mine will snap and spin..) then come back on the throttle when speed is built up... I practice engine failures on Real Flight, so when my last engine failure occured, I knew what to do -- which saved my Twinstar cuz it was going down in a spin..

It is an amazing airplane and I really like it!

jkgflskgflkf

What happens if you forget to extend your antena? I know but dont ask me how I know. Luv Marv.

I have had 2 airplanes with 8 degrees of out thrust and both would fly without rudder engine out. The Twin Stick in my avatar has 8 degrees and it will do acro on one engine. The best single engine twins, except for a pusher-puller, of course, is a twin fuselage plane. The fuselages channel the air flow down to the rudder, I think.

I also have a TwinStar. It has some out thrust and flies OK engine out, but not to where you can ignore the situation. When mine gets old, I may chop off the cheeks and put in 8 degrees just to see how it handles.

HEY!!! enough of that sort of talk Chief Holy Dude. Actually Marv is referring to the time when he was a rookie,and I offered to take him up,(on the buddie box),with his BRAND NEW trainer. After I handed over control to him he exclaimed that "it won't do what I want it to",so me,being the expert ace pilot that I think I am[:'(][:'(],took back control and found it wouldn't respond at all. Needless to say it spirald into the deck,and totally died. Had to buy him a new one,and now he won't let me forget that I had forgotten to extend the antenna[>:].

Good one Marv!!!

Fearless Fly

Chief Holy Dude ? Well I guess I will see you at church this sunday John, for a change I might bring a trainer out for a fly, thats if it isnt too hot {39 C last I heard}Now I know what went wrong I forgot to put holly water ( Allans bundy) on my plane.Thats the last time I will mention about the antena. Now half the planet knows the funs starting to wear thin. Praise the lord The pope!