Piston twin safety

[sixpacker]

I know this....it sure was nice last night when my left vacuum pump ate itself and I was able to safely continue my night IMC flight to my destination.

I also have two vacuum pumps.

 

[EdFred]

So excluding those who just got the AMEL and then never use it, for the twin pilots who use it is there any supporting data that shows that they are not practicing engine outs? Sometimes I wonder if this argument (which is used often) is a reaction to twin accidents and trying to rationalize why it happens by saying "oh it's the pilots fault he wasn't proficient enough". "That would never happen to me I practice all the time".

I'm saying it based on what I do and don't practice in a single and assuming I'm in the middle of the bell curve. My bet would be that the majority of twin owners only do engine out practice at the request of insurance requirements (Simcom or other) or during a flight review. I also don't know how much good practice will do you, if you lock up under pressure. During reviews and training, you KNOW the engine is going to die. It's the unexpected dead engine that gets people.

Example: Trained with a guy that had been doing marital arts way longer than me. Always structured, always knew what was coming, always good technique. Saw him off the mats one day and decided to have some fun, and see how well he was 'really' prepared. I came after him like I was going to beat his ass, and the guy completely froze up. All that training, all the techniques, none of that mattered because when he wasn't expecting to be came at, he just completely locked up. Other guys with much less training in the same situation had a completely opposite reaction. While unexpected, they were ready. Sure their technique wasn't perfect, but they didn't freeze.

So sometimes no matter how much training you have, when it really happens some people are just going to freeze. So far during my unexpected engine outs in a single, I haven't froze up. Hopefully if/when I fly twins more consistently or become an owner, I have the same tendency. Unfortunately some people will probably always lock up. Those are the ones we read about.

 

[brian]]

Question : does the picture change if the mission moves from personal transport to business hauler?

Much of this seems to be moving back to training. Personally, a twin would be out of the question if flying family. (I have to be honest with myself- I won't keep up with the training.)

For business, the picture changes- including the need for a skilled professional pilot and much more...

 

[Fearless Tower]

I also have two vacuum pumps.

Good for you. Most folks flying singles don't.

 

[EdFred]

Question : does the picture change if the mission moves from personal transport to business hauler?

Much of this seems to be moving back to training. Personally, a twin would be out of the question if flying family. (I have to be honest with myself- I won't keep up with the training.)

For business, the picture changes- including the need for a skilled professional pilot and much more...

For me it wouldn't change.

 

[Henning]

Another thing I've heard of before which bears repeating is the avoided accident where an engine is caged in flight, and no emergency was declared, or the flight was an emergency flight but came to a successful landing at an airport, thus no statistic was generated. This is an anomaly that is very hard to quantify, but represents some part of the twin-is-safer mantra. Maybe it's balanced out by the riskier flight profile though. Sometimes stats don't account for real life, and empirical evidence must be accommodated.

It is not an anomaly, it is a factor.

 

[Ted]

Flow chart:

How often do you fly? A lot. Do you take training seriously? Yes. Do you fly over gross? No.

Then you can be safer in a twin!

 

[sandfarmer]

As a new twin driver (about 100hrs since July) I feel confident (freshly trained) that I can be safer when something goes wrong. Granted, I put myself in a twin that has pretty decent SE performance (310R) but even so I plan on staying fresh by flying and continually training. It was preached to me to always do a departure briefing when preparing for takeoff so that it's very fresh in my mind what I will do if something goes wrong after I push those ever so satisfying throttles forward. It is solid advice, you are very vulnerable for a short period during each departure and absolutely must treat each one like the one where you will have trouble.