Would you cycle the gear?

"Richard Kaplan" wrote:

For example, the POH for most single-engine piston airplanes says to land as
quickly as practical after an engine failure.

As if you have a choice?

But what should you do if you
have a partial engine faillure? The correct response as far as I am
concerned in my simulator is to immediately climb regardless of any prior
ATC clearance or instructions and I would venture to believe that most
pilots would agree with this, even though I am aware of no POH which
includes this in the published procedure.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here, and ask why? The obvious
answer is "altitude is your friend", so you want to get as much of it as
you can while you still can. And, I certainly agree that in a situation
like this, I'll do whatever I think is best and let ATC fend for
themselves. But...

If there's something mechanically wrong with the engine, might adding
power for a climb make things worse?

"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...

If there's something mechanically wrong with the engine, might adding
power for a climb make things worse?

Yes, I agree, depending on the airplane. I would not add power if a
particular airplane's engine-failure checklist left the controls at less
than a full-power configuration; in that case, I would simply climb at the
maximum possible rate given the engine's performance.

In my airplane in particular, the first response to an engine failure is
"everything forward" -- partly because the throttle controls a variable
speed fuel pump which can fail at low speed only and partly because the
mixture controls an altitude-dependent fuel controller that has failures
modes with anything other than full rich. These correctable engine failure
modes justify "everything forward" for my airplane since the benefits of
correcting a partial engine failure usually outweight the risks of
converting a partial failure to a full failure.

While climbing I would proceed to the nearest airport and circle until I
were certain that I were in position for a successful deadstick landing if
necessary, and only then would I voluntarily reduce power.

--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com