PA-23 Aztec

"Kai Glaesner" wrote
Can you tell us about this? I (as any prospective airplane buyer at some
time, I presume) am thinking about buying a twin, too. But reading through
some books and magazines I wonder if a twin is really worth the xtra cost&
hassle...

There I was, flying along IFR at 8000, close to full gross, VMC but
500 ft above an overcast layer - with the hills of Arkansas
underneath. That's when my engine decided to take a dump. Power fell
way off, and it shook like a wet dog. We figured out later what
happened. A steel component in the fuel servo rusted, and dumped rust
into the injectors. Two of them plugged up.

I brought the power back to where the vibration wasn't too bad
(meaning I wasn't afraid it would shake itself loose), but that was a
low power setting - maybe 15% power. I played with mixture and
throttle trying to clear it, but nothing doing. Any more power, and
the engine vibration was really bad - bad enough that I expected it to
break off the mounts.

Now, pick one:

I descended through the overcast, broke out a few hundred feet above
trees and hills, and crashed into the terrain.

Or:

I brought the other engine up to maximum available power and continued
on to a VFR airport.

THAT is what a twin does for you.

Michael

- with the hills of Arkansas underneath. I brought the other engine up to
maximum available power and continued on to a VFR airport.

THAT is what a twin does for you.

Michael

Agreed! and you can replace "with the hills of Arkansas underneath" with
"the cold steely waters of Lake Michigan etc" or "in the middle of a
moonless night over the Great (unpopulated) White North" or any of a 1/2
dozen other scenarios. The bottom line is that is gives you more options
when the sh*t hits the fan.

I don't want to open a can of worms but before anybody jumps on the "the
second engine is there to fly you to the scene of the accident" band wagon,
I'll just add that successful single engine emergency landings in twin
engine airplanes isn't a statistic that is reported (to my knowledge) so an
accurate comparison between non successful engine out emergency landings and
successful engine out emergency landings wouldn't be possible.

The key to flying a twin is the same as flying any other aircraft, be
proficient in all areas of operation. A statistic that I would like to know
is in twin engine prop planes involved in Vmc roll accidents, how many
crashed with the airplane configured incorrectly. Know your airplane, know
it's limitations, know it's procedures, and know what's going to happen
next.

I don't know of another twin that gives you so many positives with so few
negatives. The more we fly our Aztec, the more we like it.

Jim



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[At some point this should go to rec.aviation.owning, shouldn't it?]

"Jim Burns" writes:

I'll just add that successful single engine emergency landings in twin
engine airplanes isn't a statistic that is reported (to my knowledge)

That's gotta change. I'll start.
number of successful single engine emergency landings: 1
number of unsuccessful single engine emergency landings: 0
The worst part about landing with one caged is trying to taxi.

I don't know of another twin that gives you so many positives with so few
negatives. The more we fly our Aztec, the more we like it.

I've taken off and flown for hours (on different occasions) with one
engine pulled. It's not much of a challenge. From the way others
talk about twins, this docile behavior of the Aztec is a rarity. (Yes,
a Twin Commander has flown with one prop removed and I do lust for one
of those sometimes.) I would be *much* less comfortable with the
really sexy twins which are more demanding of pilots.

(I feel like I should be trying to sell my Aztec but as you might be
able to tell, I'm quite enamored with it.)

--kyler

"Jim Burns" wrote
The bottom line is that is gives you more options
when the sh*t hits the fan.

Yup.

I don't want to open a can of worms but before anybody jumps on the "the
second engine is there to fly you to the scene of the accident" band wagon,
I'll just add that successful single engine emergency landings in twin
engine airplanes isn't a statistic that is reported (to my knowledge) so an
accurate comparison between non successful engine out emergency landings and
successful engine out emergency landings wouldn't be possible.

True again. There are no records of my engine failure in the twin;
had I been in a high performance single I assure you there would have
been a record.

The key to flying a twin is the same as flying any other aircraft, be
proficient in all areas of operation. A statistic that I would like to know
is in twin engine prop planes involved in Vmc roll accidents, how many
crashed with the airplane configured incorrectly. Know your airplane, know
it's limitations, know it's procedures, and know what's going to happen
next.

The real question is how many of the people who rolled it over had
recurrent training in the airplane in the past year. Recurrent
training - if you own a twin, it's not optional.

Michael