feathering prop on wrong engine

[Ted]

Not really using prop to verify, but either Simcom or FSI (can't recall which) has been teaching high performance piston guys for a while now to put the hand on the prop levers after selecting gear up. The idea being that in the event of a catastrophic failure during the initial climbout, you go straight from identify to feather- pull the prop back to feather on the side the nose yaws to.

Correct, and that's what I do.

 

[Henning]

Not really using prop to verify, but either Simcom or FSI (can't recall which) has been teaching high performance piston guys for a while now to put the hand on the prop levers after selecting gear up. The idea being that in the event of a catastrophic failure during the initial climbout, you go straight from identify to feather- pull the prop back to feather on the side the nose yaws to.

Yeah, they saw the light as well. I brought it up first to Betty Faux on my PP-ME ride and she liked it as well on the demo. It saves between 2&3 seconds to get feathered and eliminates a point of failure. One of the other guys I flew and shared a fuel truck with had a 310 and was a Twin Cessna (as well as other) instructor for FSI and started using it there.

T/O roll hand on throttles, gear up, hand goes to props. Dead foot, dead engine ease back prop lever, noise remains yaw lessens proceed to feather. Noise reduces yaw disappears forward prop, exchange levers.

There is also a dexterity and muscle memory drill that goes with it that you can do inconspicuously at your desk and have it look like you are working diligently. Hold a pencil in your right fist with the point out past your pinky and put your heals on the floor. Now lower your left toe and roll your hand to the right so the point touches the table, now switch feet right toe down and tap the erase end out from your thumb. Just keep on rolling back and forth. Now you have an ingrained muscle memory reaction appropriate for 'dead foot dead engine' to link the correct foot to the correct lever.

 

[poadeleted20]

Ron,

The fire handle lights up RED. Even a complete dumbass will look up, see a bright red handle and think "Duh, that's the one on fire!" And the second guy that will verify before pulling it will also notice bright RED handle versus the non lit handles.

The OFF/NAV flag in the CDI/HSI is also red, but a 3-person 747 crew all missed it anyway. People make mistakes -- even three people at once. So please don't pooh-pooh the idea that folks can grab the wrong handle in an emergency situation. It happens, even to professional air carrier crews, especially when they get n a hurry. And that was the point of this discussion in Dr. Waring's Aviation Psychology class.

 

[poadeleted20]

Yeah, they saw the light as well. I brought it up first to Betty Faux on my PP-ME ride and she liked it as well on the demo. It saves between 2&3 seconds to get feathered and eliminates a point of failure.

It also eliminates an important check, and if eliminating two seconds is the difference between flying and not flying, you're down in the noise level anyway. Sounds too much like the Seneca pilot who got in a hurry to turn off the fuel pumps after takeoff at night and simultaneously turned off both mag switches for one engine instead (right position, wrong row). He did a very good engine shutdown drill (including feathering the correct engine), but when he got out the checklist for the post-immediate actions and got to the "Mags-OFF" step and found the switches were already off...

The FAA believes it's not worth giving up this important check in order to save that little amount of time, and I'll stick with them on this. Heck, I still even do the leg-slap as I'm verbalizing the procedure, just to make sure we're talking about the same right engine/leg (works for doctors, too, when they write on your leg before surgery).

 

[RotorAndWing]

The OFF/NAV flag in the CDI/HSI is also red, but a 3-person 747 crew all missed it anyway. People make mistakes -- even three people at once. So please don't pooh-pooh the idea that folks can grab the wrong handle in an emergency situation. It happens, even to professional air carrier crews, especially when they get n a hurry. And that was the point of this discussion in Dr. Waring's Aviation Psychology class.

Nice twist Ron. The only thing we are "pooh-poohing" here is a totally fabricated story you posted that can't be authenticated with any actual facts or data.

Like I said, you post the actual accident report and I'll and everyone else will believe your little story.

 

[olasek]

you post the actual accident report and I'll and everyone else will believe your little story.

This is a good candidate (and probably the only one close enough but this BOAC aircraft was departing London for Sydney via Zurich/Singapore) but the fire story seems slightly different:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOAC_Flight_712

Interesting story about the Israeli ambassador on that flight and the rescue in general.

 

[RotorAndWing]

This is a good candidate (and probably the only one close enough but this BOAC aircraft was departing London for Sydney via Zurich/Singapore) but the fire story seems slightly different:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOAC_Flight_712

Interesting story about the Israeli ambassador on that flight.

I suspect that this is the report that the "Professor" twisted to create his story. This report and Ron's tale share one commonality, they were B707's, BOAC, and happened in England. Everything else?