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I'm a private pilot and I regularly fly aircraft similar to the one in the video. Engines can fail for any number of reasons, but catastrophic engine failure is

I'm a private pilot and I regularly fly aircraft similar to the one in the video. Engines can fail for any number of reasons, but catastrophic engine failure is exceedingly rare, and most of the time an engine stoppage is going to be something that can be corrected easily, such as fuel starvation (maybe failure to switch fuel tanks?), or a misconfigured fuel mixture, or a fried magneto. As student pilots, we train extensively for engine-out scenarios by running through checklists to increase glide distance, diagnose the problem, and hopefully restart the engine. At the very least, we evaluate all options. The first thing you are trained to do in an engine-out is to pitch the aircraft for best glide speed, and you don't even see him do that in the video. The prop stops spinning and he immediately opens the door. Bailing from the aircraft was the first thing he thought of doing, and that is the complete opposite of what every pilot is trained to do. I can't emphasize enough how much the engine-out checklist is drilled into you during training. Any qualified pilot is going to exercise some of those options unless their intention is in fact to bail from the aircraft.

bagels 5y ago
The video is edited, so it's possible that some of those things were cut, but I don't think they actually were.
- can16358p 5y ago
  Yup. As he was explaining all the details for pretty much everything else, I'd also expect him to have him go over the emergency procedures/checklist on the video before bailing out.
BbzzbB 5y ago
>The prop stops spinning and he immediately opens the door. I'm no pilot (student or otherwise), but as a comment in OP's link points out, his door is cracked open before the engine shuts down. At 2:35 we see it properly closed (as a layman would expect from someone sitting in a chair in the sky). At 2:37-42 in the establishing shot and the shot of the engine shutting down, it is clearly cracked open. As tho he was peaking out to see the terrain prior to killing his engine, like he does right after in the video. That alone makes it... suspicious. You'd think he might have spread his friend's ashes just before as an explanation, but considering how he used said ashes as a video prop, I'd expect him to include that shot in if he'd done it. Does a small plane pilot have any reason to open the door other than anticipating a jump? Than there's the whole parachute thing, which is further notable as you don't see him wearing any in his other flight videos.
- aeternum 5y ago
  It's possible that the engine was out at that point and the prop was just flywheeling. Possible but unlikely as it sounds like the engine is still on in some of the external shots.
- Sebb767 5y ago
  > Does a small plane pilot have any reason to open the door other than anticipating a jump? Additional ventilation, especially in older planes (according to comments on the original article). So that's not a dead giveaway.
HPsquared 5y ago
The prop doesn't even stop spinning of its own accord - only after he yanks back on the yoke. That's not a standard engine out procedure, I think! Surely he'd want to maintain airspeed to keep it windmilling while troubleshooting.
- plasticchris 5y ago
  If you failed to restart the engine and intended to glide some distance it might make sense to stop windmilling the prop since it generates a lot of drag. But it seems to be theatrics here.
  - repiret 5y ago
    That's a fixed-pitch prop, which will generate more drag stopped than windmilling.
    - addaon 5y ago
      This is not true for any plane I've flown -- see discussion at https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/64394/does-a-windmilling-propeller-create-more-drag-than-a-stopped-propeller-in-an-eng https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/64394/does-a-wi..., although it does seem like there's some variability. Especially if the engine is still making compression, a windmilling prop is extracting at least enough energy from the free stream to keep not just the prop but the engine turning... this is a lot!
      - repiret 5y ago
        I agree that energy lost to turning the engine must come from the airstream, don't underestimate how much energy can be lost just to creating turbulence in the airstream - after all, that's why you drop like a rock if you do a slip with full flaps. And a stalled windmilling prop will generate less turbulence than a stalled stopped prop. The discussion at your link makes a good point though - the windmilling prop might not be stalled while a stopped prop certainly is stalled, and a stalled prop obviously creates less drag.
FabHK 5y ago
> catastrophic engine failure is exceedingly rare Not really... apparently the rate for piston engines is around 15 failures in 100,000 hours (it's not trivial to find reliable statistics on that, because an engine failure that does not result in an accident need not be reported). If an average GA pilot flies around 1000 hours, encountering an engine failure is as common as throwing a 6 on a die. (I've had one.)

bagels 5y ago

The video is edited, so it's possible that some of those things were cut, but I don't think they actually were.

can16358p 5y ago
Yup. As he was explaining all the details for pretty much everything else, I'd also expect him to have him go over the emergency procedures/checklist on the video before bailing out.

BbzzbB 5y ago

>The prop stops spinning and he immediately opens the door. I'm no pilot (student or otherwise), but as a comment in OP's link points out, his door is cracked open before the engine shuts down. At 2:35 we see it properly closed (as a layman would expect from someone sitting in a chair in the sky). At 2:37-42 in the establishing shot and the shot of the engine shutting down, it is clearly cracked open. As tho he was peaking out to see the terrain prior to killing his engine, like he does right after in the video. That alone makes it... suspicious. You'd think he might have spread his friend's ashes just before as an explanation, but considering how he used said ashes as a video prop, I'd expect him to include that shot in if he'd done it. Does a small plane pilot have any reason to open the door other than anticipating a jump? Than there's the whole parachute thing, which is further notable as you don't see him wearing any in his other flight videos.

aeternum 5y ago
It's possible that the engine was out at that point and the prop was just flywheeling. Possible but unlikely as it sounds like the engine is still on in some of the external shots.
Sebb767 5y ago
> Does a small plane pilot have any reason to open the door other than anticipating a jump? Additional ventilation, especially in older planes (according to comments on the original article). So that's not a dead giveaway.

HPsquared 5y ago

The prop doesn't even stop spinning of its own accord - only after he yanks back on the yoke. That's not a standard engine out procedure, I think! Surely he'd want to maintain airspeed to keep it windmilling while troubleshooting.

plasticchris 5y ago
If you failed to restart the engine and intended to glide some distance it might make sense to stop windmilling the prop since it generates a lot of drag. But it seems to be theatrics here.
- repiret 5y ago
  That's a fixed-pitch prop, which will generate more drag stopped than windmilling.
  - addaon 5y ago
    This is not true for any plane I've flown -- see discussion at https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/64394/does-a-windmilling-propeller-create-more-drag-than-a-stopped-propeller-in-an-eng https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/64394/does-a-wi..., although it does seem like there's some variability. Especially if the engine is still making compression, a windmilling prop is extracting at least enough energy from the free stream to keep not just the prop but the engine turning... this is a lot!
    - repiret 5y ago
      I agree that energy lost to turning the engine must come from the airstream, don't underestimate how much energy can be lost just to creating turbulence in the airstream - after all, that's why you drop like a rock if you do a slip with full flaps. And a stalled windmilling prop will generate less turbulence than a stalled stopped prop. The discussion at your link makes a good point though - the windmilling prop might not be stalled while a stopped prop certainly is stalled, and a stalled prop obviously creates less drag.

FabHK 5y ago

> catastrophic engine failure is exceedingly rare Not really... apparently the rate for piston engines is around 15 failures in 100,000 hours (it's not trivial to find reliable statistics on that, because an engine failure that does not result in an accident need not be reported). If an average GA pilot flies around 1000 hours, encountering an engine failure is as common as throwing a 6 on a die. (I've had one.)