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At the risk of stating the obvious, many crashes would not be affected by this: CFIT (controlled flight into terrain). Sadly common, it's how Kennedy junior di

At the risk of stating the obvious, many crashes would not be affected by this: CFIT (controlled flight into terrain). Sadly common, it's how Kennedy junior died and many others. Stall/spin. Common on take off and landing and avoidance is a huge emphasis in training. Visual flight into instrument conditions. If untrained what often happens is the pilot will end up in a spin/spiral into the ground or doing a CFIT. Also, running out of gas or engine failure requires the pilot to activate the backup correctly. Sounds silly, but I recall a pilot crossing the english channel with her family and forgetting to switch fuel tanks which caused a crash. Human factors is a huge part of training - so for this to be effective it needs to be drilled into the pilot's checklist on engine failure. Also this is time taken away from finding an emergency landing field and trying to restart the primary engine. I'd say an interesting comparison is the Cirrus SR20/22 which has a parachute for the plane. It gives you a great sense of security but that particular plane is the new "doctor killer" (a name given to the V-Tail Bonanza in the past). Curious to see how this will be seen and used by industry.

lujim 11y ago
That seems like a bit of an pessimistic take on this. Isn't that like saying front impact airbags aren't very helpful in a rear end collision? CFIT, stall/spin, and VFR into instrument conditions are all training deficiencies. This solution fixes something a pilot can't be trained to avoid, an engine failure at an inopportune time. Training can only take you as far as "glide and crash gracefully" without stalling and spinning. Also this could easily be made to automatically activate. Many multi engine aircraft will automatically increase power on the good engine by a few percent after an engine failure.
- repiret 11y ago
  Most general aviation engine failures are caused by poor fuel management. Training and discipline helps just as much with fuel management. While there are clearly situations where this device can save lives, I agree with the GP that the case needs to be made that its worth the cost and weight, and that the people peddling it haven't made that case.
  - lujim 11y ago
    I don't think of it as someone 'peddling' something. To me it seems like a creative solution to an actual problem. Training is the best, but private pilots vary drastically in their training, skill, experience level (especially recent experience). While I would love to see all pilots selected out of the population for their aptitude, then go through years of intense military like training followed by checkrides every 6 months, it's just not realistic in General Aviation. It's a group of people that differ wildly in their aptitude, age, skill level, that just happen to be healthy enough to pass a relatively low bar medical exam. Training for Private Pilots in the US might not be perfect, but I don't think a "throw training at it" response is all that useful of an answer. Train what? For how many hours, and require recency of experience after how long?

lujim 11y ago

That seems like a bit of an pessimistic take on this. Isn't that like saying front impact airbags aren't very helpful in a rear end collision? CFIT, stall/spin, and VFR into instrument conditions are all training deficiencies. This solution fixes something a pilot can't be trained to avoid, an engine failure at an inopportune time. Training can only take you as far as "glide and crash gracefully" without stalling and spinning. Also this could easily be made to automatically activate. Many multi engine aircraft will automatically increase power on the good engine by a few percent after an engine failure.

repiret 11y ago
Most general aviation engine failures are caused by poor fuel management. Training and discipline helps just as much with fuel management. While there are clearly situations where this device can save lives, I agree with the GP that the case needs to be made that its worth the cost and weight, and that the people peddling it haven't made that case.
- lujim 11y ago
  I don't think of it as someone 'peddling' something. To me it seems like a creative solution to an actual problem. Training is the best, but private pilots vary drastically in their training, skill, experience level (especially recent experience). While I would love to see all pilots selected out of the population for their aptitude, then go through years of intense military like training followed by checkrides every 6 months, it's just not realistic in General Aviation. It's a group of people that differ wildly in their aptitude, age, skill level, that just happen to be healthy enough to pass a relatively low bar medical exam. Training for Private Pilots in the US might not be perfect, but I don't think a "throw training at it" response is all that useful of an answer. Train what? For how many hours, and require recency of experience after how long?