Engine Failure During my I-6 Checkride

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UtkuApaydin
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jun 03, 2017 6:28 pm

Engine Failure During my I-6 Checkride

Post by UtkuApaydin »

Hello dear friends!

This is actually my very first post on PE Forums, I`ve joined the PE community only 2 days ago and please let me say; as a real-world Instrument Rating student in Part 141 flight school, I can`t describe well enough how helpful PE is when it comes to practicing real-world IFR procedures and flights. As some of you may know, as an IR student you don`t really get to fly under an IFR flight plan except for only a couple of flights during your training which sucks.. So what I`m trying to say is that, I`d like to thank PE Team for providing this excellent service, so people like myself can practice and sharpen their skills. You guys truly are amazing!

So, this evening I was doing my I-6 Checkride. I departed RWY25L at LAX on SLI7 departure procedure, climbed via SID, then up to 4000ft MSL. (check out the picture below) Just as I was being vectored to SLI by the DEPP, the C172S that I was flying started vibrating/shaking like crazy, and I looked at my RPM gauge just to realize I lost about 1500RPM. I had full mixture in, full throttle in, fuel selector was on BOTH, Shut-off valve was all the way in and key was on BOTH and I had about 4h worth of fuel. I was in VMC above an OVC layer of clouds and the OAT was about +20C.

I had no idea why I`d lost the engine and I was unable to maintain 4000 and forced to descend. I actually got really lucky because KLGB (long beach airport) was just North of me and I was within the gliding distance to it. After declaring emergency I was cleared for visual RWY30 approach into LGB. I made a safe landing and survived. I was expecting engine to stop spinning as I was rolling down the runway but instead it didn`t actually quit, and was running relatively smooth at 1000RPM at full throttle. I was basically getting 1000RPM at max power.

So, I have NO IDEA why I had lost about 1500RPM. It can`t be induction icing because I was in VMC and OAT was way above freezing. I don`t think I lost a mag, because I lost way too much RPM than a mag failure would cause. And I don`t think it was my error, because when I lost power, I immediately went thru the memory items for engine failure and everything was how they were supposed be.

However, I did install XPrealistic PRO prior to that flight and actaully crashed the same C172 into the ground because I was playing the XPrealisticPro`s settings. So my best guess is that XP11 keeps track of how pilot uses the plane and gives you random malfunctions if plane`s been damaged? Because the Tachh and Hobbs times seem to keep track of your flight hours. I did some research but I couldn`t find anything, so if anyone of you out there has an idea why I had lost 1500RPM during cruise I`d love to hear it. Like Does XP11 give you random failures? or was it XPRealisticPro?

Make sure to check the picture below which is a rough estimate of what my flight path looked like.
Thanks! And Fly Safe!
Attachments
N11614 6/3/2017 Flight Path
N11614 6/3/2017 Flight Path
FLIGHT PATH.PNG (1.72 MiB) Viewed 10471 times
gavink42
Posts: 171
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:08 pm
Location: KMEM

Re: Engine Failure During my I-6 Checkride

Post by gavink42 »

UtkuApaydin wrote: So, I have NO IDEA why I had lost about 1500RPM. It can`t be induction icing because I was in VMC and OAT was way above freezing. I don`t think I lost a mag, because I lost way too much RPM than a mag failure would cause. And I don`t think it was my error, because when I lost power, I immediately went thru the memory items for engine failure and everything was how they were supposed be.
Great job with the emergency landing! About carb ice... I've had it in Memphis (real world). It was a humid 70 degree day, while climbing out about 1,500'. Circled one of the nearby grass strips until I verified the situation and cleared it with carb heat.

It all depends on temp, humidity, dew point and power setting. Not sure if the sim goes that far though. Here's a PDF from AOPA that's a great read:
https://www.aopa.org/-/media/files/aopa ... s/sb09.pdf

Gavin
- PP ASEL, instrument, complex, high performance
- Member AOPA, EAA, IMC Club, Piper Owner Society
- Cherokee 180C owner
Romans5.8
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2016 7:12 pm

Re: Engine Failure During my I-6 Checkride

Post by Romans5.8 »

I'm curious about that mod.

A2A airplanes are 'aggressively realistic'. They're a bit exaggerated (IMHO), perhaps because they put so much work into developing all of these failure models and if it was closer to real world (where failures are rare in practice), then nobody would ever get to use it!

I've had a situation in sim with A2A planes where my plugs fouled. Usually because I was holding short of the runway with full mixture waiting for the controller to finish off a long list of awaiting clearances before calling them. In that case though the lack of power was felt on the runway and I aborted takeoff to clear the plugs.

If you had some plug fouling AND lost a mag, you could potentially lose a whole cylinder (one plug fouled, one plug cold). Is the aircraft equipped with the instrumentation to detect a single engine failure? (Such as EGT gauges on each cylinder, or individual CHT's?))
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