Zero Single-Engine Climb at 350 Feet AGL
You are giving multiengine instruction in a PA-44-180 Seminole departing a mountain airport: field elevation 5,400 ft, OAT 28 °C, altimeter 30.10 - density altitude about 8,300 ft. Takeoff weight is 3,650 lb. At that weight and temperature, the POH single-engine climb data show essentially zero climb at 8,000 ft density altitude. Runway 32 is 5,000 ft long; the departure end falls away into a valley, but rising terrain to 6,200 ft lies about two miles ahead and off the left wing. At rotation you call "gear up." As the gear retracts, at roughly 350 ft AGL, the left engine's oil pressure falls to zero and the propeller winds down to a windmilling condition. Airspeed is decaying through 85 KIAS. The student is on the controls, has 9 hours in type, and says, "I'm shutting it down and turning back to the runway." Flaps are at 0° and the gear has just come up.
1. What do you do and say in the next 15 seconds, and why?
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Take the airplane. Say "I have the controls" while keeping a hand on the yoke so there is no tug-of-war, and tell him out loud what you are doing so the emergency is also instruction.
Order of actions:
- Pitch first. Lower the nose to hold 88 KIAS (Vyse). At 85 and decaying you are already slow, and below the blue line Vmc and stall margins converge.
- Identify, verify, feather. Yaw is to the left, so the left foot is "dead" and the left engine is the failed one. Confirm by retarding the left throttle and watching for no change, then feather the left propeller.
- Clean up. Gear stays up, flaps stay at 0°.
- Bank about 5° toward the operating (right) engine to reduce sideslip and get what little performance exists.
- No turn back. With zero single-engine climb at this density altitude, a 180° costs several hundred feet the airplane does not have. Pick a field in the valley ahead and keep the gear up until the landing is assured.
The student's instinct - shut down and turn back - is the classic killer below 500 ft AGL. Your job is not to debate it at 350 ft; it is to fly the airplane first and explain second.
2. What should the pre-takeoff brief have contained, and how would that have changed this event?
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A brief turns an emergency into a procedure. Before taxi, with the POH open at today's weight, pressure altitude, and temperature, you compute and state:
- Accelerate-stop distance versus available runway, and accelerate-go distance to 50 ft.
- The single-engine climb rate or gradient at the forecast density altitude - in this case, approximately zero.
- A decision point: "Below 400 ft AGL or below X KIAS with runway remaining, we abort; above it, we fly the airplane."
- Engine-failure-after-rotation actions by callout: maintain Vyse, gear up, identify-verify-feather, and no turn back below 700 ft AGL, and then only with a positive rate of climb.
- The named emergency landing option and the terrain around the departure end.
- Who flies and who runs the checklist.
The decision altitude here would have been briefed against a known zero climb rate, which makes "we will land within about 30° of runway heading" the automatic answer rather than a debate at 350 ft. The performance numbers come from the POH for the day's conditions - never from a rule of thumb carried over from a sea-level airplane.
3. Later the student says, "Everything I read says you can turn back above 400 feet." How do you correct that with aerodynamics and performance, and what do you have him do on the next flight?
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Point out that "400 feet" is not a rule; it is a performance claim that assumes a climb rate, a weight, and a density altitude. Walk him through the physics:
- A 180° turn is not instantaneous. At 88 KIAS and a moderate bank, the turn radius is measured in thousands of feet and takes 30–45 seconds. Every second of that turn is altitude lost.
- Bank raises load factor: 1.15 at 30°, 1.41 at 45°. Stall speed rises with the square root of load factor, and Vmc rises with bank beyond the recommended 5° into the good engine. The airplane that had no margin in level flight has less in a turn.
- With zero single-engine climb, the only currency you have is altitude, and a turn spends all of it before you ever see the runway.
On the next flight, at 6,000 ft AGL and with a realistic simulated failure, have him establish Vyse and fly a 180° turn while you time it and call the altimeter. Have him compare the altitude lost against the POH single-engine climb rate at the day's density altitude. Then have him compute the density altitude and single-engine service ceiling himself before the next departure.