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Originally posted by slosig:

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Originally posted by arabiancowboy:
I just finished my ATP and cutting the engine then restarting is a required portion of the check ride, which surprised me. We were using a light twin Piper Seneca. For single engines, I agree and haven’t heard of folks in the modern world intentionally cutting those for training.

Interesting. I don’t recall feathering the engine in the Seneca when I got my ATP a few years ago, either in training or on the checkride. Then again, my memory isn’t as good as it used to be…

I *do* recall feathering the engine on the old beat up Apache in trading when I got my original multi engine rating. It was in training, not on the checkride, and it was at five thousand feet over an airport as that Apache had no unfeathering accumulators and there was some question as to whether or not it would restart.

The instructor mentioned this practice was a big deal to the FAA now, so perhaps the requirement to shut down an engine was part of the new ATP-CTP syllabus. The second time we completed it in training the motor didn’t restart & we had to RTB in a 100 FPM decent.

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Originally posted by arabiancowboy:

the motor didn’t restart & we had to RTB in a 100 FPM decent.

I got my multi rating in the late 1960s in a 150 hp (each engine) Apache.

Flying it well below gross weight for training, just two of us on board and a fairly light fuel load, if you did everything exactly right, I mean perfectly, rate of descent was around 50 fpm with the critical engine shut down.

About ten years later I was on a long-term assignment in Spain and had no way to renew my Instructor certificate, so when I returned to the U.S. I had to do a reinstatement, rather than a simple renewal; basically repeat everything except the written exam with an examiner. I used a friend's C-310 for the multi-engine instructor check ride. With 260 hp engines, it was a piece of cake compared to the old tired Apache.

The dreaded "7 engine approach" in the B-52, though...

quote:

Originally posted by arabiancowboy: The instructor mentioned this practice was a big deal to the FAA now, so perhaps the requirement to shut down an engine was part of the new ATP-CTP syllabus. The second time we completed it in training the motor didn’t restart & we had to RTB in a 100 FPM decent.

It was a requirement by the FAA inspector during my ATP checkride in 1997.

The current PTS for the ATP MEL requires engine shutdown and restart. There is an exception when below 3000 AGL to only set zero thrust rather than shut down, such as on a single engine approach. So, no true single engine instrument approaches, just simulated.

I am a big fan of training the real thing to the greatest extent possible. When the SHTF for real there is nothing better than the inner voice saying "I've done this before".

A checkride is not the place to create unnecessary risk. But the PTS requires it, so there you go.