Am I Prepared For An Engine Out

Añadido: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]I've actually never shut the engine off on this thing in flight. It's creepy how quiet it is. Like definitely not used to that.

[00:00:09]That was crazy. Now, what I'm about to go and do, which is turning my engine off in flight on my plane, while it's not incredibly risky, there is a little bit more risk involved than standard flight or, you know, simulated engine outs with the engine at idle just because I don't have the option of adding power if I it's looking like I might short my landing. So, this is not something I would want to go into on a poor night's sleep. Luckily, thanks to Helix, that's not a problem today. And for anyone that hasn't been following for a while or maybe you missed the video, I did my first partnership with Helix back in 2020 and I have been sleeping on a Helix mattress since then and I can tell you authentically that they are great mattresses and it significantly improved my sleep. Prior to that, we had a very, very expensive mattress that we thought we would go back to, but after trying the Helix, we stuck with that. Part of that's because the mattress was basically custom catered to us. I went on Helix's website, did their online sleep quiz, put in all the info for myself as well as Haley and how we sleep. It recommended the Helix Twilight Lux. It's a medium to firm mattress, and it's been perfect. Helix is great because they come with a 120day sleep trial and lifetime warranty. And every mattress comes with free shipping and seamless delivery. Also, they're one of the most awarded mattress companies out there.

[00:01:25]So, it's not just me that feels good about this. It's pretty universal. Haley and I also recently switched to Helix's Comfort Adjust cooling pillows, which are awesome because you are able to adjust the firmness and the thickness of the pillow by either adding or removing fill or adjusting the zippers that tighten up the overall size of the pillow, which is awesome. You now have just like a mattress, a pillow custom catered to you. So, if you're ready for a good upgrade in your sleep, head to helix.com/trenpalmer right now because Helix is doing a 27% off Memorial Day sale. Thank you again, Helix, for sponsoring this video. Now, let's get out there and shut the engine off and see what this thing does. All right, let's blast off out of here.

[00:02:12]All right.

[00:02:14]So, some of you guys that have followed along for a while might remember a video I made years ago um where we were testing glide ratios with your engine at idle versus completely stopped. And the reason being is that I was taught during uh primary flight training, I was taught that an idling engine somehow caused or created more drag than when your engine was stopped. And I guess the theory was if you couldn't feather your prop that the uh the flat pitch of a spinning disc makes more drag than a stopped prop. And when I tested it, that was incorrect.

[00:02:54]that basically my glide was better with the engine running, which makes sense to me. I mean, it's it's even though it's not making a ton of horsepower, it's making some and it's making thrust. So, uh, we tested that one and proved it, but that was in a different airplane.

[00:03:10]And that was with a ground adjustable or fixed pitch prop. Now with the with my new airplane with the legend and a constant speed prop, I just realized that I have never actually gone up and shut the engine off and glided this thing and see one, what are the glide ratios compared to at idle and then two, how am I on actually hitting my mark if the engine's actually off. So we're going to go out to dead cow. I'm gonna test some, you know, power off glide being at idle and then we'll test the glide with the engine shut off and then we're going to test and see if I would actually hit my mark. So, yeah, should be a pretty fun one. It's not something I would really recommend trying unless you have I mean, I guess if you have a runway that's, you know, 10 12,000 ft long and no one's around, you could probably do this. But, uh, you know, the dead cow dry lake bed, I forget how long it is. It's I mean, it's miles long. I think it's 5 miles or more. Um, it's so big that I'm not going to miss that one.

[00:04:08]So, there's obviously some inherent risk uh with shutting the engine off and the fact that you can't really change your descent much. I mean, you're going to pitch for air speed, but there's no way to power for altitude. So, really what you're doing is going to the best glide air speed, and that's the only way you can control your descent. If I were to get too low or too slow, well, really the too slow means the only recovery is push forward aggressively. If that happens near the ground, you guys get the picture. Also, something that'll be interesting to see is especially in the kit box, I had an issue because that tail was so much smaller than a Cub that with the engine off or even with the engine at, you know, idle, I didn't have enough air going over the tail to really get the wing to a full stall. So, when I would land with the engine off in the Kit Fox, I would land significantly faster than I would if I had some power.

[00:05:00]So, it'll be interesting to see if the cub's the same or if this bigger tail helps it land at a more acceptable speed. Okay, we are just coming up uh on dead cow and the first thing I want to do is I want to do a timed descent at idle and I'm going to just pitch for 70 mph and I'll do that on both. And I'll time both with the engine at idle versus with the engine stopped. Um, and what this will do is kind of give me an idea of how my glide is. Um, if it takes longer to glide down with the engine stopped, that means it's gliding better because my feet per minute is less, if that makes sense. So anyway, what I'm going to do, we're going to pull this thing to idle and slow it up to 70. I'm gonna try to trim it in to stay at 70. So, looks like right about there.

[00:05:55]See?

[00:05:57]And once I hit 7,000 ft, I am going to uh start the timer and time 500 ft of descent.

[00:06:07]And we're almost there. We're full aft trim to keep this thing going. And there's 7,000.

[00:06:13]And I'm just going to do 500 ft uh so that I don't have to climb up as far on the next one.

[00:06:20]Man, this thing does not glide super well. It's funny because a Cub compared to the Kit Fox has much larger wing, so it's a lighter wing loading. So, in theory, it should glide better. But there's definitely something to be said about it's ready and stop. 26 seconds.

[00:06:38]26.3 seconds is how long it took to descend 500 ft. Let's save that one to photos.

[00:06:47]And uh the Cub, even though it does have uh lighter wing loading, this one with this gigantic prop, definitely has a lot of induced drag on the propeller disc when it's at flat pitch like that at idle. And also, uh the 35's, you know, it's a pretty draggy airplane. So, it's going to be an interesting one to kind of test and see, you know, how this works out. I've actually never shut the engine off on this thing in flight. It's kind of a different restart procedure than my uh old engine. So, um I don't think it'll have any problem starting. But again, the reason I'm doing it over dead cow is so that I can uh you know have the option to just land if it doesn't want to restart. Okay, I'm going to get lined up on a similar heading.

[00:07:37]All right, let's go ahead and shut this thing off.

[00:07:43]Oh, so engine's off. It's definitely uh windmilling. I don't know if I'll be able to get it to stop.

[00:07:56]Come on, engine.

[00:08:00]Make me stall this thing to stop it.

[00:08:04]Come on.

[00:08:12]Come on. There it goes. Wow, that was much harder to get stopped than the Kit Fox. And it's such a big profile. It's going to start windmilling, which is going to add a lot of drag. Oh, that was okay.

[00:08:30]We are there right at 70. A little high.

[00:08:33]Not doing my best job on this one.

[00:08:42]It's creepy how quiet it is. Like definitely not used to that. And stop.

[00:08:49]So that was 29 seconds. It was 26 cuz it was 52. So it actually glided longer.

[00:08:59]So that would tell me that I actually do have a better glide with this setup with the engine stopped than with it running.

[00:09:08]Interesting. Let's see how this thing wants to restart.

[00:09:12]There it goes. No problem.

[00:09:16]So, what did we learn?

[00:09:20]That this uh that is a trip. Let me uh screenshot this so I can save it. And let me look back again. Yeah, 26 to 29.

[00:09:34]So, this thing does glide better with the prop stop than at idle, which is the exact opposite of what the Kip Fox did.

[00:09:42]So, that is a trip. I was not expecting that. So, the next thing I want to do is test a landing and see how close I would be to actually hitting my mark. And, uh, deadcow is at about 3,900 ft. So, I'm going to go at least 2,000 ft above that. And what I want to do is just a 180 to landing. There's one outcropping of sage brush. I'll take a photo or a video of it so you guys can see what I'm talking about. I'm going to aim for that just next to that because that's the most identifiable touchdown point. And what we'll do is we will pretend that that is the end of a runway. And if I short it, I shorted the runway. So I want to land just past that. So what I'm going to do is get set up.

[00:10:24]And when I say windmill, what I mean by that is the wind physically pushing the prop through the air. So, at idle, obviously, the engine's making power.

[00:10:33]It's turning the prop over. When the engine shut off, there's no fuel running to it at all, and the engine's still being turned over. That's taking energy and turning it into a rotating moment on the prop. Now, the theory is that that should be more drag than the stopped prop. And I bet you we will find that that's the case. Here we go again.

[00:10:52]Getting set up. Let's uh pull that engine back. We'll go ahead and turn off the engine.

[00:11:00]2680.

[00:11:02]That is damn near the exact same as with engine run or fuel running into the engine at idle. So, very interesting.

[00:11:15]Here we go again. Getting set up. Let's uh pull that engine back. We'll go ahead and turn off the engine.

[00:11:23]Simulating an engine out with it at idle is pretty dang similar to simulating an engine out or to an engine being out and it windmilling. Whereas you will extend your glide a bit if you just, you know, slow down enough to let the prop stop.

[00:11:42]Let's just see if I can figure out what my uh actual glide and landing is and if I short it. So, right now, if I'm saying I'm not going to short that, I'm going to start making my turn. Right now, I'm going to try to land pretty close to those just to make it seem like there's, you know, a road or a runway or something that I'm trying to hit. And I'm probably going to wait to put flaps in just Oh, I think I'm shorting it.

[00:12:08]It's crazy how quick that just happened.

[00:12:10]I might make it, but as soon as I put flaps in, that's going to add a lot of drag. So, right now I'm like waiting on that.

[00:12:20]I might have this, but it's going to be by the skin of my teeth. Is that a term? Should have skin on my teeth. I might just be nailing this beyond as good as I ever could have expected. No way.

[00:12:35]That was crazy.

[00:12:38]I don't think I can do that again. Put that on my resume, man. I guess I'm more prepared for an inch and out than I thought.

[00:12:46]I think I should do again and see if that works because that I was convinced for sure that I was going to short that. And it was interesting just holding that glide, but just the round out stretched the glide a bit and then pulling flaps in just kind of helped it sit and ground effect and I floated a lot farther than I thought I was going to. So, uh, let's go try it again and, uh, see if I have similar luck. Maybe I should just do one. Let's just try one here because you never know when your engine's going to fail. So, let's say engine fails in a turn. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, what's going on? Pitch for best glide."

[00:13:24]It's interesting because of the trim that I have. Like, I am holding so far back to keep this thing from like nose diving that it'd be very hard to stall this plane uh from an engine out and have an accidental stall.

[00:13:38]You would have to be physically like panicking and pulling back on the stick.

[00:13:43]short. I think I'm short.

[00:13:46]No, now I feel good.

[00:13:49]And I'm using that trick. I'm sure a lot of you are aware. I'm looking at a bug on the wind screen. If the background is raising above it, that means I'm going to short it. If it's staying at, it means I'm going to make it. If it's going down, it means I'm going to overshoot it. So, right now I am uh looking dang good.

[00:14:11]I could almost slip if I wanted to hit my other marks.

[00:14:26]Dude, I think Where's my other tracks?

[00:14:32]Almost identical.

[00:14:35]Wow.

[00:14:37]All right. I uh I don't know if you guys can see. It's kind of hard to tell, but like I can tell that my last turnound I basically stopped right here. Like where my shadow is is where I stopped. And then you look at the next one. That's just past the wing. So that's about 20 ft off. So as far as having a similar ground roll and similar touchdown, that was really good. I'm actually like pleasantly surprised on that. But what I'm going to do, I'm going to walk this out, see how long that is. It looks like it's 400 ft. Um maybe a little less, but I'm going to go through, walk it out, and then uh I can kind of gauge how long the ground roll was.

[00:15:17]16 17 18 19 20. All right, that was about 120 paces. So, times three, that'd be about 360 ft. That's not horrible. I could have gotten on the brakes harder, but I think that's a pretty safe number uh to say that that was like power out.

[00:15:37]I will say that I did notice I was landing quite a bit faster. again, just less elevator authority. And I also wasn't trying to like get in there and really get slow because you don't have the ability to hang on the prop and correct for that when you don't have a prop spinning. So, uh, yeah. And this is what's interesting. I don't know if you can tell. There is a touchdown right where my shadow is right here. And there's another one right here. That was within a foot of each other. And this was my threshold. So, I was about 50 60 ft past my I can't short it point and landed here, rolled out 360 ft. So, yeah, this was a fun one. I I I wasn't sure if this was going to be worth making a video.

[00:16:20]So, you guys will have to comment below and let me know if you think this stuff's interesting. It's super interesting for me because theoretically, this kind of practice and an understanding and having a little bit more time behind an engine that's stopped makes you more equipped in the event that it actually happens. I can tell you from experience because when my engine quit back in 2018, I had done a bunch of practicing shutting the engine off prior to that. And I really attribute that to having helped me keep calm and nailing my spot and landing where I did and leaving with no extra damage to the plane. Obviously, the engine was toast, but plane was good beyond that. And to sum everything up, the interesting findings I had is that an idling prop, meaning the engine is still running, has about the same drag on my airplane as a windmilling prop.

[00:17:07]Both of those created more drag than a stopped prop. So, in theory with my plane, again, cuz all of this is going to change. These results were opposite of what my kit fox was. But in my plane, if I was up high and I had an engine out and I'm trying to stretch my glide, it probably would behoove me to slow the plane down to near stall to get the prop to stop because at that point I'm stretching my glide out farther. So obviously there's some loss there and trying to slow it down and get it to a stall. But if you're high enough up, that'll probably pay out in dividends on your glide down to be able to reach farther towards hopefully where a safe landing spot is. So anyway guys, I'm going to sign this one off here. I'm going to go fly, play around, and not have to worry about cameras. So I hope you guys enjoyed this, and uh you guys know the drill. Like this video if you do. Subscribe if you haven't. Come be my wingman. See you on the next one. Peace.

[00:18:00]Well, I'm up in the morning, tortured by the morning with no recollection how I got up here.

[00:18:12]And I'm learning how to gamble.

[00:18:16]I finally left the cradle.