Engine Failure in Flight EP mnemonic

buzzin77

buzzin77

Well-Known Member
Engine Failure in Flight
Emergency Procedure Memory Device for C152/172

ACT FAST

Airspeed-Carb Heat-Trim
Find Field
Airstart
Squawk 7700, Radio 121.5
Turn off fuel, mix, ignition

Thought of it while shaving, which is where most good ideas come from. I'm sure somebody's thought of it before but I never heard of it.
 
Easiest thing I ever heard for piston singles was:

Pitch, Pick, Prop
Fuel, Air, Spark
Gear, Gas, Glass


Pitch for Best Glide, Pick a Place to land, Pull the prop back (if you've got a constant speed prop)

If time allows to attempt a restart:

Fuel (mixture to rich, switch tanks, boost pump on as appropriate), Air (alternate air, carb heat open), Spark (check make sure you didn't bump the keys to off, switch mags, try turning the prop with the starter)

If that doesn't work and you're going off airport:

Gear (selected as required for off airport landing), Gas (At this point turn off your fuel selector), Glass (this comes from the old days when airplanes still had canopies - open the doors and get ready to egress)
 
A B C D E F G

A- Airspeed, best glide
B- Best field- what makes it so?
C- Checklist- restart
D- Declare an emergency- local freq, or 121.5, squawk 7700
E- Exit preparation- tighten seat belts, crack door when the plane is close to touch down
F- Fire Prevention- flow check- but turn everything off.
G- Get out, tell your pax to get away from the plane once it has come to a complete stop.

This worked for me during my training, seems to work well for students too. A being the most important, G the least.
 
Fly the fracking airplane first. Mess with the transponder and comms after your checklist. I teach a flow check to my students. Covers everything and works out well.
 
flyingbum said:
Fly the fracking airplane first. Mess with the transponder and comms after your checklist. I teach a flow check to my students. Covers everything and works out well.
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I think everyone is already on the same page with that as everyone's first step involves flying the airplane.
 
I always took the "systems" and flow approach.

Of course this is all done on the ground as a lesson first, with hand's on practice in the cockpit. Emphasis is on the majority of engine "failures" or partial power failures are caused by fuel mis-management, carb ice or throttle friction locks. Look for the more likely problems first, which is all part of the checklist anyway.

3 things an engine needs to run:

1.Fuel
2.Air
3.Ignition

What in the cockpit controls these 3 things?

Fuel: Mixure, Throttle, Boost Pump, Fuel valve/selector, Primer
Air: Carb heat/Alt Air, Throttle
Ignition: MAG switch(s)

If none of that works, or the prop just abruptly stopped, you're SOL. Fly the airplane and find a good place to land.

The problem with pneumonics is well, you have to remember the pneumonic. If your student can memorize what all those letters mean, then they are sure as hell capable of learning a flow and what the systems do.
 
TwoTwoLeft said:
The problem with pneumonics is well, you have to remember the pneumonic. If your student can memorize what all those letters mean, then they are sure as hell capable of learning a flow and what the systems do.
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Mnemonic devices are great if they're small enough to be effective. Any mnemonic I come up with is no longer than 9, and frankly, I'd prefer as low as possible. There's some science behind this too:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two

Consider this, the super easy mnemonics or flows are usually pretty short.

Mixtures, Props, Throttles - Full Forward
Gear - Up
Flaps - Up
Identify
Verify
Feather
Secure
(7 Items, or 9 depending on how you're counting)

CIGARTAB (I use this in the Navajo daily prior to takeoff)
Controls - Checked
Instruments - Checked
Gas - Inboard Tanks
Avionics - Programmed / Set Up
Radios - Set For Departure
Trim - Set
Annunciators - Extinguished or Considered
Briefing - Complete

F-GUMPPs (Another Thing I use to back up my Flow and Checklist on the Jo)
Flaps - Set
Gas - Inboards
Undercarriage - Down and Locked
Mixture - Full Rich
Props - Set
Pumps - On

That covers everything that is liable to kill me when I'm landing

I still remember mnemonics from early training including "Turn, Time, Twist, Throttle, Talk," PTAEN (Position, Time, Altitude, ETA to Next Fix), 3-152/5-111, and a whole host of other useful ones that still pop up occasionally flying SPIFR. As long as they're short and sweet, you shouldn't have any problem keeping them in your head. The most important one?

Now that I'm flying an airplane with a decent autopilot, one I use all the time (every time I make an Autopilot change, or a nav change) is "PFNF" - "Use when the Pilot Flying is Not Flying." That is:
Programming - Check your avionics, make sure it's set to the desired fix or navaid
Final Approach Course - This is critical, and has come close to screwing me up when I've set a course to something near it and not caught it until the last minute when I wonder why the A/P is hunting so hard.
Nav Source - this is an easy preventable "gotcha," if you're wondering why the autopilot isn't capturing the GS or following the course you want, this maybe why - you're still probably in GPS, or didn't cancel suspend to fly the missed, or whatever.
Flight Director / Autopilot - did you set this up right? A quick glance at the A/P panel has kept me from flying off course because I left the system in heading mode, or didn't enable "GPS Steering" or something equally stupid.

That covers the easiest automation mistakes that I've made, and according to my boss is what he's seen the most flying with other guys in the Lears and King Airs and Hercs over the years.
 
For the T-6, the AF here teaches:

Turn
Climb
Clean
Check

IMHO... I think CFIs would do their students a great service spending more time on EPs...
Each student should know the critical items of every EP checklist by heart as well as the applicable gliding characteristics of single engine aircraft. The AF actually goes through a specific process of handling EPs... which I feel may be beneficial to civilians.

First step of any EP is to
Maintain Aircraft Control (i.e. For Engine Failure in a single engine... Turn (towards the nearest), Climb (or descend) to best glide, Clean)
Analyze the Situation
Take Proper Action
Land as soon as conditions permit.
 
For the 172 i was taught, and still use ABC 7UP 7DOWN

A- airspeed
B- best field
C- communicate

7 UP - 7 items that need to be done as a flow, which also is in the shape of the number 7 if you think about a 172 cockpit... Selector BOTH, mixture rich, throttle full, carb heat on, mags both, master on, primer in and locked (all of this in the cockpit would be like working your way up from the bottom of the number seven and then across)

restart restart restart

7 DOWN - securing the airplane... mags off, throttle closed, mixture leaned, selector off, seat belts on and tight, doors/windows open

I used it on my PPL checkride when my examiner turned the fuel selector to off while i wasnt looking... first thing on my flow so it was not an issue
 
Honestly if you have to remember a mnemonic for the emergency action items you're already doing it wrong. Just remembering that thing is far more complicated than a rote memorization of the emergency action items.
Is the first thing you actually do pull out your pad of paper and write down whatever crap you dreamed up, followed by the item that corresponds to the letter? No.
These things you need memorized cold.
 
This is a mnemonic for learning the emergency action items until they are committed to memory. It's known as a disposable crutch.

The purpose of this post is to help new CFIs or students. The mnemonic helps students do the proper steps in the proper order, which is an issue in the beginning with primary students. It has been interesting to read how different pilots learned different methods, but they all achieve the same thing. Everyone has a certain way they learned and are comfortable with, and the best method is the method each pilot likes best.

I initially learned from an Army pilot, who taught "AFARS" Airspeed-Field-Airstart-Radio-Secure
Later I went to a community college flight school that taught Airspeed-Carb Ht-Best Field-Airstart-Checklist

Many times I found students would rush the airstart without establishing the best glide speed and trimming for that speed, and they would end up getting fast, so I added trim. So far this method works well and maybe other CFIs might find it useful. I have trained many FAA and JAA primary and instrument students, and I would say that all that find value in these types of memory devices. The ACT FAST flow is one of the few that is a phrase that makes sense.

z987k, Apologies for posting something in the CFI corner that you consider some crap I dreamed up, but your comment was not constructive. Again, it is a disposable crutch that helps students recall the right actions in the right sequence.
 
I just don't personally see how it helps. I know from my training, I eventually found out it hindered it a lot. All these mnemonics all over the place people were making up. I can just memorize something far easier than if I have to tie it to something. When I just scrapped all those things, I found it far easier to memorize. As far as emergencies go... I can't personally see how adding an additional step helps with something that has to be done expeditiously. Usually there's a flow and a checklist. Having to stop and think of a memory aid and putting it together is all well and good on the whiteboard, but it can't go too much past that.
 
z987k said:
I just don't personally see how it helps. I know from my training, I eventually found out it hindered it a lot. All these mnemonics all over the place people were making up. I can just memorize something far easier than if I have to tie it to something. When I just scrapped all those things, I found it far easier to memorize. As far as emergencies go... I can't personally see how adding an additional step helps with something that has to be done expeditiously. Usually there's a flow and a checklist. Having to stop and think of a memory aid and putting it together is all well and good on the whiteboard, but it can't go too much past that.
Click to expand...
(1) Fly the airplane
(2) Prop lever feather
(3) Configure appropriately
 
z987k said:
I just don't personally see how it helps. I know from my training, I eventually found out it hindered it a lot. All these mnemonics all over the place people were making up. I can just memorize something far easier than if I have to tie it to something. When I just scrapped all those things, I found it far easier to memorize. As far as emergencies go... I can't personally see how adding an additional step helps with something that has to be done expeditiously. Usually there's a flow and a checklist. Having to stop and think of a memory aid and putting it together is all well and good on the whiteboard, but it can't go too much past that.
Click to expand...

I think that mnemonics have their place in instruction, particularly on the primary level. You're definitely right, emergencies are complicated and take real analyzation before any action is taken. I've been in a dozen or so fairly serious to really serious IFEs... and all of them boiled down to a) systems knowledge b) aerodynamics c) luck and most of all c) common sense and previous experience.

Mnemonics are a popular crutch for not understanding.
 
Airspeed-glide speed (duh)
Best field (as green and clear as possible)
Checklist (all the engine and fuel related stuff, radio as practical)

I had a CFI teach students to READ the checklist, meanwhile we're gliding aimlessly towards the ground. Every time I've gone to use an actual checklist on a check ride the examiner took it away and said its a memory item unless you've got thousands of feet below you.
 
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