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this: First, someday autofeather may malfunction. Not likely, but possible. Second, someday you may be flying an earlier King Air or some other light twin that is not equipped with the wonderful autofeather system. Why not practice for when that day comes?
Identify: Dead foot, dead engine: the old tried-and- true method. Unlike manifold pressure on the Duchess, however, realize that the torque indication is nearly fool-proof for the PT6. Dead torque, dead engine.
Verify: Retard the power lever of the suspected dead engine and make sure nothing happens. Well, something will happen, won’t it? The landing gear warning horn will sound. I suggest you then push the power lever up either fully forward or just match it with the other power lever to silence that nuisance and to get rid of the gear handle red lights which would have come on with the horn.
Feather: Go ahead and slowly and carefully pull the dead engine’s propeller lever all the way aft into its feather detent. Even if you are blessed with autofeather that has already feathered the prop, do this step also! Two reasons: First, it reinforces the habit for when autofeather is not installed. Second, it precludes any chance of the prop slowly unfeathering itself when you turn off the autofeather switch as part of the engine- out, cleanup procedure. If your prop rotates in feather,
even quite slowly, it will create enough oil pressure to unfeather itself when the autofeather dump valve is no longer open. This is very common with Raisbeck propellers.
Why does it seem that fatal takeoff accidents are happening more often now than in past years? I wish I knew. However, I do have some guesses.
My speculative ideas will reflect negatively on many of my pilot readers. I am sorry if I make you feel bad. In my 53 years of being a flight instructor I have reached the maddening conclusion that the average level of flying skill has noticeably degraded. The older pilots who cut their teeth on Twin Beech 18s, DC-3s and such, knew how to use their feet. I swear when I was doing initial King Air training with a DC-9 airline captain, there wouldn’t have been much difference if he was missing his legs from the knees down! Put “Get a tailwheel endorsement” into your wish list of things to do. It will make you a better pilot.
Also, the old-timers were used to engine problems with those old radial motors. They probably logged much, much more OEI time than any recent aviator.
They also didn’t have as much automation and in- strumentation as we do now. Autopilots? They were relatively rare so much more hand-flying was rou- tinely accomplished. PFDs? MFDs? No such things.
NOVEMBER 2021
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 21