Commercial pilot · ACS CA.IX.F
Engine Failure After Liftoff (Simulated)
After liftoff, an engine failure is a race to control, blue line and drag reduction, then a clear-eyed look at whether the airplane will climb.
This lesson is written for multi-engine land or multi-engine sea. You picked single-engine land: speeds, altitudes and procedures differ, so follow your POH/AFM and your instructor.
Why this one matters
An engine failure just after liftoff is the most dangerous moment in a light twin: low, slow, heavy, and with most of the climb performance gone. Pilots die trying to climb when the airplane can't, or letting the speed decay below VMC. A briefed plan, disciplined blue line, and the willingness to reduce power or land ahead make it survivable.
Can’t miss
- •First control: prompt rudder against the yaw and bank toward the operating engine (5-10° at first to stop the turn, then about 2-3° with the ball one-third to one-half out toward it). Then pitch for blue line, or VXSE or VMC + 5, whichever is greater, until clear of obstacles.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes; Commercial Pilot ACS (FAA-S-ACS-7B), CA.IX.F.S2, S5)
- •If full rudder and bank toward the operating engine can't stop the yaw, you are below your real VMC: reduce power on the operating engine and lower the nose until control returns, even if it means landing ahead.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
- •With the gear still down and runway or overrun ahead, close both throttles and land straight ahead. Gear and flaps come up only once you are committed to continue.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
- •The airborne flow, as the POH gives it: control first (rudder, bank toward the operating engine), pitch for blue line; mixtures, propellers, throttles forward; gear and flaps up once you are committed to fly; identify ("dead foot, dead engine"); verify; feather; then secure by the checklist.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes; Your airplane's POH/AFM)
- •If it won't climb at blue line, hold blue line and land: climb straight ahead or with shallow turns to at least 400 feet AGL before any return, or land at the most suitable place ahead.(Commercial Pilot ACS (FAA-S-ACS-7B), CA.IX.F.S7; Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
- •Training floor: no intentional engine failure below VSSE, and none after takeoff below 400 feet AGL. Below 3,000 feet AGL a failure is simulated only by smoothly reducing the throttle. A real shutdown and feather is done only where a landing on an established airport can readily be made. Failures at 20 or 200 feet are briefed and discussed, never flown.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes; FAA-P-8740-66, Flying Light Twins Safely; Commercial Pilot ACS (FAA-S-ACS-7B), Appendix 2)
- •Commercial standard: heading ±10°, airspeed ±5 knots.(Commercial Pilot ACS (FAA-S-ACS-7B), CA.IX.F.S9)
What you should know
VMC and speeds K1 · K2
- Published VMC (the red line) is the slowest speed at which you can keep control with the critical engine suddenly inoperative, then hold straight flight with no more than 5° of bank. It is set under fixed conditions: sea-level standard day; maximum takeoff power on the operating engine; the critical engine windmilling with its propeller control in the takeoff position; the most unfavorable weight (the lightest) and the most unfavorable (aft) center of gravity; gear up; wing and cowl flaps and trim in the takeoff position; out of ground effect; no more than 5° of bank toward the operating engine; heading held within 20° with no more than 150 pounds of rudder force.(14 CFR 23.149 (now 23.2135); Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
- Your real VMC differs whenever the conditions do. It goes up with a windmilling propeller (feathering lowers it), an aft CG, lighter weight, more power on the operating engine, and less bank toward it. It goes down with less power (a normally aspirated engine at altitude; a turbocharged one only above its critical altitude), gear extended (keel effect), and ground effect.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
- Bank matters most: VMC rises more than 3 knots for each degree of bank less than 5°, and with the wings level control can be lost almost 20 knots above the published red line. Up to 5° toward the operating engine is the certification number, not the way you fly.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
- The critical engine is the one whose failure is hardest to control: on twins with both propellers turning clockwise (seen from behind), the left, because of P-factor, accelerated slipstream, spiraling slipstream and torque. Twins with counter-rotating propellers (a Seminole or a Duchess) have no critical engine.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
- VMC (red line): minimum control speed. VYSE (blue line): best rate of climb, or least loss, on one engine. VXSE: best angle on one engine. VSSE: safe single-engine speed, the slowest at which an engine may be intentionally failed in training.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
Distances and performance K3
- Accelerate-stop: accelerate to a specified speed, lose an engine, and stop. Accelerate-go: accelerate, lose an engine at that speed, and continue to 50 feet on the other. Many light twins publish only accelerate-stop, as advisory data; check both at today's weight and density altitude.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes; Your airplane's POH/AFM)
- Losing one engine costs half the power but 80-90% of the climb performance. Many light twins can't climb on one engine, and some can't hold altitude, at gross weight on a hot day or at a high field.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
- Single-engine service ceiling: where the airplane climbs only 50 feet per minute at VYSE. Absolute ceiling: where it can't climb at all. Above the absolute ceiling it drifts down at VYSE and levels off there; between the two it still climbs, just slowly.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
Identify, feather and secure K4 · K5 · K6
- The airborne flow, as the POH gives it: control first (rudder, bank toward the operating engine), pitch for blue line; mixtures, propellers, throttles forward; gear and flaps up once you are committed to fly; identify ("dead foot, dead engine"); verify; feather; then secure by the checklist.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes; Your airplane's POH/AFM)
- Verify by slowly closing the throttle of the engine you identified: no change in yaw or sound confirms it. If the yaw gets worse or the airplane loses power, that is the good engine: advance it at once and identify again. An engine still making useful power can be left running until you have altitude and speed.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
- Secure the dead engine by the checklist (mixture idle cutoff, fuel off, magnetos and alternator off, cowl flap closed), then monitor the operating engine's temperatures and the electrical load on its single alternator.(Your airplane's POH/AFM)
- Zero sideslip, the least drag on one engine: bank about 2-3° toward the operating engine with the ball one-third to one-half out toward it, and rudder to hold heading. A centered ball with the wings level is a sideslip that costs climb and raises VMC.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
- In a simulated failure you touch and name the propeller control instead of feathering; the instructor or evaluator then sets zero thrust, a power setting that matches a feathered propeller's drag, and is responsible for restoring power if it's needed.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
- Training floor: no intentional engine failure below VSSE, and none after takeoff below 400 feet AGL. Below 3,000 feet AGL a failure is simulated only by smoothly reducing the throttle. A real shutdown and feather is done only where a landing on an established airport can readily be made. Failures at 20 or 200 feet are briefed and discussed, never flown.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes; FAA-P-8740-66, Flying Light Twins Safely; Commercial Pilot ACS (FAA-S-ACS-7B), Appendix 2)
Flying it R1 · R2 · R3 · R4 · R5
- Brief before takeoff: "Failure with runway ahead: close both throttles and land. Gear up and climbing: control, blue line, power, clean up, identify, verify, feather, then return or land. Not climbing: land ahead."(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
- Retract the gear and flaps by the POH once you are committed to continue; with runway or overrun still ahead, leave the gear down and land.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes; Commercial Pilot ACS (FAA-S-ACS-7B), CA.IX.F.S3)
- If full rudder and bank toward the operating engine can't stop the yaw, you are below your real VMC: reduce power on the operating engine and lower the nose until control returns, even if it means landing ahead.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
- Hold blue line; don't let the airspeed decay trying to climb. VXSE is used only to clear an obstacle after takeoff, then accelerate to VYSE. The hard floor with asymmetric power is VMC (VSSE for intentional failures); a stall there can roll into a spin.(Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes)
- Clear the area, and keep scanning for traffic while you handle the failure.(AC 90-48, Pilots' Role in Collision Avoidance)
- A failure is loud and startling. Fly the airplane first (control, then airspeed), then work the flow and checklists in order, and divide attention between the failure, the flight path and traffic.(Risk Management Handbook (FAA-H-8083-2A))
On the flight
ACS standards
- Recognize the failure, keep control, establish VYSE (or VXSE or VMC + 5 with obstacles), reduce drag, simulate feathering, and secure the engine.(Commercial Pilot ACS (FAA-S-ACS-7B), CA.IX.F.S1-S8)
- Heading ±10°; airspeed ±5 knots; complete the checklists.(Commercial Pilot ACS (FAA-S-ACS-7B), CA.IX.F.S9-S10)
What your instructor is watching for
Your instructor watches for immediate rudder and bank toward the good engine, blue line held precisely, the flow in order, the correct engine identified and verified, zero sideslip, and a sound decision about climbing or landing.
Scenarios
Decide what you would do first, then see the worked answer.
After an engine failure you pull the throttle of the engine you think failed, and the yaw gets worse.
What happened? See the worked answer
You reduced the good engine. Advance it again at once and identify again; the verify step exists to catch this before you feather.
Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes
At 150 feet, gear coming up, full rudder and you can't stop the yaw toward the dead engine.
What do you do? See the worked answer
Reduce power on the operating engine and lower the nose until control returns, then land ahead; control matters more than climb.
Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes
Hot day, density altitude 6,000 feet, the POH single-engine climb is near zero.
How does that change your briefing? See the worked answer
A failure after liftoff may mean landing ahead, not climbing: pick the spot in advance, or reduce weight, or wait for cooler air.
Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), Transition to Multiengine Airplanes
Common mistakes
Letting the airspeed decay below blue line.
Climb performance drops and VMC approaches.
Instead: Blue line first.
Feathering the wrong engine.
You lose all power.
Instead: Identify, then verify, then feather.
Flying with the ball centered and wings level.
Sideslip drag costs climb and raises VMC.
Instead: Zero sideslip: bank 2-3° toward the good engine, ball partly out toward it.
Raising the gear with runway still ahead.
It takes away the option to land.
Instead: Gear up only once committed to fly.
Now train it
Say it out loud, hear it asked, and take the quick check in this lesson’s practice pack. It tracks your shaky spots.
Got it?
When it feels solid, practice engine failure after liftoff (simulated) out loud with our examiner.
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Teaching this? The instructor lesson plan →
Sources
- Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C): Transition to Multiengine Airplanes
- Instrument Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-15B)
- Risk Management Handbook (FAA-H-8083-2A)
- Commercial Pilot ACS (FAA-S-ACS-7B): Areas IX and X (multiengine)
- Your airplane's POH/AFM: Emergency Procedures; Performance
- FAA-P-8740-66, Flying Light Twins Safely
Study aid, not FAA guidance. Regulations change; check the current text at eCFR and the ACS. Checked against current sources 2026-11-13.