When a twin-engined airplane “loses” an engine, student pilots are often under the impression that the standard emergency drill has to be rushed.

On an overpowered plane like our Aztec, this is not so. Even in the worst-case scenario (engine failure immediately after liftoff), the sucker has enough power to climb even without completing the drill.

After realizing this, a memorable discussion occurred during refresher flight with Charlie Rampulla. We were goofing around in GXRP up at a safe altitude, nowhere near the critical post-takeoff configuration. He suddenly asked: “What would you do right away if an engine quit?”. An eager beaver student may rote off the standard drill. But my response, as the owner and repair-bill-payer of this piece of hardware, was: “[I’d do] Nothing, but complain ‘crap, this is going to be expensive‘.”