Aircraft Accident/Incident Report

Cedar City, Utah 84720
Wednesday, March 22, 2000 16:30 MST

The flight instructor said that he shut down the right engine to practice single engine flight. Attempts to restart the engine were unsuccessful (it was later determined that the mixture control cable had failed). The pilot did not feather the right engine, and he reported that the left engine was providing insufficient power to maintain flight. The flight instructor performed a gear down landing in the rough, brush covered desert. The owner of the airplane said that the practice engine shut down was performed at 9,500 feet mean sea level, or approximately 3,800 feet above the terrain. He said that the practice maneuver was not initiated over a landing airfield, but that two were available within 5 miles of this location. The airplane's Owner's Manual performance section indicates that the single engine best rate of climb would be from 50 feet per minute to 250 feet per minute, depending on altitude and outside air temperature. A manufacturer's representative said that a non-feathered propeller would reduce the rate of climb by approximately 400 feet per minute, and landing gear extended would reduce it an additional 300 feet per minute.

The failure of the right engine mixture control cable, which prevented the pilot from restarting the engine. Contributing factors were the pilot's failure to follow procedures by not feathering the right propeller, the rough terrain, and the high vegetation.