what happens when an airplane runs out of gas?

Question

I am trying to determine whether the propeller on an airplane would continue to free spin if the plane ran out of gas. would you still be able to kind of glide and use it that way or would it just lock up and stay locked, if you ran out of gas???

Answer 1

The prop would continue to windmill unless stopped by the pilot. Because a windmilling prop creates a lot of drag there is a tecnique to stop it.

Pitch the nose up till it stops.

EDIT: A whole boat load of bad answers both below and above.

The pilot slows down to Vg, the glide speed. This provides the best CL/CD ratio meaning greatest horozintal distance and least vertical loss.

You will not stall unless you maintain youre altitude.

And before somebody sasy that weight is a factor in glide distance, it's not.

Answer 2

As a trained accident investigator to answer your question I would have to know what type of propeller are you talking about? There is a big difference between fix pitch and adjustable propellers.

The fixed pitch will continue to rotate because of the air passing thru it just like a wind mill.

The adjustable pitch porpeller is controlled by engine oil pressure. If you loose oil pressure as the engine stops oil pressure drops and the spring in the propeller dome will rotate the blades to cut the air resistance by changing the prop angle. This will help the forward speed and glide.

Depending on the cylinders compression it may stop the propeller from spinning, but don’t bet on it always assume the worst in this situation.

As you may or may not know running out of fuel will get the FAA to call you into their office for a little sit down come to Jesus meeting. Good pilots don’t run out of fuel those who do better have a hole in the fuel tank and not know it.

My question to you is why would you asked this question?

I amazes me people will try to answer questions that don’t have a clue what they are talking about. If you don’t know the answer don’t guess.

Answer 3

It would spin. --Windmilling. Try it and see. Sure, you glide with the engine out of gas. When windmilling it creates less drag than if stopped, because the angle of attack is much less. Read what the book says about the best conditions for gliding. Slow down and you can stop the propeller.

If you can, feather it or move it toward feather.

Answer 4

Been there, done that, got a sticker and a nickname.

Yes, the propeller continued to spin until it was stopped by a Ceder tree.

Yes, the plane did glide quite nicely until it was stopped by a Ceder tree.

Small damage to the plane, no damage to me other than ego.

The sticker appeared on the aircraft a short time later, it was a Ceder tree, placed below the windshield like military pilots do with kill victories

Answer 5

If you run the aircraft out of fuel, the propeller's going to be as useless as **** on a boar hog. If you have a fixed pitch prop, it's going to windmill, causing more profile drag. If you have a constant speed propeller, you'll have either shut down procedures or electric pumps to feather the prop. Either way, you're along for the ride at that point and only your actions will determine your chances of survival.

Some aircraft glide very well, allowing the pilot sufficient time to scope out an emergency landing spot, other aircraft are proof positive that a boulder will fly if you put large enough engines on it.

The single engine procedure for night engine failures is to come to best speed of descent, drop to about 300', then turn on your landing lights. If you don't like what you see, you turn your landing lights off.

If you're not checking your fuel level before take off, not paying attention to your fuel consumption and consumption records, you don't have any business doing the preflight planning, and even less business actually doing the flying.

You shouldn't worry about running out of fuel because it should never happen, (I'm not saying it hasn't, that it won't,) and it's the responsibility of the pilot to make sure it never happens.

If it does, somehow manage to occur, the only thing that's likely to be worth a pair of fetid dingo's kidneys is if the propeller can be feathered or not. Rather like small twins which suffer an engine failure, this only serves to relocate the site of the resultant crash.

If you're incapable of fuel management, you're fodder for the Darwin Awards.

Fly the Friendly Skies!
JT

Answer 6

If you have a 'variable pitch propeller' you can feather the propeller. In this state the propeller will be in line with the airflow and not spin unnecessarily. If the propeller is a fixed pitch one it will turn with the airflow. In either case the aircraft can be settled into a glide.

With a dead engine you can always glide down and the smaller aircraft could be put down in fields or open spaces if a runway is not within reach. In the larger and heavier aircraft the problem is not so simple, and a suitable landing area has to be found otherwise extensive damage may occur.

During the training stages, pilots are taught this phase and they practice what are known as simulated dead stick landings. Qualified pilots can handle such situations.

Answer 7

It depends on the type of propeller-driven aircraft. An older or cheaper bird, the engine stops and the prop stops.

Others have pointed out the more advanced (WWII era) and expensive "Variable-pitch" propeller, on which the blades can be turned so they face into the "wind" or "Feathered" which greatly reduces their drag.

EITHER way, the aircraft will STILL be able to glide... EACH type of aircraft has a different "GLIDE-RATIO"... it's ability to glide... the angle at which it glides-drops.

IF you're doing this for a story... let us know the aircraft

Answer 8

the propeller would free spin for a while then lock up but the aircraft would become a glider

Answer 9

On most light aircraft the propeller stops with the engine. And even if it didn't stop, it's not moving fast enough to provide any thrust. So you have to glid on the momentum you have left at the time of the shut down.

Answer 10

There is no such thing as a "dead stick landing".

There can be a dead engine landing because even though the engine has died, the sticks still work. Can you imagine being the pilot of a plane and when the engine quits, the controls lock up? AAAgggghhh.