Night flying in the mountians in a cessna 150,

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message
...
"Michael" wrote in message
oups.com...

Besides, anyone arguing against doing that needs to expand the prohibited
class of aircraft to include any twin engine aircraft with a single-engine
service ceiling lower than the terrain (or MEA/MOCA/MRA) being overflown.

Pete

Having a single engine service ceiling higher than terrain is not really
that important. The single engine service ceiling is the altitude where the
airplane is still *climbing* 50fpm. The altitude where the airplane is
*descending* 50fpm is much higher. If you were cruising along at the MEA
and lost an engine, and the MEA was 5000' above the single engine service
ceiling, it would take tens or hundreds of miles to lose 2000' of altitude
and impact terrain. Actually you might never impact since the single engine
service ceiling rises as the plane burns off fuel. Barry Scheiff talks
about this topic in one of his books using actual numbers and the bottom
line is that you could lose an engine at the MEA in virtually any twin and
reach an airport, at least in the US.

Mike
MU-2