Thanks. Interesting comment because I actually was on AP and cut it off to hand fly the hole. As I thought about it later I concluded the same, I could have just used the AP to get me through.Colin wrote: ↑Tue Jun 23, 2020 5:09 pm You were probably in enough of a dive to have the propeller driving the engine. In the POH there is no prohibition against this. And the way to start a shutdown engine on the DA42 is to "airstart" it by having the propeller unfeather and drive the engine RPMs up enough to start.
DAI seemed to figure out this was a bad idea. The gearboxes were making metal, the clutches were needing service sooner... so now you are not meant to do that. I look back on the six times I did it in my plane with regret, but the gearbox has been changed since then so I should be okay.
I don't know how 3,500 broken is going to trap you on top. That means there are holes, right?
Before I had my IFR ticket, the few times I did what you are describing I had the plane on autopilot. That's a *really* good precaution for a VFR pilot because if you miss the hole you were aiming for an wind up inside a cloud you are a lot less likely to jerk the controls around while disoriented.
Indeed there were a few holes although the broken layer was barely broken. Additionally, I waited too long to find a hole and was very near Charlie, receiving vectors from ATC already and buyign a little time with them to find the right spot. All in all, better planning and ADM was called for earlier in the flight