Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Commercial
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150; Flight Crew Total 1780; Flight Crew Type 90
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Inflight Shutdown; General Maintenance Action
Aircraft
We were leveling off at 5;500 MSL and my student was slowly leaning the mixture when the right engine RPM began to drop steadily. I pushed the mixtures and props full forward. The RPMs continued to drop; so I took the controls and had the student run the engine failure in flight above VMC checklist. After about 15 seconds of the RPMs dropping the engine began to shake and go to feather. The engine then failed completely and we did the engine securing checklist. I advised Departure and declared an emergency. We got a low volts annunciator; so I turned off our lights to decrease the electrical load which brought the load down to an acceptable level. We trouble-shot for about 2 minutes and determined that there was nothing that appeared to be out of order and the aircraft systems were stable. We started a descent and headed towards the airport. We landed with no incident and were able to taxi off the runway and up near the old terminal. We shut down there and contacted operations to make sure a tug was on the way. Once there they checked the aircraft and towed it back to the ramp. Maintenance checked and there was fuel and oil in the right engine. As a note; the run-up on the right engine was normal except that while testing the left magneto the drop was 80 RPMs and the right magneto drop was 150. I considered this to be within safe levels.
When their right engine began losing power the instructor and student pilots declared an emergency; ultimately shut down the failed engine and returned safely to their departure airport.