Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 135; Flight Crew Total 797; Flight Crew Type 362
Training / Qualification; Situational Awareness; Distraction; Confusion; Communication Breakdown; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Inflight Shutdown; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Aircraft; Human Factors; Procedure
While on the inbound leg of the procedure turn for the VOR-B Practice approach; a fuel imbalance was noted. The instructor made the decision to switch fuel tanks; and notified the student that this should be done. This action was not observed due to scanning outside for traffic as the student was under the foggles. After approximately 30 seconds; the engine failed due to fuel starvation; as the fuel selector was placed into the off position inadvertently by the student who was task saturated and had initially trained on a 172; where tank imbalances were rarely a problem. After unpowered flight for approximately 30 seconds; the instructor realized the problem; and put the fuel selector onto the left tank. Afterwards; the aircraft was then flown to it's home airport after an assessment of the situation revealed no further issues with the engine.This could have been prevented in a number of ways; namely that the fuel tank switch should have been observed by the instructor; the student should have been briefed on this topic specifically; and the tank switch could have been done in a non-critical phase of flight. These items should be at least brought up in future instructor training; as it could easily happen across aircraft types; and can lead to significant issues.
A Flight Instructor reported his instrument student moved the fuel tank selector to the OFF position while attempting to change engine fuel sources. The Instructor determined the engine failure cause and restarted the engine.