Your Guide To Single Engine Taxi in Infinite Flight

Ground School Community Tutorials
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How to Single Engine Taxi

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Topic Purpose

This tutorial will teach you the steps to properly taxi using one engine. This is something that is very common in the real world, yet not too many people know of. There are great points made here and are very beneficial if you ever want to taxi with one engine in Infinite Flight!

How to do it

While it may seem quite simple, it really isn’t. Many procedures must be followed to ensure the best result and efficiency. Taxiing with a single engine can be used for both departure taxi and arrival taxi!

  1. For both dual engine taxi and single engine taxi, try not to exceed 40% N1, and NEVER exceed 50% N1.

  2. Use the #1 engine as it powers multiple systems in both Airbus and Boeing aircraft. In some cases, the #2 engine may be used.

  3. If you have to make a turn on the same side of your running engine, gain some speed prior to the turn to prevent loss of speed.

  4. If possible, do not to exceed 10 knots while turning. If this isn’t possible, 15 knots should be the max.

  5. When possible, keep your nose wheel straight to accelerate and only turn when you have momentum.

  6. Make sure to start up your remaining engines at least 2 minutes prior to take-off. This is a standard real world procedure that allows the engines to warm up and help prevent damage.

  7. If you happen to be flying a tri or quad jet, use at least 2 engines.

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When to Avoid Single Engine Operations

  1. If a short taxi route is expected.

  2. If weather conditions do not permit. It can be dangerous to taxi with one engine with sudden wind gusts, a slippery tarmac, or low visibility.

  3. If you are taxiing uphill, such as taxiing at EHAM.

  4. If an aircraft will be powered out (no pushback).

Benefits

By using only one engine to taxi, one can reduce ground-level fuel burn and carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent to 40 percent, while also having the potential to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides by 10 percent to 30 percent, depending on the type of aircraft and pilot technique. While that is not exactly beneficial for us in Infinite Flight, it does allow less fuel to be loaded onto the aircraft, thus saving weight. I guess it benefits fuel savings for long hauls too! 💁‍♂️

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Remarks

Thank you for reading! I hope this tutorial helped anyone who was struggling to taxi with one engine, and maybe encourage people to try this. It truly is the challenge at some points!

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Awesome tutorial! This will be useful for those trying to save fuel. :)

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When taxiing on a single engine while making turns, is it better to keep the nose wheel on the centerline at all times or to have the centerline be in between the main gears while having the nose gear overshoot a bit?

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Great tutorial

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A very interesting tutorial, I never saw something like a single engine taxi tutorial coming, but great job :)

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From what I’ve noticed while doing this in a wide body, it’s best to have the centerline be in between the main gears while having the nose gear overshoot a bit. I can’t really speak for narrow bodies as I don’t really use this to much with them, but I’d assume you can keep the nose wheel on the centerline.

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Really helpful tutorial! I already know that aircrafts can taxi with only one engine but I didn’t know how to do it properly. I’ll use it in the future

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Lol I always just shut down engine 1 regardless, oops.

Thanks for this Zach!!

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Wdym by that? Is it defined by a period of time or something?

Which one must I use?

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He means if your gate is close to your planned runway. And for 4 engine aircraft I use engines 2 and 3, the inner 2 engines.

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As far as i know on the 747 youre only supposed to shut down a single engine when taxiing, that being number 3. If i remember correctly its because if you taxi with two engines, you have to put so much power in to actually get the plane moving, that it outweighs the fuel savings from turning two engines off

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Really good! I just find it a little difficult to drive the curves like this :) But the third tip has now helped me.

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Generally, yes, however I have witnessed times where a 744 has taxied with the 2 inboard engines only.

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Thanks for the tutorial! I learned something new :) I never thought it was realistic to taxi with one engine until last night in with I made an emergency fuel landing and taxied with one engine back to the gate haha

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I’ve been doing one engine taxis for a while! The only issue is that I sometimes forget to turn on the other engine then it doesn’t get the full two minutes to warm up.
Although I am getting much better at remembering to turn it on, if there’s a line of aircraft I usually put it on when I’m around 3rd in line.
Cool #ground-school:community-tutorials!

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Nice tutorial! Definitely helpful, especially for long hauls. Just make sure to start the other engines before you begin the takeoff cough @lucaviness cough cough

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And remember that different engines have different warmup-times (if you want to make it superrealistic), often not only 2 minutes, but 3-5 min from complete startup!
(e.g. IAE V2500 (A320 family) is 5 min)
Also after flight while taxi-in there is a minimum cooldown time before shutoff, mostly below the initial warmup time.

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Really nice tutorial on one of the lesser know realistic procedures!

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I’d just like to thank everyone for your support on this topic. It was fun making it and I’m working on more!

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I’ve taxied once or twice with one engine and it was certainly not the easiest. I learned a lot from this topic. Great job!

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