On 2005-06-13, wrote:
In many flight test protocols, the procedure is for the pilot to wait a
full three seconds after an engine failure to take any action. The
idea is to simulate the normal reaction time for someone who is not
expecting an engine failure and goes through the mental exercise to
accept that it's happening and finally take action.

3 seconds is I don't think normal - I think it's worst case. The times
I've had engine (or other power failures in glider launches) I have
reacted in *far* less than 3 seconds - I'd estimate well under a second
(and these were for-real power failures: one time caused by a valve
sticking, but I was at 20 feet so the only action was to lower the nose,
pull the throttle and land on the runway, another was my own stupidity -
trying to take off on a nearly empty fuel tank - you've never seen
someone change tanks as quickly as then, and another, on a winch launch
in a glider where the cable let go. Since on a winch launch, you are
about 45 degrees nose up very low to the ground, waiting 3 seconds to
react would be fatal. Of course when the cable lets go it does with a
loud bang so it's pretty obvious what you need to do).

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"