Hi,

As a side note...Go check out a local Glider club! Cheap, fun, and a
good way to keep your skills up!

I'll have to do some googling on this, since I don't know anything
about it, but it sounds interesting. I mean, it sounds scary, since
isn't gliding basically the "find a place to land quick!" engine-out
scenario?

I was in a glider a few days ago, and I had trouble coming down. I had
2 one hour flights but could have stayed up most of the day if I'd
wanted to - for the first flight I had to circle in sink to land, and I
had to use air-brakes for the second. Someone else did an 8 hour flight
the day before. YMMV

Wikipedia will tell you all you want to know about gliding:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliding

cheers,

Al