On Oct 15, 6:20 am, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:

Standard practice in airplanes like that is to chop the power on
downwind opposite the touchdown point and regualte your approach by
varying the size of your pattern from that point. Now, with some regard
towards rapid cooling we reduced to about 1200 rpm initially and then
chopped it a bit later.
Needless to say the students had very little trouble doing forced
landings when it came to that time in their training.
I've also taught just the same in Cherokees and Cessnas, although
teaching relatively recently within flying clubs I've had to go with the
flow because somewhere some asshole back in the '70s got it in his head
that since airliners do power stabilised approaches it;s a good idea in
a lightplane as well. "Makes the whole trianing experience more
professional" you know.
Now there's a new thread!

That's what I was taught in the early '70s when I got my PPL.
When I went for the CPL in the '90s the whole syllabus had changed,
and so had the forced-approach proficiencies of the students and PPLs.
In the instructor refresher courses the forced approach comes up as
the most frequently failed item on both private and commercial flight
tests. The students simply don't know how to adjust glidepath using
nothing more than airspeed, with a slip thrown in if necessary. They
don't get the idea that they can glide farther if they drop the nose
and maintain best glide, drop it farther and go faster if they're
bucking a headwind, pull the nose up and sink if they're high, or get
into ground effect and skim along to the touchdown point if they're a
little short. If no fences are in the way, of course. I once did that
on an instructor checkride and the examiner told me that this was
acceptable. Your mileage may vary.

As far as the preoiler, I made no drawings. I was always an
eyeball engineer, with a basic preliminary sketch if necessary. I made
my living designing, building, rebuilding and inventing stuff for 12
years and this comes easily enough. Maybe, when I get back from a trip
to Africa for the next three weeks, I'll draw something up and submit
it.

Dan