teaching emergency landings...How low do you go...

gatt wrote:
around. Once, I could see the startled expression on a farmer's face
as he watched us.


I used to do that occassionally when by myself. After practicing some
manueuvers, or just messing around (used to love dropping down to a few
hundred feet and following the Missouri River west of Kansas City ,
knowing I hadn't really paid a lot of attention to surrounding terrian, I'd
back off the trottle and go for the best landing site. Once I had a really
good approach to a hay field and around 50' noticed the farmer was in the
field on his tractor, and had actually stopped to watch. I waved with a
thumbs up, he waved back, and I gave it the gas. Man - memories, circa
1968........

On Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:55:12 -0600, ManhattanMan wrote:

Man - memories, circa 1968........

Yeah... back when you were forty...

G


--
Dallas

When I was getting checked on in a Cherokee, the instructor pulled the
power and said that I had lost the engine. After a few long seconds
of looking for an appropriate place he was kind enough to point out a
nice long flat piece of land we had overflown just before he pulled
the power. I made the turn and lined up for a "nice" engine out
landing. As we passed 200 feet I wondered when he was going to say
"go around." As I passed 100 feet, I decided I couldn't keep silent
any longer and asked if I should add power. His response was, "no,
you lost your engine." After doing a touch and go, (he finally
allowed me to "bring the engine back to life", I noticed on the climb
out that the "barn" at the end of the field was actually a hanger.
One of the best "engine out" experiences I have had.

John



My question is, what would you say the lowest appropriate height AGL for
teaching student pilots about off-field emergency landings in, say, a C-152,
given the 500' rule? (We -definately- busted that in the case of the
farmer. The instructor even said so.)

-c
CP-ASEL-IA, CFI student

Emergency landings eh
It's obvious that the glider pilots are away flying.

In rec.aviation.student george wrote:
Emergency landings eh
It's obvious that the glider pilots are away flying.

Alas I'm not, but I've been keeping quiet. I know that there's a
significant difference between landing a 20:1, 30:1, or 40:1 glider with
no engine and landing a 7:1 winged brick whose engine has suddenly decided
to stop after a long period of appearing to work fine. Landing a glider
doesn't worry me at all but I would not be happy taking the controls of a
Cessna after the fan stopped cooling the pilot. For one thing, no
spoilers for glideslope control!

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software

In article ,
Michael Ash wrote:

In rec.aviation.student george wrote:
Emergency landings eh
It's obvious that the glider pilots are away flying.

Alas I'm not, but I've been keeping quiet. I know that there's a
significant difference between landing a 20:1, 30:1, or 40:1 glider with
no engine and landing a 7:1 winged brick whose engine has suddenly decided
to stop after a long period of appearing to work fine. Landing a glider
doesn't worry me at all but I would not be happy taking the controls of a
Cessna after the fan stopped cooling the pilot. For one thing, no
spoilers for glideslope control!

That's what slips are for :-)

rg

In rec.aviation.student Ron Garret wrote:
In article ,
Michael Ash wrote:

In rec.aviation.student george wrote:
Emergency landings eh
It's obvious that the glider pilots are away flying.

Alas I'm not, but I've been keeping quiet. I know that there's a
significant difference between landing a 20:1, 30:1, or 40:1 glider with
no engine and landing a 7:1 winged brick whose engine has suddenly decided
to stop after a long period of appearing to work fine. Landing a glider
doesn't worry me at all but I would not be happy taking the controls of a
Cessna after the fan stopped cooling the pilot. For one thing, no
spoilers for glideslope control!

That's what slips are for :-)

True enough, but using only slips is a royal pain, particularly in
higher-performing gliders. A mid-range glider with a 35:1 glideslope may
have a 5:1 glideslope with full spoilers, but a slip won't do nearly that
much good. It reduces the size of your glideslope "basket" and requires a
lot more precision. Combine that with not doing surprise power-off
landings all the time and the whole business seems chancier than I'd like.

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software

On Feb 27, 5:57 pm, Michael Ash wrote:
In rec.aviation.student george wrote:

Emergency landings eh
It's obvious that the glider pilots are away flying.

Alas I'm not, but I've been keeping quiet. I know that there's a
significant difference between landing a 20:1, 30:1, or 40:1 glider with
no engine and landing a 7:1 winged brick whose engine has suddenly decided
to stop after a long period of appearing to work fine. Landing a glider
doesn't worry me at all but I would not be happy taking the controls of a
Cessna after the fan stopped cooling the pilot. For one thing, no
spoilers for glideslope control!


Well you might look at the Shuttle returning from space as a rather
large glider

In rec.aviation.student george wrote:
On Feb 27, 5:57 pm, Michael Ash wrote:
In rec.aviation.student george wrote:

Emergency landings eh
It's obvious that the glider pilots are away flying.

Alas I'm not, but I've been keeping quiet. I know that there's a
significant difference between landing a 20:1, 30:1, or 40:1 glider with
no engine and landing a 7:1 winged brick whose engine has suddenly decided
to stop after a long period of appearing to work fine. Landing a glider
doesn't worry me at all but I would not be happy taking the controls of a
Cessna after the fan stopped cooling the pilot. For one thing, no
spoilers for glideslope control!

Well you might look at the Shuttle returning from space as a rather
large glider

Certainly, and I wouldn't want to land that one either! Ridiculously low
glide ratio, low forgiveness for poor positioning, and far too much
reliance on computer control make me leery.

--
Michael Ash
Rogue Amoeba Software