Forced Approach - Best Glide Speed

[eh3fifty]

One of the most interesting factoids I noticed about how most flight instructors think when I had them in my employ was their fear of what Transport thinks.

T.C. is like a religion, they motivate the sheep through fear.

When faced with a forced landing due to engine failure the last thing anyone with any ability for critical thinking will worry about is what Transport thinks

Completely agree. Or the other common one, which really does relate back to TC, is the fear of "getting CADOR'd". It's ridiculous!

Regarding your David Rogers post, I thought I'd provide the link to some of the work he's done. I too have learned a lot from him! http://www.nar-associates.com/technical ... l#Turnback

[eh3fifty]

With regard to the EFATO: glider pilots need to be competent in the simulated rope break exercise before going solo! This exercise is normally done around 300' AGL. It involves the glider releasing from the tow plane at 300' and completing a turn back to land on the opposite runway that they took off from.

If EFATO is being made out to be such a big deal, I think we should really respect and admire glider pilots a lot more than we do. They're certainly better stick and rudder pilots than us lowly airplane pilots.

[Big Pistons Forever]

With regard to the EFATO: glider pilots need to be competent in the simulated rope break exercise before going solo! This exercise is normally done around 300' AGL. It involves the glider releasing from the tow plane at 300' and completing a turn back to land on the opposite runway that they took off from.

If EFATO is being made out to be such a big deal, I think we should really respect and admire glider pilots a lot more than we do. They're certainly better stick and rudder pilots than us lowly airplane pilots.

A typical training glider will have a glide ratio at least 4 times better than a powered airplane. So a glider turnback at 300 feet is the same as a powered airplane turn back from 1200 feet...sorry if I am not especially impressed with the glider pilots prowess. Now if the glider pilots practiced a turnback from 75 ft, that is 1/4 of 300 feet, then you can call be impressed, but of course they never do that. Every glider instructor will tell there is only one thing to do in the event of a 75 ft release in a glider; it is to land straight ahead........

[eh3fifty]

A typical training glider will have a glide ratio at least 4 times better than a powered airplane. So a glider turnback at 300 feet is the same as a powered airplane turn back from 1200 feet...sorry if I am not especially impressed with the glider pilots prowess. Now if the glider pilots practiced a turnback from 75 ft, that is 1/4 of 300 feet, then you can call be impressed, but of course they never do that. Every glider instructor will tell there is only one thing to do in the event of a 75 ft release in a glider; it is to land straight ahead........

I'm a glider pilot and an airplane pilot. Comparing a Schweizer SGS-233A to a Fleet 80 (both of which I've flown the EFATO maneuver in), the equivalent altitude in the Fleet 80 I would say is ~500' AGL. It's hard to judge equivalent altitude too. I'd say that having the same time after completing the turn back would make them equivalent. I'd love to do it back to back but from what I remember, 500' AGL in the Fleet 80 would give you approximately the same time to glide back to the runway as you would have in the 233A after turning around.

If you wanted to compare glide ratios, the 233A has a ratio of 23:1 and the Fleet 80 has a ratio of 8.8:1. That's roughly a 2.6x difference.

[eh3fifty]

I would suggest for the most part that 500' for a general aviation, small airplane, would be the lowest altitude at which a turn back should be attempted. Each aircraft and pilot is different.

As for practicing this maneuver, starting at 1000' AGL in an airplane would be a wise idea.