"Ramapriya" wrote in message
ups.com...
Wanted to know if you guys occasionally practice, at a safe altitude
with not too many passengers on board, stuff that *might* come in
handy
should something dreadful happens - for example, shutting off an
engine
or both and trying to judge, from the aircraft's rate of descent and
distance covered between two altitudes, how far ahead it can possibly
reach before reaching the ground, etc. Just to get a feel of things
real-time.

Or is all of this restricted strictly to simulators?
Ramapriya



A practice maneuver at altitude which is NOT dangerous, and which few
pilots are even acquainted with, is finding their airplane's maximum
bank angle, and speed for it, at full throttle. This depends on both
weight and altitude, but two or three examples of each should be
sufficient.

The reason this is important is that at greater bank angles and/or at
smaller airspeeds, their airplane is on the back side of the power curve
and, should they pull back on the stick because their airplane is
descending, their airplane will descend FASTER.

It's a little complicated -- probably too complicated for average Joe
Pilot -- but quite important for mountain pilots who would like to
survive.

John Lowry, PhD
Flight Physics