"Shirl" wrote in message
...
"Al G" wrote:
It occurs to me after reading my post, that I missed mentioning one of
the more important points.

In an emergency, you will act just like you trained. The things you
practice, you will do automatically when faced with surprise and threat.
Practice closing the throttle a little earlier, a little further out,
each
landing. You pick up a terrific feel for the attitude of a good glide.
One
of my engine outs was an induction system failure at 250' on departure.
The
T210 was climbing smartly with gear in transit about halfway down the
runway(4000'), when the thing just quit like you pulled the throttle to
idle. While I was looking dumbfounded at the MP and RPM, my left hand was
gently pushing over to just the right attitude for the upcoming glide. I
think for a second there I was almost in shock. Nevertheless, I did just
right. You would be amazed at what your brain can do when you've taught
it
correctly. One of my students once said, "Luck is where opportunity meets
preparation".

I agree about what your brain can do when you've taught/programmed it
correctly. But the more time that elapses from whence you last did that
training/programming, the less automatic it becomes. You may still
remember all the items in the drill, but it may take a few extra seconds
to remember them -- in the type of emergencies we're talking about, few
extra seconds may make a huge difference in the outcome. So I think the
key phrase in what you said above is that "the things you *practice*"
will be done automatically. In order to maintain that necessary level of
automatic reaction, it has to be practiced/re-programmed with some
regularity (more often than once every other year).

Absolutely.

Al G