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Old October 18th 07, 03:53 AM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Roger (K8RI)
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Default How do you plan the descent in emergency landing practice?

On Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:24:49 -0700, "
wrote:

On Oct 14, 7:44 pm, Kirk Ellis
wrote:
After dealing with the doctors and the FAA for the last six months I
finally got my class 3 renewed. It's been a year since I last flew.
and I can't believe how fast that time went by.


This is all I can find of the original post so I'll start from here.
I can relate what I was taught and it has served me well.


So this month I am getting back into the cockpit and in addition to
all of the standard maneuvers, I feel I especially need to work on
emergency off-field landings. I've had my ticket for over 8 years,


Here we have to discern between the need to land off field and an
emergency descent to get down as fast as possible and stay alive. I'm
assuming you are referring to a power off, off field landing and not
the cockpit fire, get this thing down NOW!

but financial concerns always seem to keep me from flying as much as I
would like. So I do not get to practice as much as I should. Which
brings me to the point of this post.

While doing emergency off-field landing practice I am still trying to
get some consistency in planning the descents from different altitudes


As Ben stated below, it takes practice and getting to know your plane
very well. Much depends on the height of the engine failure, or
emergency. Having plenty of altitude and time to consciously make
decisions is quite different from close to the ground where your
subconscious and ingrained training can save your life.

I've mentioned it before and so did some one in this thread; with an
engine failure on departure, my hands were taking care of lowering the
nose, and flaps while I was looking over the situation. Basically by
the time I could think it out I had already done what I needed to do.
Lower the nose, evaluate landing options, go full flaps, fuel valve
shut off, switches off, and I was on roll out.

to be at 1000' agl heading downwind and abeam the touchdown point.
Seems like most of the time I was doing them last year, it was hit or
miss. (perhaps a poor choice of words).


Nah, sounds appropriate.


Trying to put all the variables together to put the aircraft in the
right place at the right time on a consistent basis is still an
elusive endeaveor.

Do you experienced pilots just have a sixth sense about how to get the
aircraft exactly where it needs to be? Is it something you consciously
analyze throughout the descent or just instinctlvely do?


I'd certainly not call it a sixth sense. The term, experienced does
imply traits ingrained by...experience/practice, not some paranormal
sense.. When I took pilot proficiency training, we'd end up with AT
LEAST 3 simulated engine failures per flight. Best glide, pick a spot,
evaluate the situation and try for a restart if possible. Two full
days of intensive flying and at least one day with 10 hours of class
room. Ingrained a lot of habits.

One of the things emphasized was not to keep changing your mind after
picking a spot. Of course it's possible you discover that green field
is corn and the one a little ways over is bare, or possibly the bare
field is freshly plowed. From high up you have time to think and make
decisions. Oft times there is a tendency to over think and thus get
into trouble.


Kirk
PPL-ASEL


It just takes years of flight time and alot of practice. When flying
you need to consciously analyze everything from the time you untie the
plane till it's tied back down again. Best practice I have found for
spot landings is to visit an out of the way small airport and pick a
spot on the runway and fly the plane right to that spotseveral times,


I tend to spiral down keeping close in, always keeping the landing
site in view, and using slips where necessary. FULL flaps once the
landing spot is made.

I had this on a flight review immediately after some hood work. Hoods
off, your engine quit, find a place to land. We were at 4000, it was 5
miles to the airport, airport elevation is 630 MSL, best glide is 120
at roughly 600 fpm. I chose the airport and had to slip aggressively
to make the runway. Actually I put it down and stopped within 900 feet
of the touchdown end of the runway.

using both directions if the wind is not too strong will help you
compansate for any drift/ tailwind componant, gusts,etc. The fact that
you asked the question shows your sincere desire for getting it right.
That's a good trait for a pilot.... :-)


I think he's off to a good start.

Roger (K8RI)
Ben