On May 29, 10:21*am, gatt wrote:
One of the folks around the hangar took his CFI practical last week. *He
had his AGI so they threw out all of the Fundamentals of Instruction
stuff entirely during the oral.

A question the examiner asked him: "You're flying cross-country and
trimmed at 110 knots. You die, and the engine quits. At what airspeed
will the aircraft strike the ground?"

Another was, "You're turning final and you enter a cross-control stall.
* Is it better to be in a slip, or a skid?"

-c

First question: Is my student with me or not? If I have a student
then I'd hope the plane would touch down somewhere nearby in a
suitable field (or one hopes on a runway if possible) at stall speed +
5 knots or so, since by this point if I have a student on a cross
country they should already know about emergencies, especially engine-
out off field landings (and on-field landings). If not, and I fell
forward on the yolk then who knows what speed ... higher than 110
knots. If I didn't fall on the yolk then the crash would be somewhere
around the 110 knots the plane was trimmed for (minus some is the
aircraft is in the climbing phase of its phugoid, or plus some if in
the diving phase), as a phugoid is all but inevitable if the engine
goes after I die (since I won't be alive to trim for the new
condition ... no prop thrust, and no blast over the tail will change
the trim and start a phugoid, characteristics will depend on the
aircraft, the c.of.g and loading).

Second question: I'd have already taught my student not to do this at
or near pattern/circuit altitude, and particularly not on final at
only 500 AGL ... if he/she has blown the approach ... too high or too
fast ... so badly then they would know not to try to be a hero ... go
around! If it did happen ... I'd rather have the high wing stall
first, since I can't know for sure exactly what control inputs the
student is making (although I do know what the student should be
doing). In normal turn-to-final circumstances this would normally be
a dangerous skid, with the student trying to make the aircraft turn
faster than it should (or god forbid the student is holding back the
turn with the yolk and trying to initiate it only with the rudder)
with too much bottom rudder ... this I do not want. If this does
happen then I suppose the slip would be preferred in the scenario, as
I would rather have too much top rudder (or not enough bottom rudder)
and have the high wing stall first and pass through wings level making
for a somewhat easier recovery. And then I would chasten the student
after initiating a go-around and remind him/her on crosswind and
downwind what he/she should already be familiar with. And we would
keep in the circuit until the student got the landing right after the
go-around ... no slipping and skidding in turns in the circuit. Only
use the slip once established on final, and only to correct for
crosswind if you have the engine running. The only reason to slip
aggressively for low-time students is an engine-out-gotta-land-
right-"there"-so-I-have-to-slip-it-in-because-I'm-too-high-now
emergency scenario.