Testing your glide. Are people doing this?

"Jay Honeck" wrote in
newsLunb.50518$HS4.232034@attbi_s01:

OK, this is going to sound really silly, but I'm not a pilot,
If planes glide so well, then how come they crash?
It would seem reasonable, that if they glide, and they have an engine
failure etc. that they'd glide them in, not leave smoking craters
like the news tends to show.
Am I missing something here?

A few disparate points to help you understand the situation better:

- Little planes tend to glide a lot better than big planes.

Sorry Jay! - you need to clarify this. Most little planes do NOT glide
better than big planes. Modern airliners have much better glide ratios
than our factory riveted aluminum craft.

However, those big planes gliding better also *land* at MUCH higher
speeds, and need more runway. Try that on a golf course!

There are a number of cases where jet airliners lost all power and glided
to a perfectly save landing:
- Gimli glider (Air Canada 767)
- A 737 in the south landed on a grass levee when both engines flamed out
after ingesting hail
- A 767 being hijacked glided fine to a water ditching, until the
hijackers attacked the pilots and one of the engines made contact with
the water

- Where you lose your engine is important. A little plane losing its
engine over Iowa might make the local newspaper, but everyone will
walk away. The same engine failure over downtown Chicago is going to
make national news.

- Smoking holes are created when planes glide into something -- hard.
No matter how well you can glide, sooner or later Mother Earth
reaches up to smite you. If there is a big building or mountain in
the way when you run out of glide, well...

- Smoking holes happen when a pilot allows the plane to slow to a
speed at which the wing no longer creates lift. This is the "stall"
speed. A wing/plane that is stalled takes on the flight
characteristics of a load of sand, and comes down in a hurry, creating
a smoking crater.

Hope this helps.

"Prime" wrote in message
...

Sorry Jay! - you need to clarify this. Most little planes do NOT glide
better than big planes. Modern airliners have much better glide ratios
than our factory riveted aluminum craft.

Airliners glide better than composite light airplanes too.

Mike
MU-2

Trentus wrote:

OK, this is going to sound really silly, but I'm not a pilot,
If planes glide so well, then how come they crash?

They have to have a relatively safe place to come down, and the bigger the
plane is, the bigger and flatter the area has to be. There aren't a whole lot
of places on Long Island (for example) to set down an airliner, and I'd bet
that every one of those places is an airport.

Light aircraft have glide ratios somewhere around 10:1 or 12:1. My aircraft is
close to the latter. That means that I can glide for about 12 miles if I'm 1
mile above the ground and my engine dies. If I have some wind, it will help
me glide further if I turn in the same direction it's blowing and hurt me if
I don't. So. If I can find a fairly flat field at least 300 feet long with no
obstructions like trees or power lines around it, and it's close enough for me
to reach it, I probably won't make one of those holes for the TV guys.

Now. Let's say I'm 100 feet up and the rubber band breaks. That field had better
be *real* close.

Say a 737 loses all power 1 mile up. That pilot needs to find a field at least
3,000 feet long somewhere within about 10 miles. If you want to read about a
pilot in that position who made it, do a Yahoo search for the "Gimli glider".

George Patterson
You can dress a hog in a tuxedo, but he still wants to roll in the mud.

("Trentus" wrote)
OK, this is going to sound really silly, but I'm not a pilot,
If planes glide so well, then how come they crash?
It would seem reasonable, that if they glide, and they have an engine
failure etc. that they'd glide them in, not leave smoking craters like the
news tends to show.
Am I missing something here?

From what I gather, one of the main reasons for some of these smoking hole
crashes is a malfunctioning switch, in the pilot's head, that says "Must
save this
airplane."

That switch needs to be set to, "Where should I put this (insurance
company's) plane down to safely dissipate the most energy, before those
forces get to us people?"

Runways, fields, roads, golf courses, high school soccer field, etc.

The question of coming down ....."is moot." You are coming down - now!

This is when the mental switch needs to be thrown from, "save the plane" to
"put it down safely - the heck with the plane."

The other big problem is "Low and Slow."

Low because you have little time to react. Slow - think your motorcycle
going slow and not being able to put your foot down. First you wobble then
you fall to the pavement.

--
Montblack
"Styled by the laws of nature.............Concorde"

"Trentus" wrote in message
...
OK, this is going to sound really silly, but I'm not a pilot,
If planes glide so well, then how come they crash?
It would seem reasonable, that if they glide, and they have an engine
failure etc. that they'd glide them in, not leave smoking craters like the
news tends to show.
Am I missing something here?

Apart from your naivete about the broadcast news industry, yes. Very big
planes are very heavy have a big potential energy load and land at speeds
over 100 miles an hour. Very, very hard to make it look pretty on anything
but a long flat surface. Little planes are very light and land at speeds
under 60 miles an hour. Very little energy to dissipate. A pilot current
in forced approaches can land them without much risk of injury anywhere with
a few hundred yards of relatively flat surface or something soft to absorb
the impact.

le moo

Am I missing something here?

Yes, loss of control. This is the key event in most fatal accidents
involving smoking craters - the pilot lost control of the airplane. From
this, springs the adage: Always, ALWAYS, fly the airplane first. Worry
about the other stuff later, but right now, FLY THE AIRPLANE.

- Mark