"d&tm" wrote in message
...
You could have a similar argument about weight
as the best glide speed will be significantly lower if you are flying solo
and especially if the reason for engine failure was no fuel! But are you
going to get out the calculator and calculate the weight corrected best
glide speed when the noise stops? Should an instructor tell you that
flying
a Warrior solo would have a best glide speed closer to 65 kts than the
published 73kts?

Yes, students should definitely be taught which V-speeds need to be
weight-adjusted and which do not (and why). If you're 30% below gross
weight, the required 15% speed adjustment is nonnegligible. (Adjust Vs, Vs1,
Vl/d, Vx, Vy, Va. Do not adjust Vne, Vno, Vfe, Vle. See
http://www.av8n.com/how/htm/aoa.html#sec-ias-aoa for a detailed
explanation.)

But no, you don't do the calculation when an emergency arises. You should do
it in advance, as part of your W&B calculation. If you precompute the
adjustment factor, you can easily apply it in real time.

--Gary