Engine failure on final

Corky,
I wish I had more information but back in the late eighties I worked in
a building with several different companies in it. You get to know many
of the faces over time. I bumped into a guy at PNE that worked in the
building but I didn't know. It turns out that he was working on his
instrument rating. He mentioned that there was another pilot in his
office. I knew exactly who he was talking about because the guy walked
with a limp. The story I got, and I've got no reason to doubt it, is
that this gentleman had crashed short of an airport he was landing at
because he lost his engine on final. I was always taught to fly a
pattern so that you can make the runway if your engine quits from any
point in the pattern. In fact, I can remeber my instructors routinely
chopping power in the pattern. This was in Warriors when I started my
training and then in Cubs and 152 where I finished my trainging. When
I did my exam for my private, the examiner cut the throttle way out on
downwind and made me glide to a landing.

In my citabria, I like to cut the power when I'm abeam the numbers on
downwind and fly a tight pattern.

Dave
68 7ECA

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 00:56:22 -0800, Ron Garret
wrote:


The discussion about cutting power on final reminded me of something
I've been puzzled about for some time now.

If you fly final with some amount of power (which I gather most people
do -- I always have) that seems to guarantee that if you lose your
engine on final you will land short, and there's pretty much nothing you
can do about it. Is that true? Or have I missed something? What
should you do if you lose your engine just after turning base to final?

rg


Can anyone cite an instance when a pilot lost his engine while on
final and landed short because of it?

Thanks, Corky Scott