Posted for "Tom Gourley" <tom.gourley@verizon.net>:

"So the first thing he should do is push the
nose down (against his instincts) to maintain airspeed -- which is hugely
counterintuitive to those of us with powered flight time versus glider time.
But that is what you have to do if you lose power. "

This is one of the reasons to keep the airplane in trim at all times. If
you're hand flying and the engine quits the airplane will pitch down on its
own to maintain the speed it's trimmed to; as long as you don't pull back on
the stick. (If it's on autopilot you'll want to disengage altitude hold.) If
you haven't already done it, try a little experiment. Trim your airplane for
level flight, or a specific airspeed, and pull the power back without touching
the stick. While the airplane may initially slow a bit it should pitch down
and return to the trimmed airspeed.

If the engine actually quits you probably don't want to glide at cruise speed
so one of the next things to do is trim to your target engine out glide speed.
Most of us will probably tend to put some back pressure on the stick in an
unconcious effort to keep the airplane at altitude, or "stretch" the glide (we
all know you can't really do that, right?) so it will require some
concentration to maintain the proper airspeed. Being in trim should help a
lot.

If the engine fails during climbout you may have to initially add some
forward stick to keep the airspeed up. I haven't tried that.

Tom Gourley


[Another advantage of the AOA instrument... if you're flying at cruise and the noisemaker goes silent the first step is to fly the airplane.  This means setting up for engine out glide, which is L/D max.  The AOA isntrument actually shows you where that's at, so from cruise you'll pull back on the stick (stick controls AOA, throttle controls airspeed) to raise the nose to the L/D max AOA.  In the process you'll trade some of that cruising airspeed for altitude, buying yourself a bit more glide.  Once the airspeed has bled off you simply maintain (trim to) the L/D max AOA indication and get headed to the nearest airport.  The rules are the same for L/D max as those that we live by during the approach... when lightly loaded L/D max will be at a lower airspeed than what would be required when at full gross.  That's the problem with "best glide speed"... there are an infinite number of speeds that will yield L/D max, all dependent on wing loading.  L/D max AOA, however, happens at only one AOA... fly that AOA and the best glide speed will follow.  <marv>    ]