Alex Perry writes:
C172 glide angle is about 1.4 miles per 1000 ft, which implies the
canadian pattern gives you 300 ft to land with. However, that
doesn't allow for the plane to make the initial 90 degree turn
towards the airport and for the plane to align itself with the
runway.
I agree that closer is better, but you have left something out of the
equation: if the engine failure is sudden (what we're assuming here, I
think), *and* you react quickly, you have an extra 25-45kt of airspeed
that you can trade for altitude before you get down to Vglide at 65
KIAS. That
Alex Perry writes:
My docs recommend doing 80 kias on downwind, giving you only 15 knots
of margin to trade into height. Tests have shown that pilots spend
about six seconds sitting in stunned amazement, after engine failure,
before doing through their ABCs when it happens for-real and
