On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 7:50 AM, John Garcia <[email protected]> wrote: > > > apparently the pilot, a former USAF fighter pilot, also was an experienced > glider pilot. good thing, because without power, that airbus was > essentially > a glider.
At first when I read this, I thought, "Not a very good one." But apparently the A320 has a pretty good glide ratio for a jet -- around 17:1. Flying sailplanes is supposed to make anybody a better pilot because you gain a lot more experience with situations that don't happen with other aircraft. In this case, the big one was probably accelerated stalls, in which the high wing stalls during a turn and the plane falls back toward level. That's nowhere near as catastrophic as a full stall at low altitude, but it means you end up pointing somewhere other than where you intended, which makes it hard to put the plane down where you thought you were going to. Flight instructors pound into their students to always know exactly when you have enough airspeed and altitude to be able to glide back to the field... because many planes have been crashed by people who thought they could return after takeoff, but stalled out when trying to make the turn back toward it. BTW, the chief pilot of the company my USAir pilot friend used to work for was killed when he was doing a check ride with another pilot in a LearJet, practicing engine out on takeoff. Even when you know it's going to happen, it can kill you. Nick _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
