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I have had the pleasure of landing with a quiet engine, as have others. You can experience it yourself by merely reducing power to a minimum--the effect is the same. Just lower the nose until you have 70 mph (Alon) Airspeed and point the plane where you want to land while maintaining that speed. The coupe has a tendency to land short of the spot you pick out unless you maintain the proper speed all the way to the flare. It doesn't drop like a rock, it does glide a bit, but it won't float at all. Without power and without the nose down to maintain flying speed, it will develop a fast sink, but with the airspeed kept constant it will keep flying and will land normally (subject to the terrain). Altitude is truly your best friend because it allows you to select a landing spot while maintaining the proper speed, giving you time to think through the problem (carb ice in my case). These little engines are pretty tough, and rarely quit. Lack of attention to piloting is a bigger risk than an engine outage. On your next BFR checkride, do some no power dead stick landings in the pattern. You will be surprised how close you need to be to the runway at pattern altitude to land at your normal landing speed without any power. Tell the wife not to worry about "falling out of the sky"--better she worry about how to keep you out of a more expensive airplane :-)
Ken Doyle
Springfield, Mo
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