Jim quoted the writer of the Flying magazine article as saying:
> Pilots thought nothing of flying Ercoupes very slowly. When > they would, say during a forced landing fly from a headwind > condition to a no wind condition,the airplane would pitch > nose down to try to maintain airspeed. And it would hit the > ground nose down,just as if it had stalled. It couldn't stall > because of restricted up-elevator travel but it could sure > hit the ground hard and nose down. That sounds like a perceptive statement with a good understanding of Coupe aerodynamics. Aviation history has shown that aircraft that contact the ground in something approaching landing attitude and direction do a good job of protecting their occupants. Nose down is death. I made a habit, when flying the pattern, of judging my height and distance and pulling the engine back to idle fairly far out - when the touchdown point was guaranteed. This gave me hundreds of practices at making, essentially, dead-stick landings. In an emergency, I'd fly the same airspeeds as with my normal approaches - the airspeeds I've practiced over and over. I'd always fly the last part of the approach with enough airspeed to make a flare to level flight before touchdown. I want to always touch the ground while flying nearly level. (Discussion is merited for proper technique when the surface is trees or tall corn.) Ed
