Here is a little safety trick for all you guys with
GPS.  This is particularly important for all of us
doing non aircraft engine installations.

Climb up to about 5000 feet AGL over your air port
and kill the engine. Note how far you can glide from the GPS
data for a 1000 foot decent at best glide speed in a straight line.

Then do the same for two 90 degree turns. This will give you
a feel for altitude loss as a function of distance when
making dead stick landings. It would help if you have
your landing field lat longs in a way point in your GPS just
in case. this will give you a glide ratio for your particular
airplane rather than assuming it is the standard for light
planes of around 7:1.

It would be great if Greg Richter allowed specific glide ratio data
to be entered into his moving map program. If your engine quit
your moving map program could then tell you if you could make it
to a particular emergency landing field. Assuming of course the lat longs
are in his moving map program for all possible landing fields.

Paul Lamar

Well, not having a starter, I've been too chicken to do this.  I know that
they are supposed to airstart just fine, but call me yellow and I'll
answer, "Yes, sir!".  A good idea if you have a starter on board.  Fortunately
both of my engine failures have been partials with one in a nice field,
not a scratch on anything and the other onto an airport, ditto.  The second
used my loran "nearest airport" feature ("10.2 miles at 245 degrees" is forever
etched in my brain!) a REAL life saver.   I suspect that realiable "nearest"
features may have saved more butts in the last 15 years than any other
aviation development EVER -- for bad WX and rough or failed motors.
I personally know of many saves, one total engine failure that landed on
an airport, many partial failures that lasted long enough to make that little
field you didn't even know was there, plus several, "will you look at how
bad the vis just got, boy, I gotta get this crate on the ground NOW!" for
me and several friends.

Bill Freeman
Long EZ builder & pilot
BSME, MSME
EAA Technical Counselor

 
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