G'day Carl.

On the subject of dead stick landings - many people are very up tight about dead sticks. They don't worry me because one of the planes I learned to fly with was a Dynaflite Butterfly. It is basically a 100 inch glider wing on a very basic trainer fuselage. It had an OS 26 four stroke in it which has about as much power as a good 15 glow two stroke. I would use the motor to climb to a good height then pull it back to idle and glide around. The little four stroke would idle for ages but sometimes it would stop and I would not notice for quite a while so I almost always had to land it without the engine. This really does build up landing confidence.

More recently (about 8 years ago) I built a Sig Four Star 60 which I powered with a Saito 100 four stroke. If the Four Star series has a fault, it is a tendency to bounce on landing if you do not slow down enough. The big Saito continues to make quite a deal of thrust even when it is idling and it required patience when landing to keep it just off the ground until the nose starts to rise. It is then ready to land on all three wheels and not bounce.

Well ...

The best landing I ever did with the Four Star was when the engine tried to fall out of the plane. The mounting bolts which held the engine to the firewall came loose (these days I Locktite them) and the engine moved forward. This pulled on the control and the engine would not go below half throttle so I had to wait until it stopped before trying to land. After about 15 minutes flying around, she stopped and I did the BEST landing I had ever done.

The trick with deadsticks is to not try to turn too low or too slow. If you are low, it is best to just land straight ahead where ever you are pointing. If you can. I saw two blokes crash expensive Extra type models recently when they tried to turn close to the ground. The wing on the inside of the turn stalled and ........

And on that cheery note -

Cheers

Mike in Oz