If you are flying solo, you really have to know how to fly the plane deadstick. You never know when or where it will happen, and it never hurts to occasionally practice a real dead stick landing every once in a while – just fly the plane until it runs out of fuel. Some planes will have drastically different glide characteristics when the engine is not running vs. idling. Some planes will glide quite well like a glider, while others will fly like a streamed line brick and descend like they are flying against a wall.

A couple of weeks ago we had a climb/glide contest at a fun fly. Climb for 30 seconds, kill the engine and glide back down. Longest total time wins. For an added bonus we painted a target on the field and added bonus seconds for hitting the center of the target, or making it into the 10’ dia. circle. It was a great time had by all, and everybody made it safely on the field.

Hogflyer