Accident Review Engine Failure at Low Altitude Extend the Glide 

I flew gliders many years ago. And I think it must be an imperative step to be a pilot. When a plane pilot loses his engine he lives an unexpected an abnormal situation, a real nightmare. He feels in present danger, maybe panicked. He will try to restart the engine, to mayday, to locate the nearer arfield in the chart, to strecht the glide path, etc. For a glider pilot is just another day at the office: look outside for the best LZ available and, once located, mayday while fly the glidepath to do his best in the dead stick landing.

Scott how does it feel to be immortal... This beautiful videos will be forever. Preserved Online for generations to come. Thank you for your service. You're not only educational but entertaining with your dry humor. I get choked up sometimes just watching you dissect some of these accidents. Keep up the good work as long as god ables.

Stall/spin training in a cessna 150 aerobat was a very enlightening and scary experience. It’s amazing how quickly you are looking straight down at the ground and how much altitude is required to recover. It taught me to never get slow below 1000 ft agl, because there is no chance of recovery. More pilots should seek out additional training above and beyond what is required to get a ppl.

I was in the pattern at KLAL when this happened. I was cleared number 3 to land in the right downwind for 9. Heard both guys on coms... it was crazy. Rip to the one gentlemen who passed.

We Gonna do it 3 times he says as he puts up 4 fingers!! Love it. Wonderful educator

If any of you want to really learn how to handle an engine out, get an experienced flight instructor to pull the power on 2/3 downwind and proceed to land without touching the power. You'll learn real quick what ground rush feels like and to respect your best glide speed. Of course do this at a quiet time at the airport and make sure the tower is aware of what you will be practicing as your approach will resemble a carrier approach, no defined base or final approach leg. This taught me to respect the best glide airspeed and to know my airplane, there is no substitute for experience. It also teaches how far you can expect to glide your bird with no stretches allowed unless you want to wreck your mount and terminate your existence. Enough said.

Now I know why my POH said, "best glide 83mph, use 95mph for engine failure....room for the flare! That was one hell of stall in your video! Most of us never take it that far! Scared me just watching it.

Thanks for your hard work. You, Blanco and Dan Gryder are superstars :)

As a glider pilot, I learned the “fence hopping” maneuver. When you’re coming up short, dive for the ground so you’re in ground effect, and that’ll help you hop over the fence at the end of the runway.

Scott, what a awesome video !!!!!! it scared the hell out of me whaching the plane drive its self into the ground....as a privet pilot for 40+ years and operating various other machines the words "Fly it until you reach 10 feet past the wreck" comes to me each time. Drive a 18 wheeled truck on the roads today and you will soon come to realize that 40 tons don't stop on a dime and you have to drive it past the wrecks. GREAT Video ....Thank you

Very good demonstration of how the classic stall-spin accident develops. And how fast it comes. As this video shows, it is impossible to recover the Bonanza in less than 10-1200 ft.

This is the best video showing the effects of extending the glide, thank you Scott.

I know when I crashed a motorcycle, I was consciously letting go of various parts of my body as I slid in an effort to save the more essential parts of it. You have to just accept that you're not getting out of it without getting hurt so you use the peripheral things, be they parts of the vehicle or parts of your body, to help absorb some of the energy. You might still not make it out alive but that gives you your best chance once you know that you're crashing no matter what you do.

Great video. I love how I'm way more nervous watching Scott make the plane stall, roll, go vertical/inverted, and recover than Scott is actually doing it! I watch the horizon fall away and my stomach sinks, Scott's attitude is he's just sitting in his hangar imparting wisdom to us :)

This shows what I tell my students about moving from a training aircraft to bigger, faster, sexier, cooler. Everything in aviation is a give and take.

Thanks Scott. It reinforces a point that I am trying to teach my fellow air traffic controllers about what "stretching the glide" means and why it MIGHT -- MIGHT -- be a good idea for controllers to reminds pilots with engine failures to "do not try to stretch the glide." In some situations, I think it would be helpful for controllers to say this. Thoughts from you or anyone who reads this comment would be appreciated.

Stalls in the V Tail are fun. Nothing like anything I've stalled before. Hard break!

Great video. We're all taught not to try to stretch a glide and I've always wondered why so many dead-stick landers do. I think you hit on it exactly, it's the intimidation of seeing the inhospitable ground rushing up and the natural desire to keep flying past it. It's a time when our minds have to overrule our hearts.

Great work on this video. Thank you for showing the results of your testing and this will perhaps save some lives.

Made my intended landing point by inches in a glider once, had an alternate field picked out but went with primary anyway. Never want to cut it that close again.

Brilliant vid! In the UK most PFLs go around at 500ft, but then you don't experience the dangers of ground rush. My instructor made me do a number of forced landings on the airfield. This was invaluable to experience the natural reaction (wrong reaction) to pull up too much degrading airspeed at very low altitude.

Most german pilots in WW2 started on gliders. They were not afraid of power off landings, stalled less, glided after engine fails or shot down more. Less pilot errors overall. Practice short approaches to a point on runway..

Excellent presentation and Demo! When the engine stops you have a finite budget to work with...and Hope is mighty thin soup to live on.

Hey Scott I really enjoy your videos. I’m a low time pilot “220hrs”. I own a M35 and love it. I was able to buy it and get my license in my plane. I think as pilots we don’t practice slow flight enough. As pilots time grows it appears to me that the simple basics of training are ignored by most GA pilots. That translates into the stall spin at 300 AGL. Also I fly down wind and base at 100 MPH. I start to slow below that at 1/2 mile final. This video shows me that I need to practice more at slower speeds to stay proficient at slow flight power off. I m constantly telling myself to fly the plane all the way into the crash. I think that saves lives as much as anything. Thanks

Brilliant Live-Fly video ....... Follow the Physics and Survive ✨

Outstanding video. There is a lot of need to know stuff to survive in all of your videos. Thanks for sharing your eminence knowledge.

First time I've seen this. Looked like you were upside down a few times. I have a much better appreciation of 'Ground Rush' now. That's exactly what it is. I was feeling panicked sitting on my non-moving couch!

Appreciate your coverage. My early learning was in a Piper Colt - (Flying Rock) I learned immediately to focus on any alternative that may minimize a crash landing. My first, instructor initiated, dead stick landing would have come up far short of the Runway, but knowing the takeoff / landing capabilities of the Colt, I set a landing diagonal across he runway into an un-tilled stretch of field. My instructor aborted the landing and told me I was either confident or crazy(to be decided later) and the test was intended to fail. 2 weekends later, while prepping my plane for my he barely missed the top of the hanger line as he landed the Twin to my Colt Diagonal to the runway. The spinner and Cowling had exploded off on the downwind approach.

Reminds me (appropriately) of Star Trek's Scotty. "Captain, ye canna change the laws of physics."

I want you to know that as a new PPL my wife and I take everything you release serious. thank you for this work!

I've looked at a lot of your videos over the last few weeks. My interest has been to learn as much as I can before starting flight training later this year. My biggest take away, from a lot of your presentations has been that stick and rudder and intelligent flying is the most important skills to learn. With all this in mind, I'm looking at gliding schools first, to learn the muscle memory skills before I try to do the work on the other skills. I appreciate that powered aircraft have extra complexities, but if I have the basics of flight hard wired in, I'll progress on from that grounding.

An instructor once told me that pilots should be trained on sailplanes 1st, it gives a nice base of...well, gliders. Everything glides, even an F-104, or the Gimli Glider!

This channel is a gem. Thanks for the time and dedication you put into this

Amazing content! Thank you for taking us up in your beechcraft to demonstrate how important this issue is and help us future and current pilots to keep this training in our permanent memory's.

Thanks for all you DO!

One more time a great video. Thank you Scott!

Very interesting and thanks for that very detailed and informative analysis. You are saving lives here just wish most GA pilots would get interest in videos like this. And most importantly train for situations like that at altitude to get a feel of how the aircraft behaves.

Good Stuff Scott! Valuable information that just might save your life.

Love your channel. Hope you never need "Softie"! This is the first GA RU-vid I've found where the pilot wears a chute.

I liked your short discussion of the ground rush illusion.

Great video and very helpful Scott. Thanks so much for your efforts. Love your work

GREAT presentation!!! And airmenship/teaching.

Good video Scott. On another note, I loved your Little A’Le’Inn T-Shirt at the beginning of the video (pt. 2)! I’ve had several “extraterrestrial “ burgers there when we were doing road construction on the Extraterrestrial Highway years ago, brought back some good memories!! Anyway, I always enjoy your videos and learn a lot from them so thank you very much for doing them.

Great stuff. Wish your channel had been around when I was still flying.

Great demo Mr. Perdue!

Fantastic video! Based on some of the comments, I think some pilots haven't experienced a stall initiated from that slow of an airspeed. That they've just done the standard power off stall, from normal approach speed. I think it leads some into thinking they can fly closer to that edge than they think, that they'll have plenty of warning, and it's just not so. The other think I think is that some people have a completely unrealistic idea of what their glide distance is. I learned that from flying a Cherokee, which was described to me by an instructor as having the glide distance of a sewing machine. It's a fairly accurate comparison. As you say, physics always wins. Adjust your flying to suit the math.

Like the idea of the Fish Finder, a true ADSB looking for the fish!

Great job!

Student pilot here and in my C-182 I have the most docile stalls. It is also possible the do a falling leaf descent with no power without to much trouble. In a populated area with no real areas to land the Falling leaf approach is the least energy way to hit the ground? Stalling into a inverted decent is not something I know how to handle. Upset training in a plane designed for it is in the cards for me.

Always learn something from videos, thanks

Thank you. Greetings from Ireland

Great stuff thanks

Some times I'm amazed. A single engine aircraft stating they have and engine out and the tower gives a runways to chase. Then the pilot not declaring an emergency and not heading straight for the airport grounds. Grass is better than buildings. Aim at center of airport or grounds there with least obstructions.

Good presentation

Everybody knows. The problem: not everybody is able to brutally adjust expectations of damage and injury when the situation demands it. But thank you for the reinforcement.

Hi Scott, I watch all three of you guys: Juan and Dan. All your opinions count in my world. Keep up the great job, The World Is Watching!

Use extra airspeed ( minimum maneuvering speed) until very close to the ground so you can maneuver around obstacles at the last second. Remember stall speed increases During yanking and banking. Don’t try to make an airport. Use altitude to convert to airspeed and use airspeed to maneuver to a SURVIVABLE landing. (I’ve survived three off field landings)

Super helpful!

Yes! Do a vid on “ground rush.”

Okay, you answered the second question in the video.

Great 👍 video friend.

Nice demo I'd like you to also talk and demonstrate the secondary stall which is easy to pull to early or to hard and is move violent.

again. another great video

Very good illustration. Thank you. Wanting to stretch that glide (human instinct) vs physics based training (fact). Good reminder why it's important to fly the #s.

Another great video lesson Gunny. Thank you....BTW, I like your setting on the G3X up for the cross bars for flight director cues. Would that work well as the vertical and lateral cues when shooting an ILS (or VNAV) approach?

Great stuff. Funny shirt. Lol. 👍🏻

Best glide assumes still air. You can "stretch your glide" by speeding up in a head wind and or sinking air - or slowing down in lifting air or with a tailwind. Of course, you still need to mind your stall speed.

Fly the airplane to the scene of the accident!Hearing the stall warning at altitude in your demo makes me nervous,what are ga pilots missing?????

Fascinating and a little terrifying lol. Im a new subscriber here but long time enthusiast. I only "fly" fpv RC airplanes but I have stalled them. More than once in-fact 😎

Well, technically the stall is induced by excessive angle of attack (approx 15degrees) rather than airspeed, but of course without an engine, the speed will keep dropping as the nose is raised in level flight, however the best glide angle is not at the point of stall! If the wing stalls on one wingtip first, well you’ll get a rapid roll toward the side of the stalled wing and possibly precipitate a spin as discussed here. Finding your best engine off glide angle would be a good thing huh!

In Lift = Cl X (density X Velocity^2)/2 X wing area, the only thing you can plan ahead for with certainty is wing area.

Great clip thanks, your pictures are wonkey :-)

Scott......Did you do any analysis on the ground distance covered by trying to "stretch the glide" vs flying the same scenario at best glide speed and minimum sink speed? That could be an interesting story as well. Great video by the way. Always very informative!

Best glide is best glide - anything above or below you sink faster, so right: You can't stretch it - yes physics. Now that's the smartypants in me talking. In a real engine out you will have to fight all the fear and instincts. Brainstem takes control unfortunately. Kudos to your trial spins to get data - Thank you for a great video.

Always good to have real data rather than conjecture. It would be interesting to look at how much difference it makes to pull back the prop in a CS airplane when the engine quits. I suspect that would be one legitimate way to “stretch” the glide.

I’d love to hear your take on the crazy idea of diving and pulling up to extend engine out “glide” that some have claimed would extend distance when dead sticking ... No, I never believed it would work, but some do...

Good explanation and demo. Thanks Scott. Hope your shoulder came out OK.

Scott, I'd like to pass on a technique to significantly extend the glide which I learned 40 odd years ago. While on downwind at the completion of a flight review in a Pa28R, the CFI cut the engine with the mixture and said "now show me a forced landing on the runway." The landing with the engine shut down worked out fine, however the important takeaway from this was to learn that the glide could be significantly extended by pulling the prop to full coarse pitch: the reduced drag from the prop disc was such that you could actually feel the aircraft accelerate. That lesson was learned many years ago in outback Australia and I think it's safe to say such a demonstration today would be regarded as foolish and dangerous - however I think it's an aspect of aerodynamics that pilots need to be aware of in case they find themselves undershooting during a forced landing. Another tip: Vx approximates min sink. Vy approximates best glide range. Thanks for your great contribution to aviation safety.

G'day, Yay Team ! "Stretching the Glide..., to make it back to the Field..." is a bit like the story of the bloke who was assigned to fly Fairey Battles, that said his plan in the event of opposition from Enemy Fighters was that he was going to, "take immediate evasive action...; by unstrapping from the seat & running around in Circles, inside the Cockpit !" The bloke who told it to me had actually flown Fairey Battles, while training, in Oz, in1941 - and he was laughingly aknowledging the underpowered gross unmanouvreability of the Battle, in real life. Years later I attempted to share the joke with a different bloke who had also flown Battles - but opetationally, in May 1940..., when his Flight was the one which tried to fly low up the Albert Canal to bomb the Bridges ; and he never got near the Bridges - Flak caused him to pancake onto the Tow-Path beside the water ; which he said was lucky, because the Me-109s got all of both the Flights trying to bomb from Medium & High level..., but he didn't see the funny side of the "Evasive Action in a Fairey Battle..., joke", at all. Because, like "stretching the Glide"..., it simply is NOT Possible to do that. "But that wouldn't work at all...!" he said, "The Pilot's Cockpit in a Battle is no bigger than that of a Spitfire - there's no room in it to get up and move around, none whatsoever !" Which was why the bloke who only flew them while training thought it was funny - because his point was that attempting to evade Fighters by manouvreing a Battle was at least as impossible as running around inside the "Glasshouse" to avoid incoming Gunfire... Some things simply cannot be done, with Aeroplanes ; and Stretching the Glide is but one of them... It was 40 years ago, but I reckon that I'm pretty lucky to have actually met TWO people who flew Fairey Battles - let alone a survivor of having flown a Battle against the Luftwaffe's Flak Batteries...(!). Such is life, Have a good one... Stay safe. ;-p Ciao !

Gunny - I was surprized by the almost inverted attitude the stall put you in. Is that increased roll more characteristic in a low wing than a high wing type Cessna?

What about the classic ‘over the fence’ stall. Happens on approach to the airfield fence - pull back and stall to ‘get over’ the fence vs pushing the nose down for a last minute small pull over the fence?

That was scary man

Second question, what if he extended flaps? would that not increase the wing area? allowing for more lift?

Ballistic Chute Time Indeed !

All power pilots should try flying gliders either before power flying or after qualifying. You learn to get landings right 1st time every time.........no going round !!

Shouldn't every student pilot be given this situation of engine loss too short of the runway with ground rush in a simulator ? Must land short with enough speed to flare instead of stretch it to departure. Hard to learn without experience.

Nice thorough examination. How about stretching the glide right after engine out by pulling up until the engine stops windmilling thereby stretching the glide a whole bunch.

"Fly the plane a far into the crash as possible"; "I'd rather glide into the side of a barn than stall over an open field"; "don't extend the glide". We hear all of these while training. The question is, when you are in an emergency, and the ground gets big in the window, will you be able to resist pulling up on the nose?

Great video. Is there a way we can calculate that flare speed for those of us who don't have a Bonanza -- thinking maybe 5-8Kts above stall? Any thoughts here? Do you have a view about gear down or up in an off field landing? Some say gear down in off field will produce a flip likelihood? Thoughts?

Not being a pilot, but living in Lakeland, Florida, knowing some of the roads, my question is why he did not attempt landing on Polk Parkway, I-4, or any one of the secondary main streets that a plane can land on? I think it would be better to lose a few lamp posts and wings than a life.

Very well explained and demonstrated Gunny - I've always trained to keep flying airspeed on my aircraft and accept a controlled landing outside of an airfield if someday forced due to engine out. Better to walk away.

Since WW1 training posters, the message has always been, "DON'T STRETCH THE GLIDE!". Seems obvious because you can't defy the laws of physics. Play the hand you're dealt. Accept that this won't be a the happiest of endings (but that's what you pay insurance for) and just fly to the scene of the crash as best you can. You have some lateral choice on where to crash but never try to crash farther away than the laws of physics let you, and you must know what that limit is. Why is this so hard? Why have 100+ years of training posters not utterly eradicated this type of accident?

holly molly, i am glad i wasnt in that plane

Stupid question. When you lose an engine the propeller is still windmilling. If you were to pull the prop lever all the way out would that help reduce the drag from the windmilling propeller? As close to feathering a prop in a single? Would there be enough oil pressure created from the windmilling propeller for this to be possible?

There is one place where you can extend the glide . In the ground efect . If you are coming short and the space in front of the landing spot is flat , you can pitch down increase the speed and keep the plane in the ground efect . This will extend the final slide by 50%

It's good to be reminded about "ground rush". Ie - fly the aircraft to the crash. There's no other option...

just out of curiosity, are you wearing a parachute? If so, how the heck would you bail out of that cockpit? Every time I have been in a C-150, it makes sense that without a wing in the way you can kick the door off if you need, but you're just falling out of the aircraft. Likewise, if you're in something like an M-18 Dromader, you only have a glass canopy to deal with and you can kick the aircraft out from under you. When you have a bottom wing aircraft, with chunk of fuselage over you head and a wing beneath you, how do you exit the aircraft in a way you can deploy a canopy without a tailstrike?

What is the effect of flaps on the 2 glide speeds? If you cannot make it you want to be as slow as possible and into the wind. But not much time at 300ft.

If that is Granbury TX you referenced you may have met my dad who ran the Cleburne airport.

Great Video Scott. Can you recommend a parachute? I am 260lbs and I usually fly high