If it came to a glide app, I'd prefer my chances from the overhead at 10000 (wx, electrics, hydraulics assumed fine) rather than all dragged up on an ILS. Thoughts anybody?
Unless you had no APU, all engines seized and weren't fitted with a RAT, in most types you are likely to have enough hydraulic/electric power to complete the approach.
How you fly a glide 'pattern' is up to you and your experience. I would suggest, however, that if you are unfamiliar with a particular method and/or have not worked out 'gates' in advance, it might be best to stick with what you know, i.e. an ILS if it's available.
For a jet transport, I would say a successful 'dead stick' landing has the aircraft touching down somewhere in the first 2/3rds of the runway, at a speed >= stalling. There are no points for 'landing' short of the threshold!
To fly a conventional circuit you really need some numbers, like how much height do you lose in a 180 turn, what the radius will be, what height at what distance you require in various configurations, etc. You can 'eyeball' it in VMC, maybe fly a military-style curving approach but it's all high workload stuff and will probably leave the other pilot (if you have one) out of the loop.
As I see it, there are some distinct advantages to flying a precision approach:
* You are in familiar territory with aircraft performance as you often follow an ILS glideslope at idle power. Okay, it won't be quite as good as normal but will be similar to having a headwind.
* On many types you will be able to engage the autopilot and couple to the LOC and G/S. This will free up mental capacity as you have reduced a 3-dimensional problem (height, position, speed) to a 1-dimensional one (speed only). Even if you have no automatics, you should have a flight director to follow.
* It's no different doing it at night or in low cloudbase/visibility. You're not relying on it being CAVOK when all your donks stop.
* Some aircraft will autoland in this condition. Sorted!
* You are purely engaged in energy management in a straight line. Monitoring is possible. Join the ILS at high speed, watch how you are doing as you get closer in. You have gear/speedbrake/flap to increase the drag with, although I would suggest leaving the gear until fairly late.
* You are going to end up in the normal landing area of the runway, so unless it is extremely limiting, you can carry excess speed, i.e. if you can land flapless in 'normal' operations you should have no problem if you've manged to get some out. <200kts on touchdown and you'll probably stop before the end.
* If you aren't confident that you can follow the G/S in the prevailing conditions you can do a LOC only approach and factor up the height required.
I'm not advocating doing an ILS "all dragged up" as this is probably doomed to failure. I am saying that flying a fast, clean ILS and configuring late seems to work well in the simulator and that both pilots can be involved in the monitoring and decision making...