Originally Posted by Topbunk
Lowered the nose to fly and Vref and crash short into the aforementioned houses, petrol station, tube station and dual carriageway? What options do you think they hadwhen the engines failed to respond at 2nm final?
- most pilots learn early in their flying training that a/c glide further at best L/D than near the stall. There is no reason on earth why 'lowering the nose' would have taken them into 'houses' etc. Have a look at any good text book on total airfame drag - D P Davies?
It is VERY IMPORTANT that the younger generation - in fact any generation - do not go away with this misleading and incorrect attitude to engine failures/loss of power. Any good instructor will point out where 'stretching the glide' is a good idea and where it isn't. There is no hard and fast rule, which is what you are implying. I actually think that from the height at which they 'discovered' the lost power, it was 50/50 whether reducing speed to stretch the glide or going for best glide distance took them further and I make no judgement call on that - I just don't know - wasn't there.
What I do know is that 'lowering the nose' to maintain best L/D will probably save more hulls and lives than reducing to the stall a few hundred feet up. Ask any qualified instructor.