Originally Posted by
BackPacker
I don't agree.
IF the student has shown to be able to do multiple PFLs with good success (like normal, with the throttle closed/mixture rich) and IF you have a nice wide, long and quiet runway available, I can certainly imagine that the instructor would pull the mixture to ICO and let the student perform a proper glide landing. For instance as the capstone landing after a training session on PFLs.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record I will again point out that roughly 80 % of all engine failures are
directly caused by the actions or inactions of the pilot. I personally think that instead of concentrating on what happens after the engine fails, flight schools should put much more emphasis on teaching the students to not let the engine fail in the first place.
Also for every total engine failure accident statistics suggest there are 2 partial engine failures, another scenario which is often totally ignored in PPL training and where PFL's with the engine actually shut down do nothing to prepare the students
The reality is that the
least likely scenario for an actual real world engine failure is when a aircraft with sufficient uncontaminated and properly selected fuel, no carb ice and which had a normal runup and developed full power on takeoff; suddenly has the engine completely stop with no warning.......yet this is the exact scenario that is exclusively taught in flight training to prepare students for an "engine failure".