Originally Posted by
thing
I know I've banged on about this before but all powered pilots should go solo on a glider first. It would take all the fear out of a forced landing, every landing in a glider is power off, you get one go and that's it. You don't read about glider pilots ballsing up a field landing.
Edit: I know the speeds and glide angles are different etc etc but the principle is the same.
I have to say I disagree. I have taught 3 PPL's who started training with a glider license, albeit none with a lot of glider time. The basic stick and rudder skills certainly benefited from the glider time but I was surprised that all 3 took a bit of time picking up the PFL exercise. They all commented that they had so much more time to set up the approach in the glider and the fact that the spoilers could be treated like a pseudo "throttle" made the whole thing much easier in the glider. They are also programmed to always try to find a landing spot that will not damage the aircraft, a potentially lethal reflex in a powered aircraft that has suffered an engine failure.
In any case you are much more likely to experience a partial engine failure which will more than likely still allow you to maintain altitude, than a complete failure. I think flight training does pilots a huge dis service by emphasizing what is in the real world the statistically
most unlikely possible scenario, a sudden and total loss of power with no warning.