I learned to fly in a Tiger Moth and all approaches to land were glide. In other words you simply closed the throttles on base leg at a position where you judged you could glide at 58 knots and land in the first third of the field.
If you came in too high you fixed that by side slipping. If you looked like undershooting you simply applied sufficient throttle power to level out momentarily then closed it and resumed the glide. The glide approach was not only the normal technique for landing but gave the pilot constant experience on how wind affected the glide and its application for real forced landings without power.
I don't know about UK or Canada but glide approaches as taught in Australian flying schools in light singles (Cessnas and Warriors for example) are quite different to the original techniques used in Tiger Moths and I don't know why..
Nowadays you have to tell ATC if you intend to do a glide as it becomes a "non-normal" landing even though the Cessna POH states you can land it power off or power on for the same speeds. In fact there are flying schools that do not permit students to practice glide approaches for landing. They are seen as too hard without an instructor to supervise the landing! The technique taught in Australian flying schools requires the instructor to close the throttle late downwind as if it is an engine failure and the student has to get in from there.
The problem is spacing between other aircraft in the circuit as you have to cut someone else off in order to get quickly on to base to get in. This is because it is treated like a forced landing. That is why in Australia there is official advice you have to advise ATC so that other aircraft in the circuit with give you wide berth to do your own thing. How pathetic is that..
Whoopy-do - everyone stay clear 'cos I am about to do a glide approach in my Cessna 150.
Bloody silly, really when you think that for literally hundreds of thousands of Tiger Moths flights before, during and after WW2, glide approaches were considered normal approach and landing procedure. Now they are called "non-normal" landings requiring ATC notification
