The equivalent exercise with a power instructor always seemed more like a joke. Pre-selected area (noise abatement must be respected!) pre-identified field, down to 300 feet, and away we go, exercise complete. I don't think so.
I'm with you on that one Mary, but add to that my pet hate. I've picked the field, it's doable, the glide is shaping up nicely then the instructor opens the throttle 'to avoid shock cooling the engine' thus blowing the approach right there. Thanks a bunch, Dick.
What is it with this shock cooling sh*t anyway? We weren't at full bore when you pulled the mixture. You're probably not going to throw a PFL at me over really difficult terrain where we're really going to need every ounce of horsemeat we've got to get out over the trees or whatever. Hell, we're not even going to get low enough for the trees to be an issue in the first place, and is our two seater training hack so gutless it can't manage to level off and maybe even climb gently without ramming it straight to wide open?
I fly a motorglider. I can shut it down in flight and restart it again and when I do that I run at lowest sustain throttle setting to let it warm up relatively gently.
On landing while
usually the engine is not quiet and cold I do tend to close the throttle on the downwind then not touch it again until I have to taxi clear so in that sense every landing for me is a PFL.
[edit] I also agree with Above The Clouds about use of the constant aspect approach.